The black lives matter movement was one of the largest activist movements in America with around 15 to 26 million people taking to the streets to protest in around 550 places around America. These series of protests started in June of 2020 with the incident of George Floyd and still continue to this day. On May 25th in Minneapolis, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man was arrested after a deli employee accused him of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes. 17 minutes later, he was brutally murdered as he was found unconscious after being pinned down by 3 police officers for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. Videos quickly spread over social media, and protests against police brutality and racism have been taking place every day since George Floyd’s death. 

After these series of protests, 4 main federal bills were introduced in America. These included police reforms that contained measures to combat police misconduct, unnecessary force, and ethnic bias in law enforcement. These bills led to the introduction of a task force that would review law enforcement misconduct cases. A previous bill that protected people in law enforcement from being held personally responsible for violating the rights of citizens was removed. Lastly, chokeholds were banned throughout America. With the introduction of these bills, the ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer responsible for the death of George Floyd came to an end. On April 20th, 2021 Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter, and sentenced to 22.5 years. During this trial around a year later on 11th April, Daunte wright a 20-year-old black man was shot by a police officer who claimed that she was intended to use her taser. Officer Kim Porter and Chief Tim Gannon immediately resigned and were charged with second-degree murder and will face up to 10 years in prison.

Many believe that the incident of Daunte Wright was a way of showing solidarity with Derek Chauvin but it also proves that the government’s efforts and protests proved to be unsuccessful. While many officers who were responsible for these incidents are imprisoned, it still doesn’t stop police brutality against minorities in America. These incidents of police brutality were heavily blamed on Donald trump the president of that time but even with the election of Joe Biden tragedies like these are not ending as racism is not a governmental problem. The government’s power in this matter extends to introducing laws that have already been done and the guilty are being imprisoned because of it but it isn’t stopping cases like these because at the end of the day racism cannot be fixed by the government. When the government introduces a law, it is always up to the citizens to abide by it.

We live in a competitive world where we think that all other ethnicities and races accept ours should be diminished and there should be one supreme race. With that kind of mentality, nothing but violence occurs and we as humanity need to start approaching others more peacefully. Even if we as individuals are not affected by racism we must approach people coming from all walks of life peacefully and respectfully. If we are simply trying to answer the question ‘Has the black lives matter movement been successful, the answer is no but instead of blaming everyone else in society, it is important to understand that now it is our turn to spread awareness and work towards solving racism against the black community and all minorities that surround us.