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George Floyd and the World — It’s Complicated
A global majority seethes at Floyd's murder — and at riots too
With the Floyd case sparking worldwide protests and condemnation by international officials the past two weeks, it’d seem as though the left’s view of America as an irredeemably racist nation is now the entire globe’s. This cynical portrait isn’t just spoiled when callously peddled by anti-American rogues — from China and Russia to Iran and Zimbabwe. It also ignores that just like America, the world has woken up to two travesties at once — Floyd’s murder on the one hand, and on the other the hijacking of legitimate anti-racism by the same willfully bad actors that have wrought mayhem on our cities. America should bear that in mind as the crisis unfolds.
The oddity of protesting the conduct of law enforcement half the world away was made seem less so in countries where Floyd’s death was seized on to call attention to race relations and police abuse at home. Though equally defiant of social distancing rules than in America, these gatherings have largely turned less riotous, which made their message of denunciation seem directed not just at Floyd’s murder but at the disorderly way the country has dealt with its fallout. Expectedly, the apportionment of blame has favored the bad actors that triggered the violence in the first place at the…
