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Four years ago, hundreds marched in solidarity in
Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Following Floyd’s
death, tens of thousands took to the streets across
Australia holding Black lives Matter signs along-
side the names of Indigenous people who have died
in custody. Rule was stunned. Floyd’s death, they say,
has allowed people “to see that this isn’t the past, this
is systemic and it’s happening every day.”
As with any movement, this one led to its share
of backlash. In the U.S., many right-wing news out-
lets questioned protesters’ motives and branded
them violent “rioters,” even as an independent study
showed that 93% of this summer’s racial protests
were peaceful. For her part, Bennett-Bey received
death threats, forcing her to think carefully about
her every move and how to protect her children. And
even as Trump promoted views that denigrated Black
Americans and people of color more broadly, nearly
47% of American voters chose Trump. “Change is
happening, change is coming, and that motivates us
to keep going,” says Damon Williams, an organizer in
Chicago and founding member of the #LetUsBreathe
Collective. “But that motivation is always being met
with a counterinsurgency of obstacles.”
Trump also tried to turn U.S. history into a cam-
paign issue, railing against “critical race theorists
on college campuses,” referring to the theoreti-
cal framework academics have used to understand
how racism is ingrained in society. He condemned
activists who believe “that the United States is not
an exceptional country but an evil one.”
But that’s not what the activists are actually say-
ing. To acknowledge the origins of our present cir-
cumstances isn’t to condemn the U.S., France or
any other country. The idea is that a more complete
version of history allows us to build a better soci-
ety. “If you want people to stand and put their hand
on their heart and pledge allegiance to a flag,” says
Bennett-Bey, an Army veteran, “that allegiance that
they’re pledging should be made for them as well.”A more widespreAd AwAreness of the problems
plaguing our societies, while critical, is not enough.
After a news site published a video of police beating
a Black man in Paris in November, French President
Emmanuel Macron wrote on Facebook that the im-
ages “shame us” and that his government would come
up with proposals to fight discrimination. But even
as he decried racism, his government was working
to implement a controversial bill to ban publication
of images of police ofcers online. (Lawmakers from
his party later abandoned the measure amid a public
outcry.) Biden suggested on the campaign trail that
police could shoot suspects in the leg rather than the
chest, a comment that likely has no attached policy
proposal but is indicative of the uphill battle that
activists face. “I’m nervous that folks have been so-
cialized under this system for so long that they’re
unable to think that another system is possible,” says
Omeoga. “How we lose is that people don’t think that
we can actually do better.”
But longtime activists know that progress is slow.
“This is a marathon, and you’re running your lap of
the race,” says Barbara Lee, a Democratic member of
Congress from California who has called for a progres-
sive agenda to combat systemic racism. “I’m going to
continue to run this lap of the race in the Congress
and do what I can do to move our agenda forward be-
cause we still haven’t addressed the core issues of ra-
cial injustice, systemic racism, gender inequality; we
haven’t addressed human rights, LGBTQI equality.”
The work in national capitals represents just a
small piece of the puzzle. While Bennett-Bey worked
to get voters to the polls for the presidential election,
her focus has shifted back to what she can do in Keno-
sha. She takes pride in her efforts to push the city
council to fund body cameras for the city’s police and
her engagement with local ofcials. Across the coun-
try, other activists work toward similar incremental
progress, understanding that after the awakening they
helped inspire, whatever changes come out of Wash-
ington, Paris or Canberra will be driven by what hap-
pens on the ground. —With reporting by anna purna
kaMBhaMpaty/honolulu; Mariah espada/
Washington; aMy gunia/hong kong; karl vick/
Minneapolis; and vivienne Walt/paris •LATOYA AROHA
RULE
Adelaide, Australia
Rule, who is
Aboriginal and Maori,
traveled to the U.S.
in 2019 to work with
Black Lives Matter
activists. “It took the
last four years to get
wider Adelaide and
wider Australia to
stand up for Black
Lives Matter to this
degree,” they say.