Captured on video, the brutal killing of George Floyd has sparked protests against anti-Black racism and police violence around the world.
Will the outrage lead to real change this time?
“I think there are some things that, once you see them, you can't unsee them. That video is one of them,” says Professor Maydianne Andrade (MSc 1995) in “Enough” – the first instalment of a special two-part episode of her weekly podcast, The New Normal.
“This one really is worldwide at a time when everyone is thinking about communal action.”
The episode explores the intergenerational impact and trauma of anti-Black racism and violence through scholarly perspectives and personal experiences. Andrade, who is a Canada Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology and the University of Toronto Scarborough’s vice-dean of faculty affairs and equity, is joined by Mark Campbell (PhD 2010), an assistant professor at U of T Scarborough’s department of arts, culture and media and an expert in hip hop and the music of Black communities, and Julius Haag (MA 2011), an assistant professor, teaching stream, in U of T Mississauga’s department of sociology and an expert in policing, youth justice, racialization and criminalization.
“There are 40 different cities where people are violating curfew to demonstrate their protests, you know, and honour the life of George Floyd,” Campbell says. “So I'm hoping that this is the moment because I won't see another moment like this in my lifetime.”