Ann Wason Moore: ‘Little souls’ to bring future change amid America’s protests, global instability

As a nation burns and global stability teeters, Ann Wason Moore still sees a future filled with hope. Here’s why.

A black man slowly died under the knee of a white policeman, a nation is burning and global stability is teetering.

But I see a future filled with hope.

That’s not the near future, and maybe a not-even-in-my-lifetime future, but, in the words of Whitney Houston, I believe the children are the future … and I believe in my children.

At the ages of just 10 and 12, the protests against racial prejudice and police brutality rolling across America have touched these little Aussies and turned them into mini-activists using the only platform they have … social media.

They are tiny people with tiny followings making the tiniest change - my son shared a post about ‘Justice for George’ on his Instagram page, while my daughter changed her Tik Tok profile pic to the Black Lives Matter emblem - but I can only pray that this is symbolic of a generational change.

In their world of, ironically, black and white morality, it’s far too clear that wrong has been done.

Of course, my children are technically half-American, they hold dual nationality and much of our family lives in the States so anything that happens there is close to their bleeding hearts. And yet their social media stance has literally been shared by many of their true blue Aussie classmates.

These little souls are outraged, and I can only hope that fire inside them keeps burning and one day changes the landscape on more than just social media.

Because even as these riots and protests tear the country of America apart, it feels so futile.

There is nothing that can be done to fix the evil that has occurred, and while jailing all police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd would see justice served, it won’t see the system changed.

Unlike the movement to change gun control laws in the US, this is not a crisis which can be fixed with an amendment. It’s not the law that needs to be changed, but the culture.

Of the 1099 people killed by US police last year, almost a quarter were black, despite being only 13 per cent of the population.

Protests have now spread across America. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana / AFP)

And according to The New York Times, almost one out of every two police or correction officers who are fired for misconduct end up being reinstated.

America is a nation where the wealth gap between white and black hasn’t changed in 60 years.

It’s where the bottom 40 per cent of Americans own just 0.3 per cent of the wealth.

And 40 million are now out of work.

People are angry and desperate - and it’s not just black Americans and their allies.

The protests are going global and the sense of injustice is spreading.

Just look at our children’s social media presence.

Or look at Twitter - if you dare - and you’ll see that Australia is not immune. Indeed, we have blood on our hands from our own horrible history of indigenous deaths in police custody, as well as an over-representation of our first nations people in prison.

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And while we all would prefer peaceful protests, it’s obvious that tactic does not always work.

After all, while Trump now makes noises about supporting the rights of peaceful protesters, it was his own figurative knee on the neck of those doing exactly that in the NFL.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the face of the movement against racial injustice when he first took a knee during the national anthem before a game in 2016, sparking a wave of similar protests from his fellow players.

Trump lashed out at the football stars refusing to stand for the anthem, calling them “disgraceful” and saying anyone who took a knee was a “son of a b****”.

And now there is rioting in the streets.

Signs displaying George Floyd’s last words before he died. The same words were said by Eric Garner, a black man killed by police in 2014. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana / AFP)

To be clear, the current situation is not Trump’s fault, although he is certainly not helping with his divisive comments.

But with China on the rise, we can only hope that America gets it sh** together. We need a world leader which can demonstrate progression, not disintegration.

It’s been 60 years since the American civil rights movement started, and while there is still so far to go, we have also come a long way.

In the last six decades we have seen the end of segregation, rising rates of inter-racial marriage and even a black man elected as American president … the country is far from post-racial, but it’s fights like these that do make a difference.

Eventually.

Protesters may push for a mile and only gain an inch, but over time those inches add up.

Just look at our children’s social media presence for signs of progress.

The seeds of change have been planted in this youngest generation, and now we hope their resolve to fight racial injustice grows mile-high.

And I know that it’s so easy for me, a privileged white woman, to sit in her suburban home in Australia and preach about hope and change … but I have to believe that it is possible.

Not just for the sake of my children, but for the children and grandchildren of George Floyd.