Race

After George Floyd was murdered in the United States in 2020, some Americans embraced the decentralized social movement, Black Lives Matter, that was established first in 2013 to address racism in the United States. At a moment when some in the United States have emphasized a disengagement of young people in social and political matters, the protests and other activities in the name of Black Lives Matter demonstrate a high level of engagement of a diverse group of citizens in social matters. Furthermore, at a moment of general acceptance of a decline of importance in what Lacan called the symbolic order—in a sense of named law or principle, one might say—Black Lives Matter protests highlighted a commitment to a set of words, a set of principles, that formed a mandate for those involved.