The contrasts this week have been stark. We have seen the best of human ingenuity with the successful launch of the SpaceX rocket carrying two NASA crew members to the International Space Station. We have also seen the worst of human behavior with the killing of George Floyd and subsequent riots across America. We have seen reporters shot at by police and a millionaire YouTuber accused of looting at an Arizona shopping mall. While some may see the looting, rioting, and violence as manifestations of anarchy, as outlined in the movie The Purge, others see the emergence of a larger social movement, a collective effort by segments of society to enact social change in order to attain a particular goal. For those who believe the latter, the issues at hand include racism, the belief that one race is superior to others, resulting in unequal or demoralizing treatment of other races, and the misuse of governmental authority.
The scenes across the country have included organized protest marches and other forms of collective behavior, spontaneous and unstructured behavior engaged by large groups of people. Whether in a concert mosh pit or rampaging through the streets, collective behavior is often in stark contrast to social norms. In the worst instances, collective behavior takes on a mob mentality, chaotic and aggressive behavior engaged by groups of people. Part of the reason people feel comfortable engaging in the mayhem associated with riots and looting is that the chaos of the situation offers them deindividuation, a loss of individuality. In large crowds of protesters, often masked due to fears over the COVID-19 pandemic, people feel a sense of anonymity and freedom to do things they would have otherwise not done.
The protest marches that have taken place across the country and indeed around the world are a prime example of the sociological imagination, the ability to see the details of our own lives in the context of larger social structures as opposed to merely personal choices or personal troubles. In the U.S., African Americans are two and a half times more likely to be killed by the police than White Americans. The image below outlines the extent of the problem. At face value, the killing of Blacks by the police could be considered a personal trouble, a matter experienced at the individual level. One could argue that the murder of George Floyd was simply the bad behavior of a few police officers toward this one person. Yet, when you take into account the fact that Black Americans make up only 13 percent of the American population and the disproportionate number of killings that occur over and over again, this problem becomes a public issue, a matter that impacts society as a whole. The protest marches are taking place around the world because the world sees the extent of the racial discrimination, unfair or differential treatment of individuals and groups based on race and ethnicity, rampant across American society. People see it, and they want it to end.
The question we must consider is how we end the violence, repair the damage, and rebuild trust between the various segments of our society. While I do not have the answer, I do know that we must work together for our society, a large group of people associated by shared culture and institutions, to survive. We must work together, and sociology can help us do this.
