This article is intended to be an openly controversial response to the state-sanctioned assassination of George Floyd, and the propulsion of Black Lives Matter struggles in the United States and around the world. It specifically addresses these issues within the framework of the controversial monumentalization and enshrinement of white supremacy in the codification of built space in the cities of the United States. It is argued that such monumentalization has sparked a war for signs. Delving into the bifurcated significance of the renaming of Lafayette Square as BLM Plaza in Washington DC, the essay revolves around a thoughtful consideration of the long history of such struggles and their material and symbolic significance for the US promotion of a model. of frictionless modernization and modernization theory to the inhabitants of the Global South and its current insistence on a neoliberal agenda for US cities that has resulted in the racial expulsion of black and brown bodies from the center of the city.
Keywords:
George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Struggles, Monumentalization, Modernity, Public space
McCarthy, C., Samayeen, N., & Wong, A. (2020). Space to Breathe: George Floyd, BLM Plaza and the Monumentalization of the Divided American Cityscapes. Revista Enfoques Educacionales, 17(2), 73–88. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7279.2020.60637
