The Influence of American Hegemony on Revolutionary thought

Abstract

In May 2020, two months after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, forcing humans stationary...at home...and unable to work and carry out routine, everyday activities, the brutal murder of George Floyd was captured on camera and broadcast on social media. Largely peaceful protests against police brutality and systemic racism erupted over- night, beginning in Minneapolis, and rapidly growing all over the United States. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement’s quickfire blaze continued to spread from Minneapolis all the way to the West Indies within a week. The longstanding relationship between the United States and the Caribbean region is evident, leading to the populariza- tion of the regional idiom, “when the US sneezes, the Caribbean catches a cold.” The impact of the BLM Move- ment on the Caribbean is comparable to that of the Civil Rights and Pan Africanism movements of the latter half of the 20th century and reminds the world of the significance of regional revolutions such as the Grenada Revolution. One year into a crippling pandemic, the irony of this article will explore the aforementioned influences, comment on US intervention in Grenada and contextualize the adage- “When the US sneezes, the Caribbean catches a cold.”