On the afternoon of 25 May 2020, George Floyd was choked to death on a Minneapolis street by a police officer. The brutal act, captured on video by a teenager, sparked a wave of multiracial protests for social justice and police reform. It also became a flashpoint in US politics and culture, ushering in a brief and backlash-ready period that galvanized millions to push for racial progress.
Caucasians began to have rare and overdue conversations about the status of African-Americans. Companies complied with the new zeitgeist and dropped racially stereotypical brand names like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, made bandages for other complexions and expanded diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. California formed a task force to study reparations. Buildings, schools and roads were renamed. Statues came down.
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This was peak ‘woke,’ an old term that gained widespread usage around the protests. Five years later, 72% of Americans say the period of ‘racial reckoning’ didn’t lead to changes that improved the lives of African-Americans, according to a Pew Research Center poll. Not only that, framing America’s intractable social problems around race is increasingly politically risky.
President Donald Trump is back in office—and now lecturing the leader of South Africa about reverse apartheid and ‘White genocide.’ Some conservatives are calling on him to pardon Derek Chauvin, sentenced to 21 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights. Many DEI initiatives have been renamed or eliminated and polls show a drop in support for diversity initiatives, especially among Republican voters. The nation’s only African-American governor, Maryland’s Wes Moore, just vetoed a bill to study reparations.
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) movement has stalled, as has the police reform sought by activists. Perhaps nothing captures this more than DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza, a site that had been a locus for activists and something of a rebuke to Trump in his first term.
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During the height of the protests, 67% of US adults expressed support for BLM, according to the Pew Research Center, including 60% of Caucasian Americans and 86% of African-Americans. Now that figure stands at 52%, with 45% of Caucasians and 76% of African-Americans expressing support for BLM. The numbers underscore the political fault lines around race and the remedies to address racial inequality. They also show a concerted and successful effort by conservatives to malign the activists and the aims associated with the movement—in part using weapons handed to them in the form of unpopular slogans (“defund the police”) and a handful of unruly protests like those in Portland, Oregon.
In the BLM era, some Caucasian voters, particularly college-educated ones, shifted to the left on a broad array of social issues, helping the Democratic ticket in 2020. Now, the post-BLM or post-woke era sees Republicans with an advantage, helping Trump win a second term by suggesting activists went too far, even as it’s hard for most Americans to point to any lasting good that came out of the 2020 movement for racial progress.
Some 87% of US adults say the relationship between African-American people and police officers is either about the same or worse in the five years since Floyd’s death. Only 11% say that relationship has gotten better. The most striking dip is among Democrats, who in September 2020 had high hopes for African-American progress, with 70% expecting changes a result of the protests. Now, five years later, that figure is 34% according to Pew.
The Justice Department last Wednesday dropped consent decrees with Minneapolis and Louisville, rolling back federal oversight of several police departments and shifting the focus away from racial discrimination.
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The BLM protests were among the biggest and most multiracial the country has ever seen. Powered by covid lockdowns and pent-up frustration over several instances of violence against African-American people, sometimes caught on camera, the demonstrations seemed to augur in something more permanent. Yet, concerted efforts by conservatives to demonize protestors and suggest the goals of the activists amounted to reverse racism or blanket attacks on the police worked, with Trump returning to office in 2025 and advancing Caucasian identity politics.
In the wake of Trump’s re-election, some African-Americans, who have been at the forefront of fights for a more equal America, have decided to march no more, instead leaving the fight to others. The lack of engagement has consequences for Democrats particularly, but more broadly for the cause of racial equality, which remains a worthy goal. ©Bloomberg
The author is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.
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