George Floyd: Did Black Lives Matter fail?
The momentum for change fades as the Black Lives Matter Plaza is scrubbed clean

George Floyd's murder sparked "the racial reckoning that wasn't," said Nia-Malika Henderson in Bloomberg. This week marked five years since Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Footage of Floyd's death, with Chauvin kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd gasped "I can't breathe" ushered in a Black Lives Matter movement that "galvanized millions to push for racial progress." White people started speaking about the impact of racism, while companies rushed to announce DEI initiatives. "Buildings, schools, and roads were renamed. Statues came down." But many of the initiatives promoted by the movement, like police reform, never came to fruition. The number of people killed by police has increased every year since 2020, and the looting that coincided with some protests enabled Republicans to portray a national, multiracial uprising as a race riot. Some conservatives now even claim Chauvin didn't murder Floyd and have called on President Trump to pardon him. For a brief, inspiring moment in our history, Black Lives Matter seemed to be a turning point. But a backlash fueled by fear helped return Trump to office on a wave of "white identity politics."
We should be "grateful we escaped a dangerous societal overhaul," said Mike Gonzalez in The Wall Street Journal. Floyd's death was "a tragedy that Marxists manipulated into a revolutionary moment" that saw 2,385 looting incidents and 624 arson incidents. "The nation fell into a trance," with corporations and cultural institutions "pledging obeisance to the new creed." A "mass delusion" portrayed America as "an 'oppressive' nation gripped by 'systemic racism,' whose reigning ideology was 'white supremacy.'" Fortunately, "America fought back."
Floyd's murder was "a national shame," not a delusion, said Nekima Levy Armstrong in USA Today. Still, much of 2020's "momentum has quietly evaporated." Corporate promises of diversity and inclusion have been abandoned. When the protests faded, "an army of reactionaries went to work," said Will Bunch in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Instead of racial progress, we got "a Trump-led white backlash." The words "diversity" and "racism" have been demonized and banned. Even Washington, D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Plaza has been scrubbed clean of its bright yellow letters, erasing one of the movement's most lasting symbols. In the current climate of fear, retribution, and repression, it's "almost impossible to imagine how the spark of positive energy that swept America five years ago could be reignited."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral run will change the Democratic Party
Talking Points The candidate poses a challenge to the party's 'dinosaur wing'
-
Book reviews: '1861: The Lost Peace' and 'Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers'
Feature How America tried to avoid the Civil War and the link between lead pollution and serial killers
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach Boys
Feature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
RFK Jr.: How to destroy vaccination
Feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaces all 17 members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice
-
ICE: Targeting essential workers
Feature After a brief pause, the Trump administration resumes its mass deportation plan
-
'No Kings': A turning point for the resistance?
Feature Millions of Americans nationwide took to the streets to protest against the Trump administration
-
Trump: Making the military into a 'partisan militia'?
Feature Donald Trump held a military parade just days after sending troops to stop protests in Los Angeles
-
Is the US sliding into autocracy?
Talking Point Donald Trump's use of federal troops on home ground, dismissal of dissent and 'braggadocious' military posturing are all symptoms of a shifting political culture
-
Will Iranians revolt?
Talking Point The chasm between Iran's rulers and their subjects is 'as great now as it was when Iranians toppled the Shah'
-
Travel ban: It's back and it's bigger
Feature Trump revives a controversial travel ban, targeting mostly poor, nonwhite countries
-
Discrimination: Expanding the definition
Feature The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a straight woman who sued her gay boss for discrimination