George Floyd’s Death Is Supposed to Mean Something. Does It?
In the middle of a pandemic, somewhere between fifteen and twenty six million Americans participated in events in response to a horrific caught on video murder of a Black man by police in Minneapolis.
The officer accused of the crime has been convicted and awaits sentencing.
George Floyd’s dying words, “I can’t breathe”, became a rallying cry for an international racial justice movement and demands for radical changes to policing.
Since his death an average of three people each day (same as it was in previous years) have died at the hands of police.
Analysis by Mapping Police Violence says that, despite only making up 13% of the US population, Black Americans are nearly three times as likely as white Americans to be killed by the police. Black people killed were more likely to be unarmed (35%) and less likely to be threatening someone when killed (36%). The group also found that “levels of violent crime in US cities do not determine rates of police violence”.
At the state and local level, the most common reform has been changes to policies concerning use of force. Some communities are considering moves to lessen law enforcement involvement with mental health, homeless, and domestic disputes.
In lieu of any reform legislation enacted at the federal level, President Biden is having a private meeting with the Floyd family to have a "real conversation."
“A real conversation” sums up all the real changes in policing we’ve seen so far.
The core issue, namely racism, has been turned into a rallying call by the right wing, as in they’re concerned about the pervasiveness of anti-racist efforts. A new Axios-Ipsos poll finds 79% of white Republicans saying America has done enough to ensure equality.
Black Lives Matter, a relatively small organization whose moniker has come to symbolize the larger issues involved, is now facing the same sorts of misinformation and defamation aimed at the civil rights movements of the 1960s.
As was true in the past, this disinformation starts with the starched shirts of the right and is amplified and further distorted by the goombahs on Fox News.
From Axios, in October 2020:
In recent weeks, top right-wing voices like Ben Shapiro, Sebastian Gorka and Donald Trump Jr. shared a claim by Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez that a Chinese American organization providing administrative support to the Black Lives Matter movement has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
A New York Times fact check of the original article found numerous factual errors.
A 2015 declaration by one of the founders of BLM about being a “trained Marxist” has been blown up into matter-of-fact declarations about the movement being subversive (insert your most feared adjective: Marxis, socialist, communist, anarchist…).
Those making these assertions wouldn’t know a commie if one bit them on the ass.
These claims might have more credibility if those making them were doing anything --anything-- more than working overtime to make sure “you will not replace us.”
“They’re coming to take your home,” says Rudy Giuliani, who somehow still warrants coverage despite being wrong most of the time and lying the rest of the time.
Now defenders of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol are trying to draw a false equivalency by comparing it to the isolated cases of violence and looting during Black Lives Matters protests last summer.
Right wing media and politicians regularly make claims about American cities being burned down and anarchy in the streets.
The Washington Post looked into these claims, examining 7,305 events in thousands of towns and cities in all 50 states and D.C.
The overall levels of violence and property destruction were low, and most of the violence that did take place was, in fact, directed against the BLM protesters.
This week, the New York Times marked the one year commemoration of Floyd’s death with a story about how violent crime is soaring, strongly suggesting there was some connection with calls for reforms in policing.
Now, a year after Mr. Floyd’s death, Los Angeles and other American cities face a surge in violent crime amid pandemic despair and a flood of new guns onto the streets. The surge is prompting cities whose leaders embraced the values of the movement last year to reassess how far they are willing to go to reimagine public safety and divert money away from the police and toward social services.
They could have said …
“A year after the murder of George Floyd, police budgets in every major city in the country have all increased, which should force cities to reassess why they continue to invest billions in a failed strategy that undermines health and safety."
Or they could have said…
“A year after the murder of George Floyd, there is no statistical difference in the rates of violent crimes (which have increased generally) between cities with liberal/progressive and conservative district attornies.”
But they didn’t. I’d be willing to bet it never occurred to them not to spread a racist trope.
***
This week, the Heritage Foundation and assorted collaborators are melting down over a State Department memo authorizing diplomatic and consular posts to display Black Lives Matter flags in countries where “chiefs of mission determine such a display is appropriate in light of local conditions.”
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1397178850300375041?s=20
A fight over teaching students the history of slavery and building a curriculum based on critical race theory has intensified over the past year as some White people continue to argue that racism doesn’t exist.
https://twitter.com/cristela9/status/1395924708625768448?s=20
It never stops. All this “White Noise” by the mainstream media and the right has had the desired effect.
Racism is like air. It’s all around us. Those of us not affected by it don’t even notice most of the time.
***
Not All White People, right?
Black Lives Matter is actually supported by fewer white people (not just Republicans) than it was last summer. Most white people still don’t understand that Black people are treated differently by law enforcement officers.
The corporations that promised to spend $50 billion on racial equity have coughed up a whopping $250 million for specific initiatives.
Michael Harriot at The Root has this --most depressing-- analysis:
It’s not like all the negroes in America pulled up to Wall Street and demanded money and equality. These corporations volunteered these lies.
But it isn’t just the nameless, faceless corporations who did this.
Too many of the white people who professed wokeness last summer were just caught up in the moment.
It was a fad. White people love Black people like they love TikTok dances and acid-washed jeans and liberty and justice for all. Have you never seen a white woman cry on cue or a Democrat campaigning in a Black barbershop? You really believed that shit? Even after the most white people in the history of America voted for a white nationalist authoritarian?
History teaches us that white America loves to be seen as good, well-meaning people who say they believe in shit. But there has never been a single moment in the history of this country where the majority of white Americans have supported any cause for justice and freedom of anyone else. They did not support the anti-lynching movement. The majority of white America opposed the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. It has never happened. White people hopped on the bandwagon when systemic racism was trending and hopped back off when they realized they were gonna have to actually do things. You can just ask Google Trends.
Since the number is getting smaller every day, we must also acknowledge that these indisputable facts don’t apply to all white people...
Yet.
In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist; we must be anti racist.
There is an overwhelming amount of overtly racist sentiment being expressed as part of the right’s effort to keep their base motivated. Trump voters were 21% of the population… but 46% of those who actually vote.
I would argue that changing those small minds isn’t a worthwhile effort (but go ahead and try if you must).
On this day when we look back at the year since George Floyd’s death, it’s time for those of us who really do care to redouble our efforts. Be loud. Be proud. Do the work. And don’t forget that 2022 could be the final exam on this topic.
Need some inspiration? Check out One Million Truths, which features two-minute testimonies from Black Americans talking about their own experiences with racism.
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com