The Black Lives Matter protests and the swift change they are triggering

George Floyd was killed by a policeman’s knee to his neck in Minneapolis on May 25. That was 17 days ago. Yesterday, a friend in the United Kingdom shared a note from her friend in Guyana that summarised what had happened since.

After the first 10 days of sustained protests:

Minneapolis banned the use of choke holds. Its city council voted to defund and disband the entire existing police force and fund community investment and safety measures.

Dallas adopted a “duty to intervene” rule that requires officers to stop other policemen who are engaging in inappropriate use of force. Three officers who stood by while Floyd was choked to death were also charged and arrested in Minneapolis.
 

New Jersey’s attorney general said the state would update its guidelines for the use of force by the police, for the first time in two decades.

In Maryland, a bipartisan work group of state lawmakers announced a police reform work group.

The Los Angeles City Council introduced a motion to reduce the famous LAPD’s $1.8 billion operating budget.

The public transport authority in Boston said it would not use public buses to take police to protest sites.

(Photo: Reuters)

 

Statues celebrating Confederate soldiers (those who fought in support of slavery) were pulled down in Alabama and Virginia. The strong support that had existed in favour of retaining the statues evaporated.

A section of the street near the White House was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza.
 

The US Military’s chief apologised for accompanying the president on a staged visit that appeared to show the protests as vandalism and said it was inappropriate.

There was no tolerance shown to police brutality and officers captured on cameras were fired or suspended immediately in several cities across the United States.

Change has also been introduced in society, especially in the majority community. I saw a photograph a couple of days ago of a middle-aged white man holding up a poster with the most elegant handwritten text. 

It read:

“Black Lives Matter

Treat Racism Like Covid-19

1. Assume you have it

2. Listen to experts about it

3. Don’t spread it

4. Be willing to change your life to end it (If you can’t do 1-4 inject 1 bottle of Lysol or 2 of bleach)”

The last few days have produced a significant shift in the narrative. The response to the call of “black lives matter” was often countered with the line “all lives matter”. Of course all lives matter, but black lives didn’t in the US and that was what the call was about.

The New York Times reported this week that support to the Black Lives Matter movement saw an atypically huge swing in the period after Floyd’s killing. This was in tandem with an increase in the belief that African Americans faced discrimination and an increase in the unfavourable view of the police.

From a net negative support number (more people opposing than supporting) only a couple of years ago, the Black Lives Matter movement now has 28 per cent more people supporting than opposing it. The newspaper compared this to things such as abortion on which American views had remained unchanged for 50 years, and also to President Trump’s rating, which has remained within a 5-point range for the duration of his presidency.

Such a quick change in public perception on a social issue is unprecedented. One of the most successful recent changes is of the public perception of gay relationships in the US, which took two decades of sustained campaigning.

But here it has come in a flash. We remember the resistance there was to the young football player Colin Kaepernick who began kneeling during the national anthem in support of Black Lives Matter some years ago. He lost his job and was condemned.

Today, the National Football League has offered its support to the movement in defiance of the president. My guess is that when the football league starts again, many players, perhaps most and maybe even entire teams, will take the knee in support of the call against racism and police brutality against African Americans.

The protests have introduced difficult conversations about race and privilege into the public and private domains. In organisations and corporations where these issues had been discussed but remained unresolved, the moment has given those pushing for equality and non-discrimination the upper hand.

Remarkably, the protests have had an impact across borders. In the United Kingdom, the statue of a slave trader was uprooted and dumped in the river. The writer William Dalrymple has asked for the similar removal of a statue of Robert Clive.

The Black Lives Matter protest has been inspirational in that sense and has told oppressed people everywhere that peaceful protest can result in change, even swift change.

I shared the content of the message referred to above because for those who are in activism, this is a seminal moment. It shows that change is possible, and possible in rapid fashion. The shifting of the entire polity (even leaders of Trump’s party are calling for the immediate writing up of stronger hate crime laws) means that a significant blow has been landed against racism in the United States.

The activists and the African American community may feel like William Wordsworth. The poet was in France in 1789 when the revolution broke out and the king was dethroned. He wrote:

“Oh! pleasant exercise of hope 

and joy!

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood

Upon our side, we who were strong 

in love!

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven!”