What Happened to the Promise of Racial Justice?

The U.S. has moved backward in the four years since the supposed racial reckoning after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd

Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash

The Black Lives Matter campaign began in 2013 after the police killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Rekia Boyd, and several others. At the time, activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi began using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag after the acquittal of George Zimmerman who murdered Trayvon Martin. Attention on the movement grew in 2014 after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City.

Black Lives Matter’s purpose has always been to spotlight discrimination, racism, and racial inequality with a focus on police brutality and racially motivated hate crimes against Black people in the U.S. Attention on the movement exploded after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin in 2020 garnering broad support.

This time, it seemed most people in the U.S. were hyper-focused on addressing broad concerns about racism on a national and systemic level. There were discussions of moving funds away from the growing police state in the U.S., allocating those funds for education, and providing economic opportunities for poor and marginalized communities as a way to combat police brutality while providing avenues for people to prosper and avoid criminal activity.

That was met by the staunch militaristic white supremacist organization that was the Donald Trump administration. Trump and his advisers not only sought to combat protests with military might but also to inflict harm and even shoot protesters using anti-Black coded language also known as dog whistles. This was followed by police unions echoing racist language and hate groups who coordinated with police against the perceived complete defunding of all police.

Dangers of Conservatism

The propaganda was so successful that, to beat Trump’s reelection bid, now President Joe Biden promised not to defund police but to “re-fund” the police. Immediately after winning the election amid the COVID pandemic, the Biden administration ensured that police would receive billions in additional funding with little set aside for accountability.

Biden’s actions highlighted growing discontent among white people with the so-called racial reckoning of 2020—quite the contrast from just a few years ago. While 67% of white adults supported the movement in 2020, only 42% did in 2023. Meanwhile, 81% of Black adults, 63% of Asian adults, and 61% of Hispanic adults said they still supported Black Lives Matter in 2023.

According to the Pew Research Center:

“White adults are more likely than those in other racial and ethnic groups to describe the movement as divisive and dangerous (about four-in-ten White adults do so, compared with 30% or fewer among the other groups), and they are the least likely to describe it as empowering.”

But this is much more than a black-and-white issue. It’s political. Pew’s report also showed that 84% of Democrat respondents still support the movement and 82% of Republican respondents oppose it. This exposes the hostile nature of conservative politics toward nonwhite groups, particularly Black people and it points to Biden’s attempts to appeal to conservative voters (an electorate he was never going to win) with increased police funding.

It’s hard to ignore Biden’s policy shifts to appeal to conservatives. From immigration to racial justice to police brutality, he spent so much time appeasing Republicans that it forced him to backpedal making little effort in moving these issues forward. This is where Kamala Harris and the prospect of her having more success comes into play. That is, if voters ensure she has a Congress she can work with.

Otherwise, like Biden, Republicans will have no interest in meeting her in the middle.

Palestine

You can argue that racial justice in the U.S. has nothing to do with Palestine but you wouldn’t win any arguments trying to do so. Racial justice, U.S. imperialist policies, and the colonization of nonwhite countries rich in resources go hand in hand. One is an internal domestic issue and the other a foreign affairs issue, but both are born of policies built on ideas like the Monroe Doctrine. You don’t have to look farther than Puerto Rico or Cuba to see it.

Similarly, arming an ethnonationalist state like Israel to lead a racist slaughter against women and children in Palestine is built on white supremacist doctrine that calls itself Zionism allowing it to weaponize antisemitism as a shield. That shield provides the opportunity to essentially move unabated with little acknowledgment of criticism or regard for international law.

Like giving cops billions with no accountability, we send billions in weapons to Israel and assign zero fault for its genocide. Similar to the continued slaughter of innocent civilians, doctors, and journalists, police in the United States are on pace to set yet another record in killing people. No accountability means cops – like military generals, members of Congress, and the Israeli government – can just keep killing with no concern for being held to account in a nation that boasts law and order. 

It’s impossible to argue that racial justice in the U.S. isn’t connected to the doctrine of Manifest Destiny thus allowing the country to slaughter countless nonwhite people across the globe. What the U.S. does outside of its borders is inherently connected to what it does within them and whoever is sitting in the White House matters very little regarding issues around racial justice. The United States operates on standing orders dictated by these doctrines.

Moving the Ball Forward

Progress can only be achieved through united fronts. If we are to learn anything from the civil rights leaders in the U.S. since its inception, coalition building is how we get the attention of those in power and move the ball forward. When society scares the shit out of wealthy elites in lawmakers' pockets pulling the levers of power behind the scenes, that’s when we can make deep progress.

Past civil rights leaders taught us a lot. But they also laid the groundwork showing us how we can really make a difference. That is the most profound takeaway from their legacies. From Harriet Tubman and John Brown to Malcolm X and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they gave us the playbooks and the blueprints to reach across racial and ethnic boundaries to shake the foundations of established policies forcing lawmakers to take people's suffering into account.

Electing people of conscious is the first (and smallest) step. Action is the biggest.

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I’m a freelance writer and journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp