Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: Israeli commando forces conduct airdrops in two locations in the Damascus countryside.
Israeli media platform: Israeli army forces carry out a commando operation in the al-Kiswah area of the Damascus countryside.
Syrian media outlets: Israeli helicopters flying at low altitude over Tal Mani in the Damascus countryside.
Israeli media platform: Israeli aircraft bomb Syrian bases simultaneously with tanks entering the southern outskirts of Damascus.
Israeli media: Israeli forces infiltrated the town of Beit Jann south of Damascus, and a new airstrike hit al-Kiswah.
Syrian media: Four Israeli helicopters have touched down in the southern city of Sweida.
UN Security Council member states, excluding the United States, confirm that there is a famine in Gaza.
Syrian media: The Israeli occupation forces launch a series of airstrikes in the western Damascus countryside.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: 51 people martyred in Israeli aggression on Gaza since Wednesday morning.
Saree: Yemen will not abandon its stance in support of Gaza no matter the challenges and repercussions until the blockade imposed on the territory is lifted and the aggression it is facing is halted.

5 years after Floyd’s death, US’ racial reckoning stalls: WashPo

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The Washington Post
  • 25 May 2025 14:50
4 Min Read

Public support for police reform and racial equity has declined sharply since 2020, as corporate pledges fade and DEI programs face political attacks.

Listen
  • x
  • The sun shines above a mural honoring George Floyd in Houston's Third Ward on Sunday, June 7, 2020. (AP)
    The sun shines above a mural honoring George Floyd in Houston's Third Ward on Sunday, June 7, 2020. (AP)

Five years after the killing of George Floyd, his final minutes captured in a video that shook the world, the sweeping calls for racial justice and police reform that followed have largely faded. What many hoped would mark a transformative era in American race relations now appears to be a moment of lost momentum, diluted by backlash, political opposition, and public fatigue, a new piece by The Washington Post argued.

Floyd’s death in May 2020, amid nationwide lockdowns, ignited some of the largest protests in US history.

Across the country, demonstrators demanded sweeping police reform, greater racial equity in healthcare and education, and corporate accountability for systemic discrimination.

Corporations pledged more than $50 billion toward equity initiatives. City officials renamed streets and painted “Black Lives Matter” in massive block letters on public avenues. Universities, foundations, and public agencies poured resources into DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs.

But that reckoning is now in retreat, as per the piece.

Under President Donald Trump’s second term, the federal government has launched a broad rollback of many racial justice initiatives introduced in 2020. In a series of executive actions, the Trump administration has worked to defund and dismantle DEI programs across universities, government agencies, and major corporations. On Thursday, the US Justice Department announced it would no longer pursue police reform agreements in cities like Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed.

“We’re witnessing a full-blown reversal,” said Jake Grumbach, a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He noted that even liberal-led cities such as San Francisco and New York are stepping back from the criminal justice reforms they championed just four years ago.

Related News

Gold steady before Fed data; oil dips amid US-India trade tensions

4 US soldiers charged in on-base sexual assault of college student

Much of the corporate sector has also backtracked. Firms that made large pledges, from tech giants to major banks, have either quietly reduced their commitments or abandoned DEI programs altogether. Companies like Verizon have also scaled back diversity efforts to align with federal contract requirements.

Corporate promises withdrawn, public support declines

This retreat coincides with shifting public sentiment, as per the piece. In 2021, 55% of Americans believed that racial discrimination was the primary reason Black Americans faced worse economic and housing outcomes than whites, the highest level ever recorded by the General Social Survey. By 2024, that figure had dropped to 45%.

Support for the Black Lives Matter movement followed a similar arc. “You saw a surge in support after Floyd’s death, especially after Trump threatened to deploy the military to stop protests,” said Stanford political scientist Hakeem Jefferson. “Then it fell off a cliff.”

Jefferson, who teaches and researches race and identity, said he’s since landed on a right-wing watch list. He describes 2020 as a moment that felt unprecedented, a moment of alignment between mass mobilization, widespread visibility of state violence, and cross-racial solidarity. “People really did believe these big, multicultural protests were going to be transformative,” he said. “They were, just not in the way people expected.”

Historians and political scientists note that US racial politics often move in cycles: periods of visible progress followed by backlash and retrenchment. Floyd’s death arrived during a “perfect storm” of national crises, a deadly pandemic, economic instability, and a rise in racialized violence targeting Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian communities.

Yet the energy of that moment, as per the piece, has largely dissipated. The Black Lives Matter mural once painted outside the White House has been removed. DEI grants are vanishing. And the promise of a structural reckoning has given way to what some scholars now call a “managed retreat.”

Still, the conversation has not disappeared entirely, The Washington Post argues. “What happened in 2020 changed the political vocabulary,” Jefferson said. “It redefined what is possible, even if we’re now fighting to keep those gains from being erased.”

Read next: Black activism absent from anti-Trump movement, eyes long fight ahead

  • United States
  • Racism
  • Black Lives Matter
  • DEI
  • Donald Trump

Most Read

Almost instantly after the Helsinki Accords were signed, organisations sprouted to document purported violations, whose findings were fed to overseas embassies for international amplification. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

How ‘Human Rights’ became a Western weapon

  • Opinion
  • 23 Aug 2025
Israeli soldiers stand on the top of armoured vehicles parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025 (AP)

Palestinian fighters target Israeli soldiers, vehicles in Gaza

  • Politics
  • 21 Aug 2025
Tom Barrack's imperial tantrum in Beirut: When entitlement speaks (Photo by Mahdi Rtail)

Tom Barrack's imperial tantrum in Beirut: When entitlement speaks

  • Politics
  • 26 Aug 2025
Launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen toward the occupied Palestinian territories. (YAF military media)

Yemeni Forces announce firing hypersonic missile at Al-Lydd Airport

  • Politics
  • 22 Aug 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Pope Leo demands Gaza ceasefire, prisoner exchange deal

Palestinians pray over the bodies of people who were killed in an Israeli military strike, during their funeral outside Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Friday, August 22, 2025 (AP)
Politics

'Israel’s' 'double-tap' strike on Gaza hospital must be probed: UN

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2020 Conference, Monday, March 2, 2020 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Politics

Ex-AIPAC-funded lawmakers back bill to halt US weapons to 'Israel'

A boat sails at sea near Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, June 18, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Denmark calls in US envoy over covert Trump-linked Greenland influence

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS