The murder of George Floyd 5 years later

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It is five years since the death in police custody of a Black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, sparked protests that not only rocked America but spread to several countries in Europe. White police officer Derek Chauvin, who infamously knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine and half minutes, was later convicted of murder; most Americans agree with this outcome, despite attempts on the right to portray Chauvin as an innocent scapegoat and Floyd’s death as drug-induced.

The long-term legacy of that summer’s protests against racism and police brutality is far more uncertain.

The racial dynamics of police violence are complicated, and there are known cases of asphyxiation by improper police restraint involving white victims and/or Black officers. But race aside, lack of accountability for cops who cause death or injury through reckless or even malicious use of force is all too often a reality. It is an area where reform is badly needed, and the push for such reform in the wake of Floyd’s death was salutary.

Unfortunately, the protest movement’s effectiveness was hampered by a lack of clear goals and the descent by some into rage and radicalism. Calls for police reform were often drowned out by blanket cop-bashing and calls to "defund the police," surely one of the most ill-advised slogans in American history. Meanwhile, polls have consistently shown that most poor people and minorities want more but fairer policing.

While the vast majority of the protests across America remained peaceful, riots, arson and looting in some major cities caused massive damage to neighborhoods and livelihoods; at least 25 people lost their lives.

Attacks on monuments, not just to Confederate leaders but to American heroes like U.S. president and Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant, further contributed to perceptions of the protests as extremist and anti-American. So did alarming cases in which people lost jobs, contracts, or businesses for criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement or even being insufficiently supportive. Not surprisingly, public sympathy for the movement quickly dropped.

While the protests did not, as some feared, damage Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy in 2020 — partly because Biden effectively condemned the rioting and looting — they probably played a role in the rightward shift that brought Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024. Today, we have a president who openly scorns racial sensitivity and just as openly sympathizes with police brutality, sometimes gleefully encouraging cops to manhandle detainees.

Trump’s Justice Department has dropped investigations of police abuses in several cities including Minneapolis, and the administration has deleted a nationwide database of misconduct by federal officers — even though Trump himself had supported national tracking of such misconduct during his first term. Trump is also adamantly opposed to reform that would make it easier to hold bad cops accountable.

Perhaps most shocking, the president is reportedly considering a pardon for Chauvin. The view of Chauvin as an innocent scapegoat is widespread on the pro-Trump right today; so is a grotesque vilification of Floyd that gloats over his death and drastically exaggerates his criminal record.

Five years ago, left-wing extremism posed a real threat to the American body politic. Today, an ugly extremism — on policing, race, and many other issues — threatens it from the right, and there is no sign of new leadership that could break this cycle.

I think people from this background are called African Americans. I am of this origin and so can say it but it is not normal this day and age and strikes of apartheid systems to me really like blacks.
You probably do not know. In America people of this origin are called African American. I guess no offense was intended but may be it is good to drop that use of that word.

Here in the states we do call people with this origin African-American but also black is still widely used and generally not considered racist. The movement calls itself “Black Lives Matter” not “African-American Lives Matter”. In addition not all people of the black race living in the United States have an African background. Many have backgrounds from various countries in the Caribbean.

How are people of the black race described in the United Kingdom?

I used to own a forum for a health condition and most of the posters were from America and from what I observed through the years is that they prefer in general this community to be called African American and I think it may extend to being preferred this way by anyone. You live in a state though where you said it is not uncommon.
Blacks is not a black person also. It rings of aparatheid as well and that is why I commented. This one makes me feel a bit uneasy.

In the UK people who are black and we do use this term here-but we tend to Black British or Black British Carribean or black british African or country your parents originated from or some one just call themselves simply British or English. I can call myself Black British and also British and English as well. Depends on who I may be discussing with I might add in that my parents originally from America as well but I was born in London, UK. The BLM started in London from what I can remember so they are used to the language.

May be this words blacks or black for American could be one they are trying to reclaim. I haven't been in conversation with the people I knew from the US for a while now, may be things could be changing. As someone of African origin though I don't particularly like the term and especially if it is used in an article like this by someone of a different ethnic group. This is me though. The whole blacks and coloureds in South Africa never sat that well with me as well.

May be this words blacks or black for American could be one they are trying to reclaim. I haven't been in conversation with the people I knew from the US for a while now, may be things could be changing. As someone of African origin though I don't particularly like the term and especially if it is used in an article like this by someone of a different ethnic group. This is me though. The whole blacks and coloureds in South Africa never sat that well with me as well.

May be this words blacks or black for American could be one they are trying to reclaim. I haven't been in conversation with the people I knew from the US for a while now, may be things could be changing. As someone of African origin though I don't particularly like the term and especially if it is used in an article like this by someone of a different ethnic group. This is me though. The whole blacks and coloureds in South Africa never sat that well with me as well.