05/25/2021
On the Anniversary of George Floyd’s Killing, Debate About Race Reaches Across American Life
Calls for change have played out in popular culture, communities, schools, sports and businesses
A year after George Floyd was killed, Americans remain roiled by a broad and deep debate about race that is playing out in classrooms and boardrooms, in communities and at dinner tables and in sports, Hollywood and Washington, D.C.
The killing sparked millions of Americans to join protests last summer prompted by the widely circulated video showing Mr. Floyd, a Black man, pleading for his life while Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in April; three other officers await trial.
Demonstrators pushed to “defund the police,” reallocating police funds toward social spending and investment in Black communities. Many argued America has yet to come to terms with what they see as a racist history and society.
Under pressure, big companies pledged billions of dollars toward diversifying their workforces and suppliers and rolled out new initiatives on training and investment. Some will hold moments of silence or mark the anniversary in other ways on Tuesday.
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Broader demands for change have reverberated across popular culture. The Golden Globe Awards were canceled after several big entertainment companies and stars said they wouldn’t participate in the awards show or work with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that oversees the event, criticizing what they said was a failure to diversify among other complaints. The National Basketball Association and the National Football League let players wear slogans like “Say Their Names” on uniforms and helmets. Before the first Major League Baseball game this season, the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals players knelt on one knee and held black fabric in a moment of silence.
Many schools added new curricula and equity training for teachers. Sales of books on race and antiracism skyrocketed..
Some white Americans have described Mr. Floyd’s case as a turning point for them. “Watching a Black man die under the knee of a police officer.
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Derek Chauvin Verdict in Killing of George Floyd Sparks Flood of Emotions
Crowds in cities across the U.S. from Minneapolis to Atlanta welcomed the guilty verdict for former police officer Derek Chauvin. He was convicted on all three counts in the death of George Floyd.
But as the year has gone on, some Americans have pushed back on some of the efforts, calling them excessive and divisive. Some schools that have incorporated critical race theory, for instance, face resistance from parents and politicians. Rising crime rates have prompted some cities to amp up police funding.
One-tenth of U.S. adults say race relations, lack of racial justice or racism is the most important problem facing the nation, Gallup polls show. That is up from 4% before Mr. Floyd’s killing, but down from 19% in June 2020, just after Mr. Floyd was killed.
In March, 73% of Americans said they worried about race relations a fair amount or a great deal. That was up from 55% in 2015, 41% in 2010 and 37% in 2005, according to Gallup polls.
For many Black people, Mr. Floyd’s death was galvanizing. Soon after he was killed, Aurora James, 36 years old, devised what she called the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an effort to get large retailers to devote 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses, in line with the Black share of the U.S. population. About two-dozen companies, including Gap Inc. and Macy’s Inc., have signed on, and Ms. James’s New York-based group is helping connect them with Black entrepreneurs.
Beauty retailer Sephora was the first to enroll. The company retooled its brand incubator program, which originally cultivated women-owned businesses, to focus on brands by people of color, said Artemis Patrick, global chief merchandising officer. The company aims to double its assortment of Black-owned brands by the end of the year.
Among the businesses in the incubator program is Eadem, founded by Marie Kouadio Amouzame, 38, who was born in Ivory Coast, and Alice Lin Glover, 34, who was born in the U.S. to Taiwanese immigrants. Last week, the company launched online sales of its first product—a dark spot serum, which is slated eventually to be sold at Sephora.
“Knowing that we have a guaranteed spot on the shelves at Sephora is a game changer for a young brand.
In Washington, D.C., companies started calling Mahogany Books to buy books on antiracism and the history of Black Americans in bulk for employees. The company achieved multimillion-dollar revenue for the first time last year.. The store now has about a dozen employees, up from three before the pandemic, and the Youngs plan to hire roughly another half-dozen to operate a second location they are opening in National Harbor, Md., next month.
I expect the momentum to fade. “My spirit says it’s, just because that’s how people are. Some people of Caucasian Persuasion choose to educate themselves
Mr. Kilde, the pastor of Compass Church in Vancouver, Wash., said the killing of Mr. Floyd made him feel ignorant about the experiences of people of color. He joined a multiracial online group created by Be the Bridge, an organization that seeks to foster racial reconciliation, and spent three months reading about race in American history and listening to the experiences of minorities.
Mr. Kilde, 47, took an online class on racism for preachers by Black pastor Albert Tate and included the themes in his sermons before the Christian congregation. At home, he and his wife and teenage children discussed topics like voting restrictions that he said they had rarely touched on before.
“It has taken me to greater empathy and awareness,” Mr. Kilde said.
In Philadelphia, Kevin Johnson, the lead pastor at the nondenominational Dare to Imagine Church, incorporated race and politics more often in his ministry. The congregation, which largely was Black before last summer, has drawn more white attendees.
Before the protests, “it wasn’t even on my mind,” said Mr. Johnson, 47, who is Black. “What I have seen over the past year or two is that that old America, that racist America, is not dormant. It’s very much alive and well.”
Schools have seen administrators, teachers, parents and students arguing over the adoption of coursework and training materials rooted in critical race theory that asserts that racism and white privilege are deeply ingrained in the nation’s institutions. About a dozen states including Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, have passed or are weighing legislation to ban the teaching of such ideas.
In Loudoun County, Va., a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., where the student body has gone from mostly white to a majority mix of Asian, Hispanic and Black students in a generation, officials adopted a plan to train teachers on systemic racism and bias, according to a spokesman. In response, a group of parents created a digital ad accusing the district of introducing a curriculum that maligned Christians as oppressors, and launched a petition drive to recall school board members.
Children “don’t see the color of people’s skin as any kind of an issue,” said Ian Prior, 43, who is leading the recall effort and has two children in elementary school there. “What’s so wrong is dividing people along those lines at such a young age.”
Major police departments report a rise in officers retiring or leaving the force.
Shaun Willoughby, a white officer and president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, said Mr. Floyd’s killing hardened views that officers are the enemy and that they abuse people of color, he said, adding that he doesn’t believe that to be the case. Many of them are calling it quits.
“Now systemic racism is a police officer’s fault—like how did that happen in this country?” said Mr. Willoughby, 42. “Our officers are just miserable. Morale is nonexistent.”
Some law-enforcement officers see changes in how police approach their jobs. Gayle Johnson Brown, who retired at age 70 from the Detroit Police Department this spring, said she has noticed a younger generation of officers finding their footing over the past year. Ms. Johnson Brown, who is Black, said that gave her comfort to step away from the job.
The killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans sparked millions of people to join protests last summer.
While officers who joined the department in the 1970s, like her, didn’t have much contact with the community, “now they’re more able to...sit down and have meetings with church people, community people, with seniors,” Ms. Johnson Brown said. She doesn’t support efforts to cut police funding. Instead, she said the police need more resources.
Activists said the results they have seen have been mixed.
There has been a lot of forward motion, but I also think there is a backlash to this season of protest. Groups organized rallies last year in Atlanta to pray peacefully and denounce racism.
My feeling is that policy moves haven’t gone far enough.
Nothing has changed, I am concentrating on community initiatives like Dream Street, an outdoor market organized for local vendors in a largely Black neighborhood. “People are still dying.”
