Public opinion on BLM has skyrocketed over the past two weeks, but BLM hasn't changed its tactics much over the past six years. Thoughts on what's changed? nyti.ms/2UtVaOL
Also, here's a fun pop quiz: can you guess the only group for whom BLM support declined over the past two weeks? (Answer in article.)
I imagine respondents might say much of this decline has to do with riots. I can't imagine communicating civilly with such a person.
OK I think I may have read that chart wrong--GOP numbers have increased but still net negative by 39 points. (Also, that chart is not good)
Gotta admit, the wave of Blue Lives Matter bills in 2017 left me less than optimistic about BLM's future. Funny how quickly things can change.
We need a few good historians to tease out what happened--as we know, first intuitions are often wrong.
Outcomes like these also threaten my urge to generalize. There's never been a general social movement playbook that guarantees success. So many factors potentially play a role...
Some have claimed COVID-related unemployment as a factor in BLM support increases. But let's not forget that historically, economic tensions have more often hurt than helped race relations.
American history isn't exactly full of the kind of "we're all in the same boat" cross-racial moments folks are claiming this is. So either this is something very new or other factors are at play.
Specifically, relative losses of white economic and political power have been associated with racial violence rather than comity. So I don't think this is the kind of thing that can be explained in one tweet.
One factor that might be at play is sometimes shit just takes awhile to process. Many whites have dealt with cognitive dissonance between video evidence of police brutality and their own view of cops as the good guys.
But hundreds of videos plus white allies (let's face it, friends and family do lots of convincing that movements can't) plus COVID throwing a wrench into everything may have been enough to push public opinion substantially.
Back in 2014 I recall more than a few Black folks on here asking "how many of these videos does America need to see?" Well I guess we have our answer now...
As gratified as I am at the moment, it hurts that so much blood had to pay for it. Please be an early supporter of the next justice movement.
