Since then, more than a dozen other cities have adopted the practice. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was one of the first to do the same, ordering Black Lives Matter to paint himself on 5th Avenue, directly across from the Trump Tower. The Rev. Al Sharpton and members of the Central Park Five participated in his presentation.
Still, activists say that in most places, political leaders have not compared those expressions of support to the kinds of policy changes that would tangibly improve people’s lives. As coronavirus cases continue to rise, black and Latino patients comprises most cases and deaths. Since Floyd’s murder in late May, more African American police officers have been killed by police officers, only injecting more energy into the protest movement against police violence.
State and national legislative leaders, for their part, have not responded with the kind of urgency demanded by conflicting crises. Congress has not approved an aid package since May, while more than 30 million Americans could be without income if unemployment aid is not renewed in late July. A rental crisis remains on the horizon as more than a third of Americans failed to meet rent and mortgage payments earlier this month. Black and Latino populations will bear the brunt of these calamities, as unemployment remains disproportionately high in both communities.
Those realities prompted DC activists to immediately paint a counter-message on the street next to Mayor Bowser’s Black Lives Matter mural: “Defund the Police.” Black Lives Matter DC has also since released a statement condemning the mural and calling it “performative”.
“The people who painted that … know very well that that was not a genuine Muriel Bowser thing,” said Sean Blackmon, organizer of the DC-based Stop Police Terror Project, which is organized across the country against police violence. “And what that really says is, ‘If you think Black Lives Matter, Muriel Bowser, then you should shell out the police.'”
“They paint the letters of their movement on a street and are acclaimed across the country, but they are not willing to look him in the eye and talk about solutions,” said Jessica Byrd, co-founder of Three Point Strategies and an organizer with The Movement for Black Lives. “I mean, it takes an incredible amount of cognitive dissonance to believe that one mural is enough and that it could replace a conversation about structural change in the city.”
In some municipalities, leaders have responded to protesters’ calls for protest. Minneapolis, the catalyst for the wave of protests against racism that is happening around the world, voting measure advanced That would dissolve the city’s police department and establish a new violence prevention and security force. So far, it is the only city to pass a law that dissolves the police since Floyd’s death.
But with mounting pressure from local organizers and national protest, a growing number of state and local leaders have announced plans to cut police budgets for the upcoming fiscal year and redirect funds to communities of color. The Los Angeles city council cut $ 150 million from its police budget. San Francisco has enacted similar measures, pledging to cut the city’s police budget and reallocate funds to programs that benefit the local black community.
Defenders of murals. say That art still has a special place in social movements, and murals are not intended to be a substitute for policy change. Some protesters have erected the Black Lives Matter art themselves. However, it is a different dynamic, Pierre explained, because there is a unique understanding behind the work.
“I think when activists go out and create those symbols, and have been doing the job of really trying to uplift blacks in their communities, it’s very different. Because they come from the perspective of love. And it is a kind of sign of what is to come, “he said. “We cannot stop at the paintings. We have to really change the system, especially the way blacks and the police interact. ”
