It took less than a day for the world to start rallying for George Floyd in late May 2020. The events of Floyd’s killing unfolded within hours, but a viral 10-minute video recording of the fatal confrontation with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was enough to send a flood of people nationwide into the streets for months.
In the weeks following Floyd’s murder, the number of Americans who said they believe racial inequality is a big problem and support the Black Lives Matter movement has increased. As books about racial injustice fly off bookstore shelves, corporate leaders, politicians and celebrities pledge to fight racism. The events of 2020 disturbed America’s collective conscience and the movement for justice captivated millions. Until it didn’t.
In retrospect, there were signs of right-wing resistance building everywhere. While many protested peacefully, others called for their defeat. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas demanded that the US military be brought in to fight “insurgents, anarchists, rioters and looters”. As a police officer Tear gas was used And with rubber bullets to disperse crowds across the country, President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard.”Dominate the streets“and save”life and property,” sending thousands of troops and federal law enforcement officers to control the protesters Washington DC; Portland, Oregon; and other cities.
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Some Americans who wanted to alleviate the unrest took it upon themselves to exercise caution. One of them, Kyle Rittenhouse, fatally shot two unarmed men and wounded another while bringing an AR-15-style rifle to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Rittenhouse was later acquitted of all murder charges.)
While the mass mobilization of 2020 brought hope, it is clear today that it marked a turning point for backlash as the mirage of progress turned into seemingly impenetrable resistance. Historically, reaction has embodied white rejection of racist progress. Over the past few years, the GOP has built on that precedent and expanded its reach.
The right saw progressives rallying for change and immediately fought the “Big Lie” of a stolen election. In many of the states Biden flipped in 2020, Republicans rushed to ban ballot drop boxes, absentee ballots and mobile voting units, methods that allow more people to vote. Since then, we’ve seen dozens of regressive laws passed, including anti-protest laws, anti-LGBTQ laws, and anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion laws. In state after state, these bans have been combined with attacks on reproductive rights, as some conservatives have announced plans Occupy every institution in America To root liberalism and progress from court to school.
“[The backlash] There has come a multi-front war against democracy, a multi-front war against liberalism, a multi-front war against multicultural democracy,” said the historian. Carol AndersonThose who have tested the response in the book e.g white rage And We are not equal yet. “It knocked some people back on their heels.”
A Brief History of Reaction in America
Counter-insurgency politics has long defined the country. The term “backlash” gained popularity in politics after John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1963. “Transferred to the world of politics, the white response aptly described the dissatisfaction of many white Americans with the pace of the great Negro revolution, which had been gathering momentum since the first eruptions in the early 1960s,” said a 1964 article. See the magazine.
The phenomenon, however, goes back to Reconstruction, which began in the 1860s, when white lawmakers claimed that equality for free black Americans threatened them. Larry B. Glickman, a historian at Cornell University who is writing a book about the backlash since Reconstruction. Lawmakers introduced literacy tests and taxes at the polls while white activists used violence and intimidation, all to keep black Americans from participating as full citizens.
“There is a reactionary tendency in American politics,” Glickman said. “I think 2020 is important because it gets another part of the backlash, which is the fear that social movements for equality and justice can create a strong backlash.”
2020 protested. And while race is still at the core of the post-George Floyd response, many Republicans have gone to new lengths to hide this element.
“One of the things the civil rights movement accomplished was to make it intolerable to be blatantly racist,” Anderson said. “Today they say, ‘I can do racist things, but don’t call me racist.’” For Anderson, the response has been to institute state-level policies that slow African Americans’ progress toward citizenship rights.
As early as 2021, in addition to efforts to “stop theft,” legislation that would limit or block access to voting would give Police protectionAnd concepts like racial injustice began to spread throughout Republican-controlled state legislatures regulating education — all in the name of protecting America.
“They cover [voter suppression] With the fig leaf of election integrity, with the fig leaf of trying to protect democracy, and with the fig leaf of stopping massive voter fraud,” Anderson said. And, he said, laws prohibiting the teaching of history are covered “with the fig leaf of discouraging education.”
That integration act was a direct response to potential racial gains for black Americans and other marginalized groups. “After the death of George Floyd in 2020, all of our institutions suddenly changed overnight,” said conservative activist Christopher Ruffo. 2022 Interview. Ruffo’s answer was to publish a series of reports about the federal government and critical race theory diversity training programs, which, he argued, “created a massive backlash, or indeed, a revolt among parents nationwide.”
“Race is the key,” Glickman said. “When the term backlash became popular, it was often called ‘white backlash.’ It was very clear that this was perceived as annoyance. The campaign for black equality was going too fast and too far. I still think it’s at the root of a lot of reactionary movements.”
The new era of feedback is complaint-driven
That racial anger has taken on an especially intense mood since Floyd’s death. At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump, facing criminal and civil charges, stood on stage and told the audience, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And to those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your vengeance.”
Trump’s words epitomized the political discourse that has raged since the killing of George Floyd and highlighted the absence of a formal Republican policy agenda. “[What he said was] Not policy,” said historian John Huntington, author of the book The Far Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism. “It was revenge for some perceived wrong.” “Policy has taken a backseat to cultural grievances,” he added.
An important marker of this new era is what Huntington calls “the incessant harangues against critical race theory or the awakening or whatever the current catchphrase is.” “A key element of the current response we’re seeing is the politics of grievance,” he says. “‘I’m a liberal or whoever has been wronged in some way, and Trump is going to help me live with people I don’t like.'”
“This is a reversal that occurs in reactionary language where privileged white people assume the historical position of oppressed people.”
Glickman calls this reactionary strategy “subversion” or “elite victimization”: “It is a reversal that occurs in reactionary language in which privileged whites take the historical position of oppressed people—often African Americans but sometimes other oppressed groups—and they speak from there. . favorable position.”
To be sure, Republicans have passed dozens of laws through state legislatures to do everything from restricting trans athletes from participating in sports to voting. But for Huntington, these reactionary laws do not equate to valid principles. “It’s very difficult to convince people to build a society instead of trying to tear down something that already exists,” he said. “Criticism is easy. Building is hard.” Nationally, Republicans have only passed 27 pieces of legislation despite holding it 724 votes In 2023.
While other reactionary movements in history, such as secession or reaction to the Confederacy, involved violence, today’s reaction also features a larger one hug From the Republican Party as a whole, according to Huntington.
“But these days, the GOP, having aligned itself with Trump, has embraced this politics of violence very much implicitly,” Huntington said.
The January 6 uprising and how Trump and other Republicans expressed their desire Forgive the rebelsSymbolic of how the party aligned itself with more radical ideas of how to gain and hold power.
“If you accept the politics of violence to gain power,” Huntington said, “it depicts a dark turn in American politics.”
However, no reaction lasts forever. The events of 2020 triggered a particularly radical right-wing reaction, but many such movements have failed, with varying degrees of success.
“Reactions have been very effective in mobilizing opposition to the movement for equality, but I don’t think they’ve necessarily been successful,” Glickman said. “I would say the jury is still out.”
They’re “often seen as automatic and inevitable and mechanical and unstoppable. But I don’t think so,” he added. “Reactions are political movements made up of people who assert their agency, and sometimes they succeed and sometimes they succeed. They don’t succeed. I think we sometimes dismiss the response as this omnipotent phenomenon.”
This current response is certainly not achieving all of its goals. Trump lost in 2020 and the decision was overturned Roe v. Wade requested Responding to BacklashVoters in several states are choosing to protect abortion rights through constitutional amendments.
For all their energy and fire, reactions can fail to anticipate pushback from people committed to democratic values. “The mobilization is really cool,” Anderson said. “We’re so focused on the flame that we miss the kindling…we miss the people who are quietly, steadfastly continuing the work of democracy.”
