The Racial Reckoning That Wasn't

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NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the wake of several high-profile police killings last summer, support for Black Lives Matter skyrocketed among white Americans. Their new concerns about racism pushed books about race to the top of the bestseller lists, while corporations pledged billions of dollars to address injustice. A year later, though, polls show that white support for the movement has not only waned, but is lower than it was before. On this episode, two researchers explain why last year so-called racial reckoning was always shakier than it looked.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Shireen Madisol Miraji.
0:01.7	I'm Gene Demby and this is Co-Twitch.
0:04.8	From NPR.
0:07.1	In June of 2020, the early days of the pandemic,
0:10.8	it seemed like most of the nation's attention
0:13.0	was focused on the police killings of George Floyd
0:16.2	and Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor and Louisville.
0:19.6	People took to the streets across the country in outrage,
0:23.6	even in cities and small towns
0:25.7	that were almost entirely white.
0:29.1	And around that same time last June,
0:31.6	a poll came out from the Pew Research Center
0:33.8	that found that solid majorities of Americans
0:36.0	about two thirds of all respondents
0:39.1	across racial and ethnic groups and political parties
0:41.5	expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
0:44.2	Oh, and corporate America wanted it in on the action too.
0:47.1	Companies from Big Box retailers to bidet manufacturers.
0:52.5	The NFL, too, of all people in the NFL.
0:54.9	Oh, yes.
0:56.1	The NFL, they all release statements
0:58.1	about the moments or they pledged to give money
	...

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