Feb 10, 2025 Story by: Editor
A few months ago, the all-white school board of Shenandoah County, Virginia, decided to restore the names of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Turner Ashby to two local schools. This reversal comes after a wave of anti-racist protests four years ago led to more than 60 schools across the country removing Confederate names.
In June 2020, the Shenandoah County board had passed a resolution affirming its “commitment to an inclusive school environment for all.” However, in some communities, the push for such changes appears to have been short-lived. While this may be the first instance of a school district reinstating Confederate names, the Virginia Mercury warns that it “could be a regressive blueprint for other localities.”
Another recent development reflecting the current political climate is a federal appeals court ruling against the Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm founded by women of color. The court ordered the fund to indefinitely halt its program that provided grants to Black women business owners. The two-judge majority, both Trump appointees, ruled that the grant “is substantially likely to violate” Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, a provision originally meant to guarantee that newly emancipated Black people had the same right to enter contracts “as is enjoyed by white citizens.” Despite Black women entrepreneurs receiving less than 1 percent of all venture capital funding in 2021, this form of economic empowerment—once championed by conservatives as self-reliance—is now facing legal challenges.
These two incidents highlight the ongoing backlash to the so-called “racial reckoning” that followed George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. That year, between 15 million and 26 million people participated in protests against racial injustice and police violence. Polls showed that, for the first time, a majority of white Americans acknowledged the existence of anti-Black racism. Even Donald Trump, not known for championing social justice, called Floyd’s killing “very sad and tragic” and stated, “Justice will be served.” For a brief moment, media outlets, corporate leaders, and activists seemed to believe that meaningful change was possible. But within two months, an intense and persistent backlash had begun.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, more than 200 Confederate symbols were removed. A Washington Post investigation revealed that over 30 of the 65 largest U.S. law enforcement agencies implemented restrictions on neck restraints. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder—an outcome that, in a country where even video evidence often fails to hold officers accountable, was significant.
However, four years later, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act remains stalled in the Senate. Police budgets have largely increased rather than being reduced. Meanwhile, the backlash has resulted in 807 anti–“critical race theory” measures, 209 anti-protest bills, and efforts to ban thousands of books. At least 14 states have passed laws restricting DEI programs in education. Edward Blum, a longtime opponent of race-based policies, successfully led the charge against affirmative action in college admissions. The conservative movement has since taken aim at abortion rights, marriage equality, and contraception. Some right-wing figures have even pushed a revisionist narrative that George Floyd was responsible for his own death.
Conservative authors and self-proclaimed “heterodox” thinkers dominate bestseller lists with books decrying so-called systemic wokeness. Right-wing organizations fuel this sentiment; for example, the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life claimed that corporations pledged or donated “$82.9 billion to the [Black Lives Matter] movement and related causes” in an effort to “undermine capitalism, the nation-state, and Western civilization.” This broad definition of BLM-affiliated causes included groups such as the ACLU, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the American Heart Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development.
Despite corporate pledges to address racial inequities—estimated between $49.5 billion and $300 billion—a follow-up investigation found that over 90 percent of these commitments came in the form of loans and profit-driven initiatives, with only a fraction of the promised donations materializing. Additionally, companies have been scaling back their diversity initiatives; in 2022, Applebee’s, Nike, Wayfair, Intel, AT&T, and Comcast saw significant losses in DEI staff, according to Revelio Labs. A recent survey found that many corporations now avoid using terms like “diversity” and “inclusion.” Ultimately, so-called “woke capitalism” remains just capitalism.
As noted shortly after the 2020 protests, any gains in racial progress are inevitably met with white backlash, necessitating continued activism. In the cycle of American history, rights once secured are never guaranteed, requiring each generation to fight anew. Perhaps the next national crisis will spur another movement that pushes the fight for justice a little further forward—before the next wave of resistance arrives. Source: The Nation
