{"id":13283,"date":"2025-03-16T10:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T10:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/black-lives-matter-plaza-is-gone-its-erasure-feels-symbolic\/"},"modified":"2025-03-16T10:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T10:58:11","slug":"black-lives-matter-plaza-is-gone-its-erasure-feels-symbolic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/black-lives-matter-plaza-is-gone-its-erasure-feels-symbolic\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Lives Matter Plaza Is Gone. Its Erasure Feels Symbolic."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This week, government workers near the White House, on two blocks lined with luxury hotels and union headquarters, used a jackhammer and a pickax to tear up a mural that read \u201cBlack Lives Matter,\u201d painted on the road during the long hot summer of 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The symbolism was potent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The erasure of the bold yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza, installed on 16th Street after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, was a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/10\/us\/politics\/black-lives-matter-mural-dc.html\" title=\"\">concession<\/a> from Washington\u2019s mayor, Muriel Bowser, who faced threats from congressional Republicans to cut off federal funds to the capital city if the words were not removed. But to Black Americans grappling with a fierce resurgence of forces that they believe are beating back the causes of social justice and civil rights, it felt like much more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That plaza was \u201cspiritual,\u201d said Selwyn Jones, an uncle of Mr. Floyd. \u201cBut them taking the time to destroy it, that\u2019s making a statement, man. That\u2019s making a statement, like we don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even those who did not put much faith in the mural to begin with were taken aback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBowser caving immediately to the faintest hint of pressure on the name of the plaza is somehow even more cynical than the move to name it Black Lives Matter Plaza in the first place,\u201d said Ol\u00faf\u1eb9\u0301mi O. T\u00e1\u00edw\u00f2, a Black associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe saw <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/07\/03\/us\/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html\" title=\"\">the largest protest movement<\/a> in our nation\u2019s history, a unique and powerful moment where it seemed anything was possible, and you had the numbers to do anything,\u201d lamented Samuel Sinyangwe, executive director of the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence, without exaggeration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The millions of dollars that flowed to groups with \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d in their titles have slowed to a trickle, forcing some to retrench, others to close shop. The Black Lives Matter Foundation Inc., for instance, raised a staggering $79.6 million in fiscal year 2021. The next year, that figure was down to almost $8.5 million. By 2023, it was about $4.7 million, with expenses of $10.8 million, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/projects.propublica.org\/nonprofits\/organizations\/824862489\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">records tracked by the nonprofit<\/a> journalism organization ProPublica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As it recedes, Mr. Trump has sought to bury it. In two short months, his administration has moved to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/22\/us\/politics\/trump-dei-diversity-officials-orders.html\" title=\"\">end diversity, equity and inclusion<\/a> as goals of the federal government and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-perkins-coie.html\" title=\"\">pressured private industry<\/a> to do the same. It <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/bjs.ojp.gov\/national-law-enforcement-accountability-database\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">shut down<\/a> the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked the misconduct records of federal law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Words with even a hint of racial, ethnic or gender sensitivities are <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/03\/07\/us\/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html\" title=\"\">being struck from federal websites and documents<\/a>. Just this week, the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/11\/climate\/epa-closure-environmental-justice-offices.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare&amp;sgrp=c&amp;pvid=CADA0317-A02C-4125-BBA2-D55A81743B07\" title=\"\">Environmental Protection Agency moved to eliminate offices<\/a> responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities, often with predominantly minority residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk has even said pardoning George Floyd\u2019s killer was \u201csomething to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Beyond Washington, journalists and academics who vaulted to stardom a half decade ago on their reinterpretations of history, their views on racism and their valorizing of the African American experience find themselves sometimes marginalized, and often under attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI feel we are going backwards,\u201d Mr. Jones said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Given the swift change of circumstances, some in the Black Lives Matter movement say they must answer an existential question: How do they pursue racial justice amid so fierce a backlash?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFolks got sold a bag of goods under this idea of racism and xenophobia,\u201d said Addys Castillo, a social justice organizer and law student in Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, she said, the administration\u2019s policies will hurt all those who aren\u2019t wealthy, \u201cso if there was ever a time to have a multiracial, cross cultural movement, this would be the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">James Forman Jr., a former public defender, an author and a fierce critic of the criminal justice system and its effects on people of color, said persuading all Americans that a system that has harmed Black Americans has harmed them too is difficult \u2014 but crucial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s always been hard to be able to get people to see two things at the same time: the ways in which these institutions disproportionately harm Black people, and the way that these institutions harm all people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Bowser, who is Black, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/10\/us\/politics\/black-lives-matter-mural-dc.html\" title=\"\">told laid-off federal workers earlier this month that the mural<\/a> was a significant part of the city\u2019s history, but circumstances have changed. \u201cNow our focus is on making sure our residents and our economy survive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Observers say the racial justice movement that crescendoed after Mr. Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 had some successes, at least in raising public awareness about structural racism and police violence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Protesters and Black activists pressed people to evolve from support for civil rights as \u201cmere etiquette\u201d to \u201can understanding that actual institutions, political institutions, criminal justice institutions had to be challenged to work differently,\u201d Mr. T\u00e1\u00edw\u00f2 said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the movement must mature, said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/07\/us\/politics\/who-is-wesley-bell.html\" title=\"\">Representative Wesley Bell<\/a>, a Missouri Democrat who rose to prominence after the police shooting of a Black teenager, Michael Brown, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/12\/us\/politics\/cori-bush-aipac.html\" title=\"\">Mr. Bell, who is Black, defeated<\/a> one of the most demonstrative Black progressives in the House, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/cori-bush\" title=\"\">Cori Bush<\/a>, in a heated primary last year, promising voters to bring Greater St. Louis a more sober, effective leadership.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSome folks think it\u2019s just about getting out and protesting,\u201d said Mr. Bell, who advocates moving the social justice cause from the streets to the corridors of power. \u201cThe best protesters do not make the best politicians, and the best politicians don\u2019t make the best protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Black Lives Matter began as an online hashtag after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. But the phrase coalesced into a movement after the killing of Michael Brown the following year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">From the beginning the phrase drew attacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen you say \u2018Black lives matter,\u2019 that\u2019s inherently racist,\u201d the former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/07\/11\/us\/politics\/rudy-giuliani-black-lives-matter.html\" title=\"\">said<\/a> in 2016. \u201cBlack lives matter. White lives matter. Asian lives matter. Hispanic lives matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Four years later, as he campaigned unsuccessfully for re-election, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i6tL0eDBWes\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. Trump accused supporters<\/a> of Black Lives Matter of \u201cspreading violence in our cities\u201d and \u201churting the Black community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in the summer of 2020, millions of Americans took to the streets from all walks of life. Conservative voices, like the president of the Heritage Foundation and Mr. Trump\u2019s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, lamented Mr. Floyd\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some of the protests turned violent. A Minneapolis police station was burned to the ground. The calls for incremental police reform became drowned by the rallying cry, \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And that gave Mr. Trump his most potent line of attack against the movement. He reframed a cause that hoped to protect Black lives as a lawless assault on police officers. In his telling, the leaders of the movement were <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i6tL0eDBWes\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">avatars for every left-wing cause<\/a> in his sights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Because of the Black Lives Matter movement\u2019s decentralized structure, many groups were lumped together and faced intense scrutiny, often with negative consequences for the movement as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAny strategic or tactical misstep for the movement is going to produce more severe and swift negative consequences,\u201d Mr. Forman said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, for instance, faced <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/17\/business\/blm-black-lives-matter-finances.html\" title=\"\">criticism<\/a> that it misused funds, including the purchase of a $6 million California home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m not particularly happy with the organization Black Lives Matter, because of their shenanigans,\u201d said Mr. Jones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBlack Lives Matter, they are not a perfect organization,\u201d said Angela Harrison, an aunt of Mr. Floyd. \u201cThey probably made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. But their intention was for the good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But mistakes added up. The movement to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2021\/05\/24\/us\/tulsa-race-massacre.html\" title=\"\">examine historical<\/a> ways racism has shaped current disparities in areas such as <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/25\/realestate\/blacks-minorities-appraisals-discrimination.html\" title=\"\">housing<\/a> and wealth creation gave way to the opposite. Conservative activists successfully <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/01\/20\/us\/dei-woke-claremont-institute.html\" title=\"\">pushed<\/a> state governments to ban teachings that they said made people feel inherently responsible for actions committed in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Corporations that once made a show of racial, ethnic and gender sensitivities have begun rolling back their diversity initiatives, seemingly more afraid of the conservative activists fighting them than the social justice activists who had supported them, said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That, he said, \u201ccould certainly suggest that maybe the belief isn\u2019t strongly held, but also more of a sense of resignation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Sinyangwe is taking a long view and sees parallels and patterns with many historical movements for social justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis movement has followed the trajectory that freedom struggles in the United States have always tended to follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A marginalized community pushes back against injustice. Some of its demands are met, but others don\u2019t materialize. So they push for more transformative changes only to be met with backlash. \u201cAnd that\u2019s sort of how America does business,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the fault of anyone\u2019s slogan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In June 2020, after Mr. Trump marshaled federal law enforcement and the military to violently confront protesters outside the White House, Ms. Bowser announced that she was renaming a street just off the protest site \u201cBlack Lives Matter Plaza,\u201d complete with 48-foot letters on the pavement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The mayor\u2019s decision to remove the letters with Mr. Trump\u2019s return to power has been met with ambivalence. Some agree that Ms. Bowser has more pressing concerns, such as budget cuts and the slashing of the federal work force in her city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe painting ain\u2019t saving any of us,\u201d said Ms. Castillo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others are gearing up for a fight that will outlive any one presidency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t believe we\u2019ll ever be in a place where there won\u2019t be a fight,\u201d Mr. Bell said. \u201cBut I will say this \u2014 I don\u2019t think that President Trump can stop progress either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/16\/us\/black-lives-matter-trump.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, government workers near the White House, on two blocks lined with luxury hotels and union headquarters, used a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4303,3026,425,114,3027,242,113,111],"class_list":["post-13283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-black-lives-matter-global-network-foundation","tag-black-lives-matter-movement","tag-black-people","tag-donald-j","tag-george-floyd-protests-2020","tag-minorities","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Black Lives Matter Plaza Is Gone. 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