George Floyd died on May 25, 2020 — just over one year ago.
Though many Americans disagree on the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death, all can agree on two realities. First, that Floyd’s death was tragic. Second, that Floyd’s death changed the course of modern American history.
Since May of 2020, activists have used the death of George Floyd to spurn a massive social movement that compelled Americans into adopting particular sociological narratives on race — especially critical race theory, which claims that white people are oppressors who benefit from “structural racism” embedded into society to oppress racial minorities.
Here are five American institutions that changed dramatically as the result of George Floyd’s death.
Business
“Woke capitalism” is now a defining feature of the American business landscape.
To maintain relevance amid shifting cultural and political headwinds, Fortune 500 companies adopted policies to address racial justice.
Such policies were frequently announced via passionate proclamations about dismantling purported structural racism. A statement from former Disney CEO Bob Iger, for example, said that “feelings of grief and anger cause us to confront the inscrutable idea that the lives of some are deemed less valuable — and less worthy of dignity, care and protection — than the lives of others.”
In many instances, these commitments involved writing massive checks to activist groups — particularly Black Lives Matter and the NAACP. Firms as diverse as hotel startup AirBnB and beauty brand Glossier donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the organization.
Within their own ranks, companies adopted sweeping “diversity” policies.
Coca-Cola, for instance, was accused by a whistleblower of introducing a training program that encouraged employees to “be less whites.” One slide in the training — which Coca-Cola argues was part of a LinkedIn learning series that employees merely had access to — claimed that “in the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white.”
To foster the adoption of the new programs, the “diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting” industry ballooned in size. Firms directed large portions of their billions in racial justice commitments toward these consulting companies — many of which also took Paycheck Protection Program loans from the federal government.
Despite their outspoken promise to uphold racial justice at home, many of the same corporations enable widespread racial persecution abroad. Disney and Coca-Cola — as well as JPMorgan Chase, Delta Air Lines, and even Major League Baseball — do business with China, which necessitates playing by the Chinese government’s rules and thereby overlooking the regime’s human rights abuses.
Education
The American education system — from kindergarten to college — has likewise been fundamentally transformed after the death of George Floyd.
As with leading corporations, the change started with leading schools openly endorsing the sociological theories behind prevalent racial activism. Harvard University — the oldest and most prestigious postsecondary school in the United States — released a statement plainly entitled “Black Lives Matter.”
“Words alone cannot do justice to the centuries of trauma and violence that racism has inflicted, and continues to inflict, upon Black people and communities in the United States,” said the statement. “We commit to engaging more deeply in anti-racism work to support our work in admissions and financial aid and in hiring, professional development, and promotions within our office.”
Academics — many of whom had already embraced critical race theory and other left-wing political ideologies — were emboldened to devote themselves toward proselytizing.
Among innumerable other examples is a recent “white allyship” program launched by the University of California-San Diego, which fixated upon “the work white people need to do.” One resource promoted by the initiative claimed that people who believe “Blue Lives Matter,” use “white evangelical rhetoric,” and exhibit “rigid patriotism” deserve the label “White Terrorist.”
Meanwhile, educators in government schools promulgated the same core ideologies as their peers in higher education. One school district in northern Virginia spent nearly $50,000 on consultants to direct its new “anti-racist” curriculum.
Government
Since the death of George Floyd, the American political landscape has been fully upended.
Most immediately, the nature of the 2020 elections radically shifted. Democrats claimed that Republicans were racist for failing to endorse their social agenda, and Republicans claimed that Democrats hated law enforcement officials and wanted to fundamentally remake the country.
However, with President Biden’s victory has come the institutionalization of the assumptions driving the activists’ movement. On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order embedding critical race theory into the fiber of every federal bureau: “Because advancing equity requires a systematic approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes, executive departments and agencies (agencies) must recognize and work to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity.”
“Each agency must assess whether, and to what extent, its programs and policies perpetuate systemic barriers to opportunities and benefits for people of color and other underserved groups,” said the measure. “Such assessments will better equip agencies to develop policies and programs that deliver resources and benefits equitably to all.”
Local and state governments are following his lead. The Oregon Department of Education recently raided a program established to decrease absenteeism among disadvantaged students in order to pay $50,000 for two talks from Nikole Hannah-Jones — the founder of The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which falsely argues that the United States was established to protect the institution of slavery.
Religion
Alongside other institutions, George Floyd’s death transformed many Christian churches in the United States into activist groups.
Progressive denominations attempted to syncretize social justice rhetoric with Christian theology.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) started a “Special Committee on Racism Truth and Reconciliation” that eventually called for “white people to recognize their privilege in society and engage in the work of eliminating racism and racist acts against people of color.” They also created yard signs bearing the slogan “Presbyterians Affirm Black Lives Matter”
Meanwhile, the United Methodist Church quoted Boston University professor and leading critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi in a news release about anti-racist reading material: “By not running from the books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us. I ran from antiracist books most of my life. But now I can’t stop running after them — scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both.”
On a more granular level, individual pastors and teachers began adopting the tenets of social justice ideology. A Twitter account entitled “Woke Preacher Clips” publishes footage of pastors’ teachings that contradict historic Christianity. Among other beliefs, individuals featured on the page have framed Mary’s life in terms of her intersectionality and alleged that God’s creation of “male and female” merely refers to His creation of every person.
Law Enforcement
George Floyd’s death led to a high degree of scrutiny toward police officers.
Many prominent activists began issuing calls to “defund the police.” Colin Kaepernick’s publishing group, for example, endorsed an article claiming that the goal to “reform the police” usually means to “reward the police” as they “brutalize and kill.”
Accordingly, many cities began diverting funds away from public safety. New York City, Portland, Austin, Seattle, and Los Angeles cut funding for law enforcement and boosted budgets for social programs. Many city officials claimed that expanding government programs would serve to stop crime at its source.
However, all of these cities experienced demonstrable increases in crime rates. In Portland, the number of shootings doubled and sometimes tripled in year-over-year statistics. New York City witnessed a similar spike in violent crime, while murders in Austin leaped by 54%.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.