How did 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement change the world? Our panel responds | Osita Nwanevu, Fabiana Moraes, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Zanele Mji, Abeo Jackson and Daniel Gyamerah
The column writer at The Guardian US and a shareholder in New Republic. He is based in Baltimore
Five years after the 2020 historical wave of racist justice protests, it is clear that the United States has changed a lot, but not by the ways that activists and reformists hoped for. Many critics have explained the re-election of Donald Trump in November-the war of culture against the type of diversity, fairness and initiatives that flourished in response to BLM activity as products of widespread violent reaction against the movement’s goals. On Dei in particular, this reaction is not as a guide – CBS poll In October, for example, 64 % of Americans were found to agree to efforts to enhance racial diversity and equality either right or not far away enough. But perceptions are more important than the facts in politics.
It should also be said that the facts on the ground were disappointing for the police recently. While the 2020 protests led to formulation Thousands of repair bills In the legislative bodies of the state throughout the country, the momentum has long stopped. Civil control panels Struggle to make an effect. Cities that reduced police budgets in the beginning Increase financing Above before noon levels. Minimally, aside a few executive orders, the hopes of the great work were completely fading in the shadow of Joe Biden – whose campaign was found for the year 2020, which was found by the researchers, Maybe it helped Through political participation and transformations in public opinion, the resulting protests.
We may not see protests on this scale again, but one never knows: 74 non -armed peopleMost of them are colored people, who were killed by American police officers last year. Beyond killings and confrontations, criminal justice in the United States raises exceptional inequality, racist, not, which affect millions. With the correct spark or the correct state, the country can return its attention to these inequality sooner than we expect.
A journalist and author based in Risivi, Brazil
I will never forget when the first protest was called after George Floyd was killed in my city, Reesvi, in northeastern Brazil. Soon one of the neighbors appeared in the WhatsApp collection of our building, sharing the call poster and saying: “Be careful, it will be near the building.” The idea that anti -racist movements are something that must be afraid of the deep roots in Brazilian society.
The killing of blacks was part of the Brazilian social scene for centuries. In fact, we have bad The deadly police force It is the source of pride for many. In Sao Paulo, the large number of killings is celebrated on the outskirts of the city, and there was there Attempts to reject body cameras On the police costume. The governor of the state, Tarisio de Freitas (Republican Party), is a supporter of former President Gere Bolsonaro, a potential candidate for the President of Brazil. Although he seems to have The opposite of his position On the body cameras, The ThinkTank Africebrap He is still warning Fretas is committed to “the popular idea that” a good criminal is a dead criminal. “
Unfortunately, the left’s registry is also dark. In the state of Bahia, which has the governor of the Labor Party, 752 people They were killed in 662 violent incidents that included the military police in less than 2023. 603 were black. This number represents 97.9 % of cases. After five years of Black Lives Matter (BLM), there are few signs of repair or progress – in fact, The United States is exacerbating the issue Because it provides financing and training for the Brazilian police.
Researcher and writer based in London. He is the author of the book “The Black Resistance of the British Police and a member of Black Lives Matter UK
2020 was a very big moment of our movement. BLM UK as an institution received more than 36,000 individual donations, with an incredible 1.2 million pounds. We have not seen this money as “our money”, but we were aiming at the black conflict against racism in general, so we decided to redistribute 50 % of the money to other groups. It has been described as the largest redistribution of black groups since the 1980s.
This means that 570,000 pounds went to dozens of popular bases led by black. This was part of our goal of raising the Lions in both Britain and internationally. We were dedicating the remaining funds towards building a hostile movement of black, which could face the upcoming challenges. Some of this main work is represented at our collective liberation festival, which is the annual national event in central London, and the Timbuktu project, the Black Political Education Program.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain moved to the streets chanting “black life”, forcing institutions to confront colonial legacies, remove racist symbols and adopt Dei initiatives (often incomplete). These modest and symbolic gains were largely short, as the growth of anti -migration and riots in the last race reveals the stability of racism in Britain. Donald Trump and the rise of reform, in the context of the austerity economics, and the decline in living standards and the hostile environment, makes anti -vigor and resistance more urgent now than ever.
The writer and journalist investigation and podcaster, based in Johannesburg, South Africa
In June 2020, South Africa walked through Johannesburg. We moved to the streets in the previous year due to rape and murder Uyainin, 19 years oldAn argument in the water gatherings in our problem with gender -based violence. We are not strange for state killings-not the case of Colines Josa, who was beaten to death by soldiers in Johannesburg during the enforcement of the Coveyd-19 insurance in South Africa. This time, we were walking in solidarity with BLM.
But I noticed something: The US -based BLM and its leaders did not provide little support for our struggles and other Africa, such as Nigeria #Eendsars protests Against police brutality. Some black life seems to be more important than others.
BLM’s insulation from American companies has benefited more than black societies around the world. The brands rushed to the Solidarity Declaration, the launch of Dei initiatives and partnership with prominent black personalities. But their acting investments did not translate into a permanent change.
Meanwhile, the “Bedouin Bedouin Bedouins” flocked to the erosion of Trump’s presidency of human rights and Dei gains to South Africa, which prompted the cost of housing and other necessities (on the contrary, Trump calls on white Africans to search for “asylum” in the United States in wrong allegations of “white collective genocide”). Among them are the black Americans who seem to ignore the local black appeals of South Africa to consider the effects of the “new lifestyle”. The wealthy, western black life is more important than anything else.
A multidisciplinary artist and academic from Trinidad and Tobago
When I sat in front of the American embassy in the port of Spain after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, I knew why I was transferred to join the protest. It was about identifying the injustice of racism and blacksmithing not only in the United States but here in Trinidad and Tobago, where a large percentage of Afro Treenbagon faces contrasts in income, education and opportunity, and the victim of outside the judiciary that is exempt by a consistent society.
Trinidad and Tobago have really witnessed few significant changes in improving black life and our interactions with state agencies. There were adjustments to the school’s policy because it relates to Afro hairstyles. This is in a nation where more than 40 % of our population, in fact, of African origin. But our educational system is still unequal, and public schools face limited resource scourge. Warning about the new poetry policy is that although the new amendments are the ministry’s policy, implementation is at the discretion of each school council.
Outside judiciary killings The police, which is largely carried out by the police, continue. The Police Complaints Authority continues to fight an arduous battle against “rogue” elements in service. The residents shine between indifference and support for this killing in the face of a feeling of impotence in terms of the violence of gangs from white collars. However, there is still a protest in the poor “hot point” societies where this killing occurs. Often their pain meets the wider and irony.
We now have the complications of a new government very sympathetic to Trump’s policy. The United Nations Congress Administration was elected in a statement promised to easily reach the firearms of citizens and the laws of invading the suspended houses. These potential developments do not preach well for us, society with issues of lack of confidence along ethnic lines.
Each one knows one
In Berlin, black African people have been walking under the slogan of Black Lives Matter since Ferguson disorders for the year 2014. But in 2020, it felt a turning point-the first time that a cross section of German society joined us to counter this global phenomenon of anti-black racism. There was a feeling that things in Germany had already changed. The German government presented a list of 89 measures To fight racism and extremism. But five years of this change did not come, the measures have been forgotten for a long time.
In April 2025, a young man of German origin, Lorenz aHe was killed by the police in Oldenburg. He was shot at least three times from the back. These societies have made Afro Disburik feel incredibly weak and not believed, and the government has not said anything. Even the most basic demand – to refer to a The current United Nations effort To protect human rights for African people in the new Alliance Agreement Priorities – not eaten.
This disappointment means that anti -lead activists. Although we are still moving to change, we focus more on building our institutions and our infrastructure to keep our movement. To take one example: Each one knows one It is the Black Empowerment Organization based in Berlin – we were recently published AfrozensusA data collection project aims to fill the gaps of knowledge about a million African people in Germany. Although the rise of the extremist right threatens these gains, we build confidence and infrastructure of strong empowerment that is not reviewed by political moments.
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