'Optimism is gone': George Floyd's uncertain legacy marked in US five years on

SBS Australia

25-05-2025

Outrage over George Floyd's killing by police catapulted Black Lives Matter into one of the largest protest movements in US history, with angry crowds chanting the slogan at rallies from Los Angeles to Washington. Source: AFP / Kerem Yucel Shareeduh McGee is fighting to keep the memory of her cousin George Floyd alive. Millions took to streets across the world to protest the police killing of Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who gasped "I can't breathe", shortly before dying after an officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes in May 2020. His plea became a rally cry for the protest movement, which demanded police accountability and racial justice. Companies pledged significant sums of money toward addressing systemic discrimination. And conversations about structural racism were thrust into the spotlight. Yet, exactly five years after Floyd's murder, the nation has seen a drastic reversal of support for racial equity efforts. Commitments made by corporate America and the government have been dialled back or eliminated. Diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs are in the cross-hairs of President Donald Trump's administration. Some of these rollbacks predate his Oval Office return.
Floyd's murder "was an ultimate sacrifice, and I think if you don't create opportunities for people to learn from it, if we don't have changes that happen because of that huge loss, then it was in vain. His death was in vain," McGee said at a Houston event commemorating Floyd's life, adding she's disappointed but not surprised by the rollbacks and the Department of Justice's decision to drop oversight spurred by Floyd and the police killings of other Black Americans. Advocates say the nationwide push for racial justice has continued despite the lack of significant reform. But they acknowledge the road ahead is arduous, characterising it as an intense backlash to diversity efforts and civil rights. "(George Floyd) was a realisation by many across the country that this open murder was something that was not only appalling but it brought full circle the question of the treatment of Black people, particularly Black males, in this country," said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. "But the other side of that story is there is an unfortunate fatigue in this country." Experts say periods of backlash aren't new. Throughout American history, including after the civil rights movement, the nation has experienced periods of "racial fatigue" or resentment after progress was made toward securing rights for marginalised groups.
"To see the undoing of a beginning of a racial reckoning in less than five years, when it took 12 years and several national elections to get us to the Jim Crow period, the nadir of Black politics after Reconstruction, it moved really quickly this time," said Nadia Brown, a Georgetown professor of government and chair of the Women's and Gender Studies Program. "Five years later, I think that sense of optimism is gone." A 7 May Pew Research survey found that 72 per cent of adults in 2025 said the focus on racial inequality did not lead to change that helped Black Americans. It also found that 67 per cent of Black Americans felt doubtful the nation would ever achieve racial equality. "There's been growing scepticism in the last five years," said Juliana Horowitz, co-author of the report and Pew Research's senior associate director of research. "It's a very sizeable shift."
Americans remain split about the importance of companies making statements about politics or social issues, according to Pew's report, after a number of companies have either scrapped their DEI plans altogether or continued to quietly support them. Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered Floyd's funeral eulogy and will mark the anniversary with Floyd's family Sunday in Houston, is in the midst of planning a large August march on Wall Street. "We can hold the private sector accountable because they cannot afford the withdrawal of our dollars," said Sharpton, the founder of National Action Network, who has met with a number of company CEOs urging them to reverse their DEI rollbacks or maintain their policies.
Civil rights advocates have called for corporations to increase minority leadership representation and invest in under-served communities. Kevin McGary, a conservative and founder of Texas-based nonprofit Every Black Life Matters, said after Floyd's murder, some companies were under pressure to make pledges to advance equity in hiring practices. While civil rights advocates say DEI ensures qualified minority candidates have equal opportunities, McGary and other critics have characterised the efforts as not being merit-based, "everybody should be pushed to have an excellent standard," he said.
Some have questioned the impact of the Black Lives Matter protests amid a lack of sweeping reforms. But experts told Reuters the movement shifted the national conversation and the narrative. It shifted "Americans' vision of Black folks and to look at things through a systemic lens of understanding how race and racism operate in the United States," Brown said. National Urban League president Marc Morial noted that under former president Joe Biden's administration, a number of officers were convicted and 12 civil rights abuse investigations of police departments were launched. However, Biden's administration did not secure any binding settlements before leaving office. "This progress, which was material, but not the progress we would have wanted, is now threatened even further," Morial said. "We need mayors, city council members, state legislatures and local governmental officials to pick up the mantle of police reform."
BLM Grassroots founder Melina Abdullah said the movement is "at a crossroads" but said its strategy has moved towards state-level policy efforts — including pushing for funding mental health responders and Black trans rights — where the impact may be more acute. "We're saying it's time to redouble our efforts," Abdullah said. The Movement for Black Lives, a national network of more than 100 organisations, said their mission remains unchanged. "Black people, we have always sort of been the canary in the coal mine, and we have always been at the forefront of trying to call out these oppressive systems," said M4BL co-executive Amara Enyia. "That didn't just start in 2020 and it hasn't changed over the last five years."