Democratic Convention’s focus on racial justice omits political demands from BLM protesters

The first night of the Democratic National Convention featured a series of testimonials and speeches from voters as well as a reserved conversation focused on racial justice.

The first hour of the convention brought repeated references to the Black Lives Matter movement, the disproportionate number of black Americans killed by police each year, and the protests in several cities that rocked the country this summer. But neither alleged candidate Joe Biden nor the public figures who spoke have made specific or related political commitments to tackle various forms of racial injustice.

Biden had an online conversation with social justice activist Jamira Burley, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, NAACP Chairman Derrick Johnson, and activist and author Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, a black man who was killed in a 2014 New York arrest. “Most cops are good, but the point is, bad ones need to be identified and prosecuted and kicked out,” Biden said.

In the moments leading up to the conversation, Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, DC, stood on a balcony overlooking the capital district formerly known as Lafayette Square, but renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by his administration when the Federal law enforcement clashed and kicked protesters out of the plaza to make way for a Trump photoshoot at a nearby church this summer. Bowser’s decision to have the words “BLACK LIVES MATTER” painted on a street that connects the White House and a nearby historic church where Trump addressed reporters and posed with a Bible inspired similar public art in other cities.

However, in recent weeks, protesters in Washington have criticized Bowser’s opposition to one of the protest movement’s main demands: the reallocation of funds from the city’s police department to social programs and services. Bowser, who backed former billionaire New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in the Democratic presidential primary, described the police reallocation plan as ill-founded and actively worked to block change. Bloomberg’s candidacy fell, in part, because of his vehement support for “stop and frisk” while he was mayor. A federal court ruled that police arrested black and Latino residents in a discriminatory and patently disproportionate manner. Bloomberg disowned the policy when he launched his presidential campaign.

The apparent disconnect between Bowser’s convention night speech – describing support for a “nation re-imagery” – and his stance on police funding was not unique.

Lightfoot, whose comments Monday night amounted to a call for increased economic opportunity for more Americans, was also criticized by protesters and other social justice advocates in Chicago. These criticisms escalated on Friday when Lightfoot announced plans to form a task force to monitor protesters’ social media activity to detect early indications of planned looting. Lightfoot also said at the same press conference that she would consider using tear gas if the looting recurs in that town.

Houston police chief Acevedo offered convention viewers an edifying interpretation of the protests and debates that have spread across the country this summer. Many police officers recognized the death of George Floyd – a black man who was killed by police in Minneapolis on May 25 – as a departure from American standards, he said. But Acevedo has faced long-standing criticism from Houston Police accountability activists who say he refused to release camera footage of the police body from a recent series. of police shootings.

“What a motley crew,” said Mary Frances Berry, professor of social thought and American history at the University of Pennsylvania. “You shouldn’t expect the party to have someone who could stray from the party line and say that something like the police bill passed in the House wouldn’t do much. I don’t expect hard truths to be told at a convention. It’s a question of packaging and marketing. This is what they do.

Among the most moving speakers at the racial justice event were those close to Floyd.

“Our brother should be alive today,” said Philonise Floyd, George’s brother. “Breonna Taylor should be alive today. Eric Garner should be alive today. … Our actions will be their legacy.

Floyd ended his remarks by asking for a moment of silence.