The one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd occurs next week on May 25. Following the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery last year, support for Black Lives Matter skyrocketed.
However, just as fast as the support for Black Lives Matter soared, the backing of the movement quickly plummeted, according to analysis from the New York Times.
The so-called “newspaper of record” investigated the sudden and startling decline in support for Black Lives Matter, but did not make any mention of the riots that burned American cities for months, which often spawned from BLM protests.
“Notably, support for the movement peaked in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s death and then swiftly declined,” the New York Times article read. The decline was so significant that “Republicans and white people have actually become less supportive of Black Lives Matter than they were before the death of George Floyd — a trend that seems unlikely to reverse anytime soon.”
The article, which was written by Jennifer Chudy and Hakeem Jefferson, noted that Republicans had supported the Black Lives Matter movement shortly after Floyd’s death, which shocked the authors because they label the Republican Party as “often characterized by its racial insensitivity and antagonism toward racial minorities.”
“The reason for the drop seems to be shifting attitudes among Republicans and white Americans, two large and often overlapping groups,” the NYT said.
“Some have wondered whether support for B.L.M., especially among white people, is genuine or merely virtue-signaling,” the authors suggested.
Nowhere in the New York Times article is the word “riot” found. Since Floyd’s death, there were regular riots across 140 U.S. cities. The looting and property damage from the riots, many of which were carried out by BLM supporters, are estimated to be the “most expensive in insurance history.” The riots result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims, according to data released in September.
Online commenters were quick to point out reasons why support for Black Lives Matter abruptly and massively tarnished. Twitter users noted that support crashed because of fiery riots often linked to the movement, and several scandals involving the Black Lives Matter organization, including the group being run by “trained Marxists,” one of which went on a “real estate buying binge.” Despite raising a reported $90 million in 2020, Black Lives Matter chapters allege the organization doesn’t support them financially. One BLM chapter was called a “fraud” by Breonna Taylor’s mother.
“Relatable” podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey stated, “Riots, murder and anarchy will do that.”
Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy wrote, “The drop in support for BLM probably has a lot to do with the true idea that black lives matter being juxtaposed with the violence & rioting that accompanied many BLM protests nationwide last year as well as the BLM national org being exposed as run by shameless Marxist grifters.”
Political commenter Stephen L. Miller quipped, “Hey it turns out people hate billions of dollars in riot damages to their businesses while our media ignores and waives it away.”
Author Jim Hanson said, “Weird Maybe that 2020 long #insurrection by #BLM w/ Dozens of deaths Thousands of injuries & $2B+ in damage Had something to do with it.”
Political writer A.G. Hamilton explained, “That’s because the support was for the concept, which then got confused with the Marxist and bigoted organization of the same name and the violence that followed.”
Townhall senior writer Julio Rosas pointed out, “The word ‘riot’ does not appear once in the article but they did manage to include ‘Latinx.’ Another attempt to memory hole the massive riots from last year.”
Author and mathematician James Lindsay remarked, “This graph, frankly, shows that Democrats are willfully blind to what’s going on in the county, probably mostly because they don’t want to be accused of having ‘conservative’ views, which is a mode straight out of Maoism.”
Twitter user Comfortably Smug snarked, “Perhaps the cities being on fire had something to do with this.”
The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released a poll last September that also found that support for Black Lives Matter plunged over last summer.
A Pew Research Center survey published in September found that support for public support for the Black Lives Matter movement receded.
*story by The Blaze
