Victor Davis Hanson on the 5-Year Aftermath of the George Floyd Riots

The George Floyd Incident and Immediate Aftermath

• 🗓️ The 5th anniversary of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, is a marker for a period of disastrous racial relations.
• 💔 George Floyd, described as a career felon with a history of drug use and prior offenses, died during an arrest attempt for passing counterfeit bills.
• 🚨 Officer Chauvin's use of a knee on Floyd's neck, captured on video, sparked widespread protests and riots, fueled by the narrative of a white policeman murdering an unarmed black suspect.
• ⚖️ Officer Chauvin was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years, with his appeals exhausted.

The Scale and Impact of the Riots

• 💥 Unlike the January 6th riot, the Floyd protests lasted for months, with significant destruction including $2 billion in damages, a burned police precinct, a federal courthouse, and St. John's Church.
• 🏛️ A mob attempted to breach the White House grounds, highlighting the severity of the unrest.
• 🗣️ Kamala Harris's earlier statements suggested the protests should continue until election day, which the speaker contrasts with the violent outcomes.
• 📺 The riots occurred during COVID-19 lockdowns, potentially amplifying public frustration and a sense of breaking out.

The Narrative of Systemic Racism and Its Consequences

• 🤥 A central lie was that George Floyd was emblematic of black men systematically killed by police; however, statistics showed a disproportionately low number of fatal police encounters with black individuals.
• 📚 Academics like Professor Kendi and Professor D'Angelo promoted the idea of systemic racism, requiring an "anti-racist" stance that was essentially pro-black.
• 📉 This movement led to calls for defunding the police, contributing to a significant spike in crime, including an estimated 20,000 murders in 2020.
• 💰 The Black Lives Matter organization, energized by these events, is described as having collapsed, with accusations of embezzlement by its leaders.

Societal and Institutional Repercussions

• 🎓 Universities engaged in virtue signaling, dropping SAT requirements and merit-based GPA rankings, and prioritizing loyalty to DEI initiatives over meritocracy.
• 🏫 This shift led to practices like reparatory admissions, altering academic standards.
• 📉 Many downtown areas across America suffered irreversible damage and have not recovered.
• ⚖️ Universities have been discredited for race-based admissions, and those who capitalized on Floyd's death are largely discredited.

Reflections and Lessons Learned

• 🤔 Five years later, there's a collective effort to understand why the nation experienced such widespread