When I’m out and about, either around my neighborhood in my wheelchair or further afield in my van, I don’t see nearly as many “Black Lives Matter” yard signs as I did even a couple years ago.
When they showed up or at least proliferated in 2000, after the police murders of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor and too many other Black individuals, the yard signs became almost hard to escape, appearing everywhere. I found this quite heartening – all the more so when COVID was raging and we were all isolated, more or less. That I was the only one on my street to have a “Black Lives Matter” yard sign was curious to me, but that is perhaps a story for another day.
Now, I’m not the only one who is alone in having this sign; there are many other streets that feature only one or two of the signs, and some appear to be just hanging on or pushed aside, as if someone hasn’t gotten around to throwing them out. It looks like “Black Lives Matter” doesn’t matter anymore. Or is it that Black lives don’t matter anymore – or again?
I see these signs disappearing, and I keep thinking of the Occupy movement.
Remember Occupy? Remember Occupy Wall Street, which expanded to Occupy New York, Occupy Los Angeles, and so on, with people camping out in many cities, protesting economic inequality? There was even an Occupy Claremont encampment in front of City Hall in the Village downtown area, to some people’s consternation and with showers provided by a local community of retired church workers.
Whatever happened to this movement, which seemed so powerful when it was happening about 15 years ago? Perhaps the current encampments on college campuses protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and the colleges’ involvement in financing it are what brought the Occupy encampments to mind.
Will the college encampments pick back up when school starts again in August and September and if the Gaza War is still going on? Or will it be another discarded, forgotten movement?
As I see the dearth of “Black Lives Matter” signs and wonder about the Occupy movement and how long or if the pro-Palestinian encampments will continue (if the Gaza war and college investments in Israel continue), I wonder why these and other liberal, progressive movements tend to fizzle out while anti-abortion, pro-gun and other conservative movements or forces go on and on. Not only that, they often get stronger.
Look at the way the anti-abortion folks hung in there for decades, since at least the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in 1973, to see that decision overturned in the Dobbs decision two years ago and vowing to continue and get a national abortion ban. Look at the way the pro-gun people persist, getting gun safety measures blocked even in the face of unending horrific mass shootings, including at schools. Look at the dozens of anti-trans and other anti-queer state laws that have been passed or are pending.
It’s not that progressive measures aren’t also approved (civil rights, gay marriage, etc.). It’s the conservative movements and how strong and persistent and how vocal and loud they are, to the extent that some of these measures are threatened. Why do many progressive movements not have this staying quality or power?
Is it because conservatives, who always tout that they’re pro-law and order, are more orderly, so to speak, better at organizing or being organized, following directions? Perhaps progressives are just too loose, being more socialistic – the conservatives might say communistic - anti-authoritan, less inclined to being organized and following directions.
I’m all for going one’s own way, but there should be a way to do this and not veer too far off track and end up losing.
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