America’s Black Mayors Promise Change, but Don’t Go Far Enough
Despite marching and renaming streets in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, most resist the movement’s progressive proposals to address police violence, instead opting for centrist measures that do little
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America is tired. Black people who carry its weathered bones have outstretched their limbs to every corner of the country, digging their nails in the dirt, demanding America reckon with its brutal past and brutal present. Tens of millions of people have participated in Black Lives Matter protests within the past few months, making it one of the largest movements in U.S. history.
This outcry for change comes at a time when Black mayors lead roughly 25% of the top American cities. These mayors have marched, tweeted in solidarity, written op-eds about their police fears, commissioned murals, reclaimed and renamed streets to honor Black lives. To many, these gestures seem comforting; to many others, they seem hollow and performative. Regardless of the vocal solidarity these mayors have offered up with Black Lives Matter, do their criminal justice…
