What is it about?
After the murder of George Floyd and the massive protests in the summer of 2020, government officials needed to respond to BLM activists and their demands for police reform. In conservative cities, mayors used bureaucratic means to erase activist painted Black Live Matter murals tattooing their city streets. In more "progressive" cities, mayors painted BLM murals on streets to generate a performances of reform without any substantive action. Both refused to engage with the BLM demands for police reform and/or abolition. The city of Tulsa is my case example of the former, Washington, D.C. my case study for the latter.
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Why is it important?
This essay explores the various ways that government officials deal with massive social reform movements. While governments call in police with military gear to quell protests, this article explores how officials use bureaucratic means to also erase or sidestep calls for police reform. The article delves into the history of the militarizing of the police and the way that racial capitalism has helped create the environment for the current police state.
Perspectives
My book *Conflict Graffiti: From Revolution to Gentrification* (University of Chicago Press, 2021) focuses on how individuals and groups used graffiti to resist state policies. This article on BLM murals flips the viewpoint. I analyze how state entities interact with street art in order to counter radical political social movements.
John Lennon
University of South Florida
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bureaucratizing Black Lives Matter murals: Racial capitalism, policing and erasure of radical politics, Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, June 2022, Intellect,
DOI: 10.1386/jucs_00050_1.
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