What have the recent Black Lives Matter protests accomplished?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

For weeks, cities across the United States have experienced Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in response to well-publicized instances of police brutality. But with some protests resulting in rioting and violence, critics have questioned whether anything positive is coming out of them.

The effects of a protest movement are not always immediately clear. The 2009 Tea Party protests helped propel dozens of conservative candidates to Congress in 2010. The January 2017 Women’s March and the related movement focused left-wing opposition on the presidency of Donald Trump and heralded a historic number of political victories for women in 2018.

Based on these recent examples, it’s reasonable to think that it won’t be possible to evaluate the greatest effects of the current BLM protests until more time has passed. However, there is ample evidence that these protests have already sparked change.

The immediate effects of the BLM protest

The recent BLM protests were ignited by the death of George Floyd, a black man who lived in Minneapolis.

Floyd was killed by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin while three other officers looked…