I think George Floyd was a seminal moment for activists and the chattering class. I doubt if it change a thing for anyone else.
Yeah, I wonder about this. I think most of the benefit was actually found in getting certain people to think/talk about race at all. But the realizations they had weren't of any interest to the 'chattering class' as you call them. (they had conquered that territory long ago)
The handy work of the chattering class was just not that meaningful as far as I can see. We built awareness around certain sub-issues related to race... but... where were the big ideas, the big solutions? That's not what circulated widely, that's not where most people's interests were. Part of that is because the issues that remain aren't easily remedied by simple legislation. Policing needs to improve... but how exactly?
A lot of it just felt like... noise... commentary, meta considerations. Talking about "the thing that was happening" -- it's as if we've become so hyper aware of everything happening around us that movements and moments have a tendency to become about themselves, to an extent.
And then they're capitalized upon all this at rapid pace... by political forces, capitalist forces... it's as though we've lost the ability to be
genuine. (at least a level that's at any scale)
Activism is now something Nike and ESPN capitalize on.
(you could argue, again, that it's not all bad... that it represents a certain level of positive societal development such that such ideas could conceivably be marketed for profit at all... but...)