Times are changing

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Third Ward, Cuney Homes, that's where he was born at. But everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world." — George Floyd's younger brother Rodney eulogizing Floyd at Tuesday's funeral.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

• After yet another white editor departs over race and diversity concerns, his Black assistant describes what it was like to work for him.
• Trump keeps trying to blame "antifa" for the protests, but evidence suggests this is just another Trump lie. NPR reviewed the 51 federal charges related to protests. None was alleged to have ties to the antifa movement.
• People are pointing to Camden, New Jersey, as a model for police reform. A professor says the reality is more nuanced and success less clear.
• A former federal prosecutor and judge blasted the Justice Department's move to drop charges against former Trump aide Michael Flynn. He called it a "gross abuse of prosecutorial power" and accused the Justice Department of engaging in "highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President."

BLODGET & PLOTZ

Public opinion rarely changes this fast

American views of Black Lives Matter have changed at unfathomable speed. Since the George Floyd protests began, support for Black Lives Matter has spiked.

After being steady for years, support for BLM in this Civiqs poll jumped in days from 42% to 53%. Opposition fell from 31% to 25%, increasing the approval spread from 11 percentage points to 28 points. This tracks with the new Post-Schaar poll that found concern about police violence against African-Americans has also climbed, with 69% now saying it reflects broader societal problems, compared to only 43% who said that after Ferguson.

But as Tom Edsall points out in the New York Times, white Americans tend to sour on racial justice issues once the going gets hard. Edsall quotes an anonymous Democratic operative:

"White Americans have a history of losing interest in racial justice soon after they acknowledge injustice, as if their acknowledgment, rather than actual changes in the world, was the end of the matter. We saw as the Sixties progressed, many whites who were appalled by dogs attacking black children eventually lost patience with demands for greater economic equality for blacks and resisted changes in their own communities…..The fundamental analytical danger is to believe that the result of opinion polling matters in any straightforward way. That's not how America works, otherwise we would have had stricter gun control after Parkland."

That said, the Floyd protests are already having a measurable impact on American politics and public policy. Police reform legislation is moving in Congress, and departments around the country are banning choke holds. City governments are shifting funds out of police budgets and into education. These policing changes would accelerate with more Democrats in power, and it seems likely that the Floyd protests will help Democrats in November….

...Which brings us to this amazing survey result. Every single person surveyed at George Floyd protests said they were voting Biden and opposing Trump. Every single one!

Insider's John Haltiwanger reports on a survey of 255 George Floyd protesters in three US cities last weekend that found "100% reported that they would be supporting Joe Biden in the election. ZERO respondents said that they would support Donald Trump or opt not to vote in the election." This unanimity almost never happens.

The survey also found a majority of the weekend protesters were white. The street survey, which was run by professors from University of Maryland and University of Michigan, was not a poll, and those surveyed may not even be registered voters.

If you're a Democratic leader, this survey is probably good news or possibly bad news. The case that it's good news: There's a huge, fired-up cadre of activists who are deeply committed to voting for your presidential candidate. The case that it's bad news: Maybe the Floyd protests aren't, in fact, a broadly supported movement that's inspiring a cross-section of Americans toward activism and tarnishing Republican policies, but rather a partisan cause, and thus one that could prompt a Republican backlash

...No matter what happens, we will have huge symbolic changes, and that's great.

This moment is emboldening America to engage in a lot of symbolic deck-clearing, and that's wonderful. Statues of Confederate leaders and other villains are coming down.

NFL players and other pro athletes will be kneeling. NASCAR is facing huge pressure to ban Confederate flags from the stands.

The TV show "Cops" was canceled. HBO Max pulled "Gone with the Wind" off the network, and vowed it won't return until the network can appropriately acknowledge its racism.

Jack Dorsey has made Juneteenth an official holiday at Square and Twitter, and it wouldn't be surprising if other companies and states follow suit. America is shamefully delinquent in not having an official public commemoration of slavery.

These symbolic changes don't reduce inequality or stop police violence, and it would be tragic if they are all America gets out of the movement, but we should celebrate them. They are long overdue. — DP

Media's changing fast, too

In the past week, top editors at several respected publications have been forced out. All are white. All resigned or got canned over scandals related to race and diversity.

The editor of Bon Appetit exited after Black and POC employees alleged unfair pay practices and a toxic environment. In a big inside story, Insider's Rachel Premack reports that, among other issues, the editor's assistant, a Stanford graduate and the only Black woman in the newsroom, was paid only $35,000 per year plus overtime.

The editor of lifestyle media brand Refinery 29 resigned after allegations of a toxic, discriminatory culture with racial pay disparities. The Philadelphia Inquirer's editor got the boot after the paper ran the headline, "Buildings Matter, Too."

Most prominently, the editor of the New York Times opinion section resigned after running an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton that urged the US to send in combat troops to quash the protests, which Cotton characterized as "mobs" filled with "rioters," and "looters." Black employees at the NYT said publicly that running the op-ed put them in danger.

Lack of diversity has long been an issue in newsrooms, and progress has always been slow. The past two weeks have been a galvanizing wake-up call.

Speaking personally, as a white media CEO and columnist, the last two weeks have provided a vivid reminder of how deep systemic racism runs in America, how profound the frustration is, and how much more work we have to do. —HB

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TAKE OF THE DAY

"I didn't see the tweet." The Washington Post and New York Times jeer at how Republican politicians feign ignorance when they're asked about the latest Trump tweet. This implausible deniability allows them to duck questions about the president's outrages and insults, avoid criticizing him, and thus be spared his wrath.

Reporters have taken to carrying around printouts of Trump's tweets, but even that won't get Republican politicians to bite. Former Sen. Bob Corker was at least honest when a reporter tried to show him a tweet: "I don't know that I want you to show it to me...I can't respond if I don't know anything about it."

OTHER NEWS

Voting in Georgia was a fiasco

"Complete Meltdown" is how Georgia's largest paper described yesterday's primary election. Voting broke in almost every way it could break. There were new machines that weren't tested and that poll workers didn't understand. Experienced poll workers stayed home because of pandemic fears. Republican state officials had closed polling places, especially in poor and minority areas that primarily vote for Democrats.. Voters waited on endless lines — with some not voting till after midnight. All the problems, especially the lines, seemed to be worse in urban and black areas that lean Democratic.

Democrats long to turn Georgia blue, and for years the two parties have been waging a legal, bureaucratic, and cartographic war in which Democrats try to increase voter turnout and Republicans try to reduce it. So Democrats are flipping out about the Tuesday shambles. If disorder reigned in a low-turnout primary, imagine how bad the November election could be. — DP

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Uber is "likely" abandoning its effort to buy GrubHub. Uber's stock dropped 5% this morning on the news. CNBC reports that antitrust issues killed the deal.

Stocks are mixed again. Volatility continues to ease, and, today anyway, the rocket ride of the past 10 weeks is taking a pause.

LIFE

Prince Phillip turns 99 today. He once said he "couldn't imagine anything worse" than reaching 100. Only one year to go.

15 things successful people do before bed. A lot of the same things you do, but they also "plan sleep" and "write down what they accomplished that day."

THE BIG 3*

George Floyd and the police officer who killed him, Derek Chauvin, bumped heads at the nightclub where they both worked. Another employee says Floyd was concerned that Chauvin was "extremely aggressive" with patrons.

Police officer accused of pulling out a woman's tampon during a public search. San Antonio will pay a $205,000 settlement to the woman, who sued after the 2016 search "humiliated" her.

The best and worst meals to make with ground beef. Insider asked chefs, who said soups and stews, but not burgers.

*The most popular stories on Insider today.

YOUR LETTERS

I was interested in the two letters regarding your comments about the slogan "Defund the Police." I agree with you that it is a lousy slogan that will create a backlash against what its promoters are trying to promote. While Allison King's point about sparking a debate is reasonable, I fear that this slogan will not get us to the point of a reasoned debate. I'm not sure what is a better slogan. "Reform the Police" doesn't have that same rallying cry. "Demilitarize the Police" is better, but does not capture the whole of what the protesters are seeking. Well, I will leave it to others to come up with a better slogan.

But there is hope for changing the police as evidenced by a recent NPR story on reform of the Camden, NJ police.

—Bernie Markstein