“WE LEARNED VIOLENCE FROM YOU”: DISCURSIVE PACIFICATION AND FRAMING CONTESTS DURING THE MINNEAPOLIS UPRISING*
Following the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis became the epicenter of the largest movement in US history. Local Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, dubbed the Minneapolis Uprising, were met by the largest civil police deployment in state history. In the week following George Floyd’s murder, state and local officials convened ten press conferences totaling over 400 minutes of discourse. We use these press conferences, in conjunction with an ethnography of protests, to analyze how state officials counterframed Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. Building on critical race theory, we consider how the state maneuvered to pacify Black Lives Matter protesters and maintain racial oppression and repression. Minneapolis state officials constructed their counterframe through the (re)ordering of disorder, boundary activation, co-optation, and erasure.
Contributor Notes
* We would like to extend special thanks to Joshua Page, Teresa Gowan, and anonymous reviewers for providing invaluable feedback throughout the writing process. We especially appreciate Glenn Bracey, Pamela Oliver, and Joyce Bell’s assistance and patience with our initial and final revisions. We are especially grateful to the Minneapolis families, community members, organizers, and artists who give themselves daily to the Movement for Black Lives.
† Anna Dal Cortivo and Alyssa Oursler are Ph.D. students in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. Direct Correspondence to Alyssa Oursler, oursl003@umn.edu.