U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently dismissed the early reckonings of racial justice advocacy as “crazy,” attempting to distance her political brand from the turbulent language of 2020. But writing off the historic George Floyd uprisings as mere social media overreach misrepresents a profound multiracial reckoning against systemic state violence.
Rewriting the History of the 2020 Uprisings
When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) suggested during a recent public appearance that “woke 1 was crazy,” she tapped into a growing impulse among centrist Democrats to sanitize the legislative and cultural turbulence of the pandemic era. Speaking in an apparent nod to New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, Ocasio-Cortez giggled as she dismissed past calls to defund the police. Yet, her framing conveniently airbrushed out the millions of Americans who took to the streets in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
There was nothing inherently absurd about more than 20 million people demanding accountability from an entrenched, necropolitical policing apparatus. Long before kente cloth stoles became punchlines for Democratic lawmakers trying to co-opt a movement, actual organizers were building a profound challenge to racial capitalism. The number of people killed by police in the U.S. every year has risen most years since 2020, with a disproportionate number of those killed still being Black.
The Collapse of the Overton Window and Liberal Cowardice
Ocasio-Cortez did acknowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic opened the Overton Window, creating fruitful policy discussions that permanently altered how communities talk about crime. But framing those vital debates as a collective bout of political insanity ignores how the establishment actively dismantled the movement’s radical core. As writer Tobi Haslett observed when reflecting on the rebellions, the initial shockwave of the protests quickly ran headfirst into a wall of intense state repression and conservative fearmongering.
The white supremacist backlash orchestrated during Donald Trump’s first term did not succeed in a vacuum. It was aided and abetted by liberal cowardice. Democratic leaders rushed to soften, co-opt, and ultimately erase the abolitionist demands at the heart of the rebellions. Instead of fighting for structural budget reallocations toward housing, healthcare, and education, centrist politicians retreated to safe, law-and-order talking points.
The Perils of Historical Erasure for Future Ambitions
As speculation swirls around potential higher office runs for Ocasio-Cortez, retreating from the foundational justice fights of the past decade carries profound political consequences. Bending rightward on criminal legal reform or immigration enforcement—such as maintaining silence on the systemic abuses tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—only validates Republican framing. History shows that mimicking right-wing talking points hands legitimacy to the opposition rather than securing votes.
A principled democratic socialist platform must insist on funding social welfare programs where public dollars actually belong. Dismissing the vast, righteous uprisings of 2020 as a “crazy” phase performs a dangerous version of what W.E.B. Du Bois famously called the “propaganda of history.” Erasing the record of Black struggle to appease moderate sensibilities damages the very coalition the left needs to build.
