The recent scrutiny on race relations in the United States brought comparisons to the Weinstein effect in which the Me Too movement put pressure on public figures for legacies of sexual assault, harassment, and systemic sexism. Similarly, the American public, under its racial injustice reckoning, pressured American industries to confront legacies of racism. The resulting symbolic divestments targeted white cultural hegemony. NPR wrote that renamed landmarks and similar gestures would not provide economic opportunities or civil rights, but signaled cultural disapproval towards symbols associated with racial injustice, including the history of racism and slavery. The New Yorker compared the dispersed national response to an "American Spring" on par with the Arab Spring and other international revolutionary waves. Global protests also focused on symbols of racial injustice, with The New Yorker also having a part on international solidarity towards police violence.
