These are some of the skeptical questions, impatient dismissals, and anguished disappointments that I have often heard over the past two years (and more) from people taking stock of the Movement for Black Lives. While some of these retorts and rebukes come from political corners that, one has reason to suspect, are neither inclined to take the movement seriously nor invested in its success, others come from a place of despair. In the wake of the historic George Floyd uprisings of 2020, as a right-wing backlash gained speed and as hope gave way to disappointment, some laid the charge of failure at the feet of the movement: it had the wrong aims, the wrong organizational structure, the wrong tactics, the wrong message.