the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials as well as other historic symbols such as statues of venerated American slaveholders and modern display of the Confederate battle flag. Public backlash widened to other institutional symbols, including place names, namesakes, brands and cultural practices. This itself has sparked conflict, between left-wing and right-wing groups, often violent. Several far-right groups, including civilian militias and white supremacists, have fought with members of "a broad coalition of leftist anti-racist groups" in street clashes. Public opinion By mid-June, American national culture and attitude towards racial injustice began to shift, including the Senate Armed Services Committee's approval of process to rename military facilities named for Confederate generals. American public opinion of racism and discrimination shifted in the wake of these protests. Polling of white Americans showed an increased belief in having received advantages due to their race and increased belief that black Americans received disproportionate force in policing. Public opinion in support of the Black Lives Matter movement greatly increased, with a surge of "am I racist" searches and a greater approval for removing Confederate statues and memorials. However, support for the Black Lives Matter movement declined by August and September 2020. Public debate Faced with civil unrest, politicians fulfilled promises to remove Confederate symbols. Mississippi voted to retire and replace its state flag. The removal of symbols caused national debate over the appropriateness of statues of figures tied to racial injustice. Public conversations on race and power extended to other cultural practices. One debate addressed racial vocabulary. Various news organizations modified their style guides to capitalize "Black" as a proper noun in recognition of the term's shared political identity and experiences. Merriam-Webster modified its definition of racism. The major sports channel ESPN began to air political commentary, reversing a longstanding mandate to separate sports from politics. 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