Black Lives Matter in the Time of COVID-19

I live in the UK, but I am American. The events of the last week in the United States have been deeply upsetting to me, underscoring my suspicion that there is no progress, we don’t learn from history, and change is an illusion. I grew up in a home with parents who demonstrated for Civil Rights (as well as a host of other causes) in the ’60s and ’70s. I graduated from an inner city high school where the student body was, at the time, only 2% white. I was a teacher in a classroom that was 90% African American. Every time a white police officer murders a black American, I struggle, but I know my struggles, and anger, and hopelessness, are fractional compared to the feelings of people of colour.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people posting about how these protests are happening during a pandemic, and voicing concern over the crowds congregating. I’ve read things like, if you’re against the alt-right protests, shouldn’t you be against these as well? On Facebook, people ask, shouldn’t we be thinking about the public health risk, while this is all happening? These are liberal people, white people, who support Black Lives Matter intellectually, from afar.

These comments betray a total lack of comprehension of the gravity of the situation for African Americans and other people of colour in America. White America, for the first time, has started to experience the fear of walking out their front doors as a result of COVID-19. One of the people posting these types of questions has also been posting for weeks how afraid she is to leave her house, lest she catch something that could kill her.

Imagine always being afraid to leave your house.

But rather than an invisible, natural killer, you’re afraid the person walking down the street toward you is going to pull a gun on you and kill you.

You’re afraid that the person whose job it is to protect you is going to kill you.

Imagine being afraid of letting your child play outside, because the stick he picks up might be mistaken for a gun, and he could be shot.

Imagine you’re in lockdown, and you are going stir crazy, and all you look forward to is the one hour of exercise a day you get, and you can’t wait to go for your run. But on your run, anyone could pull over in their pick-up truck and shoot you. Because they think they have the right. Because of the way you look, and the way they look.

So yeah, the Black Lives Matter protesters are flaunting the public health guidelines, but that’s because the virus isn’t the most dangerous thing for them. People who believe black lives don’t matter are far more dangerous and deadly than COVID-19.

Let’s also keep in mind that people of colour in America have been disproportionately effected by the virus, and are dying in much greater numbers. This is due to the vast array of systemic factors which position people of colour to be more likely to work in service jobs, live in poor quality and/or insecure housing, have underlying health conditions, have poor access to healthcare… need I go on? And so Black Lives Matter is about COVID-19, too: about the systemic disadvantages as a result of systemic racism which cause so many Black Lives to be lost in the pandemic.