Black Lives Matter is a social movement that is no longer strange to us. It is in fact, the largest movement in US history. On the 25th of May 2020, a video of George Floyd being murdered by the police in Minneapolis spread across the Internet. The video has attracted the public’s attention and people began to march, demonstrate and even deliver speeches about discrimination. The movement soon became globally and people from other countries also organized marches everywhere in the world.
At that time, two months have passed by from March 11, the day the WHO declared the Coronavirus as a global pandemic. People went into lockdowns, travels from countries to countries have been restricted, and social contacts were made virtually. But for the first time, Coronavirus didn’t center the news anymore, it was something else. It was described as a pandemic – a pandemic with serious and fatal consequences just like the Coronavirus – it is called DISCRIMINATION. (I don’t prefer to use the word ‚racism‘ because I don’t recognize the existence of it). This Coronavirus pandemic revealed that discrimination has always been a serious problem and needs to be taken into consideration urgently because this not only leads to global inequality but also strengthens the concept of nationalism. According to some statistics, during the pandemic in the US in 2020, the number of African Americans who died from the pandemic is 2-3 times higher than the number of white Americans, in some places, this even goes to 4 times.
In fact, movement #BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. The event of George Floyd being murdered during the pandemic not only raised people’s awareness of discrimination as a global pandemic but also show us how diversity can inspire and form such a strong movement like Black Lives Matter. Protesters were risking their health and even lives for a future that embraces diversity, equality and no discrimination in the USA.
In my opinion, the event was a fundamental key for the world to acknowledge there has always been a pandemic even before COVID, and this pandemic also causes psychological consequences such as depression, anxiety, traumatized experience, etc. Just like ecological destruction and climate change, we don’t realize the long term devastating effect of this pandemic. If we don’t take actions right now, it might be too late.
My one and only question has always been: How do we eradicate discrimination and bring more diversity to human lives?