Have you wondered how we got to the current climate that exists within the US right now?
Have you thought about why many are protesting during a pandemic?
If you feel unsure about how we get to this moment in time, you’re not alone.
In our fourth part in our series on civil rights, we want to talk about why these protests are happening right now during a pandemic.
This is another important way to educate yourself on current events and the history that has lead us to this point in time.
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Understanding Some Background
This is the fourth episode on civil rights in the US.
Find out why this moment has created a unique energy to protest and make change.
Find out what the pandemic had to do with surfacing it.
There are so many questions about what is going on within the US with the protests and the overall climate in our culture.
We have covered so much in this series to help you understand what has lead us to this moment.
We’ve talked about the timeline of what brought us here, about police brutality and what has fueled that, and then we went into the politics of it all.
We may have gotten a bit passionate on the last episode and went on a rant a bit, but this is a very important issue that needs to be talked about.
We may not be in this position of so many deaths if we had different leadership.
Many wonder why exactly this is happening now?
The police brutality is nothing new, and that is important to note.
There are some circumstances that brought us to this moment in time though.
How Did We Get Here?
The pandemic may have added to this because there has been a serious lack of leadership surrounding this.
With Trump he didn’t make decisions to help us through the pandemic, which he then left to the governors in each state.
We needed leadership to help calm us down and help us through this pandemic.
Though the tough decision and help should have come from the president, he instead left it to the states and their leadership.
This created chaos and highlighted a lack of leadership.
This all lead to a blow up in coronavirus cases, and the numbers are staggering.
Many people were home in quarantine as this was all happened, but some people did have to go into work.
The connection to racial issues started here as the number of coronavirus cases is higher in the African American and Latino communities.
This may be due in large part to these communities acting as essential workers in some cases.
They may be the ones taking care of others as nurses or in the food industry.
Many people had to walk into this storm so that they could pay their rent and survive, and so they were exposed to coronavirus quite frequently.
If you are deemed an essential worker and let’s say you work at a grocery store.
You still have to go to work, and you are risking but aren’t getting paid anymore.
Those that are coming into shop at the store are safe getting what they need.
The workers are exposed all day long as they perform their jobs beause this is reality for them.
This all lead to the protests and the frustration, and you see white people protesting with them.
Many people wanted to demand leadership and a change because this all highlighted the inequality!
Nobody knows if this momentum will continue or if the protests will go away.
These protests have gone on for a longer time than any others, and so the issues are still highlighted.
The awful part is that the police brutality is still happening, even in spite of the protests.
People are angry and they have had more time to think about these issues with the pandemic.
Things are coming to the forefront and the disparity has become very clear.
You start to see the issues and the significant differences between the black and white communities.
Positive Changes Are Slowly Starting To Happen
Some police departments are making changes as a result of this.
There are some changes starting to happen, and we can only hope that this momentum will continue.
There are so many different contributing factors that lead to these protests, and hopefully this all highlights the issues and forces change.
Some police departments are banning choke holds as an example, which is a great and very important start.
This is a huge moment in time, and we hope that this all forces crucial changes.
There is one more episode to come in our series, and we hope this is helping you to truly understand the issues.
If you have questions, we want to help answer them and inform you on the issues.
Takeaway
There are so many things that have lead us to this moment in time.
Many important issues surrounding racism and inequality have been highlighted, and we hope that momentum will continue moving forward.
The pandemic gave the platform to showcase these inequalities and it made people angry about the state of affairs.
The lack of leadership during this pandemic caused a lot of the issues, and the protests show that things need to change.
Hopefully these protests during this critical time in our country will help to force change moving forward.
If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments section.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
