Black Lives Matter protesters risk infection to ‘do whatever it takes’
In the middle of the night, as some of the first protests raged in Louisville, Shae Smith and her husband, Walt, decided to break out of their pandemic isolation and take to the streets.
‘‘We were actually in bed and I finally woke Walt up and said, ‘Babe, I think you need to go down there,’ ’’ Shae recalled. ‘‘You need to see what’s going on, we need to be a part of this.’’
At 2.15am, Walt went downtown to see, to make a statement. The Smiths had talked about the virus; they knew joining the protests against police brutality meant a higher risk of being infected. They took the risk to give their 10-yearold son a chance at a future in which he will not be ‘‘walking around with the spirit of fear’’, Shae said. They took the risk because ‘‘we still have to do whatever it takes’’.
The protests mean exposure to the virus and potentially accelerating its spread. The virus has killed more than 109,000 Americans, including a disproportionate number of blacks. Yet the Smiths and tens of thousands of others have chosen to take the risk.
Far from being separate crises, the deadly epidemic of Covid-19 and the sudden explosion of street protests against police violence are intimately connected, say protesters and public and mental health professionals.
‘‘People are so pent-up with frustration from being inside for so long,’’ said Patricia Newton, chief executive of the Black Psychiatrists of America. ‘‘That was the kindling, and the police brutality lit the fire. People tell me, ‘I need to get out of the house,’ and ‘I’m having cabin fever.’ When people feel hopeless, they feel they have nothing to lose and caution goes to the wind.’’
For Shae and Walt Smith, the decision to leave home for the first time in months was calculated, the result of a thorough discussion about what lay ahead for their two young sons.
For medical professionals, the nightly images of huge crowds walking city streets, shouting and chanting, sometimes wearing masks but with hardly any possibility of social distancing, is frightening, even if understandable.
Newton and others who have counselled protesters describe the connection between the two crises as complex. Some protesters consciously weigh the risks of catching the virus against a moral calling to voice their anger about racial bias. Others simply follow their passion to meet the moment on the nation’s streets. What both groups have in common is a web of emotions stemming from the pandemic: anger, isolation, loneliness, frustration, powerlessness, hopelessness.