Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Some people’s principles can change at the drop of a hat: their real thoughts about race become apparent when the talking point switches from the pandemic to the BLM protests.

That’s exactly what Twitter user TheEpicDept showed us when he compared how the same social media users reacted to the Covid-19 lockdown demands to stay at home vs. how they reacted when people took to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd. The differences in opinion are… striking. Scroll down and have a look for yourselves, dear Pandas.

So the same individuals who were talking about ‘tyranny’ and about coronavirus conspiracy theories just a while ago are now denouncing people exercising the same rights they were so keen to defend. Bored Panda spoke about the BLM protests, racism, and reforming the US system with writer and concerned citizen Zariya Grant from New Jersey. Read on for our interview with her.

Image credits: TheEpicDept

TheEpicDept’s Twitter thread exposing the hypocrisy of some people got over 515k likes and was retweeted more than 233 times. The original poster also invited people to donate to groups fighting for racial justice. Meanwhile, Twitter users took the chance to post hilarious memes poking fun at the people who radically changed their points of view once the topic switched to race.

BLM protests are happening around the world. The British health secretary Matt Hancock urged people not to attend protests if people can’t observe social distancing measures. He denied that the UK is racist and said: “I support very strongly the argument that is being made by those who are protesting… but the virus itself doesn’t discriminate and gathering in large groups is temporarily against the rules precisely because it increases the risk of the spread of this virus.”

“It’s not ‘black people vs. white people,’ it’s ‘everyone vs. the racists’”

Writer Zariya believes that the BLM protests are very much what the world needs right now. “I think the protests are just what the world needed. Our voices clearly weren’t being heard. And it’s not ‘black people vs. white people,’ it’s ‘everyone vs. the racists,’ and the protests are a great visualization of how many people are standing with the black community. I think the looting is where things got irrelevant to the cause, however,” Zariya spoke to Bored Panda about the BLM protests.

Zariya feels like the police are neither protecting nor serving Americans, even though they’re supposed to do both.

“I’ve seen so many videos of police beating up innocent people behind walls when they think no one is recording, I’ve heard one too many stories of people getting pulled over because the officer said it ‘looked like they were going to speed,’ men and women are getting abducted by police officers, not even arrested. As a black person living in America, it really makes me wonder ‘if someone were to break into my house, can I even call the police?’” she shared her fears.

“No loopholes, no favoritism, no free passes”

But how should the system be reformed to ensure justice and safety for black Americans? Zariya has some ideas.

“To reform the system, we need to listen and understand the oppressed people. We need to make sure that the people we’re giving the job of ‘protecting and serving’ to are actually going into this field with that intent,” she said.

“And if they’re just using the title as a way to abuse and murder innocent lives, they face the same punishment that is written by the judicial system. No loopholes, no favoritism, no free passes. As someone who considered going into law enforcement and was a law major in college, I learned that the police are trained to ‘one-up a threat,’ so if someone draws a knife, they draw a gun for example. If we stopped this ‘one-up’ teaching, I’m sure a lot would change. The argument ‘I thought he had a gun, so I shot him’ would no longer be valid in any sort of way.”

Here’s how Twitter users reacted to the comparisons of what some people said before and after the BLM protests

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: TheEpicDept

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: dandels_sh

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: sophiapearll

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: salshoban

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: grodysauceman

Someone Compares What The Exact Same People Said About The Coronavirus Lockdown Vs. When Black People Started Protesting

Image credits: bryan_bayles

Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

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I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

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What do you think ?

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WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago

Ok, so idiots don't know the difference between rules to contain a deadly virus and the right to protest against racism. Some of the comments on these posts are just as stupid and racist as the posts. But if 57 police officers resign from a task force because 2 of their colleague face criminal charges for attacking an old man and the two cops get an ovation when they leave the courtroom, you know that sanity and reason has left the US. It's like what they say; Americans are so fvcked and fvcked up, it's beyond imagination.

35points

Evil Little Thing 4 years ago (edited)

To be fair, they didn't resign from the police force, they just resigned from the task force - so they were refusing to continue working crowd control. The officers who shoved that man hurt him badly and might have killed him, but they did exactly what they were trained to do. Our police are trained to consider civilians as enemy combatants. It's really bad.

16points

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OCDRobot 4 years ago

Idk how you can watch the video of George Floyd, along with the countless others and still say everything is okay in this country. The same people claiming to love the constitution are the first to throw it out when they see people they don't like using it. It's disgusting. Where were the 'All Lives Matter' people when that old white man got shoved down? Oh yeah, busy defending the cops that shoved him. Some of them even going as far as claiming it was a hoax and the old man faked falling down. Then they pull the 'if you don't like it, move' card, as if they aren't the ones bitching about people using their 1st amendment right to protest. It's so frustrating and sad how much hate people have in their hearts.

15points

Leo Domitrix 4 years ago

The video fo the elderly man can't be faked. He went down in a "dead man's fall", as it's known. You can't fake that. Your body tries to catch itself. The way he fell? He was shoved, th emomentum of the shove propelled him backwards, and down he went. Physics and biology don't lie.

13points

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Tabitha L 4 years ago (edited)

The last tweet talks about metal pathways - I think they are referring to cognitive dissonance....."In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; or participates in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences psychological stress because of that. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein they try to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort."

9points

*sigh*, The Yellow Teletubby 4 years ago

All these people saying that the forced lockdown and masks are violating our constitutional rights, and then defending police brutality, and your post reminds me of the episode from Avatar: The Last Airbender where Zuko becomes ill for a couple of days, because his beliefs are changing, and his new ones are clashing with his old ones. I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I phrased it, but myeh you might get the idea.

4points

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