BY NYLAH BURTON
On April 30th, hundreds of white protestors — several of them carrying assault rifles, Confederate flags, Nazi symbols, and nooses — clamored in Lansing, Michigan to protest stay-at-home orders enacted to protect the public from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed almost 80,000 people in the United States. In response to the protests, three Black community activists showed up to the capitol — where it is legal to bear arms — with their own rifles, intending to safely escort Black lawmaker Rep. Sarah Anthony (D-MI) into the building.
“We were all just appalled by the lack of support and lack of security that I had, that other legislators had, and the fact that a lot of the demonstrators last week were adorning many racist, anti-Semitic signage,” Anthony told City Pulse. “I think it just triggered a lot of folks, especially African Americans.”
A few days after this incident, Black America was triggered yet again by the leaking of a horrific video showing the February 23rd killing of 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery by two white male assailants, father-son duo Gregory McMichael, age 64, and Travis McMichael, age 34. On May 7th, after two months of eluding punishment, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations arrested and charged them with murder.