More then One Pandemic: Reflections on Ahmaud Arbery

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to dominate the news. From medical advice to political implications to a gradual re-opening, these are the stories discussed each night in a thirty-minute newscast or a multi-page newspaper. It’s all about the virus.

But tucked away in some of those broadcasts there is a video. It’s a tape of a young man running. His name is Ahmaud Arbery. He is running in a neighborhood near Brunswick, a small town in southeastern Georgia.

This chilling video of the last moments of Ahmaud Arbery’s life are painful to watch.  But it gets even more disturbing when you find out that one man was taping the incident while two men brought an end to his life.  They were white. 
 
Ahmaud Arbery’s story has largely been lost in the push to cover the Covid-19 pandemic.  It is a story of how this country is severely divided on racial lines and seriously dominated by systemic racism.  It is a story that has become so disturbingly commonplace: an unarmed Black man or woman who is senselessly murdered for simply living life in their skin.  And it is a story that continues to largely be left unaddressed in the midst of growing tensions.