Black Lives Matter Protestors Arrested Outside of the 2021 Met Gala
While celebrities celebrated “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” at the 2021 Met Gala, Black Lives Matter protestors were being arrested by police. According to a flyer on Twitter, sourced from Daily Mail, the group that organized the protest was #FireThemAll, an “autonomous group of NYC abolitionists who believe that policing does not protect and serve communities.” The flyer further explained the protestors’ objective: “The NYPD has a total of 11 billion dollars in financial allocation per year. This money goes towards racist policing that destroys Black and brown communities while people who are struggling do not get the resources they need. CARE, not COPS, is the answer.” Nine people were arrested at the protest, including a young woman named Ella. In a video sourced from Twitter, she called out to protestors: “Black and brown people are on the brink of homelessness. We cannot go back to normal.”
Ella spoke further on the issue, calling attention to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Our people are still dying. Our people are still being murdered. There are millions of dollars going to this museum.” On average, a ticket to the Met Gala costs 35,000 dollars; the museum raised 15 million dollars at the gala in 2019. Last year, the gala was cancelled due to COVID-19, a contagious disease that has killed approximately 685,000 Americans. COVID-19 has disproportionally impacted BIPOC communities; members of the community are not only more likely to catch the disease, they also cannot seek proper treatment due to racial and ethnic disparities in health.
Some stars even took to social media to speak out against the gala, including American actress Indya Moore, who attended the event. In an Instagram post, the actress wrote, “We organize millions for a museum, on stolen land that black and brown people suffer on unless white supremacy thinks they are exceptional—but not for the people? can’t we be substantially generous in ways that alleviate suffering and poverty?” She wrote that the 2021 Met Gala will probably be the last one she attends, and she is seriously thinking about why she went in the first place.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has yet to address the protest and subsequent arrests, staying silent on the event as well as the brutal handling of protestors by police. We at The Edge hope that next year’s gala reflects the morals and values of the American people who continuously fight for racial and social justice for the BIPOC community.