66 Scientific American, March 2022suffering there is, oppression,
inequality and injustice can be
thought of as natural. The Bible
says, for example, that the poor
will always be among us. Some
people see it that way—it is just
fate. Or defective genes or culture.
A real diagnosis was finally on the
table, being discussed not only by
a few scholars and activists but
by Americans at large.
Understanding the depth of the
injustice made people angry, and
they came out in the streets in
unprecedented numbers. In this
manner, the pandemic dovetailed
with police oppression and tech-
nology to energize the Black Lives
Matter (BLM) movement. In addi-
tion, the pandemic nearly shut
down the economy, giving many
more people opportunities to pro-
test. During the Civil Rights Move-
ment (CRM), college students were
especially available for sit-ins and
other protests on so-called T-days—
Tuesdays and Thursdays—when
they had no classes. But at the
height of the pandemic, far more
people had the time to join the
BLM and other protests. And there
was another breakthrough: for
the first time in American history,
people of diverse classes, races
and ethnicities joined a movement
against racial oppression.
These protests led to important
gains. For the first time, there is
serious public deliberation on the
disparities in health, schooling,
access to universities and wealth
that persist along racial lines. The
police are more aware of the possi-
bility of be ing held accountable.
And a debate over reparations for
slavery has sprung up—something
hitherto un thinkable. More broadly,
the intersection of the pandemic,
police brutality and modern tech-
nology has spurred a very vibrant
progressive movement in the
country and the world.
How lasting the gains will be
is far from clear. Worryingly, the
massive social justice movements
energized countermovements
that are determined to halt any
progressive changes to American
society. The political right hasFault Lines
in American
Society
Got Deeper
I
n 2020 , as the bodies piled up,
it became clear that people of
color were dying at far higher
rates than white people. They
had the jobs that exposed them
to infections, the comorbidities
that made them more likely to
get very sick, and less ability to
access quality health care than
white Americans. The toll revealed
in very stark ways that racial
disparities and racism were alive
and well in the U.S.
At the same time, police were
attacking Black people, and those
attacks were being disseminated
far and wide via new visual tech-
nologies. Just as COVID laid bare
the racial disparities, the murder
of George Floyd unfolded in front
of millions of eyes in a way that
made racial oppression undeni-
able. Not only was the structural
racism in American society dis-
played in all its hideousness,
but people were dissecting and
debating it across social media
in a way that had never been pos-
sible before.
For social justice movements
to erupt, you need a diagnosis of
the problem. No matter how muchThe pandemic energized the Black
Lives Matter movement—and
provoked a dangerous backlashBy Aldon Morris