Along with an unfortunate pandemic, 2020 brought the struggles Black and brown people face in America to the forefront, including its long-standing battle with racial injustice and police brutality. Amid the deadly pandemic and following George Floyd‘s death, for the first time in history, protests sparked in all 50 states and several other countries, calling for an end to racial injustice.
Recently, during his Wednesday episode of “STEVE on Watch,” comedian turned talk show host Steve Harvey shared his assessment of last year’s global developments.
In a clip provided by People, Harvey reflected on Floyd’s deaths, a 46-year-old Black man who lost his life on May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Harvey spoke on Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was jogging in Glynn County, Georgia, in February 2020 when a white father and son chased him down in a pickup truck and confronted him in a so-called citizen’s arrest, with the son shooting him.
“In light of what’s happened with Floyd and Arbery, and because of COVID, I think for the first time, the world was sitting still,” Harvey said to his virtual audience. “Nobody was on spring break, nobody was at happy hour, nobody was at work, nobody was on vacation, and the world was frozen.”
He continued, “They actually saw it over and over and over, what it looks like and what actually happens to a lot of people, and I think for the first time ever, non-African Americans — more so than I’ve ever seen before — have joined in to protest and be outraged of what’s happening to people of color.”
Yet the “Family Feud” host expressed that there was still a silver lining in all the chaos, as it brought in more people to the cause.
“I think that has been the thing that we’ve needed for a long time. We needed someone else to be outraged other than us, and for the first time, I’m seeing so many non-African Americans just sit there and go, ‘Wait a minute, what? You did what to this man?’ he explained. He added, “We now have found out that the world has a lot of allies.”
“There’s still bad people out there, but it’s a lot of really great people out there who, once they are really aware and looking at the situation, can see the injustice as it unfolds.”
You can check out the full conversation only on “STEVE on Watch” on Facebook Watch.
