Masters Thesis

Risking their lives to save their lives: The intersections of the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 in the United States.

Black people in the United States are currently experiencing two pandemics - COVID-19 and racism. Despite the high mortality rate of both racism and the pandemic, Black people have continued to risk their lives to fight for justice. Breonna Taylor's unjust death is another Black person who has been killed at the hands of the police. This qualitative research study employs Braun and Clark's thematic content analysis as a guide in identifying common themes found through social media posts. The present study examines the emergent themes from the narratives expressed by Black individuals (n=32) through videos or pictures, particularly around the time of Breonna Taylor's death up until the court's verdict - March 13, 2020 through September 23, 2020. Results indicated four emergent themes: (1) call to action, (2) anger and exhaustion, (3) personification and internalization, and (4) fear or safety concerns. This study highlights the daily struggle of being a Black person in America - in this case, they are risking their lives to save their lives. The goal of this study is to evoke awareness of the severity of this issue while offering Black voices the space to be heard in hopes it will provoke change in the future.

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