Blame People. Not 2020
We all know that 2020 was the shit show of all shit shows. Between the global pandemic, the spark plug death of George Floyd, and the never-ending election, 2020 yielded myriad deaths, personal wreckage, and financial devastation that irrevocably changed the course of the next decade and then some.
But as the shipwreck of last year spills over into the present, one thing is abundantly clear: using the reductionist catchall phrase “blame 2020” to compartmentalize our personal, sociopolitical, and environmental strife into a neat package will no longer suffice. And while that perhaps relatable over-simplification has produced helluva great memes and made it easier for people to digest an unprecedented moment in history, 2020 is not the culprit of our mass woes. The people of 2020 are.
Yesterday, New York Magazine published a feature that sought to debunk the notion that the coronavirus arose naturally from bats in a seafood market. Nicholson Baker writes, “We need to hear from the people who for years have contended that certain types of virus experimentation might lead to a disastrous pandemic like this one.” He pinpoints human fallibility and scientists toying with viral diseases as what may have led to the seismic dismantling of life as we know it.
Furthermore, it wasn’t the amorphous 2020 that killed George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tyree Davis, or any other unarmed Black person going about their day-to-day. It was unhinged policemen and a system made up of-—yes, you guessed it—people who permitted such heinous actions to go unnoticed for an unspeakable amount of time.
Now as we’ve entered the much-awaited 2021, let’s be hopeful—and proactive—that the click-bait phrases that dominate our cultural conversations begin to evolve from uncomplicated buzzword-laden statements to more nuanced and pointed conversations that are directed towards personal accountability.
Because at the end of the day, it’s up to us—THE PEOPLE—to speak up and call out those who bore the fruit of a disastrous 2020—whether that be politicians, community leaders, our ourselves.