HOW 2020 CHANGED ME : MY LIFE AND MEDICINE AUTHOR Oladele Osisami
FEATURE
2020 : sure to be a year that goes down in history . Our lives changed drastically in March when quarantine for COVID-19 began . At first , I was not too bothered ; I was even slightly ecstatic to be able to complete my second year of medical school online . It felt like a much-deserved break from the typical preclinical schedule . As COVID-19 continued to rampage throughout the country and globe , my happiness faded swiftly to worry . My USMLE Step 1 exam had been cancelled after weeks of studying ; I was extremely disappointed because of all of the work I had been putting in thus far .
I thought , “ I can at least have a summer , right ?” Wrong . Quarantine was enduringly real , causing me to feel a loneliness never experienced before . The coronavirus horror stories I read about in the media terrified me . A year that was originally filled with hope and promise was instead filled with dread and solitude . I thought to myself , “ There ’ s no way this year can get worse .” I was gravely mistaken .
On February 23 , Ahmaud Arbery , an unarmed Black man , was pursued while jogging by three white men in Georgia and fatally shot . The video showing most of this went viral . As a Black man , I had grown tired of hearing how another “ unarmed Black man ” was murdered . I had even , sad to say , become a bit desensitized to all this trauma ; hearing / reading about another Black death became as common as seeing unwanted social commentary on Twitter . The men who murdered Ahmaud were quite visibly racist . A Confederate
flag was seen on one of their trucks , and FBI investigation revealed that one of the men called him the n-word as they stood over his body . Even with this information , I was not hopeful for justice to be done for Ahmaud ; it is rare to see an unarmed Black man get justice . A grand jury eventually indicted each of these men with many counts , such as felony murder and aggravated assault . This was a huge surprise . It looked as if things were finally moving in the right direction in America - so I thought .
On May 25 , George Floyd was killed while being arrested by Officer Derek Chauvin . George had allegedly used a counterfeit $ 20 bill at the store . Mr . Chauvin handcuffed him , yelled at him and pinned his neck to the ground with his knee . Despite George ’ s numerous pleas for air and his expressed fear of dying , Officer Chauvin ’ s knee stayed on his neck for at least nine minutes and 30 seconds , leaving a motionless , pulseless , lifeless body .
Although I was still a bit desensitized , this incident was particularly egregious . First of all , 20 dollars ? Is that how much a Black man ’ s life is worth in America ? Apparently so if that is all it takes to be murdered in broad daylight . Second , the way George was killed was unnecessarily brutal . In no form of police officer training is pressing your knee on a person ’ s neck an acceptable form of restraint , especially relentless pressure for nine minutes and 30 seconds while the victim is telling you he cannot breathe and is afraid he will die . At that point , there was no doubt in my mind that death was the objective .
Black men in America have a 1 in 1,000 risk of death due to police violence . This is a jarring statistic , especially given the fact
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