Celebrities and public figures showed out at the 2021 Met Gala. But as gowns and outfit changes made the news, a group of abolitionists fighting the NYPD’s exorbitant $11 billion budget didn’t.
But then the protesters got arrested, much of it caught on camera.
The Met Gala’s theme even reflected the irony of it all: “In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion.” What’s more American than police brutalizing Black people for demanding human rights?
As they demonstrated, the protesters screamed their refusal to return back to the normality of celebrity worship and wealth while Black people continue to die at the hands of police, the COVID-19 crisis, housing displacement, and more.
“Wearing a ‘peg the patriarchy’, ‘tax the rich’ doesn’t do anything for us,” said protester Ella Dior upon release, referring to the not-so-creative “statement” outfits donned by model Cara Delevingne and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And Dior speaks to an elephant in the room.
Popular figures at the Met Gala may say they’re “challenging the system” in their own way. But while they performed activism on an affluent stage, Black abolitionists without those privileges suffered right outside!
Dior’s response shows why changing the system from the inside can ring hollow. If abolition is what it takes to improve our conditions as Black people, what does theater amongst wealthy elites do for us?