Raini Loomis, protester with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Photo and Interview.
Title
Raini Loomis, protester with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Photo and Interview.
Subject
A photo and interview from a local youth protester for BLM
Description
Z: What is your name/age?
R: My name is Raini Loomis and I am 20.
Z: How have you been personally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic?
R: My dad actually had it. I go to Flagler, and I was living in the dorms my sophomore year, and I ended up having to very quickly find a place to stay during the summer and I had to do that because both my parents are high-risk and they have very high risk jobs. My dad is a manager at an international airport and my stepmom is a social worker. I didn’t want them to be exposed to anything, so I had to find my own place to stay very quickly, and my work has completely changed. I am supposed to wear masks now, I have to kick people out of my work because they aren’t wearing masks, which for my job you have to have a mask on.
Z: How do you think the world has changed in the past few months?
R: I feel like social interaction as a whole is going to completely change. I feel like physical contact like handshakes or hugs isn’t going to be a thing anymore, and I feel like social, personal space bubble in America is going to grow and people are going to be more mindful of peoples space.
Z: Why are you out protesting today/why do you protest?
R: I protest because I recognize the privilege that I have and I want to help the people that don’t have that. I recognize the pandemic is very serious but also the injustices that people of color in America are experiencing are also very serious, and as a white person, I want to help them any way I can.
Z: What does police reform mean to you?
R: Police reform means to me one of two things, We either take the law enforcement that we know right know, as we know it, and we just completely rewrite it, so that options for me means that we aren’t necessarily erasing law enforcement, but we’ll rewrite it. The second option for me is that we completely get rid of it and come up with an entire new system to protect people.
Z: Do you think the world is changing for the better?
R: Ok, I am going to try and word this very carefully. I think that there definitely has been some improvement from the past. There definitely has. But that does not mean that we don’t have serious issues right now. So, for example, trans people are being denied health care. The Heart Beat bill was passed in Georgia and Alabama. There’s a movement to revoke the 19th Amendment. And people of color are being shot and killed. So there’s definitely room for improvement, and I know I’m privileged but as a woman I do experience some things, like the other day at work I had a guy put down his credit card on the receipt that I was giving him. I didn’t notice that, I went to pull the receipt and I made a joke, saying “Oh, hey, this card is yours.” And he looked at me and went “Typical women, always going after my card.”
Z: How do you think Covid-19 has influenced or has silenced people in their urgency to commit social action?
R: I’m going to say I don’t think it’s put any pressure on urgency, but rather it separated the people who were really committed, and those were just doing it for spotlight. What I mean is that, the people whoa re currently going out to protest are the people who genuinely see their privilege and the injustices to people who aren’t like them and they want to make a change to that, whereas the people who are just posting on social media and the people who would go out before but aren’t going out now, those are the people who are just doing that for namesake. They are doing it to make sure they don’t look like an a--hole.
Z: How do you think this era will be remembered?
R: I’m going to say, it’s going to be remembered as a time of change. Because I feel like this year has been so different from others in the past. Our generations haven’t seen anything like it before, and I feel like it’s going to completely change peoples view of reality and their lives as a whole.
Z: Thank you!
R: No problem.
R: My name is Raini Loomis and I am 20.
Z: How have you been personally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic?
R: My dad actually had it. I go to Flagler, and I was living in the dorms my sophomore year, and I ended up having to very quickly find a place to stay during the summer and I had to do that because both my parents are high-risk and they have very high risk jobs. My dad is a manager at an international airport and my stepmom is a social worker. I didn’t want them to be exposed to anything, so I had to find my own place to stay very quickly, and my work has completely changed. I am supposed to wear masks now, I have to kick people out of my work because they aren’t wearing masks, which for my job you have to have a mask on.
Z: How do you think the world has changed in the past few months?
R: I feel like social interaction as a whole is going to completely change. I feel like physical contact like handshakes or hugs isn’t going to be a thing anymore, and I feel like social, personal space bubble in America is going to grow and people are going to be more mindful of peoples space.
Z: Why are you out protesting today/why do you protest?
R: I protest because I recognize the privilege that I have and I want to help the people that don’t have that. I recognize the pandemic is very serious but also the injustices that people of color in America are experiencing are also very serious, and as a white person, I want to help them any way I can.
Z: What does police reform mean to you?
R: Police reform means to me one of two things, We either take the law enforcement that we know right know, as we know it, and we just completely rewrite it, so that options for me means that we aren’t necessarily erasing law enforcement, but we’ll rewrite it. The second option for me is that we completely get rid of it and come up with an entire new system to protect people.
Z: Do you think the world is changing for the better?
R: Ok, I am going to try and word this very carefully. I think that there definitely has been some improvement from the past. There definitely has. But that does not mean that we don’t have serious issues right now. So, for example, trans people are being denied health care. The Heart Beat bill was passed in Georgia and Alabama. There’s a movement to revoke the 19th Amendment. And people of color are being shot and killed. So there’s definitely room for improvement, and I know I’m privileged but as a woman I do experience some things, like the other day at work I had a guy put down his credit card on the receipt that I was giving him. I didn’t notice that, I went to pull the receipt and I made a joke, saying “Oh, hey, this card is yours.” And he looked at me and went “Typical women, always going after my card.”
Z: How do you think Covid-19 has influenced or has silenced people in their urgency to commit social action?
R: I’m going to say I don’t think it’s put any pressure on urgency, but rather it separated the people who were really committed, and those were just doing it for spotlight. What I mean is that, the people whoa re currently going out to protest are the people who genuinely see their privilege and the injustices to people who aren’t like them and they want to make a change to that, whereas the people who are just posting on social media and the people who would go out before but aren’t going out now, those are the people who are just doing that for namesake. They are doing it to make sure they don’t look like an a--hole.
Z: How do you think this era will be remembered?
R: I’m going to say, it’s going to be remembered as a time of change. Because I feel like this year has been so different from others in the past. Our generations haven’t seen anything like it before, and I feel like it’s going to completely change peoples view of reality and their lives as a whole.
Z: Thank you!
R: No problem.
Creator
Zachariah Brown
Date
July 14, 2020
Contributor
Zachariah Brown
Format
Photograph and written interview
Language
English
Citation
Zachariah Brown, “Raini Loomis, protester with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Photo and Interview.,” accessed April 26, 2024, https://publichumanities.omeka.net/items/show/19.