In the 2011 British sci-fi comedy horror film Attack the Block, John Boyega’s character says that the violent aliens were probably sent by the government to “kill black boys.”
“First they sent in drugs, then they sent guns and now they’re sending monsters in to kill us,” Boyega says. “They don’t care man. We ain’t killing each other fast enough.”
Before the release of “Quarantine Clean” by Young Thug and Gunna (produced by Turbo), the first major rap song about the epidemic, Thugger had shared a bible passage comparing coronavirus to a plague, but it’s in the song where Thug starts to adapt that thought to a more Attack the Block mindset.
“Why would a disease come around when you get rich?” Thug asks.
In an interview with legendary Los Angeles radio host Big Boy, Young Thug explained that he’s probably looking at around a loss of roughly $5 million due to coronavirus. But it’s more than money at stake here. He also mentions that a large portion of his income is going to taking care of his parents as well.
Sure, the line transitions into mentioning that he’s quarantining because girls are always coming for his money, but there’s an inkling of what I’m getting at with Boyega and Thugger’s questioning of the timing of a pandemic.
There’s a lot of conspiracy theories abound—the virus was created by the Chinese government to stop the Hong Kong protests, it’s due to 5G radiation (according to singer Keri Hilson), or Bill Gates engineered it for personal profit.
While these all seem outlandish, it’s important to remember that not only can some people profit off the death of thousands (such as health insurance companies, video-chat service providers like Zoom, or elections likely going to incumbents because grass-roots campaigns can’t organize), there are also people with persistent problems that the government has largely ignored, such as low-income minority neighborhoods.
Poor, disenfranchised communities will get hit the worst from this pandemic, and while the government might not be personally sending the virus to kill them like the monsters in Attack the Block, it’s certainly not doing much to help either.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.