Evanna Lynch

With each passing minute, the number of people joining those standing against the injustice done to George Floyd is only increasing. More than 10 million people have signed the petition to get justice for George and his family and to have his murderers sent to jail. And the petition counter is showing no signs of stopping soon. A lot of celebrities expressed their concern and emotions and sent condolence to the one affected most by the tragedy while some decided not to say anything. Among the latter was Harry Potter fame Evanna Lynch, better known as Luna Lovegood. However, it was not until she tweeted about the Chinese government imposing a ban on eating wild animals that people criticized her for not saying a word concerning the Minneapolis incident and riots. In the wake of this criticism, she posted a detailed explanation pointing out the reasons behind her silence. Evanna thought it to be quite shocking and absurd to be accused of being on the side of racists for not speaking for the rights of the Black community. "I had a series of reactions: I cried and called friends who I knew would tell me I’m a good person," she said. She deleted all her social media apps as she found the response of the public harmful to her mental health. Evanna, then, in a very positive and constructive way, explained how she realized her mistake while she was reading a fantasy book in a park: "I went to the park and read a fantasy book because I wanted the world to feel joyful again and that is when the penny dropped. I had the privilege of turning away from that ugliness if I felt like it. I had the choice to look elsewhere. I could turn off the racism in a way that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color never fully can. I was avoiding confronting the actual issue being discussed and highlighted because I didn’t want to confront my own complicity in white supremacy or racism. Confronting that fact that I’ve benefited from my white supremacy is confronting my own villainy, Which I don’t like to acknowledge but I have to because it’s the difference between performative activism (‘look how good I am everyone’) and transformative activism ('look at all this ugliness inside me that I need to heal')" She wrote addressing her fear of posting anything regarding this issue without knowing much that she didn’t want to add to already existing pain and trauma people are going through. "But I am realizing that this is going to continuously be an uncomfortable discussion in order to learn because it brings up the ugliness within ourselves that we don’t want to acknowledge even existing and we can’t let that discomfort dissuade us from showing up. I’m sorry for avoiding learning about this issue for so long. I am also committing to learning how to use my white privilege to help amplify the voices of BIPOC educators," She concluded. Evanna also listed a few resources she used for the people interested in learning more about racism: Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad, Nova Reid’s TedTalk, and a chapter on racists in Untamed—Glennon Doyle’s memoir.

Evanna Lynch

Evanna Lynch explained why she kept silent about George Floyd incident.