The Met Gala is one of the biggest events in the fashion world that happens every year on the first Monday of May. The theme of this year’s Met Gala was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” The reaction to most of the looks was largely negative. Many celebrities (e.g. Hailey Bieber) failed to follow the theme – which seems to be the easiest one in recent years.
Besides the disappointing looks and influx of TikTokers and influencers, another important event was occurring outside of the Met Gala. A group of Black Lives Matter protestors were seen outside of the Met demanding to know where the enormous budget of the NYPD was going to. The NYPD is given nearly $11 billion in resources, none of these going towards the black and minority communities of New York. Much of the demographic of this crowd was younger adults and teenagers. The cops were already heavily patrolling the area directly around the museum and, with the protest occurring, more cops filtered in. It was a peaceful protest, with no violent actions happening from the side of the protestors. Yet, the NYPD somehow found the presence of the BLM protest to be “threatening” and began arresting some of the protestors (an estimated nine people), including a young girl named Ella.
Model Indya Moore was the only one in attendance at the Gala to publicly speak up about the protests. “I had to really think about if it is truly in alignment with what I care about because I think it is possible to be an artist and a creative and simultaneously not invest in make-believe during a time make believe is weaponized against the truth, during a time where honesty and transparency is more important than ever,” Moore wrote on Instagram. “Being at the Met this year was cognitive dissonance. I entered and left feeling confused. But before that I felt clear. Grounded. People were protesting and arrested in the name of what so many of us who attended, care deeply about. They were arrested most likely because they were perceived as a threat to those of us who were there.”
One would think with the handful of performative looks from A-list celebrities and politicians that more would be speaking up about the injustices happening just a few feet away from the red carpet, but, alas, it serves as a reminder that unless the wealthier classes are directly being affected, they typically do not care.