Rogue One Star Speaks Up Against Discrimination After Losing Family Members to COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, including the lives of the family members of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story actor Riz Ahmed.

Speaking in an interview with GQ, Ahmed decided to share his thoughts on the spread of the novel coronavirus and the British government's response to the /pandemic. While the interview might have started on April 1^st, the actor gave out a follow-up message to the entertainment news outlet revealing how the COVID-19 outbreak had hit his family. The Star Wars and Venom star wanted to open up about his family's experience to help raise awareness about how serious the novel coronavirus actually is.

"Didn't mention it in our interview but wanted to," Ahmed told GQ, "Since we spoke I have lost two family members to COVID. I just want to believe their deaths and all the others aren't for nothing. We gotta step up to reimagine a better future."

In his interview with the publication, the British activist comments on how different countries are responding to the pandemic. Ahmed takes note of the Indian government blaming the virus on the spread of Muslims by calling the pandemic a "corona-Jihad." He also makes note of Trump using the virus as an excuse to ban immigration and the Hungarian government using the pandemic to centralize power.

"This moment is forcing people to take their masks off. You see more of someone in a moment like this – what they are about, who they are… Crises accelerate trends that are taking place in society. We're going to migrate to online living in a way that we could have done before but just didn't. The seeds of that were already sown," the actor explained.

We really are living in difficult times. Ahmed certainly has the strength to speak up against discrimination despite the loss that he experienced during the pandemic.

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