Resident Empowers Black Lives Matter Protesters With Website

BUFFALO GROVE, IL — Quarantine got Shreya Karpoor doing a lot of deep thinking. The Buffalo Grove resident said reading "Just Mercy," by Bryan Stevenson, moved and inspired her. Soon, she was looking for ways to express her feelings about societal unjust, especially for people of color.

"Reading it made me realize the underlying existence of privilege and the false sense of justice that has been ingrained into our system," Karpoor, a 2019 graduate of Stevenson High School, told Patch. "I realized that I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my dreams, and that I wanted and needed to use my skills to help my peers who deserve the same and are being discriminated against because of the color of their skin."

Karpoor, who will be a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, started talking to friends and peers about her frustrations. She soon realized many wanted to help, but weren't sure how to do so. Following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota in May, Karpoor and a few others created TheBLMHub to "reduce the activation energy people needed by telling them exactly what they could do and how they could do it to support the movement."

Karpoor was joined by Aditi Sriram, who also grew up in Buffalo Grove, and is a sophomore at California Polytechnic State University. Other founding members of the website are: Anna Sun, of Michigan (sophomore at MIT) and Vainavi Mukkamala, of New Jersey (sophomore at MIT).

"We also saw on the news a great number of protesters being arrested, tear-gassed, and hurt in protests," Karpoor said. "Seeing the action and stand my friends have taken is really inspiring. I know people want to help, but there is a gap between protesters who need help, and people willing to provide it."

Sriram, who immigrated from India when she was young, is hopeful TheBLMHub can fill that gap. She says she was raised in an environment where she was told by family members that police never target people like her because they never commit crimes.

"I found it strange growing up that my parents were quick to excuse police brutality without really looking at the facts. I think this was the catalyst I needed to join the movement," Sriram said. "I was tired of my parents always being implicitly racist. I realized that their upbringing force fed them the model minority myth and it was my job to help them unlearn their inherent biases."

With TheBLMHub, Karpoor and the other co-founders are looking to make a greater impact far beyond their families and friends. She believes the website can connect protesters in need of help with volunteers nationwide, mobilize the masses and connect communities to stand up for justice. They have set a goal to do this by creating a large database of resources promoting Black-owned businesses, nonprofit organizations, protests and bail funds around the United States.

"The events in the past few months have been devastating, but sadly not out of the ordinary. These events have been a call to action," Karpoor said. "We cannot stay silent and must use our skills to drive change — to be the change."

Related:
Juneteenth/Black Lives Matter March Set For Friday In Buffalo Grove
'Meaningful' Protest Ends Without Incident In Buffalo Grove
Buffalo Grove Police Chief Issues Statement On Death Of George Floyd