Why did Osaka wear 7 different masks with different names in her US Open matches?

Team Udayavani, Sep 14, 2020, 12:27 PM IST

US Open 2020 champion Naomi Osaka wore a different face mask for each of her matches at Flushing Meadows

They each carried the name of a Black American killed and aimed to highlight racial injustice in the US to a wider audience. The names included Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile and Tamir Rice.

Breonna Taylor was shot dead by police in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13.

Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old massage therapist, was stopped by three officers in the Denver suburb of Aurora last August as he was walking home from a convenience store with an iced tea. He died after a violent encounter with the officials

Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed Black man, died after he was chased by two White men while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia.

Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012 as he walked home from a convenience store carrying iced tea and Skittles.

George Floyd died in Minneapolis after an officer, who was called because a store owner believed Floyd had used a counterfeit bill to pay, pinned him to the ground by kneeling on his neck for several minutes.

Philando Castile was a 32-year-old Black man shot and killed by Minnesota police during a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota in 2016

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was killed by police gunfire in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2014 while he was holding a toy replica pistol.