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Hey guys!, so today post came from a very long conversation with one of my long time friend about the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK. Most importantly the #ShutDown in London, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham which marked the anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan. This saw protesters blocking roads near Heathrow in London, halting M4 traffic and their actions resulted in mixed emotions with those, like me, who saw the protest justifiable regardless of how they choose to protest. The fact that people were taking action to raise awareness that there is an issue in the UK and this not just a US problem. However, there were those like my friend, who argued that Black Lives matter had no place in the UK because "the few situations of police shootings we have in the UK are being capitalised and blown out of proportion" and after long exchanges of me explaining there is institutional racism in the UK and this is more than police shooting but about immigration, treatment of Blacks and ethnic minorities in healthcare, the Criminal Justice System, employment & Education. Ultimately, I decided it would be best to voice my thoughts in the best way I can. So this week I will be talking about whether the UK needs a black lives matter movement or whether we live in a post-racial society and these protests are just blowing things out of proportion. I will make sure to keep this post as short and sweet as possible as I'm still going to touch on this topic later on.
To begin with, I think it's worth giving an explanation of what the Black Lives Matter Movement is, what exactly it stands for and why its place in the UK. Black lives matter began in America in 2012 after Trayvon Martin's Murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted. This meant he was free from a criminal charge for the unlawful killing of an innocent boy who had not committed any crime, wasn't armed but was targeted by Zimmerman who labelled him as 'suspicious'. Trayvon, like others before and after his death have been killed for 'walking while Black'. Ever since then, there have been many more deaths at the hand of the state, not only from police brutality but the lack of acknowledgement for Black lives in the system.As a result, there those like Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, whose names will always be in our memory while there are those whose names and stories we will never know.
Being Black and a Nigerian Immigrant living in the UK, I can understand the need for a voice in the UK. Personally, i've experienced hostile situation from being attack and bullied after I moved to the UK,being told last year I wouldn't be eligible for student finance just because I am immigrant or the instance where my own mother was called a 'slave' by one of her clients because she refused to engage in unprofessional manner with him. So, I can understand the actions taken by Black Lives Matter UK against systemic injustice.
Historically in the UK, race relations amongst whites and non-white hasn't always been great as shown from the treatment of Black soldiers who fought for Britain, African and Caribbean immigrants during the Windrush era till today especially the recent Brexit vote which saw a surge in racial violence. However, it seems we are made to believe that we live in this post-racial age far from the days of Enoch Powell and the Teddy boys but this isn't the case and it is very clear there is a lack of discussion on racial inequality amongst whites and ethnic minorities. Issues of racism has been confined to the US and the fact that racial inequality is deeply entrenched in the system makes it easier to normalise issues of racial injustice in the UK. This can be shown by the lack of coverage on death in police custody, lack of reporting of racial violence, but also the lack of education on racism in the UK. As a result, many of the victim's police brutality and systemic injustice such as Joy Gardner, Mark Duggan, Sean Rigg, Sheku Bayoh, Sarah Reed, Mzee Mohammed, most recently footballer Dalian Atkinson and much more are forgotten with their families left to fighting for justice. in addition, there have been many reports which have mentioned time and time again how institutionally racist the police force. An example is the failure of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) who have shown complicity with the police overtime in their investigation of these cases and of the 509 black and minority ethnic people who’ve died in state detention since 1991 not one person has been held accountable and we still don't know what happened to those who have died at the hand of the state.
This institutional racism is also shown by the disparities in the criminal justice system, healthcare, housing, employment amongst whites and nonwhites. According to the Institute of Race Relations,people in BAME communities are over-represented at almost all stages of the criminal justice process, disproportionately targeted by the police, more likely to be imprisoned and more likely to be imprisoned for longer than white British people with approximately 25 percent of the overall prison population from a BAME community. More recently, after the death of Dalian Atkinson it is reported that Black people were 'three times more likely' to be tasered than white people. Its clear that Government officials and even the public in general tend to overlook these disparities maybe due to the fact that ethnic minorities only make a small percentage of the population whilst the majority race are white. So issues affecting ethnic minorities become unimportant and make it difficult to have these discussion as we are either silenced by the majority or told that things are just being blown out of proportion.
At the end of the day, it is important to understand that issues concerning racism aren't just a US issue but are of concern in other parts of the world. It is also important that we do not discredit Black voices in the UK who have been speaking out against police brutality, racial violence, workers exploitation and immigration controls way before the Black Lives Matter protest. It is time we, whether Black, Asian or even White in the UK start to have these conversation on holding the police and government accountable in order to get justice. In addition, its also time for us to start educating ourselves about the system and dismantling white supremacy, to be strategic in the ways we seek to gain change, but also standing in unity with each other whether its at home or abroad.
The only protection against injustice in man is power: Physical, financial, and scientific - Marcus Garvey