Black Lives Matter

Like most of you, I've been shocked at what's been happening in the USA over the last couple of weeks. A police officer kneeled on George Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes and the traumatizing video shows Floyd saying "I can't breathe". Floyd died and this was undeniably murder. It was a particularly shocking example of the inherent racism of many US police officers and sadly Floyd was the latest in a long line of black people who have been killed by the police. 

Quite rightly, this led to huge levels of anger and huge protests across America and beyond. Many of these turned unpleasant with looting and arson. I can totally understand the anger that drives such actions but I believe that protests should always be peaceful. Even so, there's no excuse for the utter brutality that the police have used on rioters and protesters. From the outside at least, America seems to be a country at war with it's own people. 

In all this, I wonder how I, a white man in the UK, can help. It's really tricky. There are lots of posts online about what white people can do to help. One of the things that repeatedly appears on these posts is donating. I wish I had an endless supply of money to give to every good cause that comes along but I don't. If I ever came into money then I would give a sizeable proportion to various good causes and in light of recent events, this would be one of them. 

The other big thing white people can do is educate ourselves about the history of oppression. I'm not going to claim I know everything about it- that's probably impossible anyway- but I have a good working knowledge of it. I wasn't aware until now how few schools taught their students about colonialism and the slave trade but our school did a whole module on it. I continued to study history through GCSEs, A-level and even within my undergraduate degree and various aspects of black history came up over this time. I've continued to learn through history TV shows, podcasts and books and will continue to do so in the future. 

Charles M. Schulz created the character of Franklin in Peanuts- he wanted to normalize people of colour being seen alongside white people. 

The big phrase that's come up is "It is not enough to be non racist. You must be unapologetically anti-racist." I've been considering how personally I can do this. The obvious one is to speak out about racism I witness. I've had conversations with my grandmother where I've tried to do this but I realise that I could do more. If I see racist abuse on the street then I will do my best to stand up to it. It's unlikely though because here in the rural south-west of England we're not a very diverse area. I don't know the statistics but in a population of 15,000 in my town I think there's maybe twenty black people. There are no doubt social-economic reasons for this and I'm sure these black people regularly face racism, but it's pretty unlikely I'm going to be able to witness any. 

The biggest chance I have to make a difference is through my work in school. When I teach students, I have the opportunity to sew the seeds of equality and tackle racism head on. I was doing self-portraits earlier in the year and this involved the students selecting the colour of their face. We had five white students in that class and one student who has a European background and is a bit darker. I didn't point out the differences but I encouraged the students to look carefully at the colour of their face, aware that I could have just provided a pink colour for all the students. 

One of the best things I can do is to use diverse resources. That means using videos starring people with a range of skin colours and books with characters that are not necessarily white. I'm pleased to say that the last book I used to teach with before traditional education fell apart due to corona-virus featured a little black girl as the main character. I'm going to work on making sure I do this to a greater degree and my position of working across classes and collaborating with different teachers means I may have the opportunity to help others to do this too.

Something we can all do is use our vote to promote equality. We should vote for people with the best policies regardless of the colour of their skin and actively vote against racists. I've tried to do this but it's staggering that in my local area a man who genuinely things wearing blackface is perfectly acceptable gets a massive majority. I might not see racism on the streets but this is clear evidence that it racism is ingrained in the local population. 

I feel I've tried to promote equality where possible but I can always do more. I will try to do my bit and whilst I might not always get it right, I will continue to try. I hope that 2020 is a turning point for the oppression of black people and a step closer to the dream future depicted by Martin Luther King Jr. It's the 21st century and it's about time we moved on.