Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
People are just so tired of dealing with racism every day BY
Ten days ago George Floyd was killed on the street by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for nine minutes while his life ebbed away.
Derek Chauvin stole George Floyd’s life and sparked subsequent protests across America.
I’ve seen snippets of the death video on the news, I have no need to watch the full killing, but what I did see brought me to tears.
And I know there was a similar reaction from many black people in Britain. Grown men told me they felt broken after watching it.
And it has resonated here. Yesterday 15,000 people, including Star Wars actor John Boyega, gathered in London’s Hyde Park for a #Blacklivesmatter protest.
Why? Because every black person who watched his killing sees themselves in George Floyd.
They see their dads, mums, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters. They see in 2020 in America, supposedly one of the most advanced countries in the world, black people are still killed because of the colour of their skin.
It resonated here because, like in America, black people in Britain are tired and angry. The overt, institutional and hidden racism that means the odds are stacked against you from the moment you are born is exhausting.
That’s why there are protests here. That’s why Boyega is putting his multi-million-pound personal brand on the line.
He knows he could be ruining his career, but some things are too important to stay silent about.
Among the UK protests there is solidarity for black people in America, but also a recognition that things aren’t perfect in the UK.
Here we all know about the racism and injustices that makes the headlines; the murder of Stephen Lawrence, whose killers were not charged after an initial investigation, whose family were themselves the targets of a smear campaign by undercover police and who had to wait almost 20 years for justice, the Windrush scandal and the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
But what about casual racism that doesn’t make the headlines? The incidents that black people deal with every day and just have to file under “well that’s the way it is”.
I have experiences, as do my family who live in the US, that on the surface may sound trivial, but that hurt me, and are part of the microaggressions black people deal with on a daily basis and make many question if black lives really matter in Britain.
I’m the mother of a black son who’s experienced being removed from his classroom and put into isolation simply because of a haircut.
A haircut that’s been deemed extreme even though it’s a style worn by black presidents and CEOS from across the world.
It’s in calling NHS 111 because my young son had a soaring temperature and I was terrified he had meningitis. The call handler asked if he had a rash. I asked what that looked like on a dark-skinned baby. They didn’t know, told me to monitor him and go to hospital if he did not improve.
Was that call handler racist? Of course not. But why wasn’t there guidance for non-white parents? No one could be bothered to think of it.
It’s the same lack of concern that allows more black and Asian people to die of Covid-19 because the people who should be taking those differences into consideration aren’t. It’s the lack of concern that means black women are five times more likely to die of complications in childbirth than white women.
It’s in the disproportionate number of black people who are stopped and searched by police.
During lockdown Sayce Holmeslewis, founder of mentoring organisation Mentivity, was delivering food to the needy in South London, he was pulled over by police who thought he was a drug dealer.
Speaking of drugs, a recent report found that Britain is the cocaine capital of Europe – it is overwhelmingly consumed by white people, but despite fuelling the drug epidemic they pay a low price for the demand. No prizes for guessing which community is disproportionately impacted, which community has its young people groomed and forced into county lines gangs to feed Britain’s cocaine habit.
Black people are tired, angry and crying out for change.
Finally it feels like there is momentum behind this call. Like with the #Metoo movement, the genie can’t and must not go back into the bottle.
Amongst the gloom, I have had some very interesting conversations about solutions. Without exception, the number one thing was economic empowerment. We need more black businesses, and we need to do more to support them.
In politics we need to get black issues on the agenda and support the parties who have our backs.
In education we need to get more involved. As well as more black teachers we need to become governors so we have a say in policies that affect our children.
Of course we need better representation in the media and call it out when they get it wrong.
What can you do to help? Actively support black people, call out inequality in workplaces, contribute to organisations that support young people such as The
Amos Bursary.
We all have to be part of the change we want to see.
RIDING on her uncle’s shoulders at a demo, the daughter of tragic George Floyd declared: “My Daddy changed the world.” Heartbreaking footage of Gianna, six, was captured on Tuesday in Minneapolis – where her father’s death at the hands of white police ignited a powder keg of racial tension in the US. Mother Roxie Washington yesterday told how her little girl does not yet know how the 46-yearold died or why she must grow up without him.