Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
FIGHTING FOR
Anti-racism protestors filled the county’s streets once again as the country’s first female black bishop vowed: “We are going to start the change.” Black Lives Matters demonstrations took place in Medway, Thanet and Cantebury, with the Bishop of Dover - the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-wilkin - giving an impassioned speech outside the city’s Cathedral.
Using a megaphone at the gates of the landmark, she spoke of the killing of George Floyd during a 14-minute address to large crowds gathered with placards.
She recalled screaming “get off him” as she watched footage of the fatal arrest, which shows a police officer kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck as he struggled to breathe.
“He used the words ‘I can’t breathe - please sir, I can’t breathe’, and he was not heard,” she said.
“He was not heard because they did not care. They did not care because he was black, and they thought he did not matter. “And that is why we are saying black lives matter. We’re not saying black lives matter because we are opposed to white lives - that is nonsense. “Black and white, pink and blue, old and young we are standing together. We want to live in a world where all lives matter.”
The Bishop also urged people to take direct, peaceful action to enact change.
“The whole thing about statues is a distraction,” she said. “Let’s not go there.
“Let’s do the real thing, and let us seek the change. Let us actually be the change we want to see, all of us.
“Don’t push on somebody else. We are going to be the change, we are going to start the change.”
Large crowds had gathered in Canterbury’s Westgate Gardens, processing through the city to the Cathedral and the Dane John Gardens, before finishing at the police station.
On the same day, in Margate, People Dem Collective organised another large anti-racism event which began at midday and saw campaigners walk from Ramsgate Bandstand to Broadstairs Bandstand.
Those taking part were told to wear face masks and to respect social distancing guidelines. Ahead of the event, Thanet
District Council covered up the controversial Uncle Mack plaque - a memorial in Victoria Parade, Broadstairs, that commemorates the life of a wellknown blackface minstrel who performed across the town as part of a troupe between 1895 and 1948.
A petition has been launched urging Thanet District Council to remove the memorial, which activists say acts as a “monument to colonial-era bigotry and racism”.
When protestors arrived in Broadstairs, they knelt in silence for exactly eight minutes 46 seconds - the length of time police officer Derek Chauvin is thought to have knelt on the neck of George Floyd before he died.
A spokesperson for People Dem Collective described the march as “the definition of unity”.
“The amount of people from here and surrounding areas, young and old and people of every colour together as one - it was beautiful to witness, be part of and organise,” they said. “The movement will continue and we, the People Dem, will create change.”
Last Wednesday, protestors in Chatham set off from the town’s library and marched through the town centre roads, where chants including “black lives matter” and “no justice, no