Hi. Me again with another blog. I’ve been gone for a minute, but not through any choice of my own: my laptop broke a few months ago and when I eventually got it back, I just blanked. I had no idea where to start, or how to carry on from my previous blogs. I wanted a short, snappy and 'to the point' one to get me started again. And then just the other day it hit me; my friend inspired me actually.
“What happened to Black Lives Matter? Is it not a thing anymore?” she asked me so very casually. No, I didn’t get upset about it, or irritated even. Because what she was asking me was a very honest and genuine question. And quite frankly, I was glad to talk about it.
Yes.
Black Lives Matter is still a “thing”.
My friend's question is probably something that has crossed a lot of people’s minds recently. BLM quite suddenly dropped out of mainstream media and many of us began to get some sense of ‘normality’ back. Sports resumed. Restaurants opened. Pubs opened, despite now being on a 10pm curfew. The kids went back to school. We went back to work. And many of us just went back to life as it was in the early months of this year. I mean let’s face it, a lot of people probably find it much easier to do that and push BLM to the back of their mind. A lot of you probably haven’t given George Floyd, the BLM protests or movement a second thought in quite some time now. But I promise you, Black Lives Matter is still a “thing” and will continue to be so for a long, long time. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Nor does it happen in 6 months...
On March 13th of this year, Breonna Taylor was murdered. She was murdered in her own apartment. Shot 8 times in a police raid gone wrong. And just last month, her murderer was sentenced. Not for her murder, but for endangering those in the neighbouring apartments. Yes, you did read that right.
Some may say that this wasn't necessarily a racially fuelled attack so what does it have to do with BLM. It could have happened to anybody right? Well yes, I suppose it could have done. Breonna Taylor's death was the result of a botched drug-warrant execution. One where no drugs were found, where the warrant in question targeted another person whose apartment was miles away from Breonna’s and who had already been detained by the time the police had even entered Breonna’s home. A terrible mistake with devastatingly irreversible and lasting consequences. But, ask yourself this: if it were a White male who had been caught in this crossfire, if it were a White male who had been wrongfully murdered in his home. If there were a dead White male at the heart of this. Would the officers liable for the death have been treated in the same way? Would the inquisition have been handled with such little care? Would we have needed weeks and weeks of protests for the case to receive national attention? Or would a completely different sequence of events have unfolded? My guess is the latter. Partly because of gender bias, but hugely due to the ever-present racial inequality particularly prevalent within the United States. Which is exactly why it is so very blatantly related to Black Lives Matter.
More than once I’ve heard the Black Lives Matter movement or racism be referred to as a “Black people problem”. And to be blunt, no it’s not.
This is quite simply just a problem, a humanitarian problem. This is a people problem, period. No matter what colour, race, religion or gender you may be. Think about it. How many of you have colleagues, friends, partners who aren’t of the same ethnicity as you? How many of you have Black colleagues, friends and family? A lot of you I’m guessing. Well then, this is your problem too. When we march and protest, talk, post and write about the George Floyds, the Breonna Taylors and the Tamir Rices' of the world, check to see if your friends and family do so too. Because that’s what you should want them to do. That’s what they should want to do. It’s what we all have to do in order for there to be any change in the world.
So, the answer is YES. Black Lives Matter is still a ‘thing’. It has been, is currently and will continue to be a thing until Black people and people of colour are treated with the equality and respect that they deserve; in life and in death.
Racism is not a Black people’s problem. It is a people’s problem. Black or White. Man or Woman. Rich or Poor. It is our problem that we must work together in order to overcome. And now that I've finally managed to get myself going again, hopefully I can use my blogs as a way to shed some light on exactly why and how it's such a problem and what we can all do as individuals to help better our society.