Black Lives Have Always Mattered

Drained, proud, sad, angry, hopeless, united...I've felt a mixture of emotions since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th. I always knew racism existed, but I believe that is has become normalised by society that many of us have become susceptible to racism. When I say racism, I mean anti-black racism the most common kind of racism.

Despite the significant work of the American civil rights movement up until the 60s including the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which made racial segregation in public spaces illegal, many black people still feel marginalised by the system. Just because this is happening in America it doesn't mean it's not affecting the UK's black population either. The UK is not innocent, don't forget Mark Duggan, Sean Rigg, Christopher Alder, Joy Gardner and so many more. I, myself never realised the extent of racism in the UK until recently but I wish my younger self was more in touch with the world. I always looked at the US and based on what I learnt at college about the civil rights movement, I never thought it was so bad in my country.

Being a young girl with a mother of Trinidadian origin and a father of a Mauritian origin, I struggled to understand my identity. Trinidad is a Caribbean island whereas Mauritius is an island in Africa. Recently, I learnt more about my Mauritian background. You may look at me and assume I'm Indian as many Mauritians do look Indian, yet they are technically referred to as African. Two-thirds of the Mauritian population is of Indo-Pakistani descent and just over a quarter are Creole, who are descendants of African slaves. Other minorities include Sino or Franco-Mauritian descent. I am half Indo-Mauritian; however, I identify myself as a black woman.

I went to a Catholic primary school and I was the only black girl in my class, so I often felt like an outsider, like I didn't belong. I didn't experience racism directly apart from one boy who used to call me 'chocolate girl', however, I always felt out of place. The last kid to get picked for group work, excluded from friendship groups and rarely got the opportunity to use my voice. I found it difficult to make friends especially being so shy, but when I think about it now, I was being discriminated for my skin colour. Fortunately, times have changed since primary school and more families have migrated to my hometown in Essex which has a largely white population. Today there are people from all over: Polish, Pakistani, Indian, Nigerian and so on. I was so proud to hear about people protesting for Black Lives Matter last Wednesday right in my hometown but there's still a lot of work to do.

I can admit that I am privileged as I have not been exposed to racism first-hand, but you need to understand that racism is everywhere. It may not be in plain sight in the UK but it's there. Police brutality is not the only issue, its economic discrimination, health discrimination, government surveillance and the obvious individual discrimination. Individual racism is a choice, it’s an opinion, so promoting anti-racism isn't something that can be easily achieved but what we can change is systematic racism, racism instilled by institutions. I wish that one day I could wake up and racism didn't exist anymore but that's never going to happen at least in this generation.

Yes, I agree that white people need to recognise their white privilege and use their power to fight the injustice against black people. Some of us are only noticing the damaging impact of white privilege now but it's always been there. Many white people are ignorant of this because they've never been treated differently for the colour of their skin. I'm grateful for the white people who are actively anti-racist, but we have to accept the fact that some people's mentality will never change. The key to overcoming racism is to change the system, ensure that we have equal job opportunities, just immigration policies and the list goes on. Instead of focusing on individual racism, let's focus on the factors that we can change. Let's work on making the world a better place to live in for future generations of black people. The reality is not everyone is going to like you for whatever reason, but at least if we can have the same privileges as white people it's a step forward.

Black lives have always mattered but now we are fed up of witnessing the injustices and discrimination against our black brothers and sisters. Those killing us need to be held accountable for their actions. We need to boycott businesses that are not in the favour of black lives. We need to challenge the system.

Also, one more thing, don't listen to everything you hear in the media, the past few weeks certain media outlets and people in power have criminalised these BLM protesters, not every protester was using violence there were masses of peaceful protestors not just in the US, they don't want to show you that. There were positive outcomes from these protests such as George Floyd's murderer, Derek Chauvin facing second-degree murder charges and budget cuts on police funding of LA and NYC police departments.

All I’m saying open your mind and your heart. Let’s make a difference.