10 December 2020
I originally started writing this blog during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. There was so much going on and I felt quite emotional about everything I was reading and seeing. It probably only took me around half an hour to write the first piece because there was so much I wanted to say. Six months on, I’ve now decided to write about what has happened since; to look at whether anything has changed or whether things just went back to normal once the movement had calmed down.
One of the main things I talked about in that first piece was #BlackOutTuesday, a day in which so many people posted a black square on social media to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. It was amazing to see so many people showing their support. But I was also extremely critical of it all for the simple reason that I did not think it would last. Unfortunately, I think I may have been right. Having looked at a lot of peoples’ social media accounts since that day, I’ve noticed that quite a lot of people have deleted these black squares. Maybe because it didn’t fit with the aesthetic of their Instagram feed or because they no longer think it’s relevant. But that’s the issue. It is always relevant. It isn’t something people should be posting because everyone else is. It is something they should be supporting because they truly believe in the cause. It may be harsh to say but I also believe it is the truth; you can’t delete reality. Just because something is no longer relevant to you personally does not mean that it isn’t relevant to others. This is not the only time this has happened either. Not long after the Black Lives Matter movement was at its height, a lot of people began posting about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Yet again it seemed to be something that was relevant for a week or so and then people began to forget about it. More people have died in Yemen than died in the Holocaust! But maybe that’s a topic for another time.
I don’t want to be overly critical of what has happened since the height of the Black Lives Matter movement because undoubtedly some things have changed. Each year October is dedicated as Black History Month and for the first time that I can remember it was made a big deal. My mum asked me to help her plan some lessons for it in a way that was both sensitive and did it justice. She started off by showing her class Rosa Parks’ mugshot and asked them why they thought she had been arrested. Not one of them would have guessed that she was arrested for sitting on a bus. She also experimented by splitting up the class into people with blue eyes and people with brown eyes. She would give one group special treatment – letting them use the iPads to do work or play on the field – while the other group were left doing things they didn’t want to do, all because of the colour of their eyes. Teaching kids about discrimination at such a young age is undoubtedly very hard, but if we don’t do it then who will? To see a difference, you have to make a difference.
I often mention a book that I’ve read in these blogs because I think they’re relevant to the topic. Michelle Obama’s book Becoming (along with her podcast on Spotify) is an incredibly powerful, inspiring, and informative book that I really believe people should make the effort to read, especially young women. It’s supportive and self-assuring, emotional and heartfelt. Her life story is inspirational not only because of her success, but also because of what she’s overcome. You could argue that it is more relevant to America, but I see racism and sexism as global issues. The last couple of chapters in her book brought me to tears. She described her fears and to some extent a sense of failure as she and her husband left the White House and handed it over to Donald Trump, a man that represented everything they had fought to overcome. But this year we saw Donald Trump lose the presidential election. And I think this was partly because of his handling of the Black Lives Matter movement. People do want to see a change, not just in the United States but across the world. But like I said in that first blog post, you actively have to make that change. Americans did that by voting, which is ultimately one of the most important and powerful ways to make a difference. The benefit of living in a democracy is the right to give your opinion and to actively make a difference.
The final thing I’d like to mention is the recent commotion with the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert. The ignorant, irrelevant comments on Twitter about the family not being representative of Britain or their community demonstrates that our country continues to be inherently racist. Britain’s diversity is something to be celebrated. Each race, religion, and ethnic group adds to the fabric of British culture. The comments made on Twitter not only showed that people continue to be resistant to this fact, but also that all it takes is one person to say something and suddenly so many other people are comfortable agreeing with them. It snowballs. What was reassuring was the amount of backlash towards this racism, both from people on Twitter, as well as from other supermarkets that supported Sainsbury’s and standing up to racism.
So, a lot has happened since I first wrote about the Black Lives Matter movement six months ago. Some people have clearly been trying to actively change the way that they act and behave, and this has been shown throughout Black History Month, through support of the Sainsbury’s advert, and the election of Joe Biden as the next American president. But a lot of people unfortunately do seem to see the #BlackOutTuesday movement as a trend; as something to post about because everyone else was but is no longer relevant. But it is relevant. It always will be relevant. And it is something we can do something about. Check yourselves. Are you happy with the way you behave? Can you say that, even subconsciously, you don’t change the way you behave towards a person based on the way they look? Do you let little words and phrases slip without realising? Check yourself.
~ Cerys
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