#BlackLivesMatter (history and terminology rundown)

Former Member

Hey all!!

So so great to be seeing such amazing and necessary conversations taking place!

I just want to use this post to quickly layout the history behind the importance of #BlackLivesMatter, and to hopefully provide some context to all the super important and insightful conversations to come!

Colonialism

This was probably taught to you as ‘The Great British Empire’, where explorers went overseas and settled across Africa and South Asia. This ‘settling’ consisted of taking and restructuring the ownership of land. This also applied to the people who were also reorganized in ways that gave ways to caste systems that still exist today.

Slavery

We all know about the slave trade – something that the UK played as big a part in as the US as they transported the slaves there as well as back here too. But there seems to be some selective historical amnesia, as despite there not being any reparations for the suffering the black community had to endure. Until recently, British taxpayer money was being used to repay slave owners for the loss of their “property”.

Police Brutality

There was already a comment on this by @salix_alba_2019 who spoke about the reasoning behind the formation of the police – to catch runaway slaves. Which is still very much reflected in the policing practices we have today. We don’t have too look very far as it was recently found that the Met Police were twice as likely to fine black people over lockdown breaches.

Institutional Racism

So, as you can see racism is more than a personality trait or just conscious hate – it’s so much more complex and bigger than that. It’s embedded in the practices of the state and institutions. Yes, no-one is born racist. Irrespective of that, some people automatically benefit more from the system than others.

Let this be a safe space!

This is why this forum is so invaluable! Especially at a time when so many resources are going into keeping the conversation around white supremacy and systematic racism silenced.  We just got to keep talking and unlearning and learning and unlearning again.

(I also encourage just striking the conversation with your offline-friends, family and most importantly yourself, because life is just a massive unlearning process!)

Ijeoma Oluo: The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.