BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS TAKE OVER LONDON

By Eeshan Banerjee

The past weeks have seen a global effort by frustrated civilians to protest against systemic and institutionalised racism in their communities. Kick-started by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the black community and its allies have taken to the streets to express their outrage and demonstrate the necessity for change. Mass protests have taken place in all 50 US states, and major cities across Asia, Europe, and Australasia, making 'Black Lives Matter' the largest civil rights movement in human history.

In London, heated events began on Friday the 5th of June, carrying on in force over the weekend. Waves of protesters engulfed the streets of Westminster, marching between major government buildings and coming to a rest in front of the Prime Minister's residence at Downing Street.

On the 7th of July, I attended a protest in front of the US embassy in Nine Elms and the message of the protesters was clear: the status quo is no longer acceptable, the people want change. Crowds incorporated people from every background imaginable: students with homemade signs, pensioners showing their support, and small children waving from windows with their families.

It was strongly emphasised that the UK is also guilty of systemic racism. Alongside chants for George Floyd and songs for Breonna Taylor, rang out the names of Belly Mujinga, Mark Duggan and Sean Rigg, to name a few. ‘The UK is not innocent’, cried the tens of thousands of protesters lined up in front of parliament and Downing Street. Structural racism is not an exclusively American problem and that fact has been made clear by Londoners united under the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protests were not only an expression of the anger of the Black community, but also a celebration of Black culture and the role it plays in London and the rest of the UK. Crowds were filled with song and dance as people played drums to accompany the chants, and booming speakers blasted music by black artists that have characterised the London music scene. Furthermore, the demonstrations welcomed several celebrity appearances by the likes of Stormzy, Rio Ferdinand and John Boyega, who took a salient role in leading the crowds and delivering an emotional speech on his support and personal experiences. Everyone sought to celebrate black culture as well as protect it, creating a positive environment for people to express themselves and stand up for the rights of black people across the world.

But after weeks of global protests and outcry, has anything really changed? Has anyone been listening to the voices crying out for improvement? The answer is yes. As an immediate result, all of the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd have been charged, and the charge of the officer that killed him has been increased to 2nd degree murder. The US Congress has also passed ‘Breonna’s Law’, banning no-knock search warrants for police in America. The most notable change, however, was a statement made by the government of Minneapolis, in which they vowed to completely defund their police department and reinvest that money into welfare programmes. Clearly, the efforts made in America have been fruitful, but it is unlikely that protesters will be satisfied until more structural and legislative alterations have been made.

And what of the UK? Have British protesters been able to achieve anything on the same scale? Across social media Britons have been spreading awareness and urging one another to sign petitions. Now, the House of Commons is compelled by petition to debate changes to the UK curriculum, so that it covers the colonial history of Britain and its role in global slavery and hostility towards other races. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has also promised to review the validity of statues in the capital, a question raised after protesters in Bristol tore down a statue of Edward Colston due to his participation and profiteering in the slave trade.

Yet these changes seem to only scratch the surface. In America, the officers that killed Breonna Taylor are yet to be charged despite a law being passed in her name, and police continue to brutally attack civilians under the guise of attempting to contain protests. In the UK, far-right activists take to the streets to counter BLM protests themselves, and police have been granted greater stop-and-search powers in areas of central London. It seems that in spite of the achievements made by protesters, we are only at the beginning of a long journey. There is still a long way to go in addressing the problem of racism globally, but the past month has seen progress on an unprecedented scale, giving hope to protesters and a starting point for serious change to begin.