British Black Lives Matter Too

By: Gary Cooper

The death of George Floyd revitalized the American fight for civil rights. The resulting protests, riots, and rallies have been above and beyond the scope of most other equality protests in recent years.[1] Furthermore, the reactions to his death prompted changes in local government, sport, and business policies.[2] These reactions occurred, in part, because the particularly gruesome nature of his death highlighted the obvious cultural injustice that still plagues the country, in part because of the COVID pandemic which also underscored that inequality, and in part because George Floyd’s death occurred shortly after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.[3] However, what is often overlooked is that the death has had a huge impact beyond the United States; it has been influential all over the world and has galvanized a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in Great Britain as well.[4]

 In June 2020, hundreds of people gathered in British cities, including London, Coventry, and Newcastle, to protest against racism in Britain.[5]  Most of the rallies, protests, and marches occurred despite coronavirus lockdowns.[6]  For many Americans, who have had the false understanding that the progressive British are not subject to the same racial inequality as Americans,  it may seem strange that the Black Lives Matter movement has gained such a strong foothold in Britain.[7] However, a quick look at the history of the British Civil Rights movement can help to explain the current racial tensions within the U.K.

Slavery was abolished in most British Colonies by the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.[8] The American abolition of slavery occurred only thirty-two years later when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865.[9] In both countries, racial injustices did not end with the abolition of slavery, and the U.K. had its own civil rights movement parallel to the U.S.’s in the 1950s and 1960s.[10] Racism in the U.K. echoed that of the U.S., albeit in smaller scale.[11] Shortly after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, a young black protestor by the name of Paul Stephenson began a bus boycott in Britain in 1963.[12] At the time, many British proprietors would hang discriminatory signs outside businesses, some reading “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs.”[13] Paul Stephenson was later arrested and stood trial for refusing to leave one such pub until he was served a beer.[14] Protests like Stephenson’s prompted anti-discrimination laws, and it is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of color, race, nationality, or ethnicity.[15]

However, that does not mean that discrimination does not still occur today, or that systemic racism is not an issue in Britain. Racism in Britain may, however, be less in the public eye than the current struggle in America. As a result, many people believe that modern day racism is an American problem, not a British one.[16] This misconception is even held by many British citizens, and when the Black Lives Matter movement became active in Britain in 2016, it was “met with disbelief and irritation and a handful of arrests. Why were motorists being inconvenienced over a racism that was America’s problem?”[17] This question was answered by the co-founder of Black Lives Matter U.K. with a statement that “there is a war going on against black people” in the U.K.[18] There is a statistical gulf between the lives and experiences of white and black people in the British education, justice, and prison systems, as well as in employment.[19]  Black people are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, are more likely to be subject to force by police, and are more likely to be tasered or die as the result of police brutality.[20] In England and Wales, a black person is three times more likely to be arrested than a white person, and black people make up 10% of  British prison populations in comparison to the 3.5% that they represent in the total population.[21]

Brexit increased the racial tensions in Britain, with non-white people being seen as foreigners and being told to “go home.”[22] Furthermore, Coronavirus has hit black communities in Britain harder than white communities.[23] Thus, racial tensions escalated in Britain when George Floyd was killed, and his death helped to open the eyes of many of the complacent white British people, who are just now beginning to realize that racial injustice is not a thing of the past. The brutality of George Floyd’s death, and the fact that it was caught on video, facilitated this widespread realization. Furthermore, it brought to the country’s attention similar acts of brutality against black people that had been overlooked or forgotten. For example, the video of U.K. resident Desmond Mombeyarara being tasered in front of his five-year-old son the month prior to Floyd’s death was brought back to the public eye.[24]

The increased awareness of contemporary racial injustice that George Floyd’s death has brought to America and Britain has set both countries up to pursue radical change. Some of these changes have already begun in both countries, but is up to us, as normal citizens, to continue to ask, “what can I do?” The first answer to that question is: don’t forget; don’t become complicit again. For many, it is easy to forget that racism and racial injustice still occurs. It is especially easy to forget that it occurs in Britain, where the injustice is just as persistent, but perhaps less ostentatious. But we must remember, because if we don’t, we allow the injustices to continue. At the very least, remembering that Britain is having the same problems as the U.S. gives us perspective: we may be messed up, but so is everyone else. Let’s fight injustice together.

#UnitedKingdom #British #Racial #Injustice #Cooper #International #Law #Blog #Post

[1] See Helier Cheung, George Floyd death: Why US Protests Are So Powerful This Time, BBC News US & Canada (June, 8 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52969905.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Black Lives Matter Protests Held Across England, BBC News England (June 20, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-53120735.

[5] Id.

[6] Loveena Tandon, Why Black Lives Matter Protests Are Happening in UK, India Today (June 23, 2020), https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/why-black-lives-matter-protests-are-happening-in-uk-1691935-2020-06-23.

[7] Joseph Lee, Gearge Floyd: Five Factors Behind the UK Black Lives Matter Protests, BBC News UK (June 13, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52997848.

[8] See Act for the Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Colonies, 1833, 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 73.

[9] See U.S. Const. amend. XIII; 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery, National Archives (Last accessed Aug. 20, 2020), https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13th-amendment#:~:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20on%20January,within%20the%20United%20States%2C%20or.

[10] Gary Crystal, Civil Rights in the UK, Civil Rights Movement (Updated July 15, 2020), http://www.civilrightsmovement.co.uk/civil-rights-uk.html.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Tracy McVeigh, Why Activists Brought the Black Lives Matter Movement to the UK, Guardian (Aug. 6, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/06/black-lives-matter-uk-found-vital-social-justice.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Lee, supra note 7.