Since the sweeping international protests at the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK has received a considerable amount of attention and support.
Protests in Nottingham in June 2020 saw an estimated 3,000 people stand in socially distanced solidarity, according to what I was told by the organisers. Other protests across the UK, including in Birmingham, Liverpool and Hull, demonstrated similar unease with anti-Black racism, sparking debates in the media and society about the UK’s shortcomings in terms of tackling racism against Black people.
Numerous companies quickly released equality and diversity statements. Some, such as YouTube and L'Oréal, were criticisedfor lacking real empathy. Others, like Ben & Jerry’s and Nike, were bold in their support of the movement. The much debated Blackout Tuesday protest – initially aimed at addressing racial inequality in music – also gained traction across the UK, albeit some argued that it was too small a gesture to create meaningful change.
By the end of 2020, what had started out as an expression of the injustice experienced by Black people around the world had morphed into a mass movement. As we shall see, however, the movement hasn’t always enjoyed the level of compassion and concord it’s experiencing today.
Beginnings of Black Lives Matter UK
The original Black Lives Matter movement was founded in the US in 2013 by three Black women - Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi - in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. By 2015, the first Black Lives Matter chapter in Europe was set up in Nottingham.
In 2016, Black Lives Matter UK led a “national shutdown”, in which activists in Birmingham, Manchester, London and Nottingham blocked roads, the Nottingham tram system and London City airport for several hours to raise awareness about how racism and climate change are interconnected. The protest also marked the fifth anniversary of the police shooting of Mark Duggan, as well as highlighting deaths of Black people in police custody.
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One Black Lives Matter protester said the intention was to “put Black issues back onto the political agenda”. Others used the opportunity to highlight a “racist climate crisis”. But while the shutdown received media and public attention, some outlets were unsympathetic about the cause and attempted to decry the integrity and validity of the demonstrations. To many, the shutdown was considered irrational, and they argued there was
