Student Voices - Anti-Racism
#BLM
In the summer of 2013 (6 years ago), after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a campaign began with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. The movement was co-founded by three black community organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
The most recent death was of a 46-year-old man who was known as George Floyd, a footballer, who was killed because he was have said to have paid for his cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. Mr. Floyd was handcuffed by his murderer (former police officer, Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck while he was pinned to the floor, under a car, for about 7-9 minutes before he went unconscious and died. Mr. Chauvin was charged with a 3rd degree murder (Third-degree murder is defined as killing someone unintentionally and not done as part of the commitment of another felony. Another term for murder is “homicide.” Third-degree murders are those committed with ill will) but this is absolutely unacceptable as Mr. Floyd was killed intentionally, and the people who surrounded the officer where begging for Mr. Floyd’s pulse to be checked, and Mr. Floyd himself repeated 16 times “I cannot breathe officer, I cannot breathe!” one thing that has come to my attention is that other people (people of white color especially) have been making memes, of Mr. Floyd, stepping on each other, recreating the death scene and changing the words to “I can breathe !” and this is unacceptable because black people, people of color have been silent for too long and it is time our voices to be thundered as when we are sending the message softly, with hints, we are not taken serious, and this is the cause of the riots that have started in America and in (Peckham) these riots consist of violent deeds that are to get America, white people in general to stop marginalizing and discriminating us because of our color, here are some images
With everything that has happened over the past few days a lot of people in the black community as well as myself feel like we are not being heard, when we are angry as black people we are told to just deal with it being killed because of your skin colour has no justification. For more thank 100 years black people were enslaved then ' brought to freedom' but the truth is although there are no physical chains, the chains of today are the racial inequalities holding people of colour hostage. Equality is not something that we must protest for but is something that we have the right too. Many people have chosen to show a blind eye to these racial injustices and say that racism no longer exist(these people are very ignorant) but it very much does for example; when a black person kills another black person they like to label it ' black on black crime' but when a white person kills another white person its just classified as a murder or crime. This underlying racism is never noticed. They kill our people and get away with it and expect us to be silent when we our tired of losing our black brothers and sisters because of racial inequality. They are more vocal about the looting than the murder it was not police brutality it was murder but yet they get away with it and they still want us to be quiet. They have killed so many black men and are surprised when black children grow up without fathers. We fear the police more than we look to them for protection. Although i know that it is not all police and they are also human under their uniform it does not justify the behaviour of police brutality in general. It is a shame that still in 2020 we are facing these issue which disgust me. They like to show how divided black people are in the media by talking about black on black crime but rarely show the unity in the black community.
I also think that the school should try to focus on racial issue and ethnic communities much more as they barely do. Majority of the students in the school are from different ethnic groups. Although it is a sensitive and hard topic it needs to be discussed a lot more as these are thing we face daily.
This list shows the names of the innocent people who were killed because they are black.
One last point I would like to make, is that not all white (no racism here) are heartless, here is a video of a white US cop kneeling down with one of the protestors to show solidarity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxZ1sWGjv6c
Furthermore, Black Lives Matter today, tommorow and forever, just like other people’s lives do too.
Thanks for understanding Miss.
PLEASE I CAN’T BREATHE! - A Poem
PLEASE I CAN’T BREATHE!
What word adequate enough can there be
To express such an act of barbarism?
A nation that claimed and glorified herself,
The vanguard and the champion of liberty;
In the twenty first century now an abattoir for freedom.
A society where people of colour are still being racially marginalised.
A melodious song shall I write to this premeditated homicide?
Hell No! A song of disdain and fury,
Like bullets from a military cannon;
Will come from me mouth to label this killer cop,
Song that’ll puncture the eardrums of all the racists of this world.
“I can’t breathe”,
“I can’t breathe”,
“I can’t breathe”,
The black man pleaded with the racist cop repeatedly;
Under his cruel knee he sniffed him out of breathe.
Enough! We aren’t taking these sickening racial killings any more,
Our arms are no more to be folded while our own being slaughtered.
For too long people of colour have lived in constant fear,
In the land built by the sweat and blood of our fathers of yore.
Enough is enough! Not again will the colour of our skin be allowed for our evaluation.
Now is the time for every advocate of freedom to rise up,
Come together and speak with one voice against racism in our societies;
We must remember, this is not about White versus Black
It’s about humanity versus racism
The history books will remember us a united nation
A united nation that fought against racism
And those how choose to hide behind their privilege
Remember, there comes a time where silence is betrayal.
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
Voice shall be given to the voiceless
Power shall be given to the weak
Justice shall reign supreme in land once again.
I am disgusted on the behaviour that this police has and the guts to do in front of everyone and this week I've been looking more into it on how I can fix the problem but honestly I think , I want to protest but I can't because I have to stay at home and I want to raise awareness. I saw a clip of Donald Trump mimicking George Floyd death and making fun of him which really disgusted me I don't know how he is the president.
I find disrespectful that people say all lives matter when in reality is just black lives matter because they're the ones that are going through it a lot.
Also I want to point out that unfortunately I think he was in North England Muslim girl I think she was 19 got murdered and no one helped our chat I'm also disgusted by that I'm really angry by society.
This makes me feel mad even though I’m not black. It’s not fair what’s happening to innocent people that are different from other people we all deserve to be in a world where we’re all loved. What even makes me more mad is that people who are not black wouldn’t have been treated the way George Floyd was treated if a white person had done what George Floyd was being accused of he still would’ve been in this World, his last words wouldn’t have been to a police officer saying “I can’t breathe”. A police officers foot wouldn’t have been on his neck. And hundreds of other black innocent lives would have had it different if they were white they would still be alive. And that’s not how it should work we should all be treated equally.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Hi Miss I am so hurt and distraught of what has been happening, sometimes I’m scared for my future as a black African girl because there is still a little racism and prejudice in the UK. It’s so disgusting that we have entered a new decade and bad things have been arriving. I just pray everything would be sorted.
I am disgusted, have been repeatedly disgusted for so long, at the system that has allowed the calculated and institutionalised attack against black people exist in our everyday lives. As many people have said, if you’re not outraged then that is a problem. As a white person however, I will never be able to fully understand how the black community feels. It is our responsibility to amplify black people’s voices and not to speak over them, to use the privilege that our skin provides us as a shield and to donate and share as much reliable information across any platform that we can in order to garner as much attention and support as possible. To especially call out the people in this country who look at what is going on in America as an exclusive event and that Britain is not racist and to take accountability for the casual racism that is allowed to exist in British society, but to also not rely on the black community to inform us on what to do, how to respond because it isn’t their responsibility.
To summarise, for all the white people who are ‘uncomfortable’ by what is going on and are being silent as a result, to educate themselves on their privilege and not centre the conversation regarding the current situation around themselves instead of actively seeking out information to educate themselves.
Please excuse the fact that I am sending my view on a man being murdered because of the colour of his skin late. I would like to share the following....
" When I heard that a Black Male was restricted from breathing for 8 minutes and 46 seconds by a POLICE OFFICER, I was flabbergasted, immediately like anyone would, I wanted to know more so I did some research. A couple days later, my social media feed was filled with BLM posts and to be honest, I shed more than a few tears while reading and watching them. I strongly believe that it is unacceptable to be hating, hurting and killing someone just because of the amount of melanin in their skin that God blessed them with. IT IS BEYOND UNACCEPTABLE.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, I saw this comment on a video raising awareness for us Black people, 'Nah, just find it funny yall tryna end racism on a kids app, go back in the field and pick me some cotton'.
I was beyond shocked that a human being could say this, and the fact that they deleted their comment afterwards, TRUE COWARDICE.
I am glad that people are trying to raise awareness, especially white people.
However, no matter what we say, nothing is gonna change. We need a new method, not violence, but a way for those to see that our outlayer does not represent our amazing, unique personalities.
LETS MAKE A CHANGE! "
Wanted to express my exhaustion of this constant police brutality that keeps on happening, why can’t we all be equal everyone focusing on each other’s personalities rather than the colour of our skin. I am mostly upset because if there have been people who have committed worst crimes than George Floyd did and yet their arrest wasn’t as brutal as his was, their life wasn’t taken. I just want this to stop.
I am so sad, worried and stressed about these situations of injustice in the world, no one deserves to be treated bad because we are all equal. It has been years of war that people fought to have rights in the past, but all the work is in vain because we are going back to a world of inequality and discrimination. This does not only affect black people this also affects everyone because we as a human race have gone through a lot: wars, crime, racism, inequality and it looks like we haven’t learned nothing at all. When my friends start talking about when we have kids, they asked how many kids do you want to have? And I said that I don’t want to have kids. For what, to be raise in a world where there is no justice and equality. Why would anyone want to see their kids one day being killed because they are this colour or the other? I just don’t get it, why does a colour define who you are and what you are? There is only one race, humans.
I can’t breathe. One of George Floyd’s last words as a Minneapolis police officer continued to edge his knee into his neck, restricting him of his breathing. If you ever heard those first three words, I can’t breathe, what’s your instant reaction? Panic, alarm, distress? He could lose his life any minute. It’s a dire situation! But Officer Chauvin comfortably refused to comply with the screams of the eyewitnesses who were at the scene, recording another act… of racially motivated police brutality.
Since the 19th century, police brutality has been an ongoing thing. Dogs biting, batons being hit and thrown, and water hoses being used violently to hit and abuse those who were doing their best to fight for civil rights, for black people then, and now, here, in the future. Unfortunately, their efforts remain unaccounted for. It is now five days since the murder of George Floyd, the incident which happened on Monday 25th of May 2020. Officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes, with no police officers intervening despite Floyd’s helpless cries for his mother and for respiration. He eventually passed out showing no movement and was taken into the hospital, where he finally died of his injuries. As usual, Chauvin was not prosecuted (nb. This was written before Chauvin was charged with murder). As a white officer, he was given the benefit of the doubt by the corrupt system we have the nerve to call the government. Officer Chauvin was on top of Floyd’s neck, kneeling, which shows us their racist opinions of black people being below everyone else, on the ground, no worth at all. His neck, the body part which is meant to support our heads, was suffocated, which instead was supposed to also be used to carry our heads high, celebrating being black and free. However, this case proved us the opposite. With the cameras in his face, the officer looked straight into them, while pedestrians did shout for him to remove his knee, and with a cold face, he continued to refuse.
As I you read this, riots are happening in America, to protest against this corrupt system and to get justice for the victims of racially motivated shootings and murders.
George Floyd.
Ahmaud Arbery.
Stephen Lawrence.
Tamir Rice.
Sean Bell.
Oscar Grant.
Henry Glover.
Prince Jones.
Ronald Madison.
Alonzo Ashley.
Chavis Carter.
Raymond Allen.
Aiyana Jones.
Nehemiah Dillard.
Ervin Jefferson.
Shantel Davis.
Tamon Robinson.
Rekia Boyd.
Reginald Doucet.
Derrick Jones.
Kiwane Carrington.
Victor Steen.
Shem Walker.
Sharmel Edwards.
Ramarley Graham.
Steven E. Washington.
Wendell Allen.
Timothy Stansbury.
Alberta Spruill.
Ousmane Barlow.
Timothy Thomas.
Patrick Dorismond.
Aaron Campbell.
DeAunta T. Farrow.
Tarika Wilson.
Kendrec McDade.
Unfortunately, the list goes on. Young black people being attacked just because of the colour of their skin. It’s not a choice to be who we are but turns out we’ve just got to love ourselves and live with it. And we have begun to do exactly so. But we can’t continue if police officers, whose duties are serve and protect, are using their jobs as a sly way to take violent action based off of their cruel hatred towards POC. Six feet under, there are countless blacks sons and daughters lying peacefully in their caskets, away from this so-called ‘united’ world. There’s racism everywhere. Minority people don’t get the same opportunity as white people because there is not such thing as black privilege. Only white privilege. Schools, restaurants, hotels, jobs, anywhere. They may not say it right in your face ‘it’s because you’re black/asian/hispanic etc”, they’ll look at you, give you a reassuring smile, but straight after let all the other privileged citizens take that opportunity that you wanted.
There are so many stereotypes about black people. There are less important ones, but there are the important ones that’s stuck with people and shape an identity for us even though they haven’t got to know us. Black people are always assumed to be dangerous, a threat to society. If we walk or dress a certain way, yep, they’re in a gang. If they pass your house every day and you make eye contact when they do say, yep, they’re planning to rob you. If they walk into a store and eye a pair of Jordan Retros, yep, they’re planning to steal it. We are all the same. A stereotype should not shape us into the way you THINK we are. You have no idea who we are individually as human beings. Human beings. That’s what we are. Not dogs, not barbarians, not monkeys. We’re human beings. Simple.
All the young people out here who use TikTok, must have seen a couple of videos of teenage boys describing their preference in women. Immediately they’d be quick to pick white and praise them and defend themselves putting down women of colour by saying it’s a preference. This has sparked arguments online about why women of colour are continuously put down by young teenage boys whilst they praise white women. As irrelevant as this topic is, it always sparks an urge in me to just ask, why? If you’re going to praise others, go ahead, but why tear down the crowns of our ladies of colour? Why tear their self esteem? You gain nothing but guilt of all the POC who already face prejudice in the real world. POC matter too. Black Lives Matter.
As mentioned in our own history, Martin Luther King Jr had a dream, and violently protesting was not what he preached. But if the police are continuously taking advantage of their authority and hiding behind their masks of racism, peaceful protest will be a thing of the past. If there’s no justice happening , there’s no peace. The system needs to stop allowing them to go scot free when they intentionally commit first degree murder out of pure hatred. As of today, EX police officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested, in police custody, charged with third degree murder. This isn’t enough. George Floyd should not have died that way, with a white police officer proudly on his neck. He was supposed to be a proud black man, walking freely in the streets living his life to fullest. Floyd was an amazing man, despite his own past, but he made sure to spread awareness before his untimely death. May he rest in peace, alongside those strong black boys and girls, women and men, who were also murdered and failed by the system. Hopefully, one day, the protests come to our rescue and peace will be installed. Black lives Matter.
#blacklivesmatter.
In my opinion of the riots in the USA I am both upset and angered with the situation because this simple man was murdered on the streets yelling "I cant breathe" with a police officer having his knee on his neck. I am truly upset about this because he did not have any rights or any freedom of speech. Not only this but throughout Instagram I have seen peaceful riots that end in horrible shootings and or being handcuffed witch is truly heartbreaking. As a white girl I stand by this #blacklivesmatter because they do. Honestly all lives do matter only when black ones do.
I wanted to give my opinion abbot what is going on in America.
Racism has been going on for years when someone black dies they start a riot or protesting, I feel like they are making trends out of racism posting videos on YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc... They only pay attention to racism when someone black dies.
I feel very devastated with this situation because of the racism and how he was killed by the police which is unacceptable behaviour.
At this point there isn’t one virus killing people but two viruses which are covid-19 and RACISM, what really annoys me is that the murdered of George Floyd has been classified as first degree murder even though it is clearly second degree murder because the police officer was being told to stop stepping on his neck and he continued to do so. Also, the other police officers could’ve done something to help George but no this has just proven that POC doesn’t exist. In addition to this people are out here telling all the people protesting for BLM that “all lives matter” but in reality all lives will never matter until black lives matter and until POC exists. What really annoyed me was the fact that Donald Trump called the protesters “Thugs” without really knowing the context and meaning behind it (it was a word used against black slaves when slavery existed meaning: boneless n-word). Overall this is modern day lynching and it is really beyond disgusting to see this still happening in 2020.
In relation to the George Floyd situation I am extremely upset as it has caused the black community (especially) outrage and anger therefore forcing them to go on protests that aren’t so peaceful.
Additionally, it is quite surprising that as a black community in order for us to get our voices heard we have to go to the extreme mile which is upsetting but what else is there to do?
Another shocking and upsetting thing is that, incidents like this occur in the UK and are barely spoken about which is outraging. But I believe that things will get better and changes will be made as long as the support we need is given to us.
#blacklivesmatter
I would like to say that even though many people might say ‘oh its an accident they don't mean it the police force are working on it ‘people got to understand for many years P.O.C have been fighting for their lives every day they are suffering from racist comments that sometimes unfortunately people have died in these situations. Not all lives matter until black lives do for 400 years of fighting for freedom we still have people who are treated differently: GEORGE FLOYD a man with a child who was probably waiting for her father to come home - killed and was innocent. AUHMED AURBURY - shot and innocent. I could go on but ITS TIME TO MAKE A STAND ON ALL PLATFORMS FOR OUR ANCESTORS AND MORE AND all the other people who suffer, how can we trust the police when they are treating POC like this police brutality is a no its the choices they make so therefore I believe they don't deserve sympathy.
As a person belonging to the black community I feel violated and disrespected as the police have taken countless innocent lives just because of their skin colour. The law applies to everyone but their seems to be 2 systems and the supreme half of the system belongs to white privileged people. I feel like this should stop so that the next generation of children can walk the streets and feel safe.
I wish I could riot but it’s a risk due to lockdown but I feel like police brutality is an inevitable aspect that is intrinsic within our society today! however, the deaths of many fellow black citizens that have been concealed by the government and the police force themselves is a real shame and upset to the dignity of the country and it will continue to taint us as a nation! I believe that we are entitled to justice, through all means possible and we will keep fighting until some day - whether months, years or decades later - we receive justice and equality for our black community! BLACK LIVES MATTER!
As a white person I feel scared to speak out in fear of offending others. This has brought light to my lack of education in this area and I am currently looking into reading a book written by one of my church pastor’s about growing up in a white dominated church named ‘We need to talk about race’.
