In majority white countries, the Black Lives Matter protests that unfolded after the murder of George Floyd were accompanied by the intensification of public debates on systemic racism and white allyship. Some media focused on Black-white couples, discussing the impact of these events on white partners’ understanding of anti-black racism in their Black partners’ lives.
The murder of George Floyd in the spring of 2020 sparked an outcry against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States. In the wake of the killing, support for the Black Lives Matter movement rose sharply among white Americans.
On 8th September 2021, a crowd gathered on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, USA, near the base of its iconic statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The atmosphere in the crowd was jubilant as workers positioned a crane, wrapped the statue in a harness, and finally–after an hour of preparation, a year of court cases, and 131 years of racial terror set in stone–pulled the statue down from its plinth.
In this critical moment of race relations in America, a sustainable black-white allyship in favour of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is already slipping away, as tracked by national polling data.
In this critical moment of race relations in America, a sustainable black-white allyship in favour of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is already slipping away, as tracked by national polling data.
In this critical moment of race relations in America, a sustainable black-white allyship in favour of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is already slipping away, as tracked by national polling data.
This article is based on a seminar on ‘Nationalist Populism and Postcolonial Responses’ with Sivamohan Valluvan chaired by Gurminder Bhambra at the BSA Postcolonial and Decolonial Transformations Study Group that took place on 18 February 2021.
In the face of the coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately affected black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, people across the globe have taken to the streets in protest. They have gathered in solidarity to express anger about George Floyd’s death and the persistence of police violence.
This year, I was struck by the need to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd with my P5 class. I felt that as a teacher, it was my responsibility to tackle these subjects.
The killing of George Floyd sent a shockwave of energy throughout the United States, spurring an overdue uprising that rallied to the cause of racial justice. While many took to the streets to protest despite the looming pandemic, my colleagues and I took action in the way we best knew – through education.
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