With Coronavirus rates finally on the decline in the UK, there was an opportunity for optimism, until the killing of a man thousands of miles away in America sparked an uprising across much of the western world.
George Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis on 25th May 2020. During the arrest he was restrained by two police officers whilst a third knelt on his neck and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening. Floyd died from cardiac arrest or asphyxia, depending on which of the two autopsies you read. A number of videos, each showing parts of the incident, have been widely circulated.
This reconstruction by the New York Times shows the sequence of events pieced together from the various clips available:
The police officers involved were all sacked and charged; one with second degree murder and the other three with aiding and abetting second degree murder. They await trial.
Floyd's death sparked civil unrest in Minneapolis which quickly spread. Protests and riots against police brutality and racism erupted across the United States setting city after city alight. Internationally protests have been seen (and indeed are ongoing) across Europe, in South America, Australia, West Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Asia.
Despite warnings from politicians and other authorities about the danger of a new spike in Coronavirus cases (and subsequent deaths) thousand upon thousands of people decided that the risk was worth it in order to protest against what they saw as institutional racism in all parts of society.
The Black Lives Matter movement has come to the fore and, around the world, leaders and citizens are responding to its calls and protests. Social media is naturally ablaze and on 3rd June a social media blackout was widespread with people posting black squares as a sign of solidarity.
In the States the police implemented curfews and used teargas and rubber bullets as buildings were looted and vehicles set alight. Their president appears to have no sympathy with the reaction and has threatened to use the military to win 'total domination'.
Here in the UK protests have been largely peaceful with a handful of isolated incidents. Manchester saw thousands of people flock to Piccadilly Gardens on 6th June. Targets have been made of memorials and statues including the Cenotaph on Whitehall, a statue of Churchill in Parliament Square and the highly publicised toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol.
In response to this there have been subsequent events where people have gathered to guard statues and memorials. It appears a significant number of these people are servicemen or ex-servicemen standing up against what they see as the desecration of war memorials. This has, almost inevitably, attracted a number of far right groups and there have been a number of violent outbursts.
Both sides of the political spectrum are up in arms about the actions of the far wing of the opposing side.
For what it's worth I feel uneasy about the Black Lives Matters movement. Not because I don't believe that black lives matter, but because I suspect it has been infiltrated and is being influenced by some sinister folk intent on nothing less than the upturn of society as we know it.
The fact that one of their key demands is to defund the police, and that the call of 'capitalism is racist' is regularly associated with the movement, bothers me. I can only imagine what the UK would be like if the police were defunded - chaotic and dangerous no doubt - and as a proponent of capitalism I struggle to envisage a country steeped in socialism.
As with many political flash points these days I rarely put my head above the parapet because I've had to endure insults and abuse on a number of occasions over the years for my centrist / ever so slightly right of centre views. It's difficult to say you don't like the Black Lives Matters movement without being accused of racism, and slogans like Silence is Violence coercing people into being involved, essentially say if you don't join us, you're against us and therefore you're racist.
I don't believe in direct action, it rarely makes a difference; I prefer to see the steady pressure of a changing society and its opinions make their point; I dislike the wringing of hands and self hatred I keep seeing - I saw a Facebook quiz this week where you could work out what percentage of white privilege you had which left me gawping at my phone; and the apologies people are making for things that happened hundred of years ago are baffling to me.
In the meantime wokeness appears to have reared its condescending head again and its first victims have been old films and TV programmes. Gone With The Wind was temporarily removed by HBO Max, ironically on the birthday of Hattie McDaniel, the first black woman to win an Oscar, for her role in that very film. To be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of HBO Max before that story broke, nor have I ever watched, or indeed read, Gone With The Wind so I'm not in a position to comment on its content. I am broadly aware though that its depictions of black people are hugely different to acceptable norms today, are offensive when seen through the prism of modern standards and morals, and are something that reflect to an extent the times and place it was made - 1939 America.
Fawlty Towers' 'Don't Mention The War' episode was pulled for review by UKTV, not for the first time by all accounts as a particular racial slur has been edited out of it by many broadcasters for about a decade now.
The lineup of TV programmes either removed, being reviewed, or in the crosshairs also includes Little Britain & Come Fly With Me, Only Fools & Horses, League of Gentlemen, The Mighty Boosch, Bo Selecta, Summer Heights High, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and Cops.
While this has been happening, or not happening, on our screens almost every town in the UK has been reviewing its collection of statues. Amongst those up for discussion are Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts movement, who was racist, homophobic and a Nazi sympathiser, and Winston Churchill who despite arguably being the person to have done most against fascism and for individual freedom in Europe, currently sits in a large grey box in Parliament Square which protects his likeness.
Here in Manchester the city council has promised a full review. The list includes Robert Peel, not for his actions which include being Prime Minister twice and forming the very first Metropolitan Police Force, but for his father's petitioning against the abolition of the slave trade; Queen Victoria at Piccadilly Gardens for her role in the British Empire; Cromwell at Wythenshawe Park for his brutal conquest of Ireland; and Gandhi next to Manchester Cathedral, for his anti-black racist beliefs. Even the darling of the left wing working classes in the city, Engels, has been pulled into question.
I think censoring things that don't sit well with contemporary sensibilities is wrong and I think it's potentially a slippery slope. I suspect changing tastes and opinions will prevail anyway - I mean who wants to watch Love Thy Neighbour now anyway? We see it for what it is and disagree with it, so without a market nobody is going to air it.
Let's discuss these things, if we need to, and understand the context both of the story and the time the it was made.
If we start ditching films and TV programmes because companies fear a backlash (which suggests to me that it's a commercial decision and a box ticking exercise) then it has the potential to extend to many areas and become a tool of blackmail from people with a particular viewpoint.
Generations could potentially lose classic literature, buildings, paintings, music, photography, plays, historical artefacts, and all manner of things that are part of an ever evolving culture and history of the world.
There are things that don't sit right with me, for example the Engels statue outside HOME, because I disagree with socialism and communism which he represents, churches which oppressed the poor and persecuted gay folks, TV shows like Are You Being Served or Mrs Brown's Boys for their stereotypical portrayal of gay men, but there's no way I would see these things removed for those reasons. They're part of the tapestry of a society.
I recently read a Tweet which read: You will NEVER be woke enough. Ever. You can surrender inch by inch until you don't recognise yourself in the mirror but in the end they will demand you accept something you can't stomach and when you refuse they WILL come for you.
Finally, I think it's rash to make comparisons between the UK and America when it comes to police brutality and racism. Whilst there are similarities in the past, the two countries have taken very different paths over the generations since American independence, and what happens in the USA is not the same as what happens here.
The conventions of our class system, American segregation, the commonwealth & African colonisation by Britain, Red-Lining in the States, gun laws, policing standards, the Windrush generation, and the history of slavery are just some of the factors that make racism in each country different.
To treat and respond to racism, here and abroad, in the same way, ignoring the nuances of history, culture, society and politics is, in my opinion, foolhardy. The UK should address its own issues in the context of its own elements. Hearing chants of 'Hands up, don't shoot!' at a London BLM rally, while no doubt a show of support, seemed not to fit the bill when the police escorting those protestors were unarmed, as most of our police officers are.
As an observer I'd say that racism, whilst it certainly exists, is nowhere near as bad in the UK as it is across the pond. Of course I'm white, I'm socially liberal as are my circles, and my experience of racism directed towards me is minimal, so I might not be the best person to ask about that.
I can't possibly come to a unifying conclusion in a blog post, besides that would do a disservice to what is an incredibly complicated, ongoing and ancient problem, and to the people who face it.
What I can do is be a responsible individual that lives their life with integrity, calling out where I can, where it's safe to do so, and where it might make a difference, those that I believe are in the wrong, and continue to listen and learn as I grow older, inevitably making changes along the way.
One thing I will not be doing however is wringing my hands and offering meaningless and public displays of virtue, just so others know just how woke I am.
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