Jul 2020

On the BLM backlash



A district councillor and family friend recently attended the Black Lives Matter protest in the Forest of Dean town of Lydney. She attended in a personal capacity and read a poem by Maya Angelou. As a consequence this friend (and her family) suffered abuse from the public and her fellow politicians, abuse so relentless that she was eventually forced to resign from her cabinet.

The event faced obstacles before it even happened, with the town council and local MP trying to block it. I watched the footage of this successful and beautiful event twice, and each time I was brought to tears to see the people of that area coming together in support of the cause, displaying an awareness and understanding that I so wish had been more widespread when I was growing up. I've enormous admiration for the organisers and all the compassionate anti-racist and curious people who attended in solidarity or the desire to learn more.
Protests by design are meant partly to do exactly as the Black Lives Matter protests have done - spark debate and consequently raise awareness. In this case, these protests have also exposed a lot of racists and my friend has experienced abuse from both the "I'm not racist buts" and those displaying a more overt prejudice.

A big issue here is that many see racism only as a conscious and overt display of hate, when in fact it is so much more nuanced and insidious than this - stemming from a complex and deliberately set up system very much interwoven with every aspect of our sociopolitical environment. This system (and the more subtle and covert acts that it produces) causes untold suffering, but is dismissed by those who opine from a position of blissful ignorance - a blissful ignorance often draped across a framework of unconscious bias, with the person not understanding (or not wanting to understand) why they have these opinions.
Claiming "I'm not racist" before going on to repeatedly proclaim "All lives matter" and miss the point (despite repeated explanations). Dismissing and minimising the experiences of those who have continually been on the receiving end of racism. Taking strangely disproportionate issue with people protesting an incredibly important matter. All of these attitudes and actions are a significant obstacle to progress, particularly when they are so widespread.

The minimisation and whataboutery perpetuates a status quo that enables the perpetrators of the more overt acts of racism to carry on - carrying on in the belief that their prejudiced acts are supported and justifiable.

Martin Luther King expressed this so much more eloquently than I ever could when he said "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Like so many of us I've found the past few months a continual zig zag between feeling genuinely elated and hopeful at the increase in understanding, and sad and downhearted by the displays of wilful ignorance. Sadly, here is another example of the latter and to see such a principled person forced to resign as a result of this ignorance is hugely disappointing. What my friend experienced shines a light on the often unseen world that so many of us experience, one that is so often dismissed. Overt or covert, both are equally damaging.

The Forest of Dean was a beautiful place for a childhood, but it was also frequently extremely uncomfortable. The fact that this protest faced so much hostility and opposition, and that my friend subsequently experienced this abuse, illustrates the issue at hand.

Racism isn't a difference of opinion and the effort to understand and acknowledge costs nothing.