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Racial Justice and Equality - Part 6 - An Awakening

Edited BY


G P Kennedy


Sally - London, UK

#blacklivesmatter

 The death of George Floyd has been a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement to be brought for the forefront of the news.  The color of someone’s skin should not matter in 2020 but for many ignorant, racist, prejudiced, ill-informed people, it still does?  Seeing and reading some of the stuff on the news and on social media, it is unbelievable to see that we are still living in a hugely racist world. 

 

 I admit that I thought it was getting better as I tend to surround myself with people that are similar to me, people that do not judge others by their color, their appearance, their sexual preference but by what kind of human being you are, but I have realized this is not a realistic view of the world.

 

 I am from a predominantly white family but I have close relatives that are black so I know about racism through them and am disgusted at how cruel some people can be.

 

 Since having my baby I want her to realize that people are different and that we should celebrate that.  But it wasn’t till the death of George Floyd and the huge increase of information available on social media that I realized as a parent I am not doing anything to educate her.  I know she is only 1 but it’s never too early to start. 

 

 Most of the babies’ books we have are about animals and dinosaurs and monsters but the few books we do have mainly have white characters in them.  I started looking on the Internet for books that have black characters in them and to be honest most of them were sold out.  This is great news as it means people are out there looking to educate themselves and their children.

 

 I managed to buy two books by an author called Vashti Harrison “Bold Women In Black History” and “Exceptional Men In Black History” which I will start reading to the baby when she is a little bit older.

Rethinking baby's reading

I’ve also been doing a bit a research.  I now live in London but was born in Liverpool.  I know Liverpool was a port to lots of world trading and unfortunately that also meant trading human lives. I saw a post on Facebook this week from a person that had gone around Liverpool putting up plaques explaining why many of our streets have their names and was shocked as I didn’t realize how many of them where named after slave owners and traders who lived in Liverpool.

A street sign in a historic neighborhood of Liverpool

 Liverpool is home to the International Slavery Museum, which I am ashamed to admit I have never visited.  It was a place where you went to on school trips and as I didn’t study history past 14 years old I never went with the school.  

Racist history explained

 But I am determined that when lockdown is over and I am allowed to go back to Liverpool, that I will visit there as its important to learn you history, and not just the white mainstream stuff that we are taught in school but to learn everyone’s history because until you know that then how can you be part of the change?

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/international-slavery-museum

 

 From the website of the museum.

“From about 1500 to about 1865, millions of Africans were enslaved and transported across the Atlantic by Europeans and Americans as a labor force to work, especially on plantations.

 

 Liverpool ships carried about 1.5 million enslaved Africans across on approximately 5000 voyages, the vast majority going to the Caribbean. Around 300 voyages were made to North America - to the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland.

 

 The ships returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, cotton, coffee and tobacco. Liverpool grew rich on the back of trading in enslaved people.

 

 The resistance of enslaved Africans and the abolitionist movement brought the British slave trade to an end in 1807. However, Liverpool’s connections with slavery continued through cotton and other trades that were dependent on slave labor for much of the 19th century.”

Determination to make a better future

 That figure of 1.5 million enslaved Africans is larger that the amount of people worldwide that have died from Covid 19.

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