#21 Deconstructing Racism
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" ...'Black Lives Matter' simply refers to the notion that there's a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be addressed. It's not meant to suggest that other lives don't matter. It's to suggest that other folks aren't experiencing this particular vulnerability. "
- Barack Obama
The death of George Floyd sparked the start of another revolution of change, a fight against the very systems that allowed for yet another black American to be killed brutally, just for being black. The movement has demonstrated that nothing much has changed since the Civil Rights Movement, with injustices of modern-day "lynchings", segregation and voting suppression fully in action today.
Although, what makes the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement so powerful is the ability of the entire world to get together to fight against the atrocities occurring in not just the US but many other countries too. What makes the BLM movement so powerful is that it is the beginning of a prolonged period of the public challenging systemic racism until it is eradicated. It's no longer just a protest or moment, it's the chance for everyone to collectively work towards an anti-racist society as well as overcome personal differences.
Being a woman of colour myself, I'm fully aware of what racism feels like, but never to the extent to which the black community are still facing today. In order to play my part in engaging in discussion and contributing to causes to help in eliminating systemic racism, this episode has been created to bring to light the facts behind the xenophobic attacks on black people and presents how systems can be made non-racist if we all continue to challenge their racist practices. Mind Full of Everything pledges to make all episodes more inclusive and diverse than it already is.
Episode Structure:
- Remembrance of some of the black Americans that have been killed by the police
- Statistics of the disproportionate usage of police brutality against black Americans compared to white Americans
- Defining and explaining white supremacy as the structure and foundation of systemic racism
- Explanation of why the word "race" is racist, with reference to the racist conclusions made by race research such as the COVID-19 pandemic
- Insight into forms of systemic racism within the US apart from police brutality: voter suppression, modern segregation, environmental racism
- Challenging the notion that the UK is "not racist"
- Discussion of the issue of colourism in India, consolidated by white supremacy during colonialism, which fuels racism against Africans living in India today
- Ways systemic racism can be overcome, giving a detailed example of dissolving racism within the criminal justice system
- Coming to terms with my own differences and how to tackle internalised racism/inability to understand those not from your community
- Reminder of the immense power within the public, with examples of what has changed since the BLM movement began
Resources Mentioned:
- Police killings: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/05/mapping-police-killings-black-americans-200531105741757.html
- Disproportionate impact of police brutality against black Americans: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02601-9
- Mapping Police Violence: https://mappingpoliceviolence.org
- "Race is racist": https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/how-can-we-curb-the-spread-of-scientific-racism/
- Little variation across "races": https://science.sciencemag.org/content/298/5602/2381
- "We are all African": https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-genetics-science-africa/
- DNA Discussion Project: https://humanitiesforall.org/projects/dna-discussion-project
- Failure to explain BAME deaths by COVID-19 (UK): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/03/censorship-row-over-report-on-uk-bame-covid-19-deaths
- Disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on black Americans: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-americans-death-rate-covid-19-coronavirus
- Calling for race research to be banned: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/should-research-on-race-and-iq-be-banned/
- Removal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/06/opinions/voting-rights-act-anniversary-long-way-to-go-clarke-rosenberg-opinion/index.html
- Importance of Section 5: https://campaignlegal.org/update/five-decades-section-5-how-key-provision-voting-rights-act-protected-our-democracy
- Modern-day segregation through "zoning" system: https://medium.com/tmi-consulting-inc/modern-day-segregation-4a716d37512
- Environmental Racism in America: https://theecologist.org/2020/may/29/covid-19-and-environmental-racism
- POCs living in highly polluted areas (US): https://qz.com/939612/race-is-the-biggest-indicator-in-the-us-of-whether-you-live-near-toxic-waste/
- Racism in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/07/britain-is-not-america-but-we-too-are-disfigured-by-deep-and-pervasive-racism
- UK racism against minority groups: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/why-systemic-racism-is-not-just-an-american-problem
- Accounts of Africans in India facing racism: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/04/african-victims-racism-india-share-stories-170423093250637.html
- Tanzanian student attack: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-35483893
- Attacks on Africans in India: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-39482239
Highly recommended Ted Talks to watch! (information from these talks were included in the episode)
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