George Floyd Protests in Hyde Park

A younger white friend of mine is married to a black man. They are both American and do a lot of international travelling.
She says that when they are together at airport security, they are often stopped for a 'random' search, yet this has never happened to her when travelling alone or with a white person.
Just a small incident that might not even be noticed, except in their situation of travelling together, but could indicate a general bias.

I listened to Tommy Robinson on Utube just to see what he had to say and to form a balanced view. To my surprise a lot of what he said actually made sense and was not racist. However this is the guy who punched someone in the face for spitting at him at the weekend. So if he is off to protect the war memorials in London this weekend I can see big trouble. I fear this is what happens when the police don’t uphold law and order which should apply to all.

With 2 lots of them descending on London this weekend there isn’t going to be much social distancing either so further risk of Covid19 spread.

Anniebach : You have asked a good question;

Was it racism which caused the horrific murder of Keith Blakelock.

I reply was it racism which caused the murder of Stephen
Lawrence.

To me both deaths were evil and abhorrent and has these two deaths moved the U.K. any further forward with how this country deals with race and the equality of what the black community seem to be now saying they have never been listened to. The argument it seems will rage on and perhaps even in my lifetime no end to it will be in sight.

No doubt if George Floyd was white his death would have passed unnoticed by the public at large.
What do you mean by this, Rosalyn?

That police brutality, even leading to death, is okay and black people should shut up about it, just as white people do?
Or what, exactly?

Violence against a person is never right, unless in self-defence.

We have MaizieD I am totally for equality.

What I am not for is airbrushing history and hiding it away, it cannot be changed, there is no point me apologising for something that happened 100's of years before I was born as I was not responsible for it.

I would like to see all Countries history taught / understood in the context of the years the events happened.

Interesting that it's entirely possible that British people decrying the BLM may have, unknown to them, black ancestry.

dna-explained.com/2015/08/04/african-dna-in-the-british-isles/

Was it racism which caused the horrific murder of
Keith Blakelock

The rioters removed Blakelock's protective helmet, which was never found. The pathologist, David Bowen, found 54 holes in Blakelock's overalls, and 40 stabbing or slashing injuries, eight of them to his head, caused by a weapon such as a machete, axe or sword. A six-inch-long knife was buried in his neck up to the hilt. His body was covered in marks from having been kicked or stamped on. His hands and arms were badly cut, and he had lost several fingers trying to defend himself. There were 14 stab wounds on his back, one on the back of his right thigh, and six on his face. Stabbing injuries to his armpits had penetrated his lungs. His head had been turned to one side and his jawbone smashed by a blow that left a six-inch gash across the right side of his head. Bowen said the force of this blow had been "almost as if to sever his head", which gave rise to the view that an attempt had been made to decapitate him.

Rosalyn69, Are you seriously suggesting that the legacy of slavery is being "raked over and brought up at opportune moments."
The immediate response to your suggestion that "if George Floyd was white his death would have passed unnoticed by the public at large" is to refer to Ian Tomlinson. He's the white man pushed over by a white police officer. It was the public at large that ensured that death was not passed unnoticed.

No doubt if George Floyd was white his death would have passed unnoticed by the public at large.

How long dies legacy last to be raked over and brought up at opportune moments? It’s sad that so many people are apparently harbouring grudges from over a 100 years ago?
How long before the book burnings start?

I don't expect anyone is unaware that George Floyd had been involved in crime historically. The "crime" for which he was being arrested was, from what I've read, passing a fake 20dollar bill. None of that justifies him being killed when a police officer knelt on his neck. It's beyond belief that some people minimise his death and worse, say its nothing to do with us, it's an American issue.
It's the legacy of slavery -that's the issue. We have a large population of black Britons whose ancestors were slaves taken to British colonies to be brutalised and worked often to death. Surely that isn't too difficult to understand

Referring to George Floyd as a petty criminal is, for many, simply a statement of fact. He certainly had a criminal past and was being arrested on suspicion of a petty crime when he died.

Lilypops I totally agree it should be dealt with in America ,
we have enough to deal with , its just an excuse for certain people to cause trouble .

3nanny6 If this is worrying you, I think you need to discuss it with some of your black and mixed race relatives and friends.

My understanding from what I read about Netflix taking Gone with the Wind of its list is that the film perpetuates black stereotypes. The conflict between that and removing a film for which the first African American won an Oscar was acknowledged. The actor (apologies can't remember her name) wasn't allowed to sit with the rest of the cast at the Oscar ceremony. She said she was happy to be paid good money to play a maid, rather than a small amount to work as a maid.
I despair that some posters continue to make comments that show how little they understand about white privilege and the oppression that black people have lived with in this country and in the USA.
To refer to George Floyd as a petty criminal is simply disgusting.

Covid is much more likely to spread around a crowd who are indoors rather than outside.

The confusing statements from the UK government must have contributed to at least some of the people who thought it was all right to flock to beaches and beauty spots, and there was very little official comment about those.

The people demonstrating for BLM must have felt that their cause was far more important than those situations, and that they were right to take action.

No one is saying that other races did not fight and die and as Whitewavemark2 points many of those were from the colonies to fight a war that was not of their making and their efforts were often not acknowledged. The point is evil does not absolve evil. it's like saying "It's OK to do this and continue to do so because someone of your race did it to you too"

GrannyGravy your original post asking if there will be a rise in Covid 19 figures because of the protesters in Hyde Park last Saturday my answer to you is I really don't know we are hearing so much about the social distancing but as the death rate begins to fall perhaps the virus is on the retreat.

I have followed this thread and left several posts about what I think of the protest and some of my thoughts. I will move forward now and say that this thread is "digressing" somewhat in regard of the portrayal of racism particularly in the U.K. The pointing out that "Gone with the Wind" film is being removed has been pointed out and I heard it will be under review for it's slavery context. There has also been talk of the racist content of "Little Britain" and that is being looked at. I even hear a mention of "The Black and White Minstrel Show"
I am the proud mother of a mixed Heritage child and will not go into that essence of her background at the moment.
All of this Black Lives Matter is a bit uncomfortable to me as they only came about in about 2014 or something like that. I gave birth to my daughter at a young age and she is a grown woman now, I brought her up and even remember the time when she was about the 3rd only mixed race child in her school. I was the different one My child was not white. Did I care? My answer back then was no and it would still be the same today. I had the job of "Educating"my family as to be truthful they were afraid as no one else in the family had any spouses or children of non white descent. My daughter was accepted into my family and nobody where we lived would ever be able to say a word about her although actually nobody did. As far as I am concerned all these programmes people are mentioning are a bit old. there are two programmes I remember that made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy and although they were supposed to be funny I did not share the humour. One programme was Love thy Neighbour look it up if you do not remember it, and the other one was Alf Garnett in another family programme the racist content was so defamatory that it would not be allowed today. That type of programme was on our T.V. when my daughter was a young child and given context I think that some of the mindset that Alf Garnett had was a true portrayal of British people. I am hearing so much about racism because of the death of George Floyd and I also feel a bit uncomfortable as over forty years of having black and mixed race friends the actual conversation of their lives and blackness and my British whiteness has never brought big issues we are who we are and now I wonder where do we move forward with all this talk that white people will see that our black counterparts will no longer take injustice, it is all a bit frightening to me.

Let's hope that these statues are not destroyed or shut away forever. They should be put in museums with a full depiction of the history surrounding them.

I do not want my GC to grow up in a sanitized UK

Education not Eradication!!!!

Recruitment and conscription are totally different Whitewavemark2 There are still Gurkha Regiments in our Armed Forces today, and many black and Indians.

Another statue removed -London. At last empathy is beginning to raise its head.

No they weren’t!! They were recruited from “the colonies” to help the glorious motherland. It wasn’t in many cases their fight.

BlackGrannie on the Allies side were Indians, Africans, Gurkhas, Polish and many more nationalities, standing side by side and dying side by side. They were fighting against oppression and for freedom for all races and religions.

Not getting the point...please do not equate those who defaced with all who protested. By the way, the petty criminal had a name, and did not deserve to die in the way he did. It's more than the death of George Floyd. What may be rhetorical to you is someone's everyday life experience. As for black people owning, buying and selling black people, as has been said many times on this thread, every race does evil to those of the same race...just look who was fighting who in WW1 and 11.

Stephen Kinnock lives in London with his wife who is
CEO of Save The Children and has a home in his constituency
in Wales.

Many MP’s have homes in London and their constituency , saves a 7 hour journey