Black Lives Matter Movement – #BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the clearing of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Racism – Racism can take many forms, it can be described as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person, group or culture on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group. Racism can also be the stereotyping of people suggesting that they posses distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another. Although racism may not be as obvious as previous years/ decades it is still an issue in today’s society and can take many different forms, one reason for this is due to a lack of education in the matter through schools/ education systems.

Racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another — or the belief that another person is less than human — because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.

This graph is from the post – ‘Trends in racial attitudes’ –

Useful Sources –

#BlackLivesMatter

Race, Racism and the Channel Islands

JEP Report

Racism Locally –

George Carteret Statue –  Sir George was a prominent investor in the Company of Royal Adventurers in Africa, which dealt in slaves as well as gold and ivory; owning over 12,000 slaves.

The former Constable of St Peter, John Refault, stated that ‘protesters were wrongly trying to impose today’s values on historical events.’ However, the links that George Carteret had with slavery and racism, although they may have been ‘the norm’ for that time period, only serves as a reminder for the terrible history, actions and consequences that racism still creates today.

‘There are all sorts of ways in which we live our lives today that have evolved over the years, and things that were formerly acceptable no longer are,’ he said. ‘You can’t justify them, but they were the norm at that time.’ I don’t believe that this statue should be allowed to be there exactly due to the links it has with racism, slavery and prejudice, although in the past, it prevents us as a society TODAY from moving forward and trying to prevent racism as a whole.

Expressed in film/ music/ photography –

Hidden Figures demonstrates how these women, especially Johnson, were able to ascend through NASA. Though it wasn’t because their white colleagues suddenly decided to stop being racist, but because it was in NASA’s interest for them to do so. The insults and indignities that black residents of Virginia, and black employees of NASA, unremittingly endured are integral to the drama. This true story is used to emphasize the (previously hidden &) crucial work the black community did for NASA and the ‘Space Race’.

Common – Letter to the free

• Used to raise awareness for racism and its past and present effects on society
• It is in black and white, emphasizing how colour shouldn’t matter
• Common is an Oscar and Grammy award winning hip-hop rap artist who wrote Letter to the Free as a song for the soundtrack to the ‘The 13th’ – A documentary by Ava Duvernay named after the American 13th amendment
• His output is highly politicized, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects on US society (Black Lives Matter)

Artist – Jahi Chikwendiu

I keep hope, but I have lost all faith that this country will ever appreciably cleanse itself of deeply entrenched racism. Its barrage is constant and unavoidable warfare.

The images here are intended to be sirens: startling alarms to wake us from internalizing the myth of white supremacy and the reality of racism, which has led us to blind, deafen, silence, even choke ourselves. To refrain from internalizing racism’s offerings is to give ourselves better chances of breaking the surface of racism’s murky depths, like lotus flowers blossoming skyward.

Lorna Simpson – Five Day Forecast 1991