In light of the tragic death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man brutally killed at the hands of Minneapolis police officers on 25th May, thousands across the globe have turned to social media to demand justice for his death. Our feeds have shifted their focus away from the coronavirus pandemic to the pandemic of racism as an unprecedented number of people are engaging in honest, open and uncomfortable discussions about racial prejudice. Importantly, talks are not only centred around police violence in the US but also on our own British society and how, as a collective, we can work to become a more actively anti-racist country. 

Social media has been overwhelming to say the least but has served as an invaluable tool in disseminating key information about relevant black organisations in need of donations, petitions to sign and Black Lives Matter protests to attend.

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Social media…has served as an invaluable tool in disseminating key information about relevant black organisations in need of donations, petitions to sign and Black Lives Matter protests to attend

What I find most interesting but also shocking, as a person of colour myself, is the mass amount of educational resources circulating aiming to help white people understand the origins of systemic racism and the often-misunderstood concept of white privilege. The fact that it has taken the role of social media to finally reveal some home truths about racism invites us to question why so many people previously had little to no prior knowledge about the realities of racism in Britain. Why, we should ask ourselves, has it taken yet another brutal murder of a black man on the other side of the world to awaken Britain’s awareness of its own prejudices towards its black communities? 

The longstanding misconception that Britain is exempt from the types of violent racist practice seen in America is beginning to be dismantled, with the tagline ‘The UK is not innocent’ circulating online targeting The Metropolitan Police. Historically, British police have played a role as agents to state sanctified violence. According to INQUEST, Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups die disproportionately as a result of force and violence by the police, with their deaths being over two times greater than other deaths in custody. 

Moving beyond the police force, institutionalised racism impacts all areas of British life. Black male graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts; black women earn 39% less than white male staff at Russell Group Universities; the ratios for stop and searches of black to white men is respectively 7.6 to 1. The list goes on. These facts of life are nothing new for black people in Britain, but the lack of previous public awareness of these injustices prior to Floyd’s death points to failures within the British education system. More specifically, it highlights how the way history is taught in schools and within higher education is in need of serious reform. 

Calls for a ‘decolonisation’ of the British national curriculum have been in discussion over the past few years,

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Calls for a ‘decolonisation’ of the British national curriculum have been in discussion over the past few years

but Floyd’s death and the reactions to it have catalysed student-created petitions for Britain’s colonial history to be taught in schools. Most secondary school children will recall a fleeting encounter with the Atlantic slave trade in history lessons, but few will have a clue about Britain’s own imperialist endeavours and the damaging legacy this has had on the lives of black people in Britain today. Many UK activists and organisations are therefore working to decolonise and diversify the content taught in history lessons. The Black Curriculum in particular, a social enterprise founded in 2019, are paving the way for black representation in the classroom. Through campaigning for amendments to be made to the national curriculum so it also includes Black British history, they are actively working to make education reflect our ever increasing ethnically diverse society. 

As stated in their latest report, ‘The History National Curriculum in its current guise continues to disassociate Black people historically in favour of a more romantic, filtered legacy that positions Britannia as all-conquering and eternally embracive of ethnic and cultural difference’. If we do not begin to reverse the narrative surrounding the Empire, tied to nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric, racism in the UK stands little chance of being eradicated. It is only if we actively aim to understand black history and the importance of black voices in Britain that the murders of more innocent black lives can be prevented. Social media is certainly powerful but the responsibility to make young people aware of the historic roots of racism lies with our educational institutions and how they shape the mindsets of future generations. Racism is a global issue and all lives do not matter until black lives matter. 

To sign the petition calling for school to teach British children about the realities of British imperialism, click here.

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