On August 7th, the roads to the Heathrow airport in London and of the areas around Nottingham were occupied by protesters of the #BlackLivesMatter movement (BLM). Ten people have been arrested in regards to these protests. The demonstration is part of a nationwide movement that aims at contrasting police’s racism. BLMUK is five-years-old and provides for small-scale protests.
The movement was officially born in the United States in 2013 and was spurred in the UK by the murder of Mark Duggan by police five years ago. The official BLM website has a few point of inspiration: it declares ‘the BLM Network advocates for dignity, justice, and respect” and again it is “not a moment but a movement”. See their ‘Manifesto’: for what they believe in. The BLM network is not narrow in scope; it relates to guiding principles such as restorative justice, globalism, empathy, gender equality and queer affirmation.
As explained by the BLM activist Adam Elliott-Cooper, in the UK Black Lives oppression is directed more towards immigrants, to those that did not encounter integration, or worst, as in the case of Jimmy Mubenga, that encounter death when forced to fly back home.
Then, #BlackLivesMatter is clearly universal in aim but not unique in motives. Each country has a different historical path towards diversity and integration. Since 2014, the United Kingdom has welcomed 216 people into the fold.
The UK is the fifth biggest economy in the world with a GDP of $2.85 trillion. Italy, the 9th biggest economy, has welcomed 400 just in the small country of Riace (they make 22% of the population). In the United States, segregation was legally abolished in 1964, by the Civil Rights Act. England has a different history of colonialism and therefore of integration and segregation.
In 1965, it was amended to the Race Relations Act, in reaction to Race Riots that began in Notting Hill, London, in 1958. The two acts have different backgrounds: the US needed it after years of civil war and slavery, the UK needed it as a perpetrator of colonialism and therefore of slavery, but this reality was mainly far away in the colonies. In the USA it was right there.
Contrary to this tweet, every black life matters. Moreover, politics is not comparative. In the sense that a country is not better off (and should not feel better off) just because another one in the world is doing so bad. Others’ failures are never a source of inspiration.
