I'm not going to monetize this post. If you have a spare £1 to spare, then the Official George Floyd Memorial Page is a great way to show your support. Alternatively, if you cannot support financially, then there are petitions you can sign/share which I will list at the end of this post.
A simple Google search of 'racial brutality' shows over 50 million results. Many of them with disturbing stories of black men and women dying at the hands of racism. A lot of you might be reading this and thinking "That's so sad but I'm not racist?". It's not enough to not be racist. We need to do more.
I live in a predominantly white area. Dumfries and Galloway is mainly a 'white' area, but there are many Black, mixed race & ethnic groups who do live here. I've never really heard of any racism in the town which is why I think it's so easy to disassociate from it. It's that old age tale of 'what you don't see you forget about'. I was wrong to be so naive. For that, I am sorry.
One time racism was an issue however, was when myself and my friends were in a pub alongside one of our black friends. Two older white, drunk men, came into the pub and said "Are those lassies being bothered by that *N word*?" Our friend looked unphazed, as though they had heard that and much worse many times before. The manager of the pub happily removed the men from the premises at our request as we called them several expletives as they left.
Woopdidoodah, they were kicked out of a pub. It's not enough. We should have called the police and had them arrested for hate speech. We should have taken their photos and shamed them across social media. We just should have done more.
The time is NOW to stop racism. It's not acceptable. It should never have been acceptable and whilst I, as a white priviledged woman, will never understand, I truly stand shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, with my black brothers and sisters. I won't try to lead the fight, it's not for me or any other white person to try to be the savior. We shouldn't try to save the world, we should be joining in the fight against it as our black friends take front and center stage.
I'm trying to educate myself on white privilege and racism in general. I hope you will join me by checking out the below resources.
I appreciate that reading something will never make me understand because I haven't experienced it. I can't change that, but what I can change is my ignorance and lack of knowledge.
I'm sorry it's taken another innocent black life to be taken for the world to do something about racism. I'm sorry this has happened, but I truly want to do my part in making sure it doesn't happen again.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER #GEORGEFLOYD
WHITE PRIVILEGEhttps://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-privilege.html
BLACK LIVES MATTER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgFI0phqRIY
SLAM MAGAZINEhttps://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/where-to-donate-support-black-lives-matter/
JUSTICE FOR GEORGE FLOYD PETITIONhttps://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?recruiter=1096617288&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=2943f820-a174-11ea-b563-a538d17ee3bd
Holly x
