Cross-posted from Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power – Blog post by Elena Zambelli, Lancaster University, UK In majority white countries, the Black Lives Matter protests that unfolded after the murder of George Floyd were accompanied by the intensification of public debates on systemic racism and white allyship. Some media focused on Black-white couples, discussing the impact of these events on white partners’ understanding of anti-black racism in their Black partners’ lives. As part of the ERC-funded project ‘Regulating Mixed Intimacies in Europe’ (EUROMI ..read more

Cross-posted from Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power – Blog post by Natalie A.E. Young, University of Pennsylvania, USA The murder of George Floyd in the spring of 2020 sparked an outcry against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States. In the wake of the killing, support for the Black Lives Matter movement rose sharply among white Americans. Shows of support ranged from the (controversial) posting of blacked-out photos on Facebook and Instagram, to patronage of black-owned businesses, to marching in BLM protests. We are now nearly two years out from George ..read more

By Meghan Tinsley, Sadia Habib, Chloe Peacock, Ruth Ramsden-Karelse, and Gary Younge On 8th September 2021, a crowd gathered on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, USA, near the base of its iconic statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The atmosphere in the crowd was jubilant as workers positioned a crane, wrapped the statue in a harness, and finally–after an hour of preparation, a year of court cases, and 131 years of racial terror set in stone–pulled the statue down from its plinth.  The equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army, is, and always has b ..read more

Cross-posted from Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power – Blog post by Alana Lentin, Western Syndey University, Australia In an age defined by hyper-visibility made possible by always-on digital media, brought to our fingertips by the smartphone, we are regularly fed images of (often extreme) racial violence. The circulation of the long eight minutes and forty-six seconds of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, in May last year reinvigorated a movement across the Global North, against the disposability of Black lives. However, there is no simple w ..read more

Cross-posted from Spectre – Blog post by Jean Beaman, University of California, USA “For us who are determined to break the back of colonialism, our historic mission is to authorize every revolt, every desperate act, and every attack aborted or drowned in blood.” –Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth [1] On July 19, 2016, Adama Traore, a 24-year-old Black construction worker, was killed after an arrest by three police officers in Beaumont-sur-Oise, a northern banlieue, or suburban outskirt, of Paris. Adama was stopped for an identity check—a not uncommon measure by which police of ..read more

Cross-posted from CERES Blogs – Blog post by Barbara Becnel, The University of Edinburgh, UK In this critical moment of race relations in America, a sustainable black-white allyship in favour of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is already slipping away, as tracked by national polling data. But how culturally viable was the prospect of a long-term black-white allyship anyway? When thousands of people of all backgrounds marched shoulder to shoulder on city streets, during a pandemic in June 2020, to protest the killing of George Floyd, civil rights leaders and BLM activists could be seen on ..read more

Cross-posted from Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power – Blog post by Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK This article is based on a seminar on ‘Nationalist Populism and Postcolonial Responses’ with Sivamohan Valluvan chaired by Gurminder Bhambra at the BSA Postcolonial and Decolonial Transformations Study Group that took place on 18 February 2021. Dominant multidisciplinary discursive frameworks, at this historical conjuncture, are structured by postcolonial common sense modes of thought that have been sculpted out of colonial and postcolonial nationalisms ..read more

Cross-posted from The Conversation, Blog post by Kennetta Hammond Perry In the face of the coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately affected black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, people across the globe have taken to the streets in protest. They have gathered in solidarity to express anger about George Floyd’s death and the persistence of police violence. They are also calling out systemic racial injustices present in healthcare, education and public policy. This necessitates reasserting basic claims for the recognition of black humanity through the rallying cry “Black L ..read more

Cross posted from CERES Blogs: Blog post by anonymous Primary teacher The primary teacher who wrote this blog has asked for it to be published anonymously to avoid repercussions and identifying those involved. We have agreed to do so as we recognise that for early careers teachers who adopt a transformative approach that this involves taking risks. We also wanted to share this blog to encourage teachers to continue to make a difference. This year, I was struck by the need to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd with my P5 class. I felt that as a teacher, it was ..read more

Cross posted from CERES Blogs: Blog post by Kari Giordano The killing of George Floyd sent a shockwave of energy throughout the United States, spurring an overdue uprising that rallied to the cause of racial justice. While many took to the streets to protest despite the looming pandemic, my colleagues and I took action in the way we best knew – through education. The Racism and Anti-Racism project was born out of a desire to bring the Black Lives Matter conversation to the pupils living in the small towns of our rural district. Sheffield (where I live and work) in Massachusetts, a town with 9 ..read more