A friend and I have decided not to attend the Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol tomorrow for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Covid-19 because infections are rising in our part of the country. Incredibly, organizers are asking attendees to social-distance for two weeks afterwards if they can. Secondly, ministers have been warning against attending the protests, indicating that a second wave of Covid is coming, and the Tories want to pin the blame on BLM protestors. But, seeing the crowds in London today it is difficult not to feel that this is a historic moment for this country and the world. A protest is not a negotiation. What triggers it and what fuels it could be entirely separate things. The police in the UK are less brutal towards black people than in the US, although that is an extremely low standard. But, after 10 years of austerity, being locked up in their houses for months, and months if not years of economic depression ahead of us, people can be excused for feeling that they are at the end of the tether. Police brutality in the UK is not an issue that gets me fired up, to be honest. I have just been here for a few years and no one I know or know of has experienced it. But, one can also attend a protest out of curiosity, to witness what may be a historical moment. Maybe these protests are the beginning of a leftward lurch?
I am not going to play the cynic and say it is easier for white people to perform wokeness by going to a protest than examine how they themselves are complicit in white supremacy in their everyday lives through their words/silences and actions/inactions. If I don't want to go for protest, I should just admit that without being sanctimonious about it.
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