IN DEPTH
A place to breathe: UEL students share solidarity and support via Teams
University of East London has a 70 per cent BAME student population, 32 per cent of which is black, and is based in one of the areas hardest hit by Covid-19 – a disease that is more likely to result in death for sufferers from BAME communities. Regina Everitt, Director of Library, Archives and Learning Services, explains how and why she organised a forum to help students make sense of George Floyd and Covid-19.
ON the morning of 25 May 2020 (Memorial Day in America), Christian Cooper, a black man, was bird watch- ing in Central Park, New York. Amy Cooper (unrelated), a white woman, was in the same area of the park with her dog, which was off the lead. When Christian asked Amy to put the dog on the lead, in compliance with park rules, she threatened then proceeded to call the police claiming that an African American man was threatening her life. She knew exactly what she was doing. In a nation where black people, men particularly, have lost their lives due to police brutality, she knew that Christian Cooper would automatically be con- sidered a threat because of the colour of his skin. Christian Cooper filmed the incident, which later went viral on social media. Amy Cooper apologised after furious backlash on social media. On the same day, George Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. He was handcuffed, and killed as one police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes whilst two other officers held Floyd down. A fourth officer simply stood by and watched. The filming of this heinous act did not deter the officers. In fact, at one stage, the officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck looked straight at one of the cameras in much the same way as those photographed witnessing lynching in Jim Crow’s American south.
June-July 2020
Regina Everitt is Director of Library, Archives and Learning Services, University of East London
Floyd’s death sparked protests led by the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) across America and around the world. BLM was started in 2013 in response to the acquittal of the killer of Trayvon Martin, a teenager visiting family in Florida in 2012. BLM is a global movement aimed at ‘eradicating white supremacy’ and building local networks to challenge violence against black communities thereby ‘creating space for black innovation’ (Black Lives Matter 2020). The police officers responsible for Floyd’s death were immedi- ately fired after the emergence of the video, but were not charged until people took to the streets.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to claim lives across the world with BAME pop- ulations disproportionately impacted. According to a June 2020 Public Health England report,
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