Editorial Ged Smith
2020 will be remembered for not
one generation-defining event but two. Just when we thought the corona virus pandemic was the only news in town, then we are hit with events in Minneapolis where there was yet another killing of a black man by white police. The only difference this time is that it was filmed and so the world watched the eight-minute slow execution of a man, guilty of a $20 offence, with three cops kneeling on him slowly taking his breath and his life away while he pleaded for mercy. We have come to expect President Trump’s response, blaming everyone except the militaristic police departments and himself, encouraging dominance and control, and lacking understanding. And we know what the white supremacists are going to say. But this is far from a uniquely American problem, and this was evidenced by the response of the British Government. Boris Johnson said, “We can’t ignore the anger of the black population over this”. Think about those words. Why would anybody even think to ignore their words? And the health secretary Matt Hancock said that this is an American issue that does not happen in the UK because here we are a very tolerant society. Think about
those words too. Tolerant? Who wants to be tolerated? How can anybody be equal if their position in society is to be tolerated? I believe Johnson and Hancock have no idea of the wider significance of their words and would dispute them rather than reflect on them if they were pointed out, and this is the problem. The privileged elite, who grew up with wealth, go to Oxbridge colleges, enter politics (almost always the Conservative Party) and then rule over the working classes and the black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities with little sense of what any of that is like. At the time of writing, there are
demonstrations planned in London and other British cities, promoting the Black Lives Matter message. Meanwhile, right-wing hate groups are planning counter demonstrations to protect statues of slave traders and other racists like Churchill. The home secretary, Priti Patel, is highly critical of the protesters, citing her own experiences of racism at school while, at the same time, defending the statues of people who pillaged and enslaved her parents’ and others’ countries. She, Johnson and others defend the need for the statues to remain because it is all part of British
A Poem for George
Please! Take your knee off my neck I am begging you Please! Take your knee off my neck I can’t breathe I tell you While you keep me Held in this place I am a son, I am a brother, I am a lover, I am a father I am an uncle A cousin and a friend I am a worker and I have a life to live I am begging you Please! Take your knee off my neck I can’t breathe I tell you While you’re holding me in this place I need to breathe So I can live for me and My family Please! Take your knee off my neck Mama! Oh mama I am calling on you now Reach out to me from heaven And remove me from this pain I can feel my blood fl ow stopping I know my brain is dying My body no longer moving T at knee is still on my neck Oh Lord my God Please help me Now the light has gone from my eyes
Yvonne Bailey-Smith (mostly retired)
Senior family and systemic psychotherapist, Combe Wood Mother and Baby Unit and professional advisor to Young Minds Mental Health Charity
Yvonne Bailey-Smith Context 170, August 2020 1
Editorial
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