Over the last few days there have been several protests in the US and here in the UK following the brutal murders of innocent black men and women by police.  A few times this week and throughout the year I have logged into twitter and have been met with several videos of a black man/women being tackled and shot or killed in custody. Someone will ask me if i have heard about the shootings and instead of gasping my automatic response has changed to 'which one?'. We are being desensitised to seeing black people being killed or seeing dead black bodies. Yet when police officers are killed images of their dead bodies or videos of their murder aren't being shoved down our throats. Unlike the black men and women, the police officers are being respected. To me this shows me that its an issue with mentality and this cannot be changed through protesting.

I believe the reason for these shooting is because black people in society are viewed as something to fear, even black people fear black people or look down on them. A young black man in a hoody or in stereotypical 'thug' clothing is viewed as a threat. I won't lie to you if I see a group of black boys dressed in tracksuits or with jeans hanging low I will probably cross the road or call a friend in fear. This isn't something I'm proud of but I've internalised these stereotypes and automatically assume that they are up to no good and that I need to get away from them immediately. Until we undo the stereotypes we have internalised and begin to view black people as human beings nothing will change. There is no such thing as 'he looked like a criminal'

A friend from Uni mentioned how she feels that the best way for any change to occur is by boycotting white businesses. A good example being the Montgomery bus boycotts. On 1st December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up for a white man on a Montgomery bus, this was back when there was racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. As a result she was fined and arrested. 4 days later African Americans began to boycott public buses in Montgomery, this was massively effective because the black community represented at least 75% of Montgomery's bus ridership. So imagine the money the buses in Montgomery lost. This lasted around 381 days and on 21st December 1956 Montgomery buses were integrated, which was a huge victory. Whilst it may be difficult to completely boycott all white owned businesses, I think by buying from black owned businesses when we can and really supporting and helping the black community prosper we can make a difference.

Riots aren't what we need, they will only make us look bad in the eyes of the law, worse than how they already look at us that is. Protests raise awareness of a huge issue and show unity but all these protests will vanish from the headlines with minimal government response but no major political reforms.

My ideas are clearly not full-proof and a lot more would still need to be done but its a start right? 

Let me know what you guys think.

Until next time,

Chengetai Victoria x