Three years on - what has changed?

By Jamel McFarlane 


Where were you when they murdered George Floyd?  

 

By the time this article is released, it will probably be around 3 years since he was murdered. Even thinking about this - brings back bad memories. 

 

I remember scrolling through Twitter and seeing the video. The first time I watched the murder I was mortified. How could a man be treated like that? No matter what he had done, no human being should ever be treated like this.  

 

After everything went down and the world reacted to the video, more and more people started advocating for the rights of black people. People started marching and rioting about it.  

 

Moyin was SU President at the time, and I was Vice President-Elect. We discus
sed the riots. Three years ago, my opinion was that there should not be riots as it could make black people look bad. I think what happened was frustrations had been building for so long and people had had enough. George Floyd was not the first black man to die at the hands of the police, but it was, as they say, the final straw in a list of issues people of colour have had to deal with for a long time. Also, I believe that because we were told to stay home because of Covid, people had more time to focus/see what had actually been going on for decades that some people hadn’t given much thought to previously. 



 

Off the back of the murder, there were marches and protests for Black Lives Matter. I saw on social media how so many of you attended those. It was the first real sign that we had allies willing to stand up, although some people may have joined because to them it was just a trend.  

 

Was I there?  

 

No.  

 

It’s funny there were loads of people marching for BLM. And I wasn’t there. I couldn’t leave the house. Every time I saw the pictures of videos of the George Floyd murder it made me sick to my stomach.  

 

The murder took a toll on my mental health during that time. My confidence was shattered.  

 

I felt lost.  

 

Though George Floyd was American, I still felt like it was happening to me. 

 

Seeing those videos and pictures about a guy being murdered was horrific.  

 

It’s funny but we talk about mental health and being there for one another. But where was the mental health support from family and even friends at the time of the murder?  

 

No one reached out.  

 

No one texted me to ask how I was feeling or to offer any support. Everyone went marching but no one was like “Let me check in on my friends”. Maybe that is a selfish thought but that is how I see it.  

 

I was not the only person that felt like this. There were people from around the UK and abroad that felt the same.  

 

George Floyd’s death lifted a small vale and opened some people’s eyes and enabled them to see things that really happen in society that aren’t related to them.  

 

At the time of George Floyd’s murder and the weeks that followed a lot of companies and organisations made knee-jerk statements expressing how they are the best place to work for black people. People in leadership positions started groups and committees and started to try and open the conversation. It took the horrific murder of George Floyd for these places to finally wake up and realise how black people are treated differently in society and in the world of work.  

 

 

What has changed in three years?  

 

Well just sitting down and watching adverts now, you see more diversity. This is a good thing as it is important for young children from ethnic backgrounds to see people that look like them on TV. We have seen sports player’s taking the knee and standing up to racism and discrimination. We have seen some companies/businesses who are committed to making changes actually see it through. Unfortunately, some have moved on because the Black Lives Matter trend has ended (according to them).  

 

There has been movement, but we have probably moved about 2% towards our target and there is still a long way to go for things to be better.  

 

For me, look at how people reacted after Rashford, Saka and Sancho missed those penalties in Europe 2020 (played in 2021 because of Covid). There are many examples of incidents since then where we can see that this journey is going to take some time.   

 

 

What can you do?  

 

  • Encourage your workplace/business to keep working towards fighting systemic racism 


The most important thing



Keep working hard on becoming a better ally!  

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