I am your typical born and raised London girl. Yet, that sentence holds a different meaning depending on who you ask. Having grown up in South East London, as a Black British girl has been both an experience and a lesson compared to other British girls.
My story is, before I even knew what the word ‘racism’ meant I remember feeling it along with other mixtures of emotions when I was walking down the road to my karate class . A group of men sitting outside the pub shouted out the ‘N’ word to me. At the time I was only 8 years old. What could I have done?
At birth we all enter the world as a ‘blank slate’ meaning that we know nothing of nothing. Therefore, we must acquire our knowledge through experience and perception.
In that moment should I too have conducted myself in the same manner? But, two wrongs don’t make a right.
A lot of families like mine have taught their children that lives are important no matter the colour of one’s skin. From 1619 to 2020 the world has come a long way from the way black people were seen and sold as ‘chattel’ compared to today being the President of the United States of America or going to university. However, to bear witness to lives like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, Stephon Clark (and many more) being brutally murdered by men that are supposed ‘To Protect and Serve’’ shows that we are further in the past than we may care to admit.
I have a lot of males in my family and I fear what will happen if the world doesn’t stop murdering us.
My message is please protect and save us from those that wish we never existed.
