Black Lives Matter campaigners

[RattusRattus]

I am a little confused as to why these guys are demonstrating. There seems to be no obvious catalyst - i.e. in response to a recent example of police racial prejudice. Also isn't BLM an American organisation? It just seems like they are making a point for the sake of it rather than getting themselves heard in a more constructive way. Also, IMO all lives matter, so equality should be the same whatever race you are. I can't really see how are they going to do much more than annoy people by blocking roads.

God there are some thick people on this thread and I really can't be arsed to engage.

Apart from saying that using any sentence such as 'blacks do X, Y and Z' (pp said ....started by blacks) is removing the person and humanity from that sentence. It's not acceptable to say that. The same as it's not acceptable to say 'gays do this. ..' or 'disableds do this...'. And yes, the same goes for saying 'whites'.

If you spoke like that within my hearing in my place of work, I would do all I could to have you fired. And it demonstrates all we need to know about you.

quelle surprise

I can't really believe this thread, so depressing. To those of you who are saying why are they protesting in the UK? - black men are not shot by the police in the UK. Is that the standard then? They should be grateful that they are not getting shot? Life chances are affected by race, as they are by class. Is that so hard to understand.

I also think that because they are protesting under the umbrella of a well known American movement then it provokes people to question what they are doing out of simple confusion. Clearly I'm not the only one who has initially thought that they were campaigning against blacks getting shot by police which is what drives it in the USA. Thankfully as such shootings rarely happen here people are more likely to be confused by that. Why anyone would want to make their protest anything other than crystal clear? It has clearly weakened their objective because it makes them look like they are jumping on the US bandwagon.

So why are they protesting at airports where British hard working and knackered families are trying to park up and board planes for a well earned holiday. They've worked for it earned and buggar me their paths are blocked by protesters lying down. Can you imagine the heart sink sat in your car.

Why piss off holiday makers - where's the logic in that.

Use of 'Hardworking families' is an automatic lose inkanta

Is it ?? Aw.

But u agree with you and others, disrupting holidays in August isn't the best tactics.

You can imagine the planning, though; all the emphasis on maximum impact not public support.

I** agree.

I do think the campaigners at Heathrow aren't doing themselves any favours. I also fail to see how this feeds into the UK under the framework of the American led campaign. I think they should have thought it through. There is racism in the UK but this isn't the way to go about tackling it.

I agree. There is racism in this country just as there is misogyny and homophobia, but making bigoted people angry isn't a great tactic as it's just going to meet up with their existing expectations. The strategy of 'I'm going lie here for hours to disrupt your day and annoy you' is counter-productive. There are various schemes and types of legislation aimed at reducing bigotry, but unfortunately it will probably never go away.

Apparently there are going to be rallies in several cities tonight. I hope they stay peaceful, but if there is even a small pocket of trouble, that's where the media will focus.

First of all I see it as showing solidarity to the US movement, but also as a protest against the injustices against black people here. Mark Duggan's aunt gave a really good and heartbreaking speech on UK specific issues at a rally/vigil recently. I think it's unfair to call them buffoons and bandwagon jumpers. Black people outside the US are also angry and have every right to this anger. It may not be our sons, brothers and fathers that have the same risk of becoming the next fatality, but can you really not imagine why black people in the UK are hurting and are angry? Because it's not happening over here we shouldn't be sad, scared or feel anger?

And the problem is, no matter which way people protest or ask for justice, people will find a way to decry the movement and justify the deaths. I, as a black woman, would be pissed off at missing my flight but that "this will not do them any favours" is kind of a moot point when throughout all the peaceful sit down protests, nothing has changed and people still find a way to justify black people being killed. It feels like time and time again the only response people want to injustice is to sit down and take it.

I don't know. I understand people's frustration at traffic, just like how people grt frustrated with strikes and industrial action. I just wish people could also have a little empathy for an international community of black people who really would just like this bullshit to stop, and to know their community in the USA could know a little bit of justice and fairness.

Because it's not happening over here we shouldn't be sad, scared or feel anger?

I would have thought we can be happy it's not happening over here?

chardonnay erm, yes we're happy it's not happening over here but sad, scared and angry it is happening at all

needascarf what's the right way? when people were peaceful they still called it a riot. MLK is always touted as the right way for black people to protest racism and he was still shot. You can't say people won't be sympathetic if your protests are inconvenient when they haven't been sympathetic to "respectable" ones either. I wouldn't like missing my flight and I'm not saying I would, but I don't see the same anger towards racial injustice as I do about traffic (or, say, looted shops in the USA). People on here get more angry over being called racist than they do about racism.

People on here get more angry over being called racist than they do about racism

I think this sums up really well what I've seen happening on every thread on here I've read concerning race.

There have been too many deaths of black men while in police custody in the UK. The detained men do struggle and fight back hard, and unfortunately this causes too many police officers to jump on an individual to restrain, eventually causing suffocation. Too much weight on a person’s torso means they cannot catch a breath and they die.

A fighting man needs one PC to sit across the legs, and PCs holding down each arm. The rest of the body has to be free of compression. Unnecessary deaths.

Mooingcow and supersoft are correct as regards slavery. Slavery was practised by Africans themselves for a very long time. When a tribe conquered another, slaves were taken and somewhere along the line excess slaves began to be sold to Arabs. Therefore ME and African countries were very much part of the Atlantic slave trade, the end-user being Europe and USA.

Unfortunately this is not taught in History and provides skewed knowledge to students, which stays with them forever and may even fuel misplaced hostility.

I'm afraid 'Roots' did a lot of damage to generations.

So, scarf, what do you suggest? To make people listen to communities when they say they're facing injustice. Considering petitions, peaceful convenient protests, writing eloquent articles and all other manners of asking politely for, you know, 12 year old black kids to play in the park without being shot have still not worked? Black Lives Matter could change their name to All Lives Matter, only ever support victims with an immaculate record, wear suits and protest by writing politely worded letters that inconvenience no one and trouble no one at all. And black people would still get shot, people would still say they deserve it, that its one less thug, and the campaign would still be criticised.

Instead, the campaign is angry, inconvenient, shows solidarity with controversial campaigns like BDS. You might not like it or agree with the campaign, and black lives are still being taken, we still don't matter but has there not been a spotlight on the police brutality situation and other anti-black injustices since it began? Are people not listening now? Is the spotlight not on the US police force? People will always justify why black people deserve less rights but since BLM began, the workd has been watching and that's, at least, the start of something.

I worry that, whilst they have a valid cause, hitching themselves to the US version gives naysayers an opportunity to say 'that doesn't happen here'. And that particular thing (black deaths from police gunfire) doesn't happen here. In fact the police used their firearms six times in 2015. It's completely incomparable to the US situation.

Does that mean there is no issue around life chances for young black men here ? Of course not. But it's opening yourself up to criticism of bandwagon jumping using this particular banner, though it may be crucial in the US.

Plus the Heathrow tactic made them look like Fathers 4 Justice or similar. I would be very sad if BLM became Fathers 4 Justice in the public's mind. Total own goal I think.