In May and June 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic that disproportionately affected the black community, thousands of people gathered across UK cities as part of local Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. These protests started in cities and states across the USA and then spread across the world. Despite the fear of public gatherings in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak, people were determined to protest the existence of another virus, a pandemic that has plagued the black community for hundreds of years and has genetically mutated under the guise of policy and law. This virus is institutional racism and a climate of white supremacy, specifically that which takes the form of police brutality.
While BLM protests have taken digital and physical forms since 2013, the 2020 protests were spurred on after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. In a viral video that circulated social networking sites, Chauvin was shown to kneel on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd called out for his life. His last words ‘I can’t breathe!’ were featured on placards during the marches.
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