Article 11 of The 1998 Human Rights Act, gives us all the right to peacefully protest; however, various media outlets and politicians have branded Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters as ‘thugs’ and ‘criminals’.
Adding salt to the wound, leftist groups who are clearly rooted in racism and white supremacy have been branded the lighter term, ‘counter-protesters’ in some scenarios, rather than the terrorists that they truly are.
The media have been twisting the narrative of the typical, peaceful BLM supporter by widely reporting on the mass graffiti of national statues, flags and war memorials as though this is the real atrocity.
The media outrage after the demise of the Colston statue who, may I add, sold about 100,000 slaves from West Africa to the Americas in the 17th Century, I guess proves that for some, black oppression isn’t such a big deal.
As a black female, it is deeply upsetting that the government and many people in this country care more about the integrity of a pile of sticks and mortar than the living, breathing inhabitants it governs over
Instead of Priti Patel (the Home Secretary) flagging up the fact that these figures should not be idolised, and certainly should not have statues due to the atrocities they committed, she responded to these acts as ‘hooliganism‘.
As a black female, it is deeply upsetting that the government and many people in this country care more about the integrity of a pile of sticks and mortar than the living, breathing inhabitants it governs over.
Instead of Patel sympathising with protesters – most of whom may I add, did not vandalise, or cause any confrontations – she decided to put up walls and create a larger divide between the state and its people, in particular those of minority backgrounds.
Patel argued that she would “‘not take lectures” from others regarding racism, purely based on the fact that she had experienced racism as well.
In all honesty, she might as well have just told Black Lives Matter protesters that she did not care. Instead, she tried to sugar-coat her opinion with an anecdote in an attempt to create the illusion of familiarity.
At the end of the day, a bit of spray paint can be cleaned but an innocent life lost to, and damaged by, the system cannot just be bleached back to normal.
Amongst the fact that hate group the Ku Klux Klan has not been designated as a terrorist group, despite the atrocities it has committed against blacks since its founding in 1865, Tennessee. I am also extremely confused and vexed as to why ‘counter-protesters’ aren’t been described as ‘hooligans’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘hate groups’ by all media outlets.
If the narrative were flipped, chances are the police would have told the protesters to stop harassing and threatening the other group and wouldn’t have been afraid to use force
So many peaceful BLM protests have been disrupted by these so-called ‘counter-protesters’: during the Juneteenth protests in the United States, these very people were openly carrying rifles.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Trump’s cronies clearly wanted to silence protesters by making them feel unsafe and possibly even starting a fatal fight (why else would you bring weapons to a peaceful protest?).
Instead of the media and officials describing these acts as malicious, and endangering the lives of civilians, they brushed over the fact that they were armed and decided to comment, instead, on their compliance with officers when asked to reduce the revving sounds of their motorbikes.
If the narrative were flipped, chances are the police would have told the protesters to stop harassing and threatening the other group and wouldn’t have been afraid to use force.
On Saturday 13 June 2020, The guardian released an article titled, UK protests: Far-right demonstrators clash with London police – as it happened.
By ‘clash’ what they really meant was that these ‘protesters’, who claimed to have been protecting their dear old piles of cement (also known as statues), had decided to throw bottles at police officers, drink heavily, act violently, chant Nazi salutes and tyrannise people in nearby parks.
How this was classed as a ‘clash’ is beyond me, especially when you consider the fact that one black person throwing a bottle at police leads to the media brandishing an event as a riot.
I, amongst many others, am not surprised by the way we are portrayed by the media. In fact, many have become used to it over the years, even though we shouldn’t have to get used to it.
Unfortunately, media outlets have the power to dictate a narrative that generates sales and naturally, due to the nature of the world we live in, blacks and other minorities in the western world are villainised unjustly whilst a white man is often painted as a patriotic hero with his transgressions brushed over.
Who knows when the media will start writing stories to provoke positive change, rather than to suit the left’s agenda and generate mass sales?
Who knows when politicians, as well as officials, will pull their heads out their caviar infused privilege bubbles?
Morenike Tomori
Featured image courtesy of Chris Henry via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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