Tag Archives: Black British

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Global Event: Anti-Police Violence Protests

Global Protests:
#BlackLivesMatter / Anti–Police Violence

Nearly four years ago, Outlas published a catalog of media coverage focused on global protests connected to the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter movement. Today, the murder of Black American George Floyd by the police has re-galvanized demonstrations across the world’s continents, promoting diverse forms of solidarity across movements focused on affirming Black lives, eliminating racism, and ending police violence.

Floyd’s death is one among many that have pushed people into the streets of cities from Honolulu to East Jerusalem, drawing together accounts of the criminalization of people of color and other minority groups around the world. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, protesters around the world have gathered to interconnect their causes, demonstrating the resilience of a global anti-racism and anti–police brutality movement despite the lull in media coverage in recent years. This collection has gathered more than 150 articles, statements, and multimedia stories documenting the recent surge in protests and their interconnection.

Key Global Cases
Global/Interregional
U.S.
Canada
Latin America and the Caribbean
Europe
Africa and the Middle East
Asia and the Pacific

Key Global Cases

Global/Interregional

Source: The Telegraph

A number of media outlets have mapped the development of demonstrations around the world and compiled media and accounts from protests, summarizing the connections between the diverse sites and expressions of solidarity journalists have uncovered.

U.S.

Source: NBC News

The U.S. has experienced more than a week of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. His death was the latest in a series of events that had drawn attention to ongoing violence and threats of violence faced by Black people in public space across the U.S., from racist vigilantism in Georgia to a dead-of-night police break-in and murder in New York. Protesters across all 50 states mobilized to contest police violence, prompting spectacular forms of police repression—including tear-gassing, beatings, tasing, and shootings—captured on video and circulated across social media platforms.

Local Protests

Canada

Source: Global News

Canada has experienced its own widespread condemnation of police violence in the U.S., organizing massive demonstrations from Vancouver to Halifax in honor of the memory of George Floyd. Participants have also drawn attention to recent fatal incidents involving police—including the recent death of Afro-Indigenous woman Regis Korchinski-Paquet—and the disproportionate effects of police violence experienced by Black and Indigenous Canadians and other Canadians of color.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Source: Agence France-Presse

Afro-Latinx, Afro-Caribbean, and allied Latin American communities have also expressed solidarity with Black Americans, highlighting both the ongoing forms of marginalization experienced by Afro-descendant people in Central American countries and the complex relationships to racism across the Caribbean. Brazil, in particular, has been grappling with an entrenched police brutality problem that overwhelmingly threatens Afro-Brazilians—particularly those living in poor communities. The recent killing of 14-year-old João Pedro has reignited protests, with demonstrators drawing explicit connections to anti-Black police violence in the U.S.

Transnational

Brazil

Mexico

Europe

Source: France 24

Massive protests across Europe have centered not only the injustice of George Floyd’s death, but also ongoing forms of racism across the continent. In France, George’s death scratched at the wound of the 2016 murder of Adama Traoré in a suburb of Paris. In the UK, protest participants were quick to shut down any attempt to distance the UK from U.S.-style racism, highlighting ongoing discrimination experienced by Black communities in the country. Whether in the commemoration of colonial leaders responsible for the death of millions of Africans or stubborn denials of institutional racism, contemporary manifestations of racism drew the ire of demonstrators of all backgrounds.

Transnational

Belgium

France

Germany

Italy

The Netherlands

Spain

U.K.

Africa and the Middle East

Source: France 24

Solidarity with protesters in the U.S. found diverse expression across Africa and the Middle East, from a mural in the rubble of an obliterated Syrian building to an open letter signed by dozens of African writers demanding accountability and pressuring African governments to do more. African political leaders, for their part, took the rare step of condemning the situation in the U.S.. But activists across the region also worked to draw attention to local police brutality problems as well, including the killing of autistic Palestinian Iyad Halak by Israeli border security and high levels of violence against women (both by police and by others not held to account by police) in Nigeria.

Transnational

The Gambia

Israel and the Palestinian Territories

Kenya

Nigeria

South Africa

Turkey

Asia and the Pacific

Source: The New Zealand Herald

In the Asia-Pacific region, a range of responses to unrest in the U.S. has emerged. In a tit-for-tat with the U.S. government, Chinese officials have used the situation to draw attention to human rights violations in the U.S. as the U.S. has condemned China for its crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong. Elsewhere, police brutality has been a longstanding issue with respect to the treatment of indigenous communities. Thousands of protesters across Australia and New Zealand expressed solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement while also integrating the long history of anti-Indigenous violence into their calls for change. Similarly, the outbreak of protests in U.S. and the resurgence of global anti-racism consciousness provided an opportunity for activists and members of the Papuan diaspora to highlight the ongoing discrimination and violence experienced by indigenous Papuans at the hands of the Indonesian government.

Australia

China

India

Indonesia

Japan

New Zealand

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.K. News | Immigrants & Racial Minorities

Hate crime reports surge in U.K. in wake of Brexit
  • Since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, a 500% increase in hate crimes reported online has drawn attention to a wave of racist, anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.
  • Some 331 reports have been filed through the online report filing portal in the week since the vote (a significant increase from the weekly average of 63) as critics of the “Leave” campaign have accused the anti-E.U. movement of stirring xenophobic sentiment in the country.
  • PM David Cameron announced additional funding to security forces to stem the tide and called on politicians across political parties to condemn hate crimes.

Read more:
“Hate crime reports surge in Britain after divisive EU referendum, police say” (Reuters)
“Cameron announces plan to tackle hate crime after vote to leave EU” (The Guardian)
“U.K. Announces New Plan to Tackle Hate Crimes” (The Wall Street Journal)

(Image Credit: PRU/HO/AFP/Getty Images, via The Wall Street Journal)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.K. Research | Ethnic Minorities

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The U.K.’s Minority/White Wage Gap

The Trades Union Council (TUC), a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, released a report indicating significant disparities in white and minority worker compensation in the U.K. Degreed black workers in particular face acute inequity relative to similarly qualified white peers in the labor market. The findings come as PM David Cameron has publicly committed to tackling systemic racial inequalities.

12.8% (black) / 5.6% (black and other ethnic minorities)

Average pay gap for all workers

23.1% (black) / 10.3% (black and other ethnic minorities)

Average pay gap for degreed workers

14.3% (black) / 17.1% (black and other ethnic minorities)

Average pay gap for workers with A-levels (a secondary-level graduate certification)

11.4% (black) / 13.6% (black and other ethnic minorities)

Average pay gap for workers with GCSEs (a secondary-level graduate certification)

Read more:
“Black workers with degrees earn a quarter less than white counterparts, finds TUC” (The Trades Union Council)
“Black graduates in Wales are being paid 23% less less than their white colleagues” (WalesOnline)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.K. News | Ethnic Minorities

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U.K. PM Cameron appoints MP to investigate racial discrimination in British criminal justice system
  • Labour PM David Lammy will lead a government review of the British criminal justice system.
  • Black and other ethnic minorities account for more than 25% of British prisoners despite only comprising 14% of the population of England and Wales.
  • Minorities are also disproportionately more likely to represent Crown Court defendants and receive custodial sentences if found guilty than white counterparts.

Read more:
“David Cameron calls on David Lammy to investigate race bias in UK courts” (The Guardian)
“David Cameron appoints David Lammy to lead review into racism in the justice system” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: AFP/Getty, via The Independent)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

UK News | Racial Minorities & Women

British PM announces name-blind admissions and hiring measures, new gender pay equity policies
  • PM David Cameron announced that the UK’s University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) will switch to name-blind applicant evaluation in 2017 to reduce racial bias in college admissions.
  • Numerous studies have indicated that culturally inflected differences in names significantly impact job applicants’ likelihood of being hired, with those with names traditionally from black and other ethnic minority communities receiving fewer interviews.
  • Cameron also outlined new policies to address the gender pay gap, including forcing private companies to publish bonuses, requiring large public sector organizations to publish pay data, and pushing for the elimination of all-male FTSE-350 boards.

Read more:
“Ucas to enforce ‘name-blind’ applications to tackle racial bias” (The Guardian)
“The perfect name for a job application, based on biases” (BBC)

(Image Credit: David Cheskin/PA, via the Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

UK News | Racial Minorities

Investigation finds London’s Metropolitan police force took no disciplinary action on more than 200 racial discrimination complaints over year
  • The Met received 245 complaints of racial discrimination by police officers between March 2014 and February 2015, with five resulting in managerial action and the rest being dismissed.
  • Complaints were often dismissed as “poor communication,” although five officers received three or more allegations of discrimination.
  • The police force is looking to address fraught relations with London’s ethnic minority communities as only 11% of its ranks come from minority backgrounds while 40% of London’s population does.

“[The Met is] shown to be effectively immune from any accountability. We need a truly independent body that carries the confidence of the communities affected by police abuses of power. The police cannot be trusted to investigate themselves.”

Read more:
“No racial discrimination complaints against Met police upheld” (The Guardian)
“Met chief admits institutional racism claims have ‘some justification’” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images, via the Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.K. Research | Ethnic Minorities

Sports Participation Among Minorities in Wales

Sports Wales recently conducted a study of Black, Asian, and ethnic minority participation in sports in Wales and found disproportionately low levels of engagement. The research found that ethnic minorities were less likely to participate as players or as volunteers, administrators, or spectators, causing concern because of the traditional conception of athletics as an inclusive cultural activity.

4.5%

Percentage of Wales’s population that is of a minority ethnic background

Lower incomes, limited time, limited mobility, limited facilities, racism, and language barriers

Reasons study cites for lower levels of participation

£3 million

Amount of funding earmarked for tackling inequality in sports (with £1.5 million specifically targeting racial and ethnic inequality)

Read more:
“Black and ethnic minorities face barriers to sport, report says“ (BBC)
“BAME communities in Wales face sporting barriers” (The Voice)
Calls 4 Action: Black and Minority Ethnic Pupils – what do we know? (Sports Wales)