‘No Lives Will Matter, Till Black Lives Matter’.

As we all know lockdown has had a huge impact on people, with protests for NHS pay rise to the Black Lives Matter movement, we have all grown and learnt the hardships people face.

Through social media we have seen the scale and impact people have on each other; with posts and tweets being shared across all platforms of issues such as racism, murder, and sexual assault. It has especially highlighted how across the UK and the US the major issues of racism, prejudice, and inequality. The murder of George Floyd reignited the revolutionary Black Lives Matter campaign, and with this it caused a spread of young minds, such as mine, to share videos and information to their followers of these issues.

Lockdown has given people the life lesson of white privilege, subtle racist tendencies as well as how certain behaviours display prejudice to people of colour. The sharing of information and videos has shown people the reality of being a coloured person in society, to the extent that black and brown people are killed for their skin colour. This is not just shocking but frightening.

As an Asian girl I have learnt that people will never see anything but my race. It all comes down to race, as people place a person of colour in a group full of ten white people and call that ‘diversity’. It is sickening. Throughout this lockdown people are now becoming aware of these issues and sharing how this must end.

From this lockdown people have learnt lessons that people of colour are often faced with, all through social media and research. The impact social media has had on the Black Lives Matter campaign has been astronomical, with many youths sharing tweets, retweeting, posting and reposting information about this campaign has highlighted a requirement for change.

On Tuesday 20th April 2021, the officer who killed George Floyd was found guilty. This is accountability, not justice. George Floyd should still be alive today, but he was killed at the hands of police brutality because he was a black man. Without video evidence, his killer would be walking free. It is astonishing how one video being shared across all digital platforms was able to show people globally the murder of George Floyd and set this verdict. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent black lives being taken away but their killers roam free because it was not videoed.

To be able to walk across the street without the police officer questioning you or murdering you, is a privilege. To be able to post a tweet without racist comments underneath, is privilege. To believe that you have no white privilege is negligence. With the sharing of posts during this lockdown people have learnt how they are privileged and how they can positively help people of colour with their privilege.

This lockdown has provided a platform for people to highlight the issues they face as well as providing people of colour a platform to rise and speak up.

To donate, help and learn more head to https://blacklivesmatter.com/