“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: everywhere is war.”- Bob Marley
I felt I had been called to war, as I and a type of militia took to the streets of London on Sunday 7th June 2020 in an answer to the emergency: Black Lives Matter.
At the moment there is civil unrest drawing parallels with the 1960’s Civil Rights protests and the ‘Race Wars’ of 1967 in the U.S. However, this event was different. There was no division in colour as black people and white people stood on the 7th June against the eradication of police brutality and unadulterated racism against black people. As I walked at the protest I could feel a collective fire among the people, they were angry. Despite emotions running high for the death of George Floyd, “say his name” protesters shouted, who died due to a US police officer kneeling on his neck after being cuffed and thrown to the ground, there was also a sense of peace among the protesters. People had climbed walls and bus shelters to watch in encouragement and solidarity as the sea of protesters marched from the US embassy to Parliament Square. I was aware that I was among history in the making. Among the crowd there were polemic speakers calling for the unification of people against a common evil and the urgency of collective thinking to dispel the newly coined ‘real pandemic’ of racism.
