Black Lives Matter - education needed

I am sure that we are all aware of the Black Lives Matter movement - BLM. Following the tragic and awful death of George Floyd in America, it is a movement that has swept across the globe - and quite rightly so. If you watch football matches, I think it is so powerful to see players and officials "take the knee" at the beginning of a match. However, it is sometimes difficult to explain to some younger people exactly why this action, and BLM, is so important.

I have a grandson who is 13, turning 14 in December. He is a member of the Youth Academy of a Premier League football team. He cannot understand why we are talking about Black Lives Matter. To him, all lives matter - not just black ones. He has friends, mates, who are black (or of colour). He sees them as mates, not as black or of colour. Therefore, he asks why don't we say All Lives Matter? 

Of course, all lives do matter. And it is important to remember that. However, it is equally important to remember that people are persecuted (and have been through countless ages) because of the colour of their skin, their religion, their sexuality or just because they seem different from what some people in this world class as "normal".

So, what is needed? Well, obviously education, but it must be education that is conducted with care. I wouldn't like to think that my 13 year old grandson suddenly becomes aware of racism, and starts treating some of his mates differently. It needs to be a complete understanding of racism, and that isn't something that can be done overnight. There is so much to explain (if that's the right word), and it's difficult to know where to start. 

Do you start with what happened with George Floyd? What about Nelson Mandela? Many remember Mandela as the President of South Africa, but forget he spent 27 years in prison, considered to be an "enemy of the state" for standing against apartheid. 

Maybe start with Martin Luther King? and his fight against apartheid in America, for which he lost his life in 1968? Or perhaps Rosa Parks, who bravely refused to surrender her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. All of these are, for many of us, within living memory.

Or perhaps Rosa Parks, who bravely refused to surrender her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. All of these are, for many of us, within living memory.

Or should we go back further? The Holocaust perhaps, where at least 6 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazi regime in the 1930's and 40's. Many others were killed in that period - basically any person who didn't live up to the Nazi Aryan ideal.  

Or perhaps we should go back to the Slave Trade, a part of history recently brought to mind with the destruction of statues of various "dignitaries" of this and many other countries. This was an abhorrent practice, and many people made their fortunes from it, and used their money to build and develop many of our towns and cities.



And I haven't mentioned the persecution of people because of their sexuality, the subjugation of women - the list is a long one. The fact is that it is virtually impossible to know where to start. Since time immemorial, man has tried to laud himself over other men for many reasons. However, perhaps the point is not where we start, but where we want to finish: we want to live in a society where everyone is accepted for who they are: black, white, gay, straight, Jew, Christian, Muslim, male, female - it doesn't matter. We should show respect to all people with whom we share this world. Utopia? Maybe. Impossible? Perhaps. But regardless, we have to educate, but that education should be undertaken with care. It is not something that can be done in one half hour lesson in school whenever the need arises. It is something that should be ingrained in our young people from an early age. 

I would like to think that my grandson will continue to see his mates as mates - not black mates, gay mates, Jewish mates - but just mates. And, like him, we will be able to say that "All Lives Matter".