‘Educate the uneducated’: Black Lives Matter protest in Brighton announced for next Saturday

“The day that black people and ethnic minorities are equal to white people is when we will rest.”


BLM Brighton have announced their own protest starting at the pier for Saturday 13th June 2020 at 1:30pm. This follows after the murder of George Floyd by American police and after seeing Black Lives Matter protests spreading throughout Minneapolis and the rest of the US.

The accounted posted on their Instagram and encouraged their attending protestors to wear gloves and masks and also to bring water with them. They urged that if the protestors have symptoms of COVID-19 then to stay at home and do not attend.

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BLM Brighton organiser, Kaia, spoke with The Sussex Tab about her reasons for starting the group and organising the protest: “I was sick and tired of the generational, racially motivated injustice endured by the black community. I am still sick and tired. How many more hashtags of dead black bodies would it take for people to rise beyond the comfort of their phone screens and actively seek equity?

“Black lives matter is a movement that is pro-black, not anti-white. On the 13th of June, a day symbolic of the 13th amendment, we can reveal the barriers maintaining this racial hierarchy and start to find solutions … Participants of all ages, all genders, all sexualities, all ethnicities, all religions can start to learn about the world … it’s not just down to black people to fix it.”

Also from BLM Brighton, Beatriz explains: “As a white person, I’ll never be able to fully understand but what I can and every white person can and should do is educate themselves and use the white privilege they have been given to help the black community.”

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TJ, another organiser, maintains: “The day that black people and ethnic minorities are equal to white people is when we will rest.”

The upcoming University of Sussex SU BAME officer, Dany, told The Sussex Tab: “Violence against ethnic minorities is a universal issue especially by police. Due to the history of the US, black people have been suffering from police violence as an after effect of slavery and they have had enough. I am in full support of the protests in the states and I believe we all need to rise up against racial oppression globally. I am planning to take part in the rally with coronavirus cautions.

“I advise everyone to listen to minorities, especially black people, to educate themselves on these issues. Make sure you follow American politics closely these days because we cannot stay ignorant anymore.”

Mariam, from BLM Brighton, encourages: “Educate the uneducated.”

Ava shared a Martin Luther King quote with us, which seems to sum up the message of the protest: “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

You can find BLM Brighton on Instagram here.

How to donate and support the Black Lives Matter movement:

Sign the Justice for George Floyd petition here.

To donate to the official George Floyd Memorial Fund to support his family with funeral costs click here.

To sign the Black Lives Matter “Defund the Police” petition sign here.

To donate to the Bail Out Project click here.

 

 

Featured image credited to Evie Playfoot-Orme and BLM Brighton