During our lecture today we spoke about racism, how attitudes have improved over time but the fact there is still a very long way to go for everyone in this world to be treated equally.  I am always filled with horror and shame when I am reading about the treatment of black people throughout the ages and indeed up to the present day.  It is hard to believe that after the brutal murder of the innocent Emmet Brown in 1955, the ‘all white male’ jury declared the perpetrators innocent although  the evidence was there to prove they were guilty with Emmets uncle bravely pointing them out in court.  You cannot begin to imagine such atrocities/racism and injustice being withheld in a court of law to this day.  Yet in 1993 there was the grossly racist handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder where his mother quoted the handling of the investigation  ‘‘like white masters during slavery.’  The subsequent ‘Macpherson Report’ followed leading to Statutory processes being put in place to pursue Race Equality.  However, in 2016 ‘non violent’ Alton Sterling was shot dead by police in Louisiana and Keith Scott in Charlotte, USA, police stating he was armed but CTV footage not supportive of this.  His family are still fighting for justice.

Reading these reports and listening to Clint Smith and the rapper/poet Akala gives me a better insight into just how Ethnocentrism and The theory of Critical Race (where racism is an everyday norm for people of colour) still play a huge part of peoples lives. After listening to Clint it is obvious so many Black people/children are not afforded the innocent childhood but live under  ‘a blanket of advice’ this makes me reflect on my childhood where, apart from teaching me what my parents thought was right from wrong, I certainly didn’t have to worry how I carried myself or acted around my friends.   Akala talks about everyday racism stating that through the portrayal and stereotyping of black people he even wondered why a young guy of the same origin as himself was paying a large some of money into a bank.  He asked himself  what this guy did for a living and automatically the notion of drugs came to mind.  When I think about the media headlines we have seen today and the racial comments from Anton Du Beke, Ron Atkinson and Paul Gascoigne my views are changing swiftly.  I remember 1970’s blatant racism in such shows as ‘Love thy Neighbour’ or ‘Rising Damp’ , they openly passed off racism as acceptable humour, approved back then by the BBC!  Growing up in that era racism wasn’t just tolerated but seemingly justifiable. Has it been so ingrained in society throughout the years that still people think it is okay to show implicit bias.

I thought humanity had progressed more than we have, I felt things were getting better, but if millions of people believe there are rules governing how to live your life due to the colour of your skin, where families are fearful for their childrens’ lives and only 8% of Black people in the US feel there has been sufficient changes to lead to racial equality then obviously they are right, we are only scratching the surface.