I haven’t written anything as yet about the Black Lives Matter campaign/movement, but the news yesterday about the total lack of compassion and understanding surrounding the deaths of two sisters has finally pricked my conscience. I grew up in an ethnically mixed city (Nottingham) in the sixties and seventies. I can’t remember feeling any differently about my black friends and white friends, although I was aware that there were more white kids in the upper sets in school compared to the black kids. If I liked someone I liked them because of who they were, not because of their skin colour. I kissed black boys and white boys just the same! (Not until I was 16, though – I was a late starter!) Yet I know that my life has had advantages because I am white. I have had more opportunities because I am white. My life has been easier because I am white and I have often taken that for granted. I understand that some white people have not had all the opportunities I have had. Some white people have massive struggles in their lives. But, we owe it to black and minority ethnic people to acknowledge that often because of the way they have been treated by white society, they have particular problems and difficulties that need to be highlighted and we need to offer support and show solidarity with them, just as we support any movement that seeks to improve people’s lives. I find putting my thoughts into poetry easier that writing prose so here it is.
#BLM Why do white lives whine that All Lives Matter yet treat some with such disdain. White lives have conquered, Enslaved, Tortured, Killed. They have become rich on the exploitation of others - usually black others. White lives have always mattered. Admittedly some white lives are tough and some feel forgotten and marginalised. But those lives are still seen as part of our society and not outside of it. Now is the time to acknowledge that we have often not allowed Black Lives to Matter at all; That we have seen Black Lives as outside And that must change. There is still a sense of otherness And superiority. A ‘there, there’ pat on the head tolerance of difference when the different dare to question. As a white life I cannot fully understand how it is to be black in a white society: the name calling; the lack of opportunity; the suspicion; the targeting; the assumptions. All I can do is say that your life is as important and precious as mine; your life should have the same opportunities as mine; your death should be as dignified as mine not used as a photo opportunity. Your life really matters. Black Lives Matter.
Cardicwtch 