Black Lives Have Always Mattered
- @blurmag
- Jun 9, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 12, 2020
While we took a short break to work on additional projects and upgrade the Blur. platform from university assignment to legit publication, it felt wrong to write and report on anything other than our current Civil Rights Movement. Written by Rae, photos by Finlay Peggy (@finlay_peggy) and additional media via Instagram (@marcjacobs).
Photos by Finlay Peggy.
Starting initially with a disclaimer, we will not be using any graphic imagery surrounding recent events. Despite having a duty to show horrific incidents which affect all of our lives, in 2020 we now understand what police, specifically (but not limited to) US police, are capable of and how little regard they have for our lives, therefore we do not need to further traumatise our black family with this hurtful imagery. Secondly, any kind of 'All Lives Matter', 'Britain First' opinions in our DMs will be left on read - we literally do not care please don't waste your breath! And lastly, if you haven't already please go and donate to all necessary causes, sign as many petitions as you possibly can and attend protests (links below). This is not a one-week event, this has been happening since before all of our lifetimes. Do your research, educate yourselves and do better. Say their names.
Useful BLM Links:
Kickstarting, what is now, one of the largest Civil Rights Movements in history was the unfortunate death of George Floyd. Nothing he did, like the many many others mercilessly murdered by the police, warranted this level of force, which is evident from the heart-wrenching video that circulated social media recently. What would have happened without video evidence? Boomers love to speculate that smartphones make us dumb, make us lazy and disconnect us from each other, but in reality, our appalling shared experiences being captured by said smartphones are what is bringing us closer together and pushing us towards a more equal society.
In case you didn't know, George Floyd was far from the first. Each city has a list of black lives taken too soon, with racism being a constant variable dating back thousands of years, not just in America but globally. Giving examples of both horrific discrimination and segregation starting with the year 1501, marking the start of the slavery, with Great Britain becoming a 'leader' in the slave trade by 1562, gross right? It wasn't then abolished until 1807, and we still don't see freedom. The Apartheid laws in South Africa lasted from 1948 until 1994. NINETEEN NINETY-FOUR. Yet we question why institutionalised and systematic racism still exists, discrimination still exists, police brutality still exists, the KKK still exists, the mass media can still spread inaccurate and biased news, the full extent of racism still isn't taught in schools, even Trump, Boris and company are still allowed in positions of power - racism is so normalised that we don't remember a time when it wasn't present. It's so casual and expected and swept under the rug, which is why now more than ever it's so important to call for change. How can we live in such a multi-cultural society yet still protect a country that is rooted in racism?
Here in the UK, even though we briefly cover the larger global race topics in school, that's no reason to believe the UK is innocent. Ask yourselves, how was Belly Mujinga's case closed so quickly while we're still funnelling funds into Madeline McCann's 13-year long abduction case? And why haven't all of the Grenfell victims been housed yet? And why did British mass media and tabloids force Megham Markle and Harry to resign from The Royal Family? The list goes on...and on and on.
We've known since Stephan Lawrence that the UK police force is corrupt. Even our mass media is widely-known as corrupt, proving us right only this past week by covering up the important Black Lives Matter protests with more Madeline McCann 'news'.
We see publications and institutions still within our fashion industry that are corrupt, biased or straight up racially discriminative; Diet Prada (Instagram @dietprada) does an incredible job of reporting on fashion news unbiasedly, to which they've pointed out many scandals from the likes of Celine, Reformation, Dolls Kill and even British Vogue, who struggle to display people of colour, having no black women on the cover between Naomi Campbell in 2002 and Jourdan Dunn in 2014. 144 issues lacking black representation in the most prestige British fashion magazine. Make it make sense.
The thing about Britain is that the racism is so subtle because, deep down, by now, we all know it is wrong. We should take the millennial's lead and strive to reside in an open-minded society, there is no longer, nor has there ever been room for racism. We shouldn't have to get our news from Twitter, a social handle shouldn't be more representative, reliable and easy to fact-check than our mass media. We shouldn't have to educate ourselves on black issues because our schools don't, we shouldn't have to educate white people on white privilege due to it being painfully obvious and we shouldn't still have to protest for basic human rights, but we will until there proves to be real change.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED.
Photos by Finlay Peggy, see more via her Instagram @finlay_peggy.
"The fashion industry continues to support members of its community whose beliefs and practices are everything that we should be fighting against. So I ask the industry to tread carefully because what is happening now is not a trend: this is life and a chance to make real change. Some people won't be able to change and if that is the case then we need to have the strength to call them out. Their time is up and they have to move on. Maybe George Floyd’s death will help achieve something that so many great men and women before were unable to: unity." - Elgar Johnson, GQ
“If your solidarity with the Black communities that buy and support your brand only comes after backlash, that is not solidarity.”- Antoine Gregory via Dazed
"Property can be replaced, human lives cannot...A life cannot be replaced. Black Lives Matter." - Marc Jacobs on the defacing of his LA boutique via Instagram, published by Dazed
Photos by Marc Jacobs via Instagram @marcjacobs.
Stay safe. Stay vigilant. Stay educated.
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