The Enduring Gift of BLM to Anti-Racism — off shoot of article for British Library.

BLM’s 2020 global protests provided many lessons. They include the extent to which the hashtag complemented physical protests, and then the drop off in news coverage and establishment later distancing itself from its calls.

In writing about language and news for the British Library’s (April 2022) exhibition/book, “Breaking the News — 500 years of News in Britain”, my enduring thought. One that I didn’t document generously in the book. I covered more of its language use.

BLM’s founders forged a body that on different sides of its coin reflect both Malcolm X’s doctrine and Dr King’s -something acknowledged. The crime against George Floyd chain reactioned global outrage. It was what already was in place that made global events possible. For me to fully appreciate this required firstly researching the forces/ racism they/ we were taking on and here is a lurking story.

There’s widespread acknowledgment the modern concepts of racism, scientific racism, took off during the enlightenment period 17th century plus (read Robert Bernasconi).

Significantly, figures like Richard Hakluyt (16th) Cotton Mather (17th) Locke (17th) Hume (17th) Kant (18th) John Stuart Mill, Carlyle (19th) Madison Grant ( 20th) Woodrow Wilson (20th), were renowned as brilliant writers, statesmen, philosophers and thinkers. Their views on liberalism, social contract rights and Standard of Civilisation underpin Europe and America political thought. Yet they were vehicles for a belief of white supremacy and black inferiority myth. All this is well documented. See Amitav Acharya’s ‘Race and Racism in founding of the modern world.

But it’s how they feed or build on each other that de facto, and by design perpetuates or re-invents racism from climate, curse and eugenics theories, to modern day critical race theory.

Kant disagreed with Hume over many things but promotes a shared thought of the differences in mental capacity around races. That word “race” which by the enlightenment has it meaning altered. “It [Race] is the child of racism, not the father” quotes Ta-Nehisi Coates.

BLMs tactical movement of enveloping anti-racist groups, building on each other’s strengths and furthering is narratives was the opposing diametric spearhead to how racists philosophers, academics etc had threaded their bile over centuries. BLM’s effort does not preclude the work of MLK, Tubman ( Underground Railway) Du Bois and Pan African movement etc.

But for me an enduring thought to address institutional racism, not ruling out aversive racism etc, requires the model of collaborative unison of anti-racists, D&I advocates etc, witnessed during BLM’s loudest public moments.

It’s demonstrably possible, but a challenge to maintain for several reasons. They include:

• the extent to which different groups individuals can maintain alliances
• business imperative angles amongst different ( nuanced) groups
• broad church of anti-racists and nuanced strategy approaches

Almost 400 years of European and then America’s modern make, racism has deeply embedded itself in structures. The journal International Affairs volume 98, Number 1, acknowledges its impact on International relations thinking and academia. Super collaborations is the gift BLM gave the world. It’s one that should be heeded.

Dr David Dunkley Gyimah is a writer, journalist, academic, lecturer, filmmaker and innovator. More on him here