Being the only Black family in a small village back in 1981, My sister and I experienced a lot of racism in schools, from teachers, and we also had access to lesser opportunities. I was always seen as the naughty kid in the village hence getting into trouble always even when I was not doing anything but hanging around with other children from the community, I was the easy target to be picked on. I have been called many horrible names. Unfortunately, in today’s society, racism does still continue. All 3 of my children have experienced racism whilst they were in school.
My experience galvanised me into activism especially upon hearing about the death of George Floyd which made me decide that I am not condoning racism anymore.
Black Lives Matter is a call to be treated equally and have the same opportunities as everybody else. We have systematic and institutional racism within large organisations, and we do get treated differently. At the end of the day, nobody should die because of the colour of their skin.
Thinking back to the protest in Wrexham, when I saw the news about George Floyd, it resonated with me, even though it was not the first time I have seen many Black people being killed by the police in America, but hearing those words ‘I can’t breathe’ and ‘Please leave me alone’ made me decide that enough is enough! It is a serious issue that we need to take a stand against. It started as a small idea by talking with few community members which grew into hundreds of people signifying interest and it snowballed from there. It felt so good to see the community come together.
BLM was my first ever protest, though I was always an activist in community work, awareness-raising, and cohesion projects, the movement stirred a new passion.
When I decided to be part of the protest, I did it for my children because I wanted my children to see that we can make a stand and have their voices heard which the protest demonstrated as well. Do not feel that you are on your own because there are many other people there and you need to speak out for people to hear you. Do not be afraid of speaking up if you are being treated differently because of your skin colour, religious beliefs, etc because the louder you speak, the more you are heard and the more a difference is made.
No justice, no peace.
