Black Lives Matter - a not very corporate statement

The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 is one of the most visceral memories I have as a teenager, coming as it did just a couple of years after the videotaped beating of Rodney King by the LAPD, and a year after the officers involved in that case were shockingly acquitted, prompting the subsequent (and in my opinion, completely justified) LA riots.

I remember looking at the King situation and thinking "well, that couldnt happen here", but the Lawrence murder and Police investigation showed me how naive I was.

In 1998, the McPherson report showed the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist. "At Last", I thought, surely some change will come from this!

But no, in fact not a thing has changed. Did you know, for example, that there have been no successful prosecutions of deaths in Police Custody since 1969, a population in which Black people are disportionately respresented? I think, given what we know about a lot of these, that that is incredibly shocking.

So, it turns out we are no better, and in many cases measurably worse, than many countries even while we consider ourselves very often to be "exceptional". I dont think anybody can pretend to have all the answers, but here are a couple of things to consider:

Newspaper editors - next time any "journalist" wants to write an article calling immigrants "Cockroaches" consider if you would be happy to run that article had those immigrants been white and crossing the Atlantic from America (credit to Akala for that one)

Schools - when teaching history, feel free to endeavour to teach students that all humans are flawed, that nuance always exists. This would mean you could give the next generation the ability to understand that Churchill was both a great wartime leader, and a racist, and hold both those views simultaneously so the part of the truth that people dont like to talk about isnt lost. It matters.

Education is, as usual, key. Realistically nobody is going to change the minds of many people who have held whatever views they have had for 40 years. For this, see also how some people have such a poor grasp of basic biology that it makes more sense to them that 5G is causing a virus, rather than a virus moving from one animal to another as has always, provably, been the case. Its like something from Brass Eye.

Equally, in 2016, 52% of people voted in the referendum that was openly marketed with references to Empire & Colonialism. Im not actually saying all those people are racists, of course (see Will Self vs Mark Francois), but I am saying that many people unthinkingly enjoy these references because, as with Churchill, they dont have the full story and they may tolerate them less if they thought, or were taught, about them in full.

Going back to the Lawrence murder and events following, its worth bearing in mind that the current leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, had the acquittal of Gary Dobson overturned, enabling him to be recharged and eventually convicted. Please feel free to compare and contrast that with the Prime Ministers record of journalistic extracts, such as letterboxes and watermelon smiles, and his deification of Churchill while ignoring the fact he was, by his own words, an enthusiastic racist etc etc etc (I dont mean to slaughter WC, but he is emblematic of the wider cultural problem).

This ties in to a question many ask at times like this, which is "what can I do about it?". Its easier to do nothing of course, but who you vote for does matter, contact with your local MP matters, going to demonstrations matters. The little things matter, like telling your mum off if she says something racist, or anyone else who (incorrectly) thinks they can go on Facebook and spout any old rubbish because of "freedom of speech".

With the bigger things, its often a question of how far do you go? Personally, I agree that Colstons Statue belongs at the bottom of that harbour in Bristol, I wholeheartedly support that action. For years people have been trying to talk it down, but nobody listens, so what are you going to do? Nobody, that I saw, complained when Saddam Husseins statue came crashing down in Baghdad. Some people, seemingly desperate to prove exactly the point of BLM protesters, will claim its not the same, but of course it is.

If you dont want to go that far, thats fine, but do something, and dont let that something be allowing the subject to be changed by moaning or chiming in about how 1% of the protesters are "thugs and hooligans".

Some will seek to claim that many of the black or asian people killed by "the state" were "bad people", we see it now with George Floyd and we heard it about Mark Duggan before the 2011 London riots. Leaving aside the obvious fact that we moved on from just unilaterally killing people for breaking the law some time ago, and the fact that Floyd was only holding a possibly fake $20 bill and I dont think that merits a death sentence in any situation, there are many instances where this is demonstrably incorrect.

Heres just one - Dalian Atkinson. Yes, THAT Dalian Atkinson. The ex professional Premier League footballer (pictured above). A man who, by any measure, had "succeeded". He had done what society says it wants people to do. He had worked hard, had a great career, never put a foot wrong. Until 2016, when he became mentally ill and was tasered to death by the Police at just 48.

Im going to go out on a limb and suggest that if Alan Shearer becomes mentally ill next week and threatens to commit a crime, its unlikely he will get tasered to death by the Police at 49. It is much more likely he will receive the help and attention he needs, before later presenting a BBC documentary on mental health. Why is that, I wonder? Its a good job institutional racism in the Police is sorted, though, isnt it?

So, Id urge anyone who thinks there really isnt much of a problem with racism in this country, to re-read all of the above and reconsider their basic position, because how the Police behave, and how that is tolerated, is a reflection of a societies values. Those are what need fixing. It isnt (only) a "police" issue.

I appreciate this isnt a very corporate message from Annapurna - I have included one below, which we may expand on later - but it is what I think, and I think its a good match for our companies values of responsibility, integrity, courage, commitment and excellence. I dont mean to hector, or lecture, anyone but we needed to say something and I didnt feel like writing just another anodyne corporate statement, in light of whats happening.

In terms of the business, we have a BAME population in line with the wider community, however we recognise its not enough, especially being in London. We are, and have been working for a while with a variety of projects, trying to improve the ethnic diversity of our business. We genuinely are a diverse business in lots of ways, but I would be the first to admit we have not always got it right and we must, and can, do better.

We stand with anyone who suffers any form of discrimination due to race, or anything else (and its worth bearing in mind its Pride this month).

For years now, Annapurna have supported, physically and financially, our friends at Amnesty International, an organisation that is fundamentally built to support people who are discriminated against, very often due their ethnicity.

Heres a link from them with some advice on how you can help, please get up and get involved.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/black-lives-matter-write-your-mp