At the beginning of the month, as the momentum and snowballing of the protests in the US and beyond became increasingly apparent, and a great wave of anger and pain broke across the world, or, certainly the western world, many publications began publishing guides as to how white readers could seek to educate themselves about racism, anti-racism and privilege. Refinery 29 was one, gal-dem was another, and it's worth reading both to see how these two different publications, both with young female audiences, one predominantly white, one predominantly black, handled this. In a side note, it's also worth mentioning that Refinery 29 was one of the publications to be directly affected by the fallout from the #BlackLivesMatter protests, and from employees speaking out against the actions of supposedly 'woke' employers.
So much has been written about racism, anti-racism, #BlackLivesMatter and George Floyd this month that I've decided to feature some of the more unusual and varied takes on this ever evolving story, and related stories. Not to put the issues in a nice, tidy box, but just because there has been so much that has been written and I want to show you the very best in the way of personal essays, reporting and features. The media has often been fingered as racist, oftentimes rightly, but quality journalism can also make readers pause and think. And that's what I'd like to demonstrate with the following examples.
US citizen Imani Bashir wrote a moving, evocative, and very sad personal essay for the New York Times about her decision to raise her young son outside of the US. In a similar vein, Bryan Lordeus, wrote this viral, poetic manifesto just two days after George Floyd was murdered. Recognising the need for space for an outpouring of rage and grief (in this case) in the US, Medium created a special section for the moment. If you'd never heard of Juneteenth until recently, Texas Monthly ran a moving personal essay on the subject of the anniversary, and what it means.
One publication putting it's money where it's mouth was seemed to be 1843, who have made a good start by commissioning four African-American photographers, who were photographing the #BlackLivesMatter protests in the US, to write a collective photo essay for the magazine about their experiences of the protests and of photographing them. They also ran a thoughtful essay on the long shadow of confederacy as regards street names in the US. Rather more depressingly, The US Press Freedom Tracker has worrying news about the number of reporters and photographers in the US who have been arrested while reporting on the protests, and New Scientist had the figures on how many Black American's have been killed in the US when compared to white Americans. Over at CityMetric, new editor Sommer Mathis proposed that the US couldn't police its way out of this.
If you'd like a neat roundup of how Europe has covered George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter, EuroTopics has a good summary. The European Network Against Racism also has some handy data on the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities across Europe.
More positively, New Scientist wrote this month that Scientists around the world were striking and protesting against racism in academia.
In the UK, BBC Reality Check (the BBC's fact checking division) provided figures on the number of people who have died in police custody in England and Wales. In case you're wondering, Scotland and Northern Ireland collect their own figures separately. Big Joanie's Stephanie Phillips wrote a thoughtful piece for Wire about understanding blackness to understand black art. while Jonn Elledge pointed out in a piece for the New Statesman that the history of the British Empire is not being taught in British schools. 1843, meanwhile, had an interview with the only BAME member of the Colston Club. One of the most moving and upsetting pieces, for me, this month was a personal essay by UK Olympian Anika Onuora for Huffpost Personal UK about her experiences of racism as an athlete in the UK. Over in Manchester, citizen journalists The Meteor ran an interview with a man who was recently tasered by Greater Manchester Police, who has clearly had a 'There but for the grace of God' moment when hearing about the death of George Floyd. And The Guardian had the only interview with Reni Oddo-Lodge.
Finally, on the subject of #BlackLivesMatter, Yomi Adegoke wrote a thoughtful essay for Vogue on how we need to seriously rethink our current mindset of 'pics or it didn't happen' when it comes to activism.
The other big story this month, of course, has been Covid-19. Surely there's nothing more to say? Well, you'd be surprised.
On the 3rd June, New Scientist attempted to answer why there have been so many deaths from Covid in the UK. Britta Shoot over at CityMetric wrote a sensitive and thoughtful essay about the appropriate ways to memorialise the victims of a pandemic. With the holiday season in ruins, 1843 turned its thoughts to how best to holiday in a pandemic. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism were busy asking a question Matt Hancock clearly didn't want asking this month: What happened to that track and trace app then? BBC Future, meanwhile, had a riveting piece on lockdowned residents who had tapped into their inner Miss Marple and Poiret tendencies during lockdown.
As restrictions began to be lifted in the UK, Nicola Slawson wrote for iNews about why it was wrong to sneer at shoppers queuing up outside Primark. Over in Manchester, The Meteor ran a piece about residents and cycle activists frustration at the lack of temporary cycle lanes being put in place (as promised) as the UK started to come out of lockdown. And what happened next. Wicked Leeks asked whether Covid-19 has killed the zero waste shop, and urged shoppers to shop local. The New Scientist, meanwhile, had an interview with the editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, which included a call for an international enquiry into Covid-19. Narratively, meanwhile, had an essay about a group of hippies who've spent the past six months in quarantine in a kind of new age haven.
Covid-19 misinformation and disinformation continues to be rife, and Full Fact, the independent fact checking service, have been working flat out checking and challenging them. Some stories they've got to the bottom of recently are the exact deal that student nurses who volunteered to work early for the NHS were offered, the exact deal that French care workers have been offered by their government, and whether the UK government really were planning to inject UK residents with tracking microchips or not.
Hengtee Lim aka Snippets wrote the kind of story/potential screenplay that really subtly gets under the skin, and which screams TV or film adaptation. 1843 explained how and why satire in Hong Kong is under threat, and Huckmag had an essay on How AIDS activists used art to fight a pandemic. That is, the AIDS pandemic. In an example of a quality essay about a faraway privileged world, 1843 had a searing account of The secret economics of a VIP party.
Image one by Koshu Kunii on Unsplash
Image two by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Image three by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
Image four by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
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