Black British Lives Matter

Featuring essays from David Olusoga, Dawn Butler MP, Kit de Waal, Kwame Kwei-Armah, and many more.In response to the international outcry at George Floyd's death, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder have commissioned this collection of essays to discuss how and why we need to fight for Black lives to matter - not just for Black people but for society as a whole.Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, nineteen prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it."We achieve everything not because we are superhuman. We achieve the things we achieve because we are human. Our strength does not come from not having any weaknesses, our strength comes from overcoming them" Doreen Lawrence."I always presumed racism would always be here, that it was a given. But the truth is, it was not always here, it was invented." David Olusoga"Our identity and experience will shape every story, bleed into every poem, inform every essay whether it's about Black 'issues' or not" Kit de Waal

'A book all should read, particularly white people.' Irish Times 'A powerful - and varied - portrait of the Black British experience.' Guardian BLACK BRITISH LIVES MATTER is a clarion call for equality, from nineteen of the most prominent Black figures in Britain today. Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder introduce an essential collection of essays arguing how and why we need to fight for Black lives to matter - not just for Black people, but for British society as a whole. Writing across a wide range of subjects, and drawing on personal experience, all nineteen writers explore the unique contributions, perspectives and importance of Black Britons to the UK and beyond. It is both a celebration of Black British lives and an urgent, agenda-setting manifesto for change. Contributors include David Olusoga, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Kit de Waal, Dr Anne-Marie-Imafidon, Sir David Adjaye, Leroy Logan and Professor Kehinde Andrews.

Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada. While highlighting the ubiquity of Black resistance, Policing Black Lives traces the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple institutions, shedding light on the state’s role in perpetuating contemporary Black poverty and unemployment, racial profiling, law enforcement violence, incarceration, immigration detention, deportation, exploitative migrant labour practices, disproportionate child removal and low graduation rates. Emerging from a critical race feminist framework that insists that all Black lives matter, Maynard’s intersectional approach to anti-Black racism addresses the unique and understudied impacts of state violence as it is experienced by Black women, Black people with disabilities, as well as queer, trans, and undocumented Black communities. A call-to-action, Policing Black Lives urges readers to work toward dismantling structures of racial domination and re-imagining a more just society.

A powerful document of the day-to-day realities of Black women in Britain The Heart of the Race is a powerful corrective to a version of Britain’s history from which black women have long been excluded. It reclaims and records black women’s place in that history, documenting their day-to-day struggles, their experiences of education, work and health care, and the personal and political struggles they have waged to preserve a sense of identity and community. First published in 1985 and winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize that year, The Heart of the Race is a testimony to the collective experience of black women in Britain, and their relationship to the British state throughout its long history of slavery, empire and colonialism. This new edition includes a foreword by Lola Okolosie and an interview with the authors, chaired by Heidi Safia Mirza, focusing on the impact of their book since publication and its continuing relevance today

'Every voice raised against racism chips away at its power. We can't afford to stay silent. This book is an attempt to speak' The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today. THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION NARRATIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR A BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD

BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER is a 1200-page collection of academic perspectives and journalistic contributions, which begins by warning readers that "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" may have been the verdict of the jury in the case of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, while reminding them that such celebrations are premature. Readers are also reminded that Floyds public execution is not an aberration, it's a long-standing ritual that's been practiced by slave masters, the slave patrol and contemporary law enforcement organizations since 1619. A selection authors contend that the murder of the African-American body is more than punishment without due process, it signifies the state's contempt for African-American life, in that BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER, a sentiment explored in "State Sanctioned Afrophobic Violence and Punishment, which feeds into long held white fears of a slave uprisings, Black protest, resistance and revenge as outlined in "The Eschatological Fear of African American Resistance" where writers assert that U.S. law enforcement activities are consistent in their attempts to sabotage, undermine and curtail the activities of influential organizations such as the Civil Rights Movement, The Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, and more recently, Black Lives Movement. In the portion, "Racialized Control of African Americans in 'Jim Crow' Amerikkka" critics state that white supremacist sentiments discussed in "Normalized Extra-Judicial Vigilante Justice" clarifies why the public lynching of African-Americans by white citizens, or law enforcement officers rarely faces legal or moral consequences, even in the face of overwhelming evidence because in reality, BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER, and have never really mattered to white supremacists or institutionally racist America. It's often stated that Black Lives Matter is the Civil Rights Movement of this generation, but without the respectability politics. In "The Transformation of Black Political Resistance" writers' reason that Black Lives Matter is a new form of resistance against systemic anti-Black violence, which encompasses intersectionality and decentralized leadership. in portions of "Assessing the Progress and Parallels of Black Protest Movements" authors compare the 1960s and 1970s Black Panther Party and today's Black Lives Matter movement by dissecting the parallels and progress that have enabled the BLM to push back against the hegemony of Black nihilism of the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike previous Black protest organization, of the past, social media and new technology has enabled Black protest movements, to deliver their protest narrative, in a manner that was inconceivable less than 35 years ago..

Written over a period of more than two decades, Colour Matters is a collection of essays that shows how race informs the aspirational pursuits of Black youth in the Greater Toronto Area.