Britain's reckoning with its racist past

Today in Focus Series

UK Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place across the country. They have not just been about solidarity with the US or racism in Britain today, but also about the need to address Britain’s past and the impact of that legacy

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The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis did not just prompt countrywide protests in America. Black Lives Matter protests have spread across the world. This weekend, 200 demonstrations took place in the UK, during which protesters toppled a statue of a 17th-century slave trader in Bristol and daubed graffiti on a statue of Winston Churchill in London. Protesters are now rallying for the removal of a Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford University.

Guardian news reporter Aamna Modhin tells Anushka Asthana about covering the protests. She discusses why George Floyd’s death mobilised such a large show of solidarity in the UK. Kehinde Andrews, professor of black studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University, looks at Britain’s racist history and whether these protests might finally change the way that it is viewed.

Archive: Good Morning Britain; Sky News; 10 Downing Street; Washington Post; Universal Apropos Media; YouTube

Black Lives Matter protests<br>Protesters pull down a statue of Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in College Green, Bristol, in memory of George Floyd who was killed on May 25 while in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis. PA Photo. Picture date: Sunday June 7, 2020. See PA story POLICE Floyd. Photo credit should read: Ben Birchall/PA Wire
Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
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