Black Lives Matter: This is not just an American problem

It’s hard to underestimate how appalled people in this country have been by the killing of George Floyd. More than 1,000 local people have taken the time to write to me about this and the appalling way that Donald Trump and some police forces in America have responded to overwhelmingly peaceful protests.

This has shone a light on the terrible racism, discrimination and injustice that still exists in our society. This is not just an American problem. In the UK, people from a black and minority ethnic background are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched, three times more likely to be arrested and twice as likely to die in police custody.

The structural inequalities have also been exposed by coronavirus. It is not a coincidence that one in six health workers who have died in this crisis have been from a BAME background. Nor is it a coincidence that Brent has one of the largest BAME populations and the second-highest Covid-19 death rate of any London borough. Many frontline workers who have done so much to keep our country going through this crisis have died, including Belly Mujinga. In Parliament, I raised the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME people. I told the health secretary that BAME communities don’t want slogans or empty rhetoric; rather concrete action to protect them from this virus.

I’ll keep raising this until we get proper answers about the inequalities that are driving higher BAME death rates and a clear plan from the government about how they can be tackled.

Tulip Siddiq is MP for Hampstead and Kilburn.

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