A YEAR ago I watched the news about the killing of George Floyd unfold on social media, and whilst my brain lurched between horror, disgust and disbelief at the devastating phone footage, my over-riding thought was: Again?

So many lives of Black men and women have ended in the custody of law enforcement. To name a few: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, 12 year old Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor in the US; Christopher Alder, Sean Rigg, Sheku Bayoh in this country.

Surely, there must come a moment where people across the world accept that the treatment of George Floyd was wrong. It was based on stereotypes, the legacy of slavery, racism and deep prejudices. And when that moment comes, it will be a tidal wave. While George Floyd’s death was down to one man, Derek Chauvin, it was that shocking confidence he seemed to have in his actions that caused a global movement to remobilise stronger and more pervasive than before.

Protests in all US states followed, a few turning violent with fires being set and looting breaking out. The then-President, Donald Trump, did not help matters with his, ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’ tweet. But when George Floyd’s brother spoke to the House Judiciary Committee in June to ask that law makers make law enforcement ‘part of the solution, not the problem’, it felt like change was in the air.

Although marches and protests of solidarity in some 50 countries followed and the Black Lives Matter hashtag began trending globally, it was still a surprise to many as to why this one particular terrible case caused such an outpouring of anger globally.

The reason is fairly prosaic. As humans we understand injustice. In one way or another we have all experienced it, some to a lesser extent, some greater. Some have suffered it, others know those who have suffered and some have benefitted from it. It’s a concept we all recognise, and watching an unarmed man whimper for his mother and plead for his life lit a touch paper within many of us.

America has felt the ripples of change across its institutions – on March 3 this year the US House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which amongst other things would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants and redirect funding to community-based policing programmes. On April 20 this year, Chauvin was found guilty of murder on all three charges – an incredibly rare outcome and a precedent, according to campaigners, for future death in custody cases.

The question is whether we have experienced change in this country too. At a superficial, but not unimportant, level we have. The symbols and teaching of slavery and colonialism are being re-examined and the physical embodiments of those institutions questioned, and in some cases brought down.

In Bristol, the statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was removed and dumped into the harbour. In Edinburgh, calls to have the statue of Henry Dundas pulled down were dampened down by an agreement to place a plaque at the base of the memorial explaining Dundas’s role in the delay of the abolishment of slavery.

In Glasgow, Barclays Bank removed the name Buchanan from its Buchanan Wharf development, to disassociate itself from slave-owning tobacco lord Andrew Buchanan.

Footballers took the knee to show their support for the anti-racism movement, and advertising boards flashed anti-racism messages during televised matches.

Advertisers, film and television producers, as well as broadcasters, began to look at representation on and off screen with many galvanised into wanting to effect change. ITV’s staunch defence of the dance group Diversity’s BLM-themed performance on Britain’s Got Talent, was a case in point. When 1120 complaints were made to Ofcom about the political nature of the performance ITV said: ‘We are changed by what we see. Just as we are changed when we are seen’.

For the first time, Black celebrities felt their experiences were heard. From children’s TV to Radio 1, Black presenters talked about their experiences of racism and how it impacted on them. Rangers Football Club very publicly threw their support behind player Glen Kamara after he was subjected to racist abuse by rival Ondrej Kudela. And we’ve seen companies like Sainsbury’s and H&M Group put out messages of support and solidarity for their Black colleagues and customers.

But, as a veteran Scottish anti-racism campaigner said to me recently, you need to keep pushing anti-racism. It can’t be fixed overnight or even over a few years. There is a constant two steps forwards and one step back phenomenon.

In this country, it was exemplified by the outrage over the George Floyd killing and the agreement of the UK government to have a commission report on race and ethnic disparities. The widely criticised Sewell Report found that Britain was no longer a country where the system is ‘deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities’ and that very few inequalities are directly to do with race.

As many of the experts referenced in the study distanced themselves, the report has had to be amended a number of times, rendering it flawed at best. And in the States, it appears that the Senate is slowing down on passing the police reform bill despite a challenge from President Biden to get it passed before the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

Progress is glacially slow but there is a glimmer of hope that by the time George Floyd’s daughter, seven-year-old Gianna reaches adulthood, the clip showing her saying, ‘Daddy changed the world’ might prove prescient.

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