Book Review - Black British Lives Matter: A Clarion Call For Equality Edited By Lenny Henry And Marcus Ryder

The extrajudicial murder of George Floyd in 2020 is one of the most significant socio-political flashpoints of the last few years. It sparked waves of protest around the world including Britain, and an amplification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the public consciousness. This led to an increase in interest in race equality literature with books on the subject topping best sellers charts. Around 18 months after Floyd’s murder one such book, Black British Lives Matter was released. Black British Lives Matter: A Clarion Call For Equality is a collection of 19 essays compiled and edited by Lenny Henry, and Marcus Ryder. The essays included are wide ranging in scope yet at all times they remain centred on the lived experience of being Black in Britain offering a multifaceted view of what it is to be Black and British.

George Floyd’s murder casts an undeniably large shadow over this book. It was a tragic reminder of what the movement is pushing against, and what it is trying to stop. Many of the essays included address Floyd’s murder and its impact, some more so than others. Different writers focus on different aspects of Floyd’s murder, and of Floyd as a person. This can be seen in Doreen Lawrence’s (Steven Lawrence’s mother) essay on why Black British mothers matter, and Colin Grant’s essay on why Black British fathers matter. While many of the essays tread on similar ground like the essays on why Black British policing, and why Black British Lawyers matter, Lawrence and Grant’s essays can almost be seen as companion pieces in certain respects. Where Lawrence writes about how she reacted to Floyd calling for his mother as he died comparing his final minutes to her son’s and talking about the importance of Black mothers, Grant looks instead at Floyd through the prism of fatherhood as it must be remembered; Floyd was a father himself. Floyd’s murder was and continues to be such an impactful event that it can be all too easy to look at him as a symbol highlighting the oppression, and very real dangers Black people face on a daily basis. These two essays in particular act as a reminder that Floyd was just a man with a family trying to mind his own business and live his life like anyone else. Indeed, Lawrence considers this herself writing about how, over time, she has come to be viewed by many as a symbol; pointing out that while symbols can be useful things for movements they can also be dehumanising.

Several of the contributors to this book write about whether or not they have actually sat down and watched the full video of Floyd’s murder with some saying that they hadn’t watched it. I will admit that I haven’t actually sat down and watched the video. I have seen a few clips here and there online, and still images from the video of Officer Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck, but I haven’t actually sat down and watched the whole 9 minutes and 28 seconds of it myself. When the writers who haven’t watched it talk about their reasons why, in many cases they write about how it brings back trauma that they, or their loved ones have experienced in the past. While reading this book my reasons for not watching it started to seem small and inadequate in comparison. Simply put, I just don’t want to watch a man be murdered in the street. I don’t need to watch the video to understand that Black lives matter, and that racism is still a cancer that hasn’t been removed. It is a deeply depressing indictment of the state of the world that so many people needed to see it to reach the same conclusion.

While it is an important event, this book and the essays within are not solely about Floyd’s murder. It also acts as a showcase for Black British excellence with many of the writers being some of the leading Black voices of their industries. The list of contributors includes Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, who has a transcribed conversation with Henry about why Black British technologist’s matter. Sir David Adjaye who writes about why Black British architects matter, and Professor Kehinde Andrews who writes about why Black British education matters, to name but a few. As a result of all these writers drawing from their own lives and considerable expertise, these essays vary a lot in tone and style showing that Black British people are not a monolith. While I knew who some of the writers featured were, many were new to me. I learned a lot from these essays from the different perspectives they provided, and the different aspects of being Black in Britain they chose to focus on. To give one example, I had no idea that supplementary schools existed, let alone their history as a response to racism in mainstream education. These essays while all different, come together to form a book which explores Black lives in all aspects of British society.

While these essays are written by different people and that difference and variety is one of the strengths of the book there are certain themes that recur and echo throughout. One point that is made many times across the essays is not just the need for an increase in Black representation in every industry, but the need for a “critical mass” of representation. Having a voice in “the room where it happens” is important but when it’s a lone voice it is easy to disregard. Several of the writers talk about their experiences being the only Black person in the room, and the frustrations of being one of a handful of Black people in their field. Labour MP Diane Abbott, in her essay on why Black British politicians matter, uses the influx of female politicians in the 1997 general election as an example of the positive effect a critical mass like this can have. The importance of not just having a presence in the room where the big decisions are made, but having a large presence that can’t be ignored is emphasised throughout the book. We don’t just need more Black representation in politics to help improve and influence policy making. We need more Black representation in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and maths) to ensure the technology of the future doesn’t exclude Black people, and we need more Black representation in healthcare to ensure Black patients aren’t misdiagnosed or dismissed, and even all of that only scratches the surface of what is necessary.

To conclude this piece, this is a book that understood the assignment. It is a book that as many people should read as possible, especially White people like me. Detractors can point out that Floyd’s murder happened all the way over in America, and claim that racism is an American problem all they want, but Marcus Ryder’s essay on why Black British people matter, which closes the book, includes a list of names of Black Britons who have died in police custody dating back to the 1980’s. Even one name is too many so the fact that he includes a whole list shows racism is a plague here too. The essays in this book and the voices of its writers have deep roots in Britain. The frustrations expressed within are real, with pain and trauma that runs deeper than I as a White man can ever truly understand. Black British people are an integral part of the fabric that makes up Britain but they are too often under served or rendered invisible by institutions that undervalue them and their contributions. The essays within challenge every aspect of Britain from politics, to law and order, to athletics, to science, to business and more to take a look at how they are failing Black people, and to do better. It is, as the title puts it, a clarion call for equality, and a call for Britain to do the real work to usher in a truly equal society where a book like this one won’t be needed.

You can buy this book here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8nxjda