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People are sad, people are angry, people are frustrated, people are disappointed.

This is the general feeling that I can get from the protests, social media movements and news reports that started from the tragic death of George Floyd. He died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, while he pleaded that he could not breathe. 

However, it took me a few days to complete my article on this issue. It is mainly because I wouldn’t want to only “follow the trend” by reposting black screens or doing what everyone is doing before learning about the issue in depth. During the last week, I witnessed how dangerous could it be when people are fixated on their “personal view” instead of the actual facts of this issue. It is not about what YOU think whose lives matter – but it’s about how our society could move forward into a safer and more inclusive environment for everyone so that similar tragedies would no longer happen.

Before I can utilise this platform to advocate for change against racism, I have chosen to spend some extra time to do my learning, ensuring I am well-informed before I could voice out anything responsibly. Thus, in this article, I will include some details/facts about systemic racism and how can we contribute to a positive change personally. As an ‘Asian’ living in the UK and a ‘Chinese’ originally from Malaysia – I will also include an alternative view on how racism could hopefully be eradicated in our daily lives.

The context of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign and protests recently:

1. Longstanding police violence influenced heavily by systemic racism

George Floyd is not the first black person that has been subjected to an unfair apprehension, especially by white police officers. In the past, there have been numerous examples of African-American people being killed by US law enforcement officers, including Philando Castile, Terence Crutcher, Michael Brown and Alton Sterling. George’s case in particular is largely similar to the experience faced by Eric Garner in 2014.

There is however one main difference in the current space – the officers involved were quickly fired, whereby Derek Chauvin – the officer who had kneeled on George was arrested and charged. In the past, most of these cases either ignored, or the police officers were never found guilty by the law

A flawed justice system

This is where we will talk about the “Qualified Immunity” doctrine in the US federal law that shields government officials from being sued for discretionary actions performed within their official capacity – unless their actions violated “clearly established’ federal law or constitutional rights. This is a rather wide immunity provided to the police force in the US, alongside a rather vague and inconsistent exclusion clause. This is also why most of the time, it could be nearly impossible to sue the police for their “misconduct” during work.

Why it is almost impossible to sue the US police (Video):

Qualified Immunity Explained: https://theappeal.org/qualified-immunity-explained/

How can we help?

1. Learn

Educate yourself and your social circle about systemic racism, black people’s rights and how we can contribute towards a more inclusive society. Never let emotions or social media take over our rationality and ability to think critically. Instead of believing or criticizing blindly, make sure you are well-informed on the current issue. If you are a part of our society, then you are either part of the problem or the solution!

Read more here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#

3. Demonstrate Solidarity

Be empathetic and support anyone around you that has been or could be a victim of systemic racism. Another option to involve yourself is to sign petitions to advocate for change towards the current situation.

Petitions you can sign:

• Justice for George Floyd: https://bit.ly/2ZRWQVD
• Raise the Degree of Murder: https://bit.ly/2TVmbdp
• National Action Against Police Brutality: https://bit.ly/2Xj3K4w
• Hands Up Act: https://www.change.org/p/us-senate-hands-up-act
• Qualified Immunity Legislative Reform: https://www.change.org/p/us-supreme-court-qualified-immunity-legislative-reform.

4. Donations

• BLM Fund: https://bit.ly/3gJvo2v
• Minnesota Freedom Fund: https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate
• The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org?
• Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/about

Intergroup Biasness – how to be ANTI-RACIST on a day-to-day basis

First and foremost, by no means am I trying to steer away from the common approach that institutional reformation should be the answer to solve systemic racism once and for all. However, I would also like to put this research and idea of mine out there for everyone to consider.

Personally, while back home in Malaysia, I often have the feeling that it feels better when you are talking to someone of your same race, and communicating with someone from a different background or even just colour would feel really different. After growing up, I realised this is actually something that occurred unconsciously without me knowing if I am not mindful enough.

Same goes for the feeling I had when studying abroad. People may be friendly in general, but it still feels different when they are communicating with people from their familiar community, background or even skin colour. Upon some reflection, I personally think “colour” or “race” may not be the only reason that is dividing us within the community. It is the simple act of identifying yourself to a certain “group” or “identity” that causes in-group favouritism, as well as out-group negativity.

As established under the social identity theory of social psychology, proven by Henry Tajfel in his Kandinsky versus Klee Experiment and Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave Experiment – both of them demonstrated how people could easily establish prejudices and negative intention to other whom are not “one of them” merely by an act of simple groupings. What more if it’s the racial differences and discrimination that have been occurring all around the world for decades.

Moving forward

We are all unique individuals, we have our own different lineage, beliefs, and race. This is not something that will be/should be changed in the future. However, we should, and we can be COLOURBLIND while interacting with others.

I came out myself with a STAR model that I usually use to keep myself in check:

• Sensitive: Be aware of any potential In-Group Biasness that you may not be aware of initially
• Take Action: Take a proactive role to include “outgroups” and be the agent of change
• Reflective: Have frequent conversations with others to understand how they truly felt and see how the interactions could be more inclusive based on their perspective, Never assume, and never take things for granted.

That’s all from me for now. Thank you so much for your time and so sorry that it turned out to be quite a lengthy and heavy article. This is definitely a vast topic that I will urge everyone to read up on to make the world a more friendly and inclusive world.

There is so much we can do, but many of us have yet taken our first step to bringing about a positive change. I pledge to not only care about this when it’s “trendy” but will constantly remind myself of this tragedy and how our work in advocating for a better world should not stop here.

Take care everyone, may we all embrace our differences with respect, kindness and empathy.