At the end of last week we asked friends in the States if they could paint us the view from there as part of our regular series and also what we could do as The Social Gathering to help. Screenwriter Camilla Blackett responded by holding up a mirror. Please read and consider what she’s saying. And to state the obvious, this is us at the Social stating categorically that Black Lives Matter. 

As a Black British woman living in the US I was asked to help provide guidance on ā€œways in which people in the UK can help with the situation over there the US”. 

And yet it is that particular phrase that sticks in my teeth. 

ā€œOver There.ā€

Those two little words ā€œOver Thereā€ have been present in all of the genuine and well meaning texts from white British friends as they express abject horror as they watch coverage of American cities burning in protest of a week of killings of Black Americans. 

ā€œOver There.ā€ 

So let us talk about ā€œOver Thereā€.

ā€œOver Thereā€ is a deft deflection. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is a minimisation. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is a lie. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is a denial that London didnā€™t burn for nights in rebellion against the killing of Mark Duggan and decades of violent racial profiling. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is a pivot from the fact that in a pandemic, Black Britons are dying at four times the rate than their white counterparts due to structural inequality. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is to silence Kayla Williams, a black mother of 3, dying from Covid after being ignored by paramedics. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is ignorance to Cann Hall Police bragging on Twitter about increased powers to harass black and brown bodies in the full view of the public. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is to ignore Desmond Mombeyarara being tasered, unprompted, by Greater Manchester Police in front of his small child. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is to dim that black paramedics are detained and harassed simply for standing outside. 

ā€œOver Thereā€ is to suppress that Belly Mujinga was killed by the man who spat upon her and British Transport Police have still, done nothing. 

But whatā€™s most jarring about the phrasing ā€œOver Thereā€ is that the supreme wealth of the British Empire was built upon going ā€œOver Thereā€ and that the violence of that habitual impulse is at the very rotten root of what you see on fire in cities across the US today. 

So my guidance to my white British friends is not to look ā€œOver Thereā€. It is to look at your feet. At the place where you stand. And to ask yourself, not how to assist in a rebellion overseas but to grapple with the one brewing in the proverbial teacup of home. 

Reading Resources: 

Why Iā€™m No Longer Talking To White People About Race

Taking Up Space 

White Fragility 

White Privilege: The Myth Of A Post Racial Society 

Runnymed Trust

Gal-Dem Magazine

Donate to: 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/majonzi-fund-covid19-bereavement-fund

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rip-belly-mujinga

https://www.runnymedetrust.org/donations.html

https://www.ubele.org/covid19-supporting-bame-communities

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bame-communities-and-the-disproportionate-incidence-of-covid-19?share=c1c370db-dc62-460e-a89c-e3576037c4e9&source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink

Camilla Blackett is a screenwriter based in LA