The past few weeks have been very traumatic for us all, hearing how George Floyd was murdered [yes murdered] made me nervous about watching the video. 

Until now I haven’t watched the full video of the incident. I choose to learn more about racism as I couldn’t fathom the motivation behind such an evil act. 

The more I make research into discrimination based on race, color, sex or gender the more I get lost in the kind of division we have created amongst ourselves. 

The current chaos is as a result of a long lasting racial injustice that has been inherited from generations long gone and we did very little to put a stop to it. 

“What has the murder of George Floy got to do with the UK” is a common question I always come across on social media. This will obviously make any sensible person curious about racism records in the UK. 

I tried to satisfy my curiosity by learning about racism in the UK and later going through the comment sections on social media. To be honest I have seen a lot of positive minded people who are very supportive of racial justice but there are elements of the society who need re-education. 

There are those who do not believe racism even exists and this got me wondering “If the problem right under your nose doesn’t look like a problem to you then you are part of the problem”. 

The truth is that there is racism in the UK and if anyone finds that hard to believe then he/she needs to rethink his/her position. Black Lives Matter is a serious movement and should be taken as such because at the end of the day we can’t afford to have partial justice in our society. 

We can’t all live in peace and harmony if we do not use our diversity as a blessing instead of a source of hate. We might have a long way to go today but I certainly have great hope in my generation. 

I believe we can do better than our predecessors. We can end generations of hate built based on racism. This is the time to join the fight against all forms of injustice in the world. 

I stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family and the entire black community. 

By Omar Kanyi

Gambian student in the UK