Walk staged at Clickimin in support of Black Lives Matter
Eric Perdu and his daughter Eliza with the signs they had made for this afternoon’s Black Lives Matter walk at Clickimin. Photo: Kevin Jones
Another walk in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest movement was held on the outskirts of Lerwick today (Saturday).
The latest event was organised by Mae Jamieson, 16, from Sullom, who said she had been sparked into action after watching footage of the arrest and eventual of George Floyd.
The black American died in Minneapolis earlier this month after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Last weekend a series of walks, under the banner of “Shetland Staands Wi Black Lives Matter” were held all over Shetland, from Unst to Fair Isle. An estimated 2,200 people turned out and picked up leaflets showing their support for the BLM cause.
They were organised by Joy Duncan from Scalloway, who hoped they would serve as a catalyist towards changing attitudes towards the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (Bame) community.
Today’s walk saw a stand set up at the entrance to the Clickimin Broch, from where people taking part could pick up hand sanitiser, masks and gloves.
Participants were asked to walk anti-clockwise around the Clickimin Loch, displaying banners along the route.
The walks were expected to continue until around 4pm, with participants urged to keep to social-distancing rules while taking part.
George Winston
Don’t you just love the virtue signalling woke collective of Shetland. I agree there is no place for racism anywhere in the UK or around the world! But the ‘BLM’ movement has all the characteristics of a trending cult!..fortunately we do not live in a racist country but there are racists who live here. I really struggle to understand why people would support a movement that activity supports the idea of white shame. According to these people (BLM) being white is a bad thing!, that sounds a little racist to me. All i would say is that modern day slavery is still rampant in the world and the criminals who run these things don’t care what skin colour you have. This is what BLM should be protesting, because all life matters!..
Fun fact..The only ‘BAME’ person to be killed by uk police in the past 12 months was the London bridge terrorist attacker!
Brian Smith
The moment you see people using words like ‘virtue signalling’ and ‘woke’, the more you can be sure they have got their whole education from Facebook.
G Leask
Brian, You nailed it right there. The AHS ethos is no more.
John M Scott
Modern day indentured servitude is still alive and operating today: on Shetland.
It’s called Crofting.
It was responsible for the clearances ( the forgotten clearances) in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. It wasn’t until the Crofting Act of 2003 that tenants were permitted to actually buy the land that they had worked for generations.
Peter Hamilton
George Winston’s final comment says it all. There is no fun involved. Normal standard of decency? Perhaps The Shetland Times has let itself down by airing this man’s vile views on this occasion. Deaths in policy custody should not be regarded so trivially, not should the other ways in which people are discriminated against be sidelined.
Peter Hamilton
And Winston’s use of inverted comments on BAME signals distain, as if they are in doubt, such as in the following: The “anti-racist” George Winston reveals his prejudice in several ways.
Continuing to work backwards, BLM doesn’t need to be protesting all life matters. For one, that is not contested . More importantly the lives of black people and people from Britain’s ethnic minorities are blighted by racism and are too often cut short because of racist violence and institutional and ingrained discrimination, as is sadly also the case in too many other countries.
Quite where George gets off on saying “these people ” hold “being white is a bad thing” is dog whistling two common racist tropes. There is no “these people” when it comes to those who want to stand up for a fairer world. The only “bad thing” evident is demonstrated amply by “anti-racist” George.
George can claim to struggle all he likes to understand the issue of “white shame”, but there’s only one reason why he struggles. He seeks to lambast those with concerns about the nature of inequality in 21stC UK, as is evident from every sentence he has contributed. His is hateful commentary.
Derek king
I ask the people on these marches where does the clothes and shoes you wear come from and how much do these workers get paid nobody caring about that and the rest of us have stayed home for months to stay safe and not infect others . What i see in america and uk are people who have completely ignored this and what makes people think during the empire the working class were living in luxury