Black lives matter Carly Fagan We are living through a historic civil rights movement, where black people are making their voices heard. At the time of me writing this 4,444 towns and cities have held BLM protests worldwide since 25/5/2020. Black Lives Matter is a movement founded in 2013 by Alicia Garcia, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, in response to the acquittal of the killers of Travon Martin. Their mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes.� Despite the movement being active since 2013, it is only recently being given public and government attention internationally. The main causes of the recent mainstream attention are the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain by law enforcement and the fact that those murdered by police rarely receive justice. 874 people have been killed by police in the US in 2020, 28% of those being black. The murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin on the 25th of May sparked protests around the world. The public and government reaction has been mixed. While some see Black Lives Matter as an opportunity for black people to have their voices heard, others believe the movement is only dividing society more.
No matter what you believe, we must admit that racism plays a factor in people's everyday lives, not just in the US, but here in Ireland as well. When we talk about racist systems, we usually mention America, not realising that Ireland has its own racist systems which oppresses black people and people of colour, while also helping white people. Direct Provision is the most obvious of these systems. Direct Provision is meant to be accommodation for asylum seekers. While the government has said it is only meant to be temporary, the average length of stay is 2 years, with some having been in direct provision for 10 years. Residents have no facilities to cook for themselves, live in shared accommodation - some living in rooms with up to 8 people. Residents are given an allowance
