THREAD: Despite constant protests, many Brits &the media continue to ask the ridiculous, insulting & unhelpful question, is Britain racist? So, the next time you’re asked, here's 6 insane racist events where blk ppl fought to change Britain for the better. Please like&share #BLM

1. The Colour Bar - a set of informal rules that banned black people from working on buses, the railway & other key trades. In 1931 Dr Harold Moody, a Jamrock born, Peckham-based physician started the League of Coloured Peoples aimed at ending the practice. He died in 1947...

It wasn’t until 1963 when a social worker called Paul Stephenson (another name most won’t know) organised the Bristol Bus Boycotts & Pub sit-in that forced the Govt hand. In 1965 the Race Relations Act passed ending the practice. It wasn’t British liberalism it was us, fighting!

2. Sterilisation racism - In 1979 OWAAD (google) fought to ban the discriminate use of Depo-Provera on Black & Asian women. This was a contraceptive often given to women of colour without their knowledge. Long term the drug made women sterile...

...Sterilisation was something that Churchill and other insane eugenicists were a big fan of. And guess what, BoJo’s war hero who he dedicated 8 tweets defending was in favour of sterilising white ‘degenerates’, too.

3. The Gang Matrix - The 2011 riots were supposed to usher in sweeping social reform to address the frustrations of young Londoners. Instead, the Met used the Riots as an opportunity to create a database of young, black boys, some as young as 12. 80% of the database is black...

...75% are in fact victims of abuse and 35% have never committed a crime. Being in the matrix has resulted in kids not getting jobs, some even not getting library cards! You’d have forgotten the 2011 uprising was due to the death of a Black man and not gang violence.

4. The ubiquity of white racial violence. The media have a field day discussing black rioting. In 2011 they even called famous black activist Darcus Howe a rioter. It's easy to forget that black protests are in response to police brutality, not for a love for violence...

...However, the UK has a wild history of white riots against minorities that get minimised & forgotten as much as black British history. In 1919, white people rioted across the UK eventually stoning a black man, Charles Wootton, to death.

...that was way bk you say? Well how about in 1958 when Teddy Boys didn’t like to see a black man with a white woman so they beat the shit out of him & a whole lot of other innocent black people, for bants. Here’s how Andrew Marr justified their actions. https://twitter.com/OliverHBishop/status/1265292048011341824?s=20

Still too far back? Okay, then what of 1981 when white Britons committed one of the most sickening domestic terrorist attacks in our history, the New Cross Fire. 14 young black ppl aged 14-22 died. There are countless more riots, not to mention just last week! F•ck me.

5. Sus laws - Thatcher’s 80s were crazy. But to be Black was to be hunted on a daily basis. Sus laws were the British version of the Minority Report, a precursor to stop and search but without the need to have any reason whatsoever. It, of course, focused only on black boys

Sus laws were also used to arrest suspected ‘black terrorists’, aka protestors. There was even a specific desk in the police dedicated to locking up suspected Black Panthers in Britain, which was only, fascinatingly discovered when Darcus Howe's biographers chanced upon it.

6. The Mangrove 9 - In 1970, a group of black ‘radicals’ were committed to stand trial on charges arising from clashes with police during a protest. The sole purpose of the case was for the police & Home Office to discredit the growing British black power movement.

The Mangrove 9 handled their own case & were acquitted. It forced the first judicial acknowledgement that there was "evidence of racial hatred" in the Met Police. The trial exposed heavy-handed police tactics in Notting Hill and was the precursor to the Macpherson Report findings

I could go on. But ask yourself this. Why do you know of MLK & Malcolm X so well, but nothing of Frank Crichlow or Darcus Howe? Why you know of Enoch Powell, Oswald Mosley but not of Ansel Wong, Selma James &Olive Morris? Why do you know George Floyd but not of Cynthia Jarrett?

In each example, we've been fighting &resisting. We're are instrumental in reshaping policy, policing, public health, while being peaceful in the face of hate. We forged the very liberalism used to minimise accounts of racism. So now ask yourself, why do you not know these names?