Abstract
Black Lives Matter is having a profound impact on how individuals and communities view their repressive histories and their present environments. The movement has greatly influenced the questioning of everyday landscapes and the role of official memory in the erection, maintenance, or removal of monuments and memorials. In this column, I shed light on these phenomena, and highlight the tensions that exist between the acknowledgement and removal of racist or problematic memorials and statues and the protection of historical monuments and cultural heritage more generally. A human rights approach to memorialization would be a step in the right direction, while recognizing that the imperatives of the present shape memorialization efforts. It calls on those in the human rights field to continue pressing for critical reflection and debate around racism and memory landscapes, and to call out and expose racism in all of its forms in order to bring about social change.
Highlights
Black Lives Matter is having a profound impact on how individuals and communities view their repressive histories and their present environments
The protests, the greatest civil unrest the US has seen in decades, reignited in response to the recent deaths at the hands of the police of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and later the shooting of Jacob
Between 26 May 2020, the day after Floyd’s death, and 22 August 2020, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) recorded over 7,750 demonstrations linked to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement across more than 2,440 locations in the US alone.[2]
Summary
‘Black Lives Matter’, ‘No Justice, No Peace’, and ‘Change, Freedom, Social Justice’ are a small sample of the protest banners that filled streets across the US in 2020. The BLM Global Network is inclusive and stands up for all Black lives ‘regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location’,13 making specific reference on its website to the disparate violence experienced by Black trans women. While it started as a small chapter-based, member-led organisation, it is the BLM Global Network. One of the most significant aspects of BLM has been its critical voice and its ability to encourage individuals and communities to question their everyday landscapes and how these landscapes are very much tied to the concepts of race, law, and power.[15]
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