BLM: Southside Murals Confronting Racism in Scotland
In Issue 1 of Greater Govanhill, Rachel Dallas wrote about the realities of racism in Scotland today and explained the meaning behind the crowdfunded Glasgow South Anti-Racism Art Project which has resulted in four striking new murals.
By Rachel Dallas
Photos by Lisa Miller | All rights reserved
At the height of a pandemic that stopped the world in its tracks, another story dominated headlines. In May, millions of people raised their voices (and continue to do so) in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd and the ongoing racial injustice in the United States. Around the world, Black Lives Matter (BLM) became a household topic — it trended on social media and it made its way into every national newspaper.
Here in Glasgow, thousands showed up to socially-distanced protests in Queen’s Park, Glasgow Green and George Square. These protests were not only the result of legitimate frustration after decades of failure to reform in the US, but also an opportunity for us to speak out against the same racism which is often downplayed in Scotland.
It is important that the BLM movement in the UK expresses our solidarity with the US. However, I also hope that it forces Scotland to acknowledge the reality of racism in our own country. Racism is not new, and it is not limited to the US.
As a person of colour living in the UK, I have personally experienced racism in our city.I have been verbally and even physically assaulted, but some of my worst experiences have been caused by people I had considered friends.
Despite these experiences, the response to Black Lives Matter from our city gives me hope for a better future; one where the impact of racism in Scotland is acknowledged and not accepted. When I walk around the Southside today, several months on from the protests, I still see banners, posters, and flags reading ‘Silence is Violence’, ‘Justice for Sheku Bayoh’, and ‘No Justice, No Peace’.
Sheku Bayoh was a 31-year-old trainee gas engineer and father-of-two living in Kirkcaldy, Fife. He arrived in Scotland from Sierra Leone as a young teenager. On 3 May, 2015, soon after being restrained by up to nine police officers - he died in hospital and was found to have 23 injuries. The Crown Office decided last year that no one would be prosecuted. New evidence obtained by the BBC's Disclosure programme, including CCTV footage, cast doubt on some of the officers' accounts of the incident. A public inquiry was subsequently announced, but is expected to take up to four years. It will be the first in Scotland to examine a death in custody and intends to investigate if Sheku's "actual or perceived race" played a part in events of his death.
It has been comforting to feel seen in my local community and I want to encourage everyone to keep talking about racism in all its forms and questioning what we can all do to challenge it. As we continue to advocate in the memory of countless Black victims of racial injustice worldwide, it is important to ensure the effect for our local community is long-lasting and impactful. Overcoming racism is a constant battle, so we must be both persistent and specific in our approach.
I hope that these murals will be a reflection of how far we have come, but also a reminder of how far we still have to go.
Because of the support of the Glasgow Southside community, I was able to launch the ‘Glasgow South Anti-Racism Art Project’, which aims to create meaningful and lasting displays of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. I am very thankful for the local venues who volunteered to host the murals, the people who donated to the fundraiser, and the amazing artists involved – King Listy and Barry the Cat. The fight had been going on long before George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It started here in the UK before Stephen Lawrence and Sheku Bayoh. However, the impact of racism in Scotland is still often unacknowledged or downplayed. I hope that these murals will be a reflection of how far we have come — but also a reminder of how far we still have to go.
Each mural has benefitted from significant input from the Glasgow South community. In Shawlands, a mural was painted on the temporarily boarded up windows of Gulp, a bar that has sadly now permanently closed.
The word STAND is written across a Black power salute. It has two meanings for me. It is taken from the phrase ‘I will not always understand, but I will always stand’, meaning that non-Black people do not need to understand our struggles to know when something is wrong and to take a stand against it. It is a message from our community that we will look out for each other and fight for what is right. It also represents the need to work as one in our fight for equality of all: “Together we stand, divided we fall.” The Shawlands mural is of great personal significance to me. I have been lucky enough to surround myself with friends and family here (and now it feels like a whole community) who choose to be racially aware and to continuously educate themselves on the effects of racism in our society.
The owners of Rumshack on Pollokshaws Road chose a portrait of Benjamin Zephaniah for their mural. Zephaniah is a Black British political poet, novelist, playwright, and musician whose work portrays the underlying seriousness of the Black experience and the reality of racism in Britain. Brian Austin, co-owner of Rumshack, says, “He’s a Black Caribbean UK voice that is non-conformist, principled, funny, honest, and perceptive. Freedom of thought is needed in order to change things, and his poetry helps us to think.”
The Govanhill Baths Community Trust mural, located at the new Govanhill People’s Pantry on Cathcart Road, incorporates BLM drawings from the Govanhill Youth Club (which they had created before I approached them). It represents the importance of the younger generation in our fight against racism. Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to attend a previously all-white school in 1960s Louisiana, once said, “Racism is a grown-up disease, and we should stop using our kids to spread it.”
The owner of Jodandys coffee shop in Shawlands chose to celebrate the Black Scottish cultural contribution in the form of a portrait of the first Black international football player, Andrew Watson, who began his career in Glasgow. Unfortunately, racism is still the most common form of discrimination in football, despite the undeniable contribution of the Black community in the UK, and beyond, to the sport as whole. Directly across from Watson’s portrait, I commissioned a portrait of Pelé, who is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. The intention is for the combination of these murals to be a celebration of the immeasurable legacy of Black footballers’ past, present, and future.
The Glasgow South Anti-Racism Art Project is just a small part of the Scottish response to the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many more whose names should be said. The Scotland-wide BLM Mural Trail continues to grow, creating powerful and impactful visual reminders of the importance of acknowledging, discussing and challenging racism in our country. The recent defacing of two of the BLM murals shows that some members of our community are further behind than others on our journey to equality. This reminder should not discourage us but motivate us to work harder to leave no one behind.
Although more subtle than a knee on the neck and a bullet in the back, the outcome is just as significant.
Thousands of people around Scotland showed up for Black Lives Matter protests and know the names of specific victims of discrimination. But few know or acknowledge the true extent and impact of institutionalised racism in Scotland today. For example, just one staggering statistic which has been repeatedly reported in the UK is that Black women are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth. It’s for this reason my intention is that my next mural will be dedicated to the Black women who die during and after childbirth as the result of medical racism.
The recent death of one man has been viewed by us all as an unnecessary and evil tragedy worldwide. But with my proposed mural I want to reflect the effect of institutionalised racism in Scotland and the resulting racial health disparities. Although more subtle than a knee on the neck and a bullet in the back, the outcome is just as significant.
For decades, the deaths of millions of Black people have been minimised in the form of unexplainable statistics. My new mural, and all other Glasgow South Anti Racism murals, I hope, will stand as a lasting reminder that our community has pledged to fight racism together.
