‘Talking to my white friend about race – for the first time’

 

Worldwide protests against police violence and racial injustice have led some black people to have conversations about racism with white friends for the first time. Patrick George, 26, a London chef is one of them.

It was late afternoon and Patrick was just about to walk out the door of his east London home when the call came.

It was Jim. He wanted to talk about the march.

“Bro, I’m speechless,” Jim said down the line. “I don’t… I don’t exactly understand what’s happening.”

It had been four days since a viral video showing the death of George Floyd had triggered protests in the US, and outside the US embassy in London.

On TV and on social media, it looked as though the world had crashed out of the isolation of global coronavirus lockdown and was now suddenly out on the street.

George Floyd’s killing, for thousands of black people and others who rejected racism, was bigger than lockdown, and a desire to grieve together outweighed advice on social distancing. The feeling wasn’t universal though, and some in the UK couldn’t understand why anger over American policing was reaching the streets here.

Patrick and Jim had known each other for years from playing football together, they were good friends. They had never discussed racism.

“Please explain it to me,” Jim asked.

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