1 Power-resistance
In the summer of 2020, waves of protesters took to the streets globally after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis. Having tried for decades to eliminate systemic and violent racisms by working through formal political systems, the murder symbolised the feeling (and fact) that such work had only been, at best, partially successful. Marching and protesting in the street was therefore a logical and authentic means of giving voice to deeply held frustration and distress. Bold acts of resistance demand a response, which can create progress or signal more struggle to come.
In retrospect, what was fascinating about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020 were the ways in which people in positions of power responded. Major corporations started to voice their support. Premier League and international footballers started taking the knee before matches – likewise some political leaders and even a right-wing television presenter (the latter soon quit his role after a backlash from viewers) (BBC, 2021a). More meaningfully, organisations across the UK started to have difficult conversations about the effectiveness or otherwise of work to date on addressing racial inequalities, with multiple new initiatives and policies launched. In the case of the Open University, the outpouring of resistance from the BLM movement coincided with new organisational leaders who prioritised racial equity, leading to a new Black scholarship fund, Black leadership courses and a programme of decolonising curriculum. Who was ‘in power’ and who ‘in resistance’ became blurred as a result of these ripples of activity. You will now move on to make sense of how power and resistance feed off one another.