Report on the Talk by Ms Kerry McCarthy MP
Friday 18th September 2020
By Tara Arvind (Year 9)
On the 18th of September, Labour MP Ms Kerry McCarthy talked to Year 9 pupils at Colston's School about Black Lives Matter. As an MP she represents Bristol East in Parliament. She was first elected in 2005 and has been elected to parliament five times.
Ms McCarthy highlighted that Black Lives Matter is important for Bristol especially because of the city's connection with the slave trade, and the profit the city made from it.
Firstly, she recalled that the Bristol Bus Boycott was about an 'outlawed discrimination on the grounds of race and colour'. She referred to Colston Hall, and how some bands didn't want to play there since the demonstration that led to the removal of Edward Colston's statue. She said that as society changes, parliament will need to make changes that reflect the state of society. She stated that changing the law doesn't necessarily mean anything and that it doesn't stop racism in itself but that you have to actually change people's hearts to be able to make a change.
Ms McCarthy said that she agreed with BLM and she thought it was important. She thinks that people used racism as an opportunity to remove the statue of Edward Colston. However, she also feels that symbolic acts as such have more power than speeches and research. Even though it might be criminal damage, the Mayor couldn't condone the criminal damage because other people might think it is fine to choose to break the law.
Ms McCarthy explained that this particular event taught us more about Bristol and its history. She talked about the fact that there are lots of black Mayors in America and in fact it was a historical moment when Marvin Rees got elected the Mayor of Bristol.
Her talk was followed by some questions from students of Year 9. When asked if the violence and looting we have seen at some Black Lives Matter rallies was detracting from their message, Kerry McCarthy replied that it quite often does. She felt that you have to spread a message by bringing people along with you. When she was asked if an individual's good deeds outweigh their bad deeds from the past, she replied by referring to the statues of Winston Churchill and Oliver Cromwell. She said that she didn't want to see them taken down because they are significant figures of history and removing them would even leave some people frustrated.
When asked if after hundreds of years of discrimination, why Black Lives Matter is happening now, she said that she was not sure it is just starting to happen now. She said that there were riots throughout the twentieth century and some more that were recent. She thinks that some people are also angry with President Trump for not going far enough with racism. She even feels that the recent events only stirred up more racism.
Finally, when Kerry McCarthy was asked whether Colston's School should be renamed she stated that, while the trend is currently towards renaming places, it is a matter for the school to decide.
A recording of the talk is available on the co-curricular page on Frog.