BLM Community Conference, February 2022

Officers from the Black Lives Matter Working Group provided information on some of the work the Council has been undertaking:

• Justin Parkes from the Museum Service spoke about the research he has been undertaking into North Lanarkshire’s history;
• Head of Education, Gerard McLaughlin told us about work in our schools;
• Fiona Whittaker, Head of People and Organisational Development told us about what we’ve been doing to support and develop our workforce; and
• Audrey Cameron, Development Officer for equalities told us about the research happening in North Lanarkshire along with Mohammed Ishaq from the University of West of Scotland.

In total there were six breakout rooms.

Sir Geoff spoke about his views about using plaques to tell the history of people connected to the Slave Trade rather than rename buildings and/or remove statues. What are your views? 

There was support from 5 of the 6 breakout rooms to installing plaques to ensure the history is told. Some of the discussion from the rooms

‘We shouldn’t take the statues down; we should add the plaques and celebrate the slaves and what they sacrificed and no longer see profiteers as heroes’

Another comment

‘public art reflects both the aspirations and the values of the society within which it is positioned.  Statues should be moved to museums and replaced with plaques and more representative icons of contemporary Scottish society and communities should take their place’.

In regard to street names one comment of note for us to consider is:

‘There is huge diversity in North Lanarkshire, BAME communities have been settled here for so long, but you don’t see that reflected in any of the public places - there are no streets named after them.  I am sure there are people of colour who have contributed to community life so acknowledgement of their contribution towards that in some way or other would involve BAME communities within public life and give them sort of an ownership of where they live, instead of just feeling like outsiders or foreigners’

What more can we do to create supportive allies, challenging the bystander effect in our own communities, organisations, schools and workplaces? 

Strong message that anti-racism education needs to take place in homes as well as primary and secondary schools from all groups.

‘Racism comes from learned behaviour and how people are brought up.  More teaching about racism in schools can help to combat this and support anti-racist allies’. 

‘People think racism does not happen, but it does, and people need to know how to deal with it and this should be taught in schools and workplaces’

‘Raising awareness for bystander training if they were to come across racism, spotting racism and techniques to use’.

Additional comments included:

• leadership has to be shown from the top of organisations; and
• how to report racism needs to be clear and safe for people.

In one of the groups there was a strong feeling that North and South Lanarkshire Councils should take a partnership approach to tackling racism as the BAME communities are strongly linked across Lanarkshire and it would be less confusing for people whose language is not English if policies and systems were the same.

An additional question was prepared if there was time within the groups to discuss.

We have heard much today about the important role education and employment have in advancing equality - what other areas of life should we focus on to bring about equality and good relations?

One group discussed the potential for cultural festivals taking place, like the Mela that takes place in Glasgow every year.

‘Getting people where its most accessible to them – culture, food, music, conversations – that’s how we turn the ship around’.

Another group discussed the role of health, education, housing and employment and quoted Sir Geoff - ‘Diverse societies require diverse management to make appropriate decisions that are fair and efficient’.