Below is my speech on a motion on racism I submitted. This motion was unanimously supported following a very emotional full council meeting on 18 November 2020 at the Enfield Civic Centre, and watched virtually by a large number of people. Thank you to all councillors from all political sides who have supported it.

What kind of society or family brings up people that stand on another person’s neck for nine minutes until the person is dead? What kind of society or government tolerates and protects  racists such as these? I am also referring to the Stephen Lawrence murder – thanks and credit to perseverance, the racist thugs who murdered him were brought to justice and as a result, the scandal within the police establishment was uncovered.

Has anything changed since Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela? Sadly, very little. When are we ever going to learn?

As I have mentioned in the past, no-one is born racist; it starts from a young age, not from school, but from home.

When a child as young as six or seven is expelled from school because of a racist remark or  behaviour in the classroom or playground, one must take a closer look at what he/she is saying as it most probably is something they heard in the home. Perhaps while watching TV or reading a newspaper, the child’s father or mother makes a careless and racist comment – the child hears this and will repeat it in the neighbourhood, park or school.

The education around racism and discrimination we all talk about starts from the family, from the parents, the older brother or sister, the uncle, auntie, grandfather, grandmother and so on. It’s the adults that should be held responsible and be punished, not the young child. Let’s say from tomorrow, we fine parents of a child who shouted a racist comment at school or elsewhere; the parents should be held to account, there should be no two ways about it.

If we start now, it will take a whole generation before any improvement is noticed. Yes, it is that bad, because we are talking about institutionalised racism that was left to grow and spread like a virus, like a disease similar to cancer that eats into the very fabric of society.

Yes, all lives matter but let’s make no mistake about it, Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Mattered yesterday, Black Lives Matter Today, and Black Lives Matter, Now and Forever.

Racism has no place in our society. Lets start a programme of stamping out racism from all walks of life.   

George A Savva