Hundreds March to Protest against Systemic Racism in UK (+Video)

Organizers hope the march will continue the conversations about race started by the Black Lives Matter protests and give minority ethnic people “a louder voice”.

The march took place this year in lieu of the annual Notting Hill carnival, which was held online only because of the coronavirus. Organizers said they aimed to incorporate the same spirit of freedom through peaceful protest, the Guardian reported.

About 400 demonstrators walked along Bayswater Road from Notting Hill tube station, finishing in Hyde Park.

At several points along the way the crowd stopped, sitting down in the road and even breaking into a rendition of Redemption Song by Bob Marley, as demonstrators raised their fists.

The march was organized by Ken Hinds, an adviser to Scotland Yard, Sasha Johnson, a youth worker and activist, the rapper 2 Badda, and the author Anthony Spencer.

Spencer said fighting systemic racism was a “huge task” and likened the struggle to rowing “from one side of the Atlantic to the other”.

He said the movement aimed to introduce a new race offenders register, to prosecute those committing race offences.

“We’re looking at bringing in laws to protect our black citizens. We protect everything else. We protect dogs, we protect eagles, we protect dead statues. Let’s protect people for a change. Let’s protect black people.

“Once we see there’s actual true intention to protect the lives of black people and change systemic suffering, we will stop marching and we will work with the government.

“Racism has been defined by the white population, not by us. We need to redefine racism to start this conversation again.”

Hinds previously accused the Metropolitan police of discrimination after he was threatened with arrest for organising the march. The force eventually dropped its investigation into him after accepting that as a political protest the march was exempt from COVID-19 regulations.