The Black Lives Matter campaign that sparked waves of protest in the United States after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 quickly spread across the world to demonstrate against racism.  Recent research from the Chemnitz University of Technology explores how the movement began in Europe and what remains of it one year on.

The researchers assessed BLM protests in Italy, Poland, Denmark, and Germany and found that there were unique characteristics of the protests in each country with new activists mobilized in each nation and police violence becoming a more prominent feature in the public’s mind as a result.

Regional differences

The researchers gathered data from newspaper reports and via interviews with organizers of the various protests around Europe.  The protests were commonly organized by Black activists with the majority taking part in such activism for the first time.  There were nonetheless noticeable size and geographic distribution differences between the countries.

For instance, there were particularly large demonstrations in Munich and Berlin, as well as in Denmark, whilst there have been a surprising number of protests in Italy.  The majority of protests were designed to show solidarity with the movement in the US, albeit with some local translation.

For instance, the protests marked a clear turning point in the racism debate in Germany, with the protests raising awareness that racism was much more than simply individual prejudice and more of a structural and systemic problem.

While the focus of the subsequent debate in Germany was around racism in the country, there was little discussion around the refugee situation.  This was not the case in Denmark and Italy where refugees were much more of a focus of the BLM protests.

A renewed focus

The researchers believe that the protests during the summer of 2020 helped to create and mobilize a new wave of activists, whilst also helping to create new organizations and force racism and police violence into the mainstream.

“Nevertheless, the BLM movement is at its very beginning,” the researchers say. “Under the difficult conditions of the pandemic, people have managed to network and draw public attention to their own concerns. But whether it will have a lasting effect, in other words, whether individual BLM movements will be able to establish and develop in the various European societies, remains to be seen.”

The researchers plan to continue analyzing the BLM movement in Europe to see how sustained it is and what impact it has over the longer term.