Time and Time Again is a A National Youth Trends Report on How Young People of Colour are Represented in the UK. It is a Beatfreeks publication which is available to download for free at this link.
Nobody:
Absolutely no one at all:
2020:
● Kanye West runs for president of the United States
● SpaceX becomes first privately run company to launch humans into orbit in space
● Britain leaves the European Union (just about 2020)
● Trump leaves the White House (although that was touch and go for a bit)
● International pandemic takes over world
● Crisis in Yemen reaches breaking point
● Accusations of ethnic cleansing in China
● Largest strike the world has ever seen in India
● And on
● And on
● And on
2020 looked at times like the sixth season of Black Mirror dropping. The rate at which internet use rose has risen by record levels, wearing facemasks has become the norm in the UK (despite how unusual that may have looked in mid-2019), physical contact between people has become a luxury, and cash may have sung its final song long before curtain call.
Whilst it’s not been everyone’s experience, a huge number of people in the UK have lived 2020 much more digitally than ever before, with more frequent, more intsense exposure to digital content and more round the clock digital connection with other people. We’ve had to make things work, and the easiest answer has been creeping up on us quicker and quicker over the past decade: phones, laptops and smart TVs and their good pals Alexa, Cortana and Siri.
Whilst someone’s hit the x2 button on the tech boom, someone else has had the finger eagerly poised over the social action accelerator. Even prior to 2020, we were beginning to understand the extent to which Gen Z are socially conscious in a way no other generation has been: awake to the multifaceted problems that the world faces, how they link together, and how it’s difficult to take a stance on one without acknowledging the rest. It’s meant that, by the end of 2020, 92.7% of the near 2000 16-25s we spoke to said they care about the problems the world is facing.
2020 has shed fresh light on issues which are by no means new: homelessness, strain on the NHS, the accessibility of information online (to name a few of many). The pandemic has added fuel to these fires, but along with it, it has ignited the global consciousness of society, no matter what side of the fence people sit on.
For all that 2020 has cranked the intensity level to 11, there is something missing, from the above description of our whirlwind year. For many people it hasn’t been something that they’ve been talking about in the latter part of this year, but that they think about, discuss and experience everyday: the representation of People of Colour in the UK.
The killing of George Floyd in US police custody on 25th May 2020 saw the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement re-enter ‘mainstream’ (white dominated) public affairs, news, business. Whilst for many these conversations have been ongoing long before 2020, since May, they have ranked among biggest topics of news and content of the latter half of the year. As it does each time it re-enters these media spaces, the campaign has engaged a broader and wider audience of people who may not have otherwise heard about the movement, or the ideas that it represents. But in 2020 something hit different.
In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement instigated, and has been symptomatic, of a new way young people are addressing social issues. They’ve demanded that each of us, on an individual and institutional level, do more than jump on the bandwagon, wave the flag to look good, virtue signal.
The Black Lives Matter movement has forced the UK, in the midst of a global pandemic, to stop, pause and assess one of the most pervasive, systemic issues we face: the representation of People of Colour in a white dominated society. Whilst BLM is specifically about the treatment of Black people - in the UK it has brought under the microscope something which, as stated, many people have been looking at and addressing day in, day out, for decades: how groups of people, based upon their personal heritages, are minoritised.
National Youth Trends has been, is, and always will be about platforming the voices of young people in the UK. This report is in response to the fact that much of the activism, campaigning, callout for greater representation for People of Colour in the UK, has come from Gen Z, regardless of their personal heritages. In conducting our research in September of 2020, we asked young people what was the most pressing social issue of 2020. Whilst 39% of young people identified covid, 40.1% of young people said racism and BLM.
The reason we’re putting this research out is their spirit. Gen Z are refusing to let the conversation slip into the ether this time around. We want to further platform their campaigning, education, and pressure. It’s Beatfreeks’ duty to serve the voices of our future generations, so that we can continue to bridge the gap between their views and the brands, businesses and organisations who will serve their 'needs'. Doing so, together, we can start to build Institutions of the Future.
Time and Time Again is a A National Youth Trends Report on How Young People of Colour are Represented in the UK. It is a Beatfreeks publication which is available to download for free at this link.
Anisa Morridadi
Founder & CEO