This Morning favourite Alison Hammond has given a tearful speech in support of Black Lives Matter, urging those offended by the movement’s name to “look inside themselves”.
On Tuesday, an emotional Alison was interviewed from home by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby about #BlackOutTuesday, an organised break from social media intended to give people time to educate themselves on issues relating to racism and the Black community.
#BlackOutTuesday was put together as a result of the death of George Floyd, who died last week at the hands of a police officer who had been kneeling on his neck, while he said he couldn’t breathe.
Alison touched on Floyd’s death during the interview, speaking candidly about how it had affected her personally.
“I’m getting emotional already,” she said. “I’m a mother to a 15-year-old Black boy. So… when I saw that image of George Floyd I saw my brothers, I saw my father, I saw my son. I saw everybody’s son. And I was disgusted to my core. And it hurt me to the pit of my stomach to think that this is 2020, and we’re seeing that.
“Let’s be honest, this has been going on forever. My whole life, my mum’s life, my father’s life, everybody’s lives. And I believe this movement, Black Lives Matter, is so very important, and it’s so wonderful when I see my white and Asian brothers and sisters standing by Black Lives Matter. Because it means they understand – they can’t understand fully, but they understand what we are going through as a Black people.”
She continued: “And don’t get offended when I say ‘Black people’. Because I’m not trying to offend white people. If you are offended by it, then you need to look within yourself.
“Just know, it’s just a basic goodness. Appeal to your basic instinct of goodness. You know? It’s not about All Lives Matter, obviously we know that. It’s all about the fact that if Black lives mattered, we wouldn’t be in this situation now. So when Black lives matter, then all lives will matter.”
The clip has already been widely shared on social media, with many praising Alison for speaking so openly…
That same morning, Radio 1 presenter Clara Amfo had listeners in tears as she shared how the death of George Floyd had affected her own mental health.
“I was sat on my sofa crying, angry, confused, and also knowing stuck at the news… stuck at the news of yet another brutalised Black body,” Clara said.
“Knowing how the world enjoys Blackness, and seeing what happened to George, we, Black people, get the feeling that people want our culture, but they do not want us. In other words, you want my talent, but you don’t want me.
“There is a false idea that racism – and in this case anti-Blackness – is just name-calling and physical violence, when it is more insidious than that.
“One of my favourite thinkers is a woman called Amanda Seales, and she says this and I feel it deeply, when she says ‘you cannot enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues’. And I say that with my chest.”
This Morning airs every weekday from 10.30am on ITV.