After Black Lives Matter, citizens’ assemblies can help protesters and politicians find solutions

As we slowly emerge from lockdown, how can the amplifying voice of social media and the energy and ideas behind these movements be converted into long-lasting action?

Are you one of the thousands across the UK who have participated in the powerful Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks? Or are you a supportive spectator observing from the isolated safety of your own home? Either way, the force and energy of this important political movement is unparalleled. We are not only engaging in a timely conversation about institutional discrimination but doing so through the prism of a global health pandemic which is disproportionately killing people from Bame communities.

As part of this debate, Blackout Tuesday on 2 June saw people across the world show solidarity with Black Lives Matter on social media by posting a black square. It was a force for social good, but also a frustrating one. The posting of a black square on the internet – which requires very little effort – arguably makes you a supportive citizen but not a very proactive one.

To many of us, Blackout Tuesday was stimulating and gratifying in the short-term (like social media) but it has left a lingering question mark over its actual impact. Will it translate into long-term action and reform on a topic and conversation that is long-overdue about Britain’s colonial history, the current treatment of black people and their place in a still racially hierarchical country?

Ironically, it is the generations most addicted to the sedation of social media – millennials like myself and Gen Z – who are the ones most likely to actively participate in the Black Lives Matter protests. They are also the ones who have been energetically engaged in the growing and persistent political protests over the last few years. This includes last year’s Extinction Rebellion environmental protests and the anti-Brexit protests in London. The political protest movement has quickened in both pace and sound, and I doubt that they will be slowing down anytime soon until visible change has been enacted and entrenched.

Months spent in lockdown has given us all – not just those who have suffered prejudice or inequality – the time to reflect on how society functions, why it has been functioning the way it has been, and what can no longer be tolerated as acceptable. As we slowly start emerging from lockdown it has become clear that the amplifying voice of social media has played a major role in fuelling the many political protests of the last decade. So how can the energy and ideas behind these movements be converted into long-lasting and effective action?

Looking back to history can help us progress forward on the pressing political protest issues of our time. One historical period we can learn from is the Roman republic and the tribal assembly, which was a democratic assembly of Roman citizens who deliberated and voted on a variety of issues – a bit like a 21st century citizens’ assembly.

If protests are the new norm, citizens’ assemblies offer a practical way forward for both protesters and politicians alike on issues such as racial, economic and gender equality that were the broken promises of the last century, as well as emergencies such as climate change.

According to Professor Graham Smith, a co-investigator of the Citizens’ Assembly on Brexit, a key advantage of citizens’ assemblies is that they “bring the considered judgement of citizens into the political process” and install “acceptance of deliberative processes among the political class” – features that are much needed in the nuanced discussion about racism.

Citizens’ assemblies have been effective forums across the world for deliberating on a spectrum of challenging and divisive issues such as same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland. Despite the lockdown, the UK’s first citizens’ assembly on the climate change crisis recently concluded online last month, highlighting that when there’s a will there is also a way to shape and participate in the discussion about urgent societal issues and to be a part of the practical solution in the recommendations going forward to the government.

Coronavirus may have suspended our physical freedom, but it has not restrained the human spirit and catalyst for immediate and long-lasting action on racism and other issues. When historians look back to this moment in time, what will they make of our response to political protests? Hopefully they will read that we used them to stimulate a new democratic forum for reflection and action in the form of a citizens’ assembly where more of the least represented were better seen, heard and respected.

Joanna George is a freelance journalist and a steering committee member of the Constitution Reform Group.