On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest for allegedly using a fake $20 note in a shop. He left behind a daughter of 6. One of the officers involved knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost 9 minutes, while he was handcuffed and lying face down in the street, begging for his life and repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe”.

The event has triggered demonstrations and protests in more than 75 U.S cities, and around the world – including, in the UK, in London, Bristol and Manchester. Black Lives Matter, a global human rights movement, has become a ‘household name’.

Like many individuals and organisations, we have been prompted to reflect on whether we could be doing more to fight racism. As a starting point, we are publishing a statement (see below) and an interview with Cassius Campbell, a London-based counsellor who also works with the Fatherhood Institute training family professionals in how to work effectively with dads and is, himself, a father of 3 boys.

On our Youtube Channel (click on the screengrab below or on this link) you can watch an unedited, live recording of a 55-minute Zoom call between Cassius and Dr Jeremy Davies, the FI’s head of communications, on 10 June 2020. We hope you will forgive us for the less-than-perfect video and audio quality, and will find the discussion useful nonetheless.

You will see that during the interview we refer to a short Powerpoint presentation that gathers some key statistics relevant to the experiences of black fathers in the UK. If you would like a copy of the presentation, have thoughts and/or ideas about future collaborations or projects to share, please email Jeremy at j.davies (at) fatherhoodinstitute.org.