As Government attacks Black Lives Matter, major Brewer takes action on it.
The first period of 2021 has been marked of course by the pandemic and the roll-out of the vaccination programme but also by Ministers criticisms and attacks on one of the key and continuing features from 2020- the Black Lives Matter movement.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s arrival in the White House will present many issues but the departure of Trump meant a summary end to his 1776 Project an attempt to re-write US history to minimise the issue of slavery amongst other things.
In Britain Home Secretary Priti Patel has attacked Black Lives Matters protests while Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has continued to emphasise that on no account must such protests be allowed to influence the way British history has been viewed.
As often the Tory Party and its traditional business supporters part company on this matter. Big business in particular has its reputation to consider, not least because it has to serve all sections of society and aim to make profits. The matter may be ethical but it is also strictly practical.
Greene King is a leading British brewer and pub operator, now Hong Kong owned, but previously and recently associated with the Beerage- brewers who back the Tory Party (as they traditionally have).
In 2020 it apologised and agreed to make reparations for the reality that part of its historical wealth was based on the slave trade.
In 2021 it has decided to rename several of its pubs which are currently called the Black Boy
Greene King have acknowledged that there is no definitive evidence to link the names to the slave trade but having consulted customers have noted that as in 2021 many will assume this is the case, changing the name makes a degree of sense.
This BBC report discusses the possible origins of ‘Black Boy’ pub names, the importance of changing them and who was consulted on this together with details of some of the pubs involved:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-56040545
Their press release also references a number of other measures they are taking around BLM.
These all look fine, but as a trade unionist I know that while fine sounding policies and consultation are better than nothing getting things to actually happen is much harder. Measures on equal pay and ability to raise issues of discrimination and get them reviewed seriously for example are part of the real bottom line here.
There is a place called ‘Blackboys’ in East Sussex. I was told this name developed from how charcoal and Ironworkers looked (this was a major industry in the Weald in the 17thC).