Lawyer Rod Attride-Stirling believes the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter campaign are just as relevant in Bermuda as they are internationally. He and his family, including mother Lucy, a former human rights advocate with Amnesty International Bermuda, will take part in the Black Lives Matter march tomorrow in Hamilton.“Bermuda has exactly the same history of racism, and violence by the state against black Bermudians,” Mr Attride-Stirling said. He said historically there had been violence by the police against black Bermudians.“It’s correct that in Bermuda things have evolved and we don’t see policemen murdering blacks in the way that happened to George Floyd,” he said.Mr Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, triggering protests and riots all over the world.“The police in Bermuda are perhaps more enlightened than they used to be,” Mr Attride-Stirling said. “But the issues of institutionalised racism in Bermuda are still massive.“The instances of casual and daily discrimination against blacks are still significant. So it is right that there should be a protest in relation to the idea of Black Lives Matter.”He said some of his friends had complained that the rioting in some parts of the United States was terrible. “There is looting that is associated with it,” he said. “My view is that looting is done by a minority of people and it happens when rioting is happening. But these protests almost always start peacefully.“Then the police go in heavy-handedly and things become a riot. Martin Luther King was arrested many times and convicted for being involved in riots. Dr King himself said ‘riot is the language of the voiceless’.”He said the better question to ask was why the people rioting felt pushed to such extremes. He said blacks in the US had tried other forms of protest and were consistently ignored. Mr Attride-Stirling said Bermuda had evolved massively in recent years, and he hoped to see a lot of his white friends come out to support the Sunday event.“Next we should have a protest about the public education system,” Mr Attride-Stirling said. “It is failing our children so badly, in particular our black children.“I suspect that if the education system served both the black and white community equally everyone would be up in arms about the academic results that the public education system is producing.“But because the public education system serves predominantly the black community, it doesn’t get the same level of attention and support.”