Apologies to those who have already read this post, but it made sense to include it on this blog too.
Instead I have been immersed in the global response to the killing of George Floyd. I have felt grief, outrage, and sorrow all in one unending and all-consuming wave of emotion. But I also feel hope and optimism as the spotlight of the world shone on every ugly crevice of police brutality against black people in America, and how racism is still a problem in the 21st century.
This post is an attempt to put my thoughts and feelings into some sort of logical order to make sense of my own experiences, and how and why they fit into the outrage felt by many around the world. These are my own words that will hopefully contribute to the pool of diverse experiences of black and brown people in the West. If you have any issue with anything I have written below, please feel free to reach out and talk to me about it. This is just how I'm seeing the situation at the moment, and I welcome any feedback that helps to open a dialogue.
I'll begin with an experience that all black and brown people share: the slew of small but constant reminders that we are different regardless of the intention behind them. These reminders could be overt or covert. Personal examples of overt racism include a school caretaker joining in when children threw stones at me at the age of five, a stranger throwing racial abuse at my brother and I whilst we were waiting at a bus stop, and two strangers throwing racial abuse at me and spitting in my face before running away just last year. Such overt incidents are easy to denounce and call shameful, but the covert incidents occur in greater frequency. Please don't think of this post as another black person with a chip on their shoulder. Think of it more like my arm dangling off.
Chip Number 1: Appearance. This might seem like a small one, but I have been called "pretty for a black girl" in the past which a comment that was mostly made by white people with good intentions. But what does that mean in the scope of subconscious bias? Historically, such comments have revolved around Eurocentric ideals of beauty, ideals that have ultimately contributed to the ongoing struggle that black people feel in relation to their appearance. Our hair has been seen as unkempt and dirty, tall black men feel nervous about making people in their surroundings feel intimidated and threatened, a young black man with a hoodie is immediately seen as a troublemaker, and black girls and women have fought with their self-esteem throughout their lives because their physical features are not seen as beautiful in the West.
The comment "pretty for a black girl" is an example of how society can split a group into hierarchies according to appearance. If a girl has lighter skin or looser curls in her hair or a narrower nose, she might be considered pretty for a black girl and is slightly elevated in the societal eye than her counterparts who don't have such features. These ideas are hangovers from an era built on the slave trade where the idea of race was given official recognition in British colonies in America, developed into baseless medical theories that were used to validate slavery (black people are stronger, have a higher pain threshold, have lower intelligence, etc.), and later gave way to eugenics which further pushed the idea of racial hierarchy in society with white people at the top, black people at the bottom, and everybody else in the middle depending on desirability of traits though the Caucasian eye. The white superiority argument was used to validate slavery for 400 years. That's generations of white people being born into those ideas and carrying them on to the next generation as if they're normal, all while America was using slave labour to build its foundations. That's generations of black people being born into a world where they were automatically seen as the lowest in society. No wonder it has taken so long for us all to truly recognise the endemic presence of racism in nearly every aspect of life, and why it will take even longer to weed it out.
Even though these ideas are not overtly peddled by the ruling classes in modern society, the quest for lighter skin (which exists in Asia, Africa, South America, and in diasporic communities in the West) and silkier hair, still stand as hangovers from historical attitudes toward race. Thankfully, wider celebration of the beauty of our diverse population has come to the forefront over the past 10-15 years and is moving in a positive direction, but a lot more work needs to be done. For example, there is a campaign in the UK calling for black hair to become a protected feature under the Equality Act 2010, as there have been stories as recently as this year of students being sent home for their hair styles, and of female employees being told to wear more "professional-looking" hair styles even when wearing neat braids.But what will it take for black men and boys not to be seen as thugs or lazy? Why are black men and boys seen as thugs in wider society?
Chip Number 2: Black People in Media and Police Brutality. Some efforts have been made in the past to familiarise audiences with the black British experience, with one of the most recent examples on Channel 4 being the Big Narstie Show. It received critical acclaim for displaying an unblinking glance into the world of diverse working-class communities and provided audiences the chance to understand and become familiar with an aspect of black culture in the UK. However, it should be seen as just that: an aspect of the experience of being black in the UK. We have multiple stories to tell, but I worry that how we are seen in the media doesn't help.
The knife crimes that swept through urban cities over the past few years saw black youth after black youth being murdered senselessly in the street. There are multiple socioeconomic factors at play from the closure of youth services to underfunded educational institutions unable to give their crowded classrooms of students the support and attention that they need. These kids found mentorship in older cousins or family friends who would introduce them into a family that looked after its own and protected itself and its income through tit-for-tat actions against rivals who might threaten their source of income. Rather than opening youth centres not only to give these kids something to do, but to offer alternative mentors in the form of youth workers, the government increased stop and search policies that have always disproportionately affected young black men. Instead of offering a chance for these kids to steer their lives in a positive direction, the government followed policies that exacerbated hatred from a community that felt over-policed. With no alternative, new generations are inducted into gang culture, further compounding the news stories in which they appeared, and perpetuating the idea that young black men are nothing but trouble.
A very similar situation is reflected in America, but it is mostly events of excess police brutality that bring race relations to the forefront of global consciousness. The protests going on across that country have demonstrated that the police will be violent against anybody who stands in their way as demonstrated by innumerable videos captured by protestors of all races and creeds. Demands on policing from protestors have ranged from being completely reasonable to some that will be more challenging to address.
Campaign Zero is an example of an achievable middle ground, and advocates for the use of non-violent tactics for de-escalation as well as making police officers accountable for their actions. It does not call for a complete end to policing, or for the blood of the police involved in George Floyd's killing. One of the officers who stood by was following the lead of his senior colleagues and even pointed out that George Floyd was losing consciousness. I am not saying his inaction was right, but it's almost easy to understand given his junior position and the power dynamics between him and he other more experienced officers. We still need police to stop crime otherwise we would become a lawless society. The problem is the way that excessive force is disproportionally applied to black people in America due to over-militarisation and sub-par training. I don't want to say that George Floyd was an absolute angel as he has committed crimes in the past, but if a crime is reported and police are dispatched, they are expected to investigate the circumstances and enforce the law where necessary. The police are not meant to be judge, jury, and executioner.
It's a shame it has taken the indiscriminate application of force against protesters (and even then, it could still be argued that force is discriminately applied) for Americans to truly see the problem with over-funding their police forces. The attacks on media have been particularly shocking for many as their freedom to work there is protected in the First Amendment of the American Constitution. The same amendment touted by right-wing extremists spewing racist and anti-Semitic slogans in their own protests and being called "good people" by their President. Has demonisation of the press by Trump throughout his presidency led to the attacks we have seen against journalists? I hope we'll find out eventually.
Outside of media, black children are seen as more mature than their white counterparts because the feeling that children should be protected from the harsh realities of the world is also disproportionately applied according to race. There was a gut-wrenching video of a little girl trying to comfort her distraught mother who watched the police shoot her boyfriend dead whilst she was handcuffed in the back of a police car. The little girl didn't scream, she didn't cry. She said "It's okay momma, I'm here with you". Imagine a small child having to comfort her mother like that at such an early age? The reality of cruelties that exist in the world are made known early in the life of a black child. They learn they're different really early when someone comments on their hair, or children they have been friends with since they started nursery were told not to interact with them anymore. This happened with my younger brother. His friend was not allowed to visit our home or talk to my brother at all after they saw that we lived in a small house in a working-class neighbourhood that was neglected by the council. The parents didn't even think to invite my brother to their place instead of his friend coming over if they feared for his safety. They just went straight to forbidding any further interaction. The boys were around 10 at the time. My mum pointed this out to me years later, but I thought she was making a mountain out of a molehill. Now I know better. Such actions are how children learn about race and class, and how some people are less desirable to be around than others.
The actions of the police against black people in America has resulted in the abuse of the racial hierarchy between black and white people, and has exposed the weaponizing of 911 phone calls against black people which could potentially lead to their deaths.
Chip Number 3: Karens. The fact that western society has been run by white males for as long as we can remember contributes to a thought that I've been considering for a long time: The most valuable person in western society is the white woman. Everything that has been done in the past to demonise black people in the West comes down to the subliminal message that the black man will befoul the white woman. This was a tactic used in newspapers in Wilmington in North Carolina which had democratically elected black Republican representatives in their government until their election in 1898. Propaganda pushed by the Democrats (who were on the political right at the time and worked toward white supremacy) aimed to incite hatred of black people by white people, most of which utilised the fear of black men threatening white women. This essentially led to a coup d'tat that installed an all white government with a number of killings of black residents at the same time. Other examples revolve around false reports of white women being raped by black men, many leading to the lynching of innocent people. One accusation led to the massacre of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma when an affluent black community was literally fire-bombed, killing 300 black people and making 9000 more homeless. Such acts were justified in the name of keeping white womanhood pure.
So what does this have to do with the modern phenomenon of Karens? Karen has become the universal name for calling out the white women who use their protected position in society to obtain goods and/or services they think they deserve, and who react disproportionately when they don't receive them. It doesn't stop at getting goods and services. There have been incidents of white women calling the police on black people for gardening, inspecting a house they want to invest in, "staring suspiciously", asking for a dog to be put on a leash in a park, having a barbecue...I could go on, but there are so many more examples that can be found just with a quick Google search.
Karens have become a cultural phenomenon due to the awareness of others, regardless of race, who have had to put up with their vitriol in the past. A key example is the humiliating and degrading treatment of waiters and retail staff, many of whom contribute to the current generation of people protesting in the name of Black Lives Matter. That sense of entitlement has been gained over centuries of putting white women on a pedestal and protecting them from the threat of Others.
I could also go into how the protection of the white woman has gone on to become the celebration of the white woman in popular culture and beauty, and how such celebrations have drowned out the celebration of non-white women in both facets of life without fetishizing them, but that's another rant for another day. And let us not talk about race and feminism here, and their intertwined, out-of-step waltz throughout recent history.
Chip Number 4: Black People. This is a tough one for me, because as much as I want to champion black people, I think that looking back on how we treat ourselves and others will help us to move forward. I, and many others, have been told by other black people that we sound and/or act white. I remember such comments being made in derogatory tones that implied some sort of traitorous act was committed. Not every black person reflects the cultural references or traits that would be obvious to those heavily steeped in that culture. I grew up listening to indie and alternative music introduced to me by friends at school. I remember a classmate asking me why I listened to such music instead of what I was expected to listen to, and I've played that conversation over and over in my head in years gone by. Why didn't I just say "Eminem" and walk away? Why is Eminem allowed to explore and become famous in a genre of music that he loves, but I must be questioned for listening to the Killers?
Being told that I act white is a tough one. Not because I take it as an insult in any way, but I do wonder if it has allowed me to access to aspects of life that would be closed to those who feel the need to code switch. Code switching in linguistics refers to multilingual speakers changing from one language to another in a single conversation, usually in times when one language is unable to convey a certain meaning. When it comes to race, code switching involves changing the way a person expresses themselves depending on their audience. This could stem from the lack of acceptance that the English that working-class people of colour speak in large towns and cities is a dialect in its own right, influenced by decades of immigration. Instead it is seen as a sign of relatively poor education and an audible maker of a person's place in society and what is expected of them. People complained about it in the 1990s and 2010s, wishing that people speaking in that dialect would "speak properly". Hence code-switching, or "putting my white voice on". As I have nearly always been the only black person in the spaces I've occupied, I haven't felt the need to code switch. That's a form of my own privilege that I have acknowledged for a long time, but do not know how to come to terms with.
Ways in which black people are helping each other involve mentoring schemes that largely rely on developing coping mechanisms for resilience, and tips on how to code switch effectively enough to be taken seriously at school or in the workplace. It's a shame that such schemes are required at all, but they're a crucial lifeline headed by people who understand the position of young black people in society today.
Chip Number 5: White Supremacy and White Guilt. White supremacists select and celebrate the worst aspects of whiteness...Why? Why celebrate fascist ideas when progress toward social liberalism, democracy, free press, and past victories against such fascism could easily be points to rally around? Why is the removal of people different to themselves the goal that white supremacists want to achieve? Is it because facing an uncomfortable past of colonialism and conquest through theft and murder is too painful to face? Do they refuse to acknowledge that the privileges that we in the West benefit from were put in place by policies that still subjugate countries containing precious resources? Why not focus on and celebrate the positives of being white in this day and age? The sheer volume of white people who came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement says more than I can put into words here. The allies gained over the past couple of weeks have opened their minds to learning about systemic racism and how it affects their fellow citizens. This is something to celebrate with great fanfare! There could be real change to heavy policing in America and decolonising curriculums on both sides of the Atlantic. This is where hope and optimism can take root and bloom.
I want to mention those who did not take part in #blackouttuesday on social media on the 2nd of June 2020. Do not feel ashamed for not taking part. As much as it helped to spread the word and raised international awareness of the Black Lives Matter campaign, I was annoyed at those who condemned the people who posted nothing online. Such actions shut down the conversation before it even begins. Such reactions do make me wonder if guilt by association might be fuelling some white allyship, hence the need to shame others for their inaction, but I also don't want to disparage people of their genuine feeling of outrage at systemic racism. However, it should be kept in mind that not everybody feels comfortable speaking about race. They may feel that it is not their place to put their thoughts forward. To those people, I would rather encourage them to delve into the resources flying all over social media that are helping everybody to understand racism in a mindful way. Awareness of the problem is key to dealing with it. And those shaming people who were quiet on social media should be opening up the conversation and be willing to have frank and grown up discussions about race.
Finally, if you, dear reader, are a white person, please ask yourself this: before the killing of George Floyd and the protests that have followed, what was your immediate reaction to hearing the term "white person/people"? Was there a slight discomfort in remembering that you belong to a race too? Just something to consider.
Chip Number 6: Allies of Colour. The Black Lives Matter protests have had allies from all backgrounds to support the cause globally. This is something that should be celebrated with equal fanfare, but a lot of support seems to come from other minorities in the West with some countries only seeing this as a problem for the West.
The Chinese Communist Party have come out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement whilst simultaneously evicting and forcefully detaining African entrepreneurs in China, quoting the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for these actions. Disney famously shrunk John Boyega's character Finn, alongside Chewbacca, in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster to be displayed in China to promote the movie. Chinese people also complained that Black Panther was too black...I mean, come on. Racism is not just a white problem. There is not a country in Africa, Asia, or South America that does not sell skin whitening cream in beauty shops because lighter skin is globally regarded as being more desirable than darker tones. Black communities suffer from this too. We glorify lighter skin and looser hair coils both of which tip toward the Eurocentric end of the beauty scale.
There have also been moves by Korean Pop groups to donate astonishing amounts of money to Black Lives Matter activists but have not given any indication that they would do anything in their country to tackle racism there.
This is not just a problem for the West.
Chip Number 7: Black People in History. I, and many others, grew up believing that we were not allowed to be proud of being British because people like us were not in the history books. There is such an intricate and intimate link between a country's history and patriotism felt by its population. This can discourage the children of immigrants growing up in those countries from enjoying days of celebrations of victory or traditional national holidays like patron saint days. If the history taught in schools does not reflect the fact that people of colour existed in Britain during multiple periods of history, how are we meant to feel when those patriotic days come along? Should we join in? What if we get called out for "not really being British"? Should we stay silent and not participate? What if we come across as being ungrateful for growing up in a wealthy country? Again, I'm not saying that white people shouldn't be proud of the ingenuity of the industrial era, but the public understanding of history should acknowledge the labour that produced the raw materials that fuelled the Industrial Revolution in the first place.
Except for slave labour, the contributions and existence of black people in the history of the western world has are not well known in the general population, leading to the common misconception that we did not come over until we were brought here as privileged slaves, or by boats similar to the Empire Windrush. We have been here since ancient times. The Romans had a diverse international population bringing migrants to British shores and granting them citizenship. We were not just slaves, we were merchants and artisans, governors and generals, active citizens of the Roman empire. The contribution of soldiers from British colonies are all but forgotten here. My grandfather fought in Burma for Britain as Kenya was part of the Empire, and then imprisoned for 2 years during the Mau Mau fight for independence because of his tribal background and the belief that he would use his military training to assist the rebellion. Usually you need solid proof to imprison someone, right?
I believe that the UK needs to come to terms with its colonial past in the same way that Germany has come to terms with the Nazis and the Holocaust. I know, all arguments fail when the Nazis are brought up. But it doesn't take away from the fact that we must face the past head on, acknowledge what happened, and take steps to dismantle remnant ideologies that still persist to this day. I admire the efforts of campaign groups fighting for black British history to be part of the curriculum, but I don't think that will achieve an understanding of racism that will lead to the development of future citizens who are truly mindful of the past. People should be made aware that British history is global history given that the UK dominated so much of it for such a long time. Of course the Transatlantic Slave Trade and key figures in the fight for civil rights in the UK should be included in the curriculum, but the involvement of commonwealth soldiers in the world wars, the Partition of India and Pakistan, and the Opium Wars should all be in there. All children will feel that they have a place in British society and won't be asked why they're taking part in patriotic events just because of the colour of their skin.
Chip Number 8: The UK is not Innocent. This might be a bit pedantic, but here it goes.
On the 7th of June 2020, protesters in Bristol pulled down a statue of Edward Colston, a man who took 84,000 men, women, and children from Africa and traded them to slave owners in America for sugar, tobacco, cotton, and spices. These goods were brought back to England where he amassed great wealth. He is seen as a generous figure as he donated his wealth to the city of Bristol, leading to many roads, schools, buildings, and other public places after him. I watched the BBC news report about it the next morning as was greatly disappointed in their phrasing:
"Edward Colston was historically revered in Bristol for his generosity to a city he called home. When he died in 1721, he left his fortune to good causes; a fortune he amassed by transporting and trading in slaves."
The fact that he traded in slaves was almost added to the praise for his generosity as an afterthought. Where in that statement was it mentioned the number of slaves he took and traded in? This does not help people come to terms with the role of the UK in the slave trade, and instead makes debatable something that should at once be denounced as downright abhorrent.
Our prime minister, Boris Johnson, was on top form by initially failing to make any comment on the protests here or in America unless he was forced to do so by the Labour leader Keir Starmer, or by the removal of the statue of Edward Colston where he said:
"These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery and they are the betrayal of the cause they purport to serve."
The home secretary Priti Patel also came out with the following statement:
"That is utterly disgraceful, and that speaks to the acts of disorder - public disorder - that have now become a distraction from the cause in which people are actively protesting about" ... "and it's right actually [that] the police follow up on that and make sure that justice is undertaken with those individuals responsible for such disorderly and lawless behaviour"
It is incredible that it taken the use of such public disorder for those in power to say anything about the protests against systemic racism. How are they able to display more displeasure toward the removal of a monument to the tens of thousands of people traded for the wealth of a UK city, and refuse to make any sort of comment acknowledging why people are so angered by it? Surely it encourages people to commit similar acts as they seem to be the only way that top politicians will listen to protestors. The Conservative party need to address their blatant apathy for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Boris has refused to denounce the way Donald Trump has handled the protests in America where he sent out heavily armed State and Federal officers against peaceful protestors, and inflaming the situation by calling protestors thugs and tweeting:
"...when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Boris has also refused to make any sort of commitment to going over multiple reports on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, including the Lammy report from 2017 which focused on BAME experiences and outcomes in the criminal justice system. Even if Mr Johnson said that he would get a champion of immigrants to work alongside the Home secretary Priti Patel MP on immigration policy that doesn't stigmatise immigrants, that would be a step in the right direction. Moves like that would show that the government was mindful of the existence of racism in every facet of our lives and they were taking active steps to remove it. It is not enough to wave to the people of colour in the Conservative cabinet as a sign of changing times and acceptance in our society. Class and race are intimately intertwined when we try to examine race. Only 4 out of 26 cabinet members are BAME. I'm not about to claim that they were all born into riches and into a nice easy life, but they have become victim to the trap of forgetting where they came from. Not their ancestral countries of origin, but the story of immigration where everybody was given the chance to be socially mobile and work hard to improve their quality of life. The immigration policies that Priti Patel is steamrolling through Parliament in the middle of the pandemic shows that she has turned her back on the very processes that have allowed her to be where she is today.
When attending the protest in Edinburgh on the 7th of June 2020 with a friend, we discussed the problem of patriotism and its link to historic monuments. We had just heard about the statue of Edward Colston being pulled down and thrown into the Bristol docks, and wondered why some people were so outraged by the action. There seems to be a conflation between monuments honouring those who have served in our military to defend and protect a country we all love, and monuments to problematic figures. Maybe Coulston's presence throughout the city made what happened to his statue feel like an attack on Bristol itself? Maybe people would argue that pulling down the statue only works to erase history. There have been historical leaders who called for atrocious acts to be committed, and we have somehow managed to remember them without the use of monuments due to their removal and destruction. We know about them because the history of these people and their acts were taught to us all in schools. Yes, of course I'm talking about the one obvious example of this.
Looking back on history should not be painful. It should be a chance to learn and evolve from it.
Chip Number 9: Class in the UK and the USA. America has just as much of a class problem as the UK does. It is the perception that those in the lower classes view themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires that prevents them from seeing that poor black neighbourhoods are affected similarly to poor white neighbourhoods: one exploited by big pharma and lax rules on opioid prescriptions, and the other exploited by the privatised criminal justice system. If both impoverished groups were able to see that it's not the minorities selling drugs to the poor white communities to get them addicted, and it's the flooding of cocaine in black communities maintaining gang violence in neighbourhoods so starved of employment opportunities that young people feel compelled to turn to crime to support themselves and their families, they'd realise how the powers that be have played a centuries long game of monopoly, and have taken advantage of the tribal aspect of human nature that pits the poor against the poor on the basis of skin colour.
We in the UK might feel like we are more enlightened on the matter, but the same thing happens here. Poor seaside towns are seeing an exodus of their youth because of the lack of employment opportunities resulting from decades of indifference from a government who blames the lack of jobs on job-stealing immigrants. Young black people in urban areas feel less able to live to their full potential because of where they grew up and how they are perceived in society as angry, loud, violent, and lazy. Employment opportunities are slim, and the ability to gain skills that prepare both poor black and white youths simply aren't there or have an early cut off point.
Pitting the poor against each other is a divide and conquer strategy used for centuries that distracts from the real problem. People are being let down by their governments who perpetuate the complex issues of race in society to keep up that divide.
Chip Number...There are many other chips I could discuss in detail including differing experiences during international travel, generational experiences of racism and code-switching, blackfishing, and race and feminism, but I should stop there.
One final point. We do not want affirmative action. We just want the ability to prove ourselves as individuals with support in place that acknowledges the hurdles we have to leap along the way. We do not want to be sent home from school for our hair, or seen as acting suspicious if we get lost, or perceived as a potential troublemaker if we wear certain clothes that others wear for comfort and leisure. Code switching and being overly polite is exhausting, but we feel it necessary in spaces where we are the minority. We are representing a whole section of society in those spaces whether we like it or not.
