Yes, I know it is Christmas Eve and this is a season for joy and merriment among friends and family.
However, this is also a time in the UK when, on a daily basis, we are seeing either first hand or right in front of us in the media, racism in all its ugliness. Sometimes it is overt, sometimes less obvious in the patronising way in which someone calls out racism and (always white) people criticise them and try to say how tolerant we are as a society. “Tolerant?”. The term itself is patronising.
So, Christmas is a time for goodwill to all men, and sometimes that means more than platitudes, to think and act with “goodwill to all men”, it means talking about subjects that are uncomfortable.
So, for those who choose to read on, my thoughts on what any one of us can do should we choose, how, whatever we are already doing, how we can do better.
I wrote a blog last summer around this picture of an MP physically assaulting a protester, using this phrase:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
One day last week I found myself feet away from an ugly racist incident a crowded railway station where a staff member, a person of colour was literally being screamed at in a way that would never have happened if they were white. Luckily, about ten of us stepped in to support the young man and diffused the situation.
The role I took in this, as a 6’3″ man, was to step in between the angry man and the young staffer, turn my back to the angry man and create a buffer for others to talk to him and calm him down, whilst I simply told the shaken young staff member he was doing a good job and we (the public) would take care of this.
Now, in that blog last summer, I was quite angry at the fact that, with another opportunity to diffuse a situation for another 6’3″ white man, this man, an MP (called Mark Francois) no less, instead chose to grab a woman by the throat and march her aggressively out of the room, when he could have simply and calmly taken up space as I did last week, making the determination as I turned my back on him that the hugely angry man screaming at the young staff member would be diffused by the multiple other members of the public who stepped up.
Note that these were not bystanders, they did not stand by and do nothing, they were all members of the public who did not do nothing, they stepped up.
Again back to that incident last summer, what also angered me was that, as the bully grabbed the woman, the entire privileged audience sat and did nothing, said nothing, even laughed it off afterwards.
Be An Ally
So, beyond such instant situational responses, consider where you can be an Ally to those who are marginalised, whether by gender, sexuality, race, age, class or any other way in which you are privileged. Yes, privileged.
With race in particular, I find that those in the UK (white people) are SO uncomfortable talking about this, so often saying “but I’m not racist”, and that “our society is tolerant” (that word “tolerant” again). Please, consider that we can all learn, we can all do better.
The website: “Guide to Allyship” is a useful open source reference, and here are some “Dos” they list:
THE DO’S
Do be open to listening
Do be aware of your implicit biases
Do your research to learn more about the history of the struggle in which you are participating
Do the inner work to figure out a way to acknowledge how you participate in oppressive systems
Do the outer work and figure out how to change the oppressive systems
Do amplify (online and when physically present) the voices of those without your privilege
In particular. for racism in the UK, it is so deeply systemic that I consider the two elements I put in bold above to be core for white people in Britain to consider deeply before truly being an Ally.
Be aware, educate yourself, then step up, speak out.
Do Better
Over the past weekend there was a firestorm as one of the most popular figures in British music and culture, Stormzy, when asked if Britain was still racist, said “definitely, 100%”, which in absolutely widely understood British English, means “definitely, absolutely”. He then went on to explain himself fully and eloquently in the interview.
This was then, however, massively (and in a racist “dog whistle” way), given a headline by a major UK news outlet that he had said Britain is “100% racist”, ie an absolutely different meaning.
From that headline, literally thousands of people piled on to Stormzy on social media to attack him and defend themselves and there version of Britain, many indulging in passive and likely unconscious racism by saying “I don’t know who Stormzy is, but…”. Folks, I shouldn’t have to explain why this is passive racism, but we have search engines and five seconds would tell you who he is, if one cared to find out about who this person of colour is and why he said what he did!
Do Better
This is a heavy post, but no apologies, I post daily and share what I feel to share. This is where I feel I am right now, also where Britain is after a highly divisive election where the Prime Minister was constantly divisive and often flat out racist. He has emboldened people to be overtly racist in their speech and actions. BAME friends of mine are often literally scared.
We can feel powerless to help, and yet, at that train station incident, lots of people stepped up, they choose to do something, not do nothing.
We can all choose to #BeAnAlly, and whatever we are already doing, I believe humans are intrinsically good, and we can all Do Better.
On Election Day in the UK (December 12th just past), Stormzy released his latest album. One of the tracks is called “Do Better”. We can all Do Better, and this young man (he is only 26) is learning and growing all the time and in so many ways as we all can, no matter our age, background, status.
I leave you with his inspirational performance of Do Better on the BBC One Show: