Frances H.

Lately, British social media feeds have been popping up with 1960s Black Panther power symbols. Everyone from big commercial brands to small traders have aligned themselves with this idea, without demonstrating understanding of the original American context of black supremacy that underlies it. Sure, the meaning and usage of those symbols have changed over time. Not that most of these bandwagon social media posters know this.

However, my point is that the British context is not parallel to that of the USA.

Absolutely, Britain has its’ own race relations issues to contend with. We have some serious shortfalls around our Asian citizens, for example, whom the average British person, let alone our media workers, knows precious little about.

A brief tangent to the East

Tell me, fellow Brits, would most of us be able to tell the difference between an Ahmadiyya, a Sikh and a Pakistani Sunni? I mean, their skin colour is usually about the same, so why bother investigating further? They’re just ‘Asian’, right?

Until they aren’t.

This is why need a new generation of investigative journalists of the calibre of Andrew Norfolk (Chief Investigative Correspondent at The Times); to show us that we are dangerously close to utter ignorance and dereliction of our duty in being responsible citizens. It was his painstaking undercover investigations that led to the revelation of widespread sexual exploitation of teenagers in Rotherham.

Poor northern white girls, mostly, sexually groomed by British Pakistani Muslim men, mostly. This was a fact. It is a shame that it was true, because of course it detracted from all the fantastic things that the more benevolent Pakistani immigrants are bringing to British society. It was nothing to do with racial privilege, it was everything to do with unchecked power. Arguably, this came about as a result of blind spots and fear around race.

Moreover, I can point to a dozen Pakistani heritage friends doing awe-inspiring things in the NGO and media worlds. This does not mean they share a common experience with the men convicted of serious sexual crimes in Rotherham. To even think of them in the same conversation is a slur on their benevolence.

Norfolk’s investigation was an inconvenient truth, told in a pseudo-halcyon multiracial Britain that loves to turn a blind eye to racial politics. Even today, he has to defend this important journalistic work against baseless accusations of ‘racism’. What a crying shame.

Back to black

You see this is the problem we face with racial identity. There is not one black experience everywhere. There is not one Pakistani immigrant experience everywhere. There is not one white experience everywhere.

The simplicity of this fact sometimes confounds me.

It is rare for me to speak this bluntly: But until we can see this for what it is - that it is pure fallacy to conceive of a homogenous shared racial experience - then we are going to continue to let criminals slip through nets, to allow poor standards to go unchallenged, and ultimately to let our democracy slide into the gutter.

Twelve years (not) a slave

For example, in the UK, the connection of black consciousness to slavery issues is fundamentally different from the USA. Our waves of black immigrants were more commonly not direct descendants of slavery, at least not UK state-sponsored slavery.

We have first generation black African communities who have never experienced western-sponsored slavery (although whose ancestors and wider diaspora no doubt experienced west African slavery).

Then there are West Indian black immigrants who experienced Caribbean slavery before being welcomed into the open arms of an obliterated post-war Britain, to help rebuild the economy. We all know that the recent Windrush controversy was an enormous booboo on the part of the May government. Still, the point stands. It is the story of immigrants of all colours, all around the world, hoping for a better life.

Last but not least, we have many highly integrated black citizens in the UK, working in the police and armed forces, and in high political office. Proudly achieving and contributing.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying there is no racism. And I am all ears as to how we can bring in talented people from all racial backgrounds to better serve our national community.

What I am saying is that conflating ‘the black experience’ as a friend recently put it, with all black experiences everywhere, is folly. Even the definition of ‘black’ itself is hotly contested. And so it should be.

Fools rush in

The protestors in London’s Hyde Park over the past couple of weeks showed me one thing: That these people are prepared to jeopardise citizens - of all colours - of their own nation to ‘call out’ (whatever that now means) issues in another country that doesn’t share their context. Their protests are largely born of misperception and ignorance (sorry, but it’s true). To me this was an exercise in selfishness, not of citizenship.

Fools rush in, as the saying goes.

And what happens? Policemen get injured. The British Police, of which we have arguably one of the most successful models in the world, are themselves victimised.

Twelve weeks ago we started cheering public sector workers from our balconies; this week, they are victims of our abusive and ill-conceived tendencies. Seriously? Sometimes our collective hypocrisy makes my skin crawl.

The Khoi who?

Some years ago, I visited the national apartheid museum in Johannesburg with a South Africa historian friend of mine. As we toured inside the sombre interior, taking in artwork and military vehicles destroyed during township rioting, I felt a mixture of emotions.

You see, I am half South African.

And for more years than I care to remember, I grew up knowing by the looks on people’s faces, that there was an assumption of racism lying somewhere, festering, in my background. It was unmistakeable. I was being judged for a false perception that I had basically no control over. It got boring educating people over and over. So nowadays I hardly mention it, unless I know the person I’m talking to has the maturity and open-mindedness to handle such a nuance. Partly for that reason, I did not take much interest in South African history until adulthood. Being surrounded by white British naivety my whole life wasn’t much of a motivator to learn, as it could only promise judgment, not insight, in return.

Back in the Johannesburg museum, it was inspiring to hear about white and multiracial communities protesting the apartheid system. I was gobsmacked to hear about black intellectuals arguing in favour of it. This place taught me something meaningful outside the usual narratives, which was a good thing. I already knew some of this, through the lived experience of real South Africans who I have known over many years. But it was so good to see it referenced in the national memory.

Yet only to an extent.

What I also discovered in this museum was what I can only describe as a sinister cooptation of black narratives. Ever heard of the Khoisan? No, neither had this cherished national museum, apparently. Well if you haven’t heard of the Khoisan, I’ll just say it has something to do with the inter-tribal politics of pre modern southern Africa. Before the Dutch or the British turned up to promote their own interests.

Plus ça change

Ethnic groups, our oldest social structure beyond that of the family unit, tend towards domination of each other. This is our shared history, our shared experience. It’s called ‘othering’. The history of ethnic groups annihilating one another. Just like what happened, and is still happening, to the Khoisan.

So with this unexpected insight into ‘black-on-black’ domination (although I myself would not choose these labels), I felt…disturbed. I felt sad. Sad that yet another ancient culture was largely wiped out, and barely any record remained of their history. Like all of history’s losers, theirs was wiped out by the winners.

Where are the protestors fighting for the interests of lost groups like this? Do these black lives not matter? Apparently not, as they are totally off the ‘progressive’ radar.

I only know anything much about the Khoisan through my South African history professor friend, someone who has spent years of his life documenting the interactions of this Stone Age people group with the outside world. Someone who genuinely has invested in black lives.

Media interests, if they were committed to inconvenient truths, would be investigating these kinds of phenomena, rather than wasting time and money documenting ill-conceived public protests ad nauseum. Some of them are, but these voices are precious few.

To our black symbols

In the UK, Nelson Mandela is hailed as a hero, without most people even knowing the name of the political party he came to power with. Go figure. Such shallow knowledge of such nuanced and difficult political contexts, irritates me. Unlike many Brits, Nelson Mandela is not my black political hero.

Why?

I am not saying he was not a skilled political leader. He was a statesman, alright. One of the most talented in a modern African regional context, no doubt. He is not someone whose ethics I choose to replicate, however, as someone who started out murdering a policeman. During his lifetime, Mandela himself often said “he was not a saint”. With that appropriate degree of humility, I would have to agree.

Do you know who my black heroes are?

One of them is a teenager called Dami, whose youth leader I was in inner city London for ten years. He overcame a serious stutter to take the lead part in our community play, a role he rose to with aplomb. Fleeing a war zone, growing up with poor Congolese immigrant parents who barely mixed with other Brits, avoiding the serious temptation to join a London postcode gang, and routinely exposed to knife crime in his school, thank God he did not become a statistic.

It took guts and determination for that young man to overcome in life. Instead, with consistent loving input, Dami flourished.

He is the last person who would be out protesting last week, jeopardising the lives of others. He’s too busy valuing everything he’s achieved in his own life, and meaningfully contributing to society. He, of all people, recognises that it takes a village to raise a child. And in his case, that village contained influencers who were white, black and many shades in between.

Yet I wonder how many protestors left these recent demonstrations having contributed anything other than an increased risk of infecting others with Covid 19.

So people, this is my point:

Let’s not glamourise, essentialise and ultimately reduce these causes and their most potent symbols to something laughable.

Let’s engage, humbly, with the nuance of these contexts so that we all, as citizens, have a credible perspective to contribute.

Instead of joining flash-in-the-pan protests, why not join initiatives that challenge and improve the long-standing structural injustices you see? This means so much more in the long-run.

Black lives do matter. As do everyone else’s, as citizens, of precious democracies.

So how will you and I prove that in our actions long-term?

Frances H.

London, England, United Kingdom 3K followers 500+ connections

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