There has been a lot of media courage over the tragic and senseless death of George Floyd but watching the news on Wednesday 3 June, reporting on the protests in Hyde Park and Brixton was the first time I felt the tears rise up from my chest. Witnessing the outpouring of anger, bringing so many together brought up emotions that I found hard to contain. Undoubtedly the words “I can’t breathe” will live on in our memories for years to come…
I sit here as a black (childless) woman with so much fear for my brothers, my nephews and my friend’s sons knowing that our battles are not just on the streets but are within the systems we exist in, with not only those who are in positions of authority but with all white people we are in contact with. Yes the ones who do not want to hear our words, do not want to validate our experiences, who do not want to accept that racism exits – mainly because they do not want to see (or even acknowledge) their own basis that play out on a daily basis.
Megan Ming Francis mentioned in her Tedx talk that the question ‘how do we solve this problem’ is the wrong question to ask. Megan states that we need to understand the root cause; we need to ask what are the underlying issues? I find myself being frustrated during conversations that focus on the trigger (the rate at which BAME people are dying because of Covid being one of them), conversations that do not get the to root of the matter. Those of you who follow me know that I have mentioned the genetic memory that we (both black and white descendants) carry from slavery in my talks so none of the issues that have been raised recently should be a surprise; yes we should be angry that it is happening, but why are we still surprised??? There are so many examples/ statistics showing that black people are being disproportionately treated and/or affected. The British singer Jamelia spoke of this in a recent post (I saw on FB) which starts with “Dear White people” where she talks about ways to help dismantle racism in our systems – I have quoted her speech here for those of you who are not able to access it on FB….
“Call it out
- in our Education System
- in the Curriculum (it needs to be decolonised)
- in Healthcare where black people are 4x more likely to be detained under the mental health act, are 4x more likely to contract and die form Covid and are 5x more like to die in pregnancy and childbirth
- in the Judicial System where black boys are 8x more likely to be stopped and searched, 4x more likely to have force used against them, 26% more likely to be remanded into custody and given harsher sentences than their white counterparts
- in your place of work where black people experience microaggression upon microaggression on a daily basis…”
and to add to this black people are more almost 2x as likely to enter a formal disciplinary process than their white counterpart.
I listened to Nova Reid’s podcast [Nothing can be changed until it is faced: James Baldwin, Activism and why white women need to rise up] where Nova mentions the incident in Central Park involving Amy Cooper. I was taken aback when Nova mentioned that white women telling lies, crying, shouting that she is being treated unfairly/ aggressively (by a black person) is racism stemming from slavery days where this was the only way a white woman could exert her power (as white women had none (but more than black people) had in those days).
We need to understand the root cause!
I was asked (by some white friends) how I felt about the recent news reports. I replied that as disgusted as I was to witness what happened to George Floyd I was not surprised. There are endless stories of black men being treated with such excessive force and black people being treated differently from their white colleagues. What I also mentioned to my friends was that I experience this treatment on a daily basis. I may not have someone physically retraining me or kneeling on my neck but I am constantly being vocally retrained, constantly being shown that I am less than, that I am wrong, I have experienced white women crying, lying (about something I’ve said), calling me a bully (white men have done this to me too) because they have not liked me, as their [black] manager, challenging their inappropriate behaviour.
We need to understand the root cause!
My fear with these conversations is that the focus is always on fixing the here and now; how do we stop more BAME people from dying of Covid for example but as Megan Ming Francis mentions “fixes that don’t address the root cause are not really fixes…. the problem is not just the few bad apples its that the whole tree is infected”
“Our past history can light a way out of the present darkness… Not only white people need to be held to account but we all need to held to account – we need to know our history”. We need to understand the root cause!!!
To learn more from Nova Reid at Nova Reid.com
To hear more from singer and TV presenter Jamelia at Sky News
That sounds so much like the experience of one of my coworkers. I knew she had suffered under the assaults from people in our office. But since she always pushed her way through and was still friendly with anyone who hadn’t screwed her over (and generally professional with those who had), I was never forced to confront the entirety of her experience. She retired last year or the year before (time has no meaning any more – I know it was in May) but I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately. I hope that I never did anything to add to her burden and that being a trustworthy partner in crime (so to speak) provided some support. We only have 2 remaining black people in our office (our system’s other locations have more diversity, but we’re forensic scientists, so the pipeline isn’t exactly gushing with candidates since there are huge problems in getting black people in STEM as it is), but they don’t have the same kind of position, so they only get microaggressions instead of the full-on attacks. The coworker who retired was an admin supervisor, so she was considered “lower” by almost everyone who worked in our office.
Have you seen the video of the very outspoken young lady who ends her speech by saying “you’re just lucky we want equality and not revenge”? I continue to marvel at that because I would want revenge. So thank you for your grace and mercy and desire to help rather than destroy everything. I hope we can find the root cause and fix it and heal.
Thank you for your honesty and reflections on your co-workers experience. As you’ve identified microaggressions can easily be overlooked and dismissed so it is important that we have allies to help call out and challenge this behaviour. If you are referring to Kimberly Jones then yes I’ve seen her speech, I like her reflection on the contract being broken – it really goes to show how much black people are and have been living (and battling) with. I too hope that we can heal, knowing our history and having these conversations is a good start
Thanks for adding your voice. As a white (childless) woman in NZ, it’s important for me to read. I’m going to follow up your links.
Your posts always give me so much to think about, Yvonne — thank you. I agree that we need to know (and learn from) our history so much better than we do!
Thank you Yvonne. I haven’t come across your blog before now and found it while browsing on Gateway Women. As a white, cis-gendered, childless woman with many privileges of education and middle class birth it really feels like what you’re saying here is key. We can’t just look at Covid 19 or the current protests like Black Lives Matter as if they are “of the present” and need immediate (knee jerk) action – we have to look deeper and into our history (especially the history of people of colour in the UK) that shaped our current (inherently racist) systems. It’s huge and do-able and requires white people to join in wholeheartedly and take up educating themselves and stop seeing this a “black issue”. It’s a human race issue. Felt good to come across your blog post just now. Thanks for writing! Clare
Hi Clare I’m so glad you enjoyed my post. Yes it really is a race issue, one that shows us that there many layers to what we experience on a daily basis. Like you said “we have to look deeper” to understand what is shaping our systems and to have the courage to challenge and dismantle the status quo. We have a long road ahead which requires us all to take an active part on this journey. Thank you for sharing your thoughts