(IN)EQUALITY
The Fire at Home
Britain did not have to look 4,000 miles away for a reason to join the protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder. Institutional racism and police brutality generate more headlines across the Atlantic, but let’s not pretend there is no problem here at home. Britain is the best at turning a blind eye — god forbid we make anyone feel awkward. But now, anger pumps from the heart of London and Bristol across the land. What does this mean for the country we live in?
George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police lit a fuse that burned across America. This was not an overreaction to an isolated incident, but rather the straw that broke the camel’s back. Protestors of all races marched in unison across the country, in naked defiance to an infinitely long injustice. How many times, they asked, must black people be brutalised at the hands of the police before a voice is heard? As with any movement, there remains a group of contrarians determined to miss the point entirely. All Lives Matter has become a baffling retort to the rightful outcry against systemic racism. It has been quite clear for a very long time that white lives matter. It is time for all other lives to matter on the same level.
The flames of revolt were not put out by the ocean as they found their way to Britain. Here, the protests marked something different, but very much the same. The killing of George Floyd stirred the UK into action too — not against police shootings, but systemic societal racism as a whole. One such protest in Bristol produced an iconic snapshot of global fury — the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue. Protestors hauled the bronze bulk through the streets and dropped it into Bristol Harbour.
Edward Colston was an official of the Royal African Company, facilitating the transfer of over 80,000 Africans to America as a part of lucrative slave trade. He benefited handsomely by trading thousands of individuals, many of whom died on the journey. Colston should have been written into the history books as a human trafficker. Instead, he has been celebrated as a philanthropist. This disgusting “reputation laundering” is not exclusive to Colston, but supposed philanthropy should not even get a mention relative to the repulsive acts committed throughout his life. His immortalisation in statue form was beyond offensive, and whether you believe the statue should have been placed in a museum for education or not, the only right thing is that it is gone from its pedestal.
The US may be an extreme case, but it is by no means unique. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are more than four times as likely to be stopped and searched by police in England and Wales as white people. For black people alone, it’s nearly ten times. They are more than five times likelier to have excessive force used against them and have a three times greater chance of being arrested. It is no use looking at the US and turning up your nose in faux outrage when such a problem persists at home. The coronavirus epidemic has also pulled back the curtain on the fundamental problem faced by minorities. Quality education is disproportionately skewed towards white people, as well as social support that many people take for granted.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was slow at to recognise the resonance of George Floyd’s killing in Britain. Home Minister Priti Patel focused on “thuggery”, even though most protests were peaceful — in an admirable effort to completely miss the point. Mr Johnson’s pleading for social distance was ignored. Interestingly, we did not hear a word out of his mouth when hordes of people gathered on beaches during a weekend heatwave. If the people running the country place such an unequal focus on black “rule-breaking”, it is no surprise that much of the country unconsciously follows suit. What a sad reality.
As the son of two first-generation Indian immigrants, I can look back at a different brand of racism. Brits are the masters of subtlety: preferring delicate discrimination to the blatant bigotry seen across the pond. I cannot deny the advantages of being second-generation. My education is the same, and my accent the same as people who have English parents and grandparents. I have been raised in a comfortable situation compared to many minorities across the nation. Therefore, the discrimination has to be even more subtle. “I’m not going to bother pronouncing that!”, they joke about my name. “No, where are you actually from?” — because being raised in England all my life is not a good enough reason to say that I am English. It is up to me to be proud of my Indian roots; it is not up to you to decide that for me. Such an attitude, even in highly educated circles, creates a barrier that can never completely be broken.
The distressing truth is that I have had it pretty easy compared to my parents. If I have to work just ten times as hard as my white counterparts to be recognised the same, it is because my parents work a hundred times harder. Understandably, the total integration of immigrants into their new society is challenging to achieve. Some of the country’s brightest minds have foreign backgrounds. All that seems to matter for a small number of bigots, however, is a “funny” accent. The NHS have been heroes of this pandemic, my parents among them. A high number of NHS worker casualties have been minorities. This sacrifice will be quickly forgotten by many closed-minded individuals who spread undercurrents of discrimination quietly through British society. Judging people not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character — as dreamt by Martin Luther King Jr. — still does not wholly occur today.
There have been plenty of rumblings as to why there had to be so many protests “this time”. Well what about last time, and the countless times before? Segregation existed in the USA until as recently as 1964. It was only after the riots following Dr King’s assassination in 1968 that Lyndon B. Johnson outlawed violence and intimidation against prospective house buyers or renters, designed to protect minorities. Without the Dr King-led protests during the 1960s, there would have been no change in the American myth of white supremacy, and segregation may still be alive today.
We can only hope that today’s fire will be the last of its kind — change is long overdue. Equality is not the minimum that is required; it is merely all that is needed. Britain: stop looking the other way — it is time to pay attention.
