feature: being black and brown in britain

What was implicitly imparted to my black brother when he was consistently pulled out of classes or the playground and called into the headmasters office, accused of consuming drugs, selling drugs or stealing phones until his mothers is forced to come in and raise the issue of racism? Black and brown bodies are entering and exiting an educational environment rife with privilege, one which encouraged my maths teacher to laugh at my aspirations of a redbrick university.

By Joshua Virasami, AFROPUNK Contributor

Being white in the UK is complimented by a profound psychological privilege. What is implicitly imparted to a white youth passing through an educational environment continuing practices such as “setting, coaching and examination tiering (which) cumulatively disadvantage black pupils”? An educational environment that teaches a selective history, absent of moral duty; of colonialism as adventure and conquest as board play, of white as superior and coloured as dominated.

The most recent British Social Attitudes survey showed that the last decade has seen a steady rise to the point where 30% of the population says they harbour some racial prejudice. Dr. Grace Lordan’s research of BSA statistics since the 1983 has revealed that the group that recorded the biggest rise in racial prejudice was white, professional men between the ages of 35 and 64, highly educated and well paid.

Terrorism takes many shapes and forms, but one thing can be certain, all form of non-governmental terrorism pale in comparison to state terrorism. The constant fear and threat to personal safety experienced by black and brown bodies in the UK are a form of continued state terrorism. Unless drastic action is taken immediately to address this upward trend of terror we will only create a runaway environment of increasing violence.

Since no individual is born prejudice one must take a deep look at society in order to fathom why in 2013/14 there were 37,484 racially motivated hate crimes of which 40% led to violence on the person and/or criminal damage and arson. What is it that empowers a person’s confidence to commit these atrocities? How much longer can we turn a blind eye whilst a machete wielding youth slices a Sikh man in Tesco’s crying ‘White power’?

Britain’s colonial legacy is a living one; no one is born prejudice but in Britain all of us are born into racism. The state apparatus have never ceased the subversive encouragement of racism and the perpetuation of white privilege. Racism in Britain is infrastructural and institutional; it is a form of state terrorism. State terrorism looks like 105 racially motivated deaths since Stephen Lawrence. State terrorism looks like a 28 times higher likelihood to be confronted by UK police forces for being black or brown. Being black and brown, especially if you’re a woman, in Britain means living in a justice vacuum and on an uneven playing field.

For several decades now our post world war military might has been directed primarily at black and brown bodies in foreign lands, this follows hundreds of years of depicting and treating these bodies as culturally inferior via slavery, scientific racism and other socially accepted means. These actions are compacted by a continued rhetoric of blame and shame by both politicians and the mainstream media toward black and brown bodies. Seeing things in this light we come closer to understanding race relations in the UK.

Brixton Riots

Just a few days ago I was told by a passerby in the street that there is ‘no way I’m his f***** brother, You’re one of them head chopping Muslims’ I’m agnostic, but coloured. We spoke for an hour and half on the bitterly cold Leicester Square. We spoke of shared experiences, of outrage at the creeping decay of society’s safety nets, he told me that he, and many friends, ‘can’t help swinging centre right and blaming the immigrants, it’s just that what we read… all the papers, and when we watch the news… it all gets to us’.

A immediate family member of mine was very recently physically assaulted at work by her white colleague (who continues to be on the job beside her) after he screamed at her to ‘leave’ and ‘go back to where…’ before stopping short of embarrassing himself further but going on to shove her several times. She feels uncomfortable in her work place because all the white people (8/10) have taken his side, ostracized her and choose to deny that they were witnesses.

Race is of course a construct. Invented by influential white supremacists in order to grant the privilege of whiteness to working class whites, creating an effective buffer between them and BME working class people. It is both a horror and shame that the majority of the violence toward black and brown bodies is perpetrated by white working class people; themselves a victim of state terrorism in the form of structural violence.

‘Can We Breathe: Police Violence and Urban Unrest – Brick Lane Debates’

Racism, the point where power meets prejudice, is something we shy away from discussing in Britain, but it is a lived reality for millions on a day-to-day basis, a one way stream of continued offense on varying scales. Fear and loathing, overt or not, of BME groups in the UK remains a hallmark of so much of our societal interactions. As Alison Park, co-author of LSE based research into racial prejudice in Britain said, ‘“Racial prejudice, in whatever guise, is undoubtedly still part of the national psyche.” This is a wound that until healed will continue to poison the nation and terrorize minorities.  

For many white Britons addressing racism is deemed irrelevant and we are effectively in a ‘post-racial era’, going so far as to even dismiss lived experience with new legislation. An unsanitised Martin Luther King Jr. is bitter pill for white privilege to swallow, as opposed to the squeaky clean version we are patronizingly taught at school in black history month. “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to re-educate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe that they have so little to learn.” There is much hard truth in this.

The was a recent open discussion on violence against BME bodies at the brick lane debates, this space was but one exemplary departure point of the conversation necessary to heal these wounds. Over 100 of us in a room hearing about what it means to lose a sibling to police violence and discussing the avenues by which we can overcome the systems of oppression in place. We must all bear witness in these tumultuous times, silence is an offense and enough of it may mean that we miss the final opportunity to embrace justice and turn the tides on unaccountable power.

* Joshua Virasami can be followed on twitter @joshuavirasami and on FB at /joshuavirasami, he is a regular contributor at ‘Contributoria’ and ‘Occupy News Network’ as well as a Hip-Hop Rapper, traveller and photographer. His music can be found at spiritualgorilla.bandcamp.com