In response to the pulling down of the Colston statue in
Bristol in the wake of the astonishing support for the Black Lives movement
around Britain, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor London launched
a new commission to assess “the landmarks that currently make up London’s
public realm”. Road names, murals and street art will be considered alongside
statues and plaques. Since then Oriel College has agreed to take down the
statue of Cecil Rhodes.
Action on landmarks will
not tackle what is central to the world-wide explosion of support for the US
movement: objection to racism.
The way race discrimination
operates varies from country to country dependent on its history. Within each
country there are conflicts about discrimination and racism. It is interesting to see the different ways
in which people responded around Britain. On Tyneside, for example, where Black
British historian David Olusoga grew up as a victim of racial attack, 3,000
people took part in a Zoom discussion on
the murder of George Floyd.
Given we have not seen
such protests previously in response to the previous killings by the police of
black men in the United States, the question is why now.
- Is it more than just pent up anger about past
deaths?
- Is it linked to the frustration of COVID-19
lockdown and the need to be outdoors?
- Is it a
realisation that street protest has been given much more legitimacy since
Extinction Rebellion especially for the younger generation?
- To what extent has the enormous amount of work
on Britain and the slavery business and British Black History since 2007
penetrated into large numbers of people’s consciousness?
- Has the continuing Windrush Scandal and the
hostile environment alerted more people to the issues of racism?
We will never really
know. What is important is that we are in a new situation which could result in
positive actions, as long as the movement does not get diverted and
marginalised.
Need for London Review of Racial
Disadvantage and Discrimination
As anti-racism is central
to the protests Khan should set up a
review of racial disadvantage and discrimination in London, the social-economic
experience of Black citizens, the extent to which institutional racism still
exists in the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, and the Greater London
Authority, and the way in which his London Plan policies are aggravating the
social-economic problems. A key question is to what extent that having to
support the arrest for deportations in the hostile environment, how many
individual Met Police officers were negatively affected in their view of Black
individuals and families?
Khan should challenge
the City of London Corporation to join the review I suggest given it’s is autonomous with Greater London, and the
fact that it was at the heart of the British slavery business and post
emancipation in the American slave cotton states, and in colonial exploitation.
The Missed Opportunity of the Lawrence
Inquiry Recommendations
Several people have said
to me that real progress was being made by local authorities against racism and
discrimination up until the publication of the Lawrence Inquiry Report. Then
there was a fear of engaging in the issue of institutional racism highlighted
by the Inquiry out of fear of being called racist. This in my view is due to
the apparent failure of other institutions to look at the Inquiry
recommendations and see which were relevant to non-police organisations.
At the time I was Policy
Development Officer at the British Society of Settlements and Social Action
Centres. I produced a policy briefing showing how the recommendations of the Inquiry
for the Met could be used to examine the way our members were working. In the
case of one of our members the Black staff were able to open up about their
concerns.
Biased British History
Part of institutional
racism is the lack of integration of Black British history in the way British
history is taught. This means that neither black nor white pupils have a proper
understanding. They largely receive the airbrushed version. While there are
plenty of ways in which individual teachers can include Black British History this
is usually down to the interest and enthusiasm of individuals and their
confidence.
Recently Dame Jocelyn
Barrow died. It would be a lasting tribute to her memory as an anti-racism
campaigner if the Mayor ordered a review of the extent to which the recommendations
in the report of Ken Livingstone’s Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian
Heritage which she chaired have actually been implemented since its publication
in 2005.
Engaging
With The Commission
Historians (academic and community) will need to
engage with the Commission especially as
it will also assess the representations of the histories of women, disabled
people and LGBT+.
Action
in Croydon
It is to be hoped that every local authority in
London will carry out its own review of the extent to which they dealing with
racial discrimination as institutions and in the wider community. In Croydon we
have had the Fairness and Opportunity Commission, and now the Climate Change
Emergency Commission. Just as with the latter why not start with a Citizens’
Assembly review to look at the issues and potential actions that need to be
taken feeding into to a longer term Commission. The problem is not going to be
solved overnight. As I discussed in my paper on preparing for the Borough of
Culture 2023 programme Croydon’s Black history and culture and its influence on
wider culture should be an important component, especially in those
neighbourhoods with large section of
Black and Asian populations who are subject to all kinds of racial
discrimination.
See also:
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