Racism in the UK Is Like a Unicorn, It Doesn't Exist - Love From Your Diversity Card

Racism doesn’t exist in the UK

George Floyd hasn’t got anything to do with us

We are in the middle of a pandemic and you want to put more stress on the NHS

Police brutality doesn’t exist here

I can’t believe how selfish people are being by protesting! I went to the beach, but you can’t try and tell me that protesting for something that is happening in the US is our problem

I’m not racist, I have black friends so I can say the ’N word’

Edward Colston’s statue was erected for his philanthropy, not his crimes in the slave trade

Horses are being attacked and hurt at these protests too

Have I caught your attention yet? Let’s talk…

*The argument of “All Lives Matter” enters the chat* simply put - all lives cannot matter until Black lives matter. This doesn’t mean that all lives don’t matter, it means that we are focused on Black lives right now, as it is apparent that society is built on systemic racism, exempting the importance of Black lives. Besides, nobody said #AllLivesMatter before they heard #BlackLivesMatter. The phrase ends progression before it has even started, to work towards equality we must begin with advocacy for those most marginalised. 

"If my wife comes to me in obvious pain and asks "Do you love me?", an answer of "I love everyone" would be truthful, but also hurtful and cruel in the moment. If a co-worker comes to me upset and says "My father just died," a response of "Everyone's parents die," would be truthful, but hurtful and cruel in the moment. So when a friend speaks up in a time of obvious pain and hurt and says "Black Lives Matter", a response of "All Lives Matter," is truthful. But it's hurtful and cruel in the moment." - Doug Williford

I wasn’t too sure whether it would be appropriate to bring my activism onto such a “professional” platform. Then I realised, this is exactly where it should be discussed.

I can’t sit here and say that I have faced racism in the same way my Black peers have, or many others for that matter. I have faced racism that I call “racism wrapped in pretty packaging”, the racism that is so subtle that you don’t realise why it has made you feel uncomfortable until it’s too late. “Tara you sound so white”, “you are so exotic”, “if his sexual comments are making you feel uncomfortable, you should think about how much worse it was when I was younger”, “Don’t worry you aren’t the only Indian person in the team.” The nickname “Kurdish Delight” even stuck after an argument that resulted in racist remarks. I've kept it PG, but I could go on...

I’m not attempting to negate from the facts of the matter, or discuss how being born in Britain and growing up as a silver spoon fed Kurdish woman has been traumatic (because it hasn’t). I will save the conversation of Kurdish oppression for another time. Instead I want to provide some background to consider as you read on. 

Firstly, I couldn’t be prouder of how such a large organisation that I have the pleasure of working at, has dealt with this situation. Realistically, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from a company where "September 21, 1953, Watson wrote to his managers, “It is the policy of this organization to hire people who have the personality, talent and background necessary to fill a given job, regardless of race, colour or creed.”"

https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/equalworkforce/

Thousands of my colleagues have made the emb(race) pledge that pledges:

However, after a few conversations with colleagues and friends, it’s apparent that for many the conversation is just too awkward to have. So instead it’s filled with an awkward silence and the hope that the conversation is shifted onto board games or the weather. It’s important for us to talk about these matters, so let me be the one to start the conversation (if that’s what it is going to take).

What has George Floyd got to do with us in the UK?

First and foremost, we are all humans before anything. Caring on an international level is the absolute least we can do. 

Especially when we do not fear for our lives when we:

?            play in a park (Tamir Rice)

?            go to church (The Charleston Congregation)

?            sleep in our own bed (Breonna Taylor)

?            take a train (Oscar Grant)

?            walk home (Trayvon Martin)

?            get a traffic ticket (Sandra Bland)

?            take out our wallet (Amadau Diallo)

?            jog (Ahmaud Arbery)

?            cash a cheque (George Floyd)

The reality of Sean Reed - killed whilst on Facebook live where cops laughed over his dead body saying “looks like it will be another closed casket” and nobody was charged, is one many face. Just as Will Smith said, this isn’t a new reality, the difference is that it is being recorded now. Which leaves me wondering how many more brutal crimes against humanity has occurred without anyone knowing?

Google can provide you with statistics, but the last thing we must do is negate that these are people’s lives that are being taken from them, by those who should be protecting them. But then again, how can a system fail those that it wasn’t created to protect in the first place?

The UK isn’t innocent either - Sarah Reed. Mark Duggan. Sheku Bayoh. Christopher Alder. Smiley Culture. Jimmy Mubenga. Michael Powell. Leon Briggs. Ricky Bishop. Brian Douglas. Joy Gardner. Sean Rigg. Leon Patterson. Cynthia Jarrett. Cherry Grote. Derek Bennett. Kingsley Burrell. Joy Gardner. Roger Sylvester. Adele Rodney. Habib Allah. Faruk Ali. Adrian Thompson. Jean Charles de Menezes. Deméter Frazer. Aston McLean. Seni Lewis. Anthony Grainger. Rocky Bennett. Alton Manning. Mark Nunes. 1500 and counting.

Shukri Abdi, a 12-year-old that was bitten and drowned in a river after moving to the UK from Somalia a year ago, by her classmates. 

Belly Mujinga was spat at whilst at work, dying from Covid-19 a few weeks after. 

How about justice for the Windrush Generation? Justice for Grenfell? 

An example of institutional racism faced in the UK is when 6 months ago UK cinemas banned Blue Story, a film made by Black producers and Black talent because it was “inciting violence”.

A fact for your history book is that until 2015, all tax payers have contributed to paying slave reparations. Slavery was abolished in 1833 due to the fear of slaves rebelling and the fact that the slave trade wasn’t becoming as profitable as wage labour. Therefore, the UK agreed to pay slave owners for “loss of property” a sum of ￡20m (￡300bn today), a transferral of wealth from taxpayers to slave owners so huge the debts incurred were only paid off in 2015. Almost all UK taxpayers have contributed to this bill. Ex PM David Cameron being part of one of the many families who have profited from this. 

Somebody once said to me that racism in the UK is harder to detect because it. is. so. subtle. Research those above, educate yourself on the matters. This post is here to start the conversation, not end it.

What relevance does all of this have to the workplace?

As I work in the tech sector…

The tech sector is expanding almost 3 times faster than the rest of the UK economy and it is nearly worth ￡184bn. However, diversity remains a key challenge for the tech sector as only 15% of the tech workforce are from BAME backgrounds and gender diversity is currently sitting at 19% compared to 49% for all other jobs.

https://www.diversityintech.co.uk/#:~:text=How%20to%20achieve%20Diversity%20in%20Tech&text=However%2C%20diversity%20remains%20a%20key,49%25%20for%20all%20other%20jobs.

PwC have revealed that the significant pay gap of their BAME employees is 12.8% and the bonus gap at 35.4% https://www.diversityintech.co.uk/the-lack-of-bame-in-tech

Protesting won’t change anything! Think of the NHS!

Racism is still the biggest pandemic we face, Black people are four times more likely to die from Covid-19. So instead of hopping onto Facebook to scream about how selfish it is for people to be protesting during a pandemic, emphasise how disgusting it is that people are having to protest for human rights in 2020. Black people are willing to protest in the middle of a pandemic despite the virus disproportionately affecting them, instead of the second wave comments maybe people should consider why what they are fighting for is so important that they’d risk their health. 

After MLK was assassinated, 110 American cities started rioting, causing $47 million in damage. On the 6th day of the riots, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed. 

8 hour days, PRIDE, Woman’s Rights, Civil Rights, children no longer working in factories, not being forced to be part of the Church of England…protests.

Still not convinced that protesting has achieved anything? Really? Then this next section is for you:

?   Breonna's Law has been passed through the public safety committee in Louisville, a law that will regulate "no-knock warrants"

?   Judge gives green light to try the 3 men responsible for Ahmaud Arbery's murder (I hope no parent fears their 25 year old son going on a jog, for them to be shot from behind and murdered)

?   Ferguson (the same town where Michael Brown was unjustly murdered by the police) elected its first Black Mayor and she is also the first Woman Mayor

?   D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has had the words "Black Lives Matter" painted in big yellow letters on the street that leads to the White House where protesters have been demonstrating following George Floyd's death

?   San Diego police do away with the "carotid restraint" a brutal practice that is disproportionately used on POC

?   A stature of a racist man will be taken down in Virginia

?   Philadelphia took down a statue of a racist homophobe

?   Birmingham, AL took down a confederate monument and defied state law to do it. Mobile, AL also took one down today

WHAT CAN I DO???

There comes a time where silence is betrayal, neutrality in situations of injustice is automatically taking the side of the oppressor. It’s a privilege to be in a position to educate yourself, instead of having to live through it. Let’s discuss what we can do:

?            Education does not stop once you leave school, instead of being taught about how Henry VII murdered his wives, we should be taught about Britain’s racist colonial past. It would really save us having to explain white privilege, systemic racism and oppression to those who believe that racism is solely America’s problem. 

?            Use your privilege for good. Did you know that when Ella Fitzgerald couldn’t get booked by clubs and TV because she was black, Marilyn Monroe offered to come to a nightclub every night and sit in the front row if they let Ella sing?

That’s how you use your privilege for good.

?            Begin to dismantle anti blackness within your communities; call out racist family members and those non-Black friends that say the N word. Facilitate family discussions, learn about racism as a family. 

?            Ignorance is not bliss. Information is so accessible to us, educating ourselves on the history of Black oppression can come in the form of reading and watching things for social change. 

Things to watch:

When They See Us - Netflix

^I cannot recommend watching this enough. To the left is a picture of Korey Wise from the Exonerated 5, protesting in Harlem. Korey made me face heart break in a way I didn't know possible.

Fruitvale Station, 13th, Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, The Racial Wealth Gap Explained (S1:E1)

-       Provide a safe space, listen to learn instead of listening to comment. I promise that if you enable ethnic minorities to speak on their experiences, you will be surprised about what they have faced. Just because it’s not something you have dealt with, doesn’t mean it isn’t the truth for many. It’s difficult to fathom the depths of other people’s experiences, but it’s a start to be able to shine a light on these situations to be able dismantle the reality of racism.

It is never too late to learn something new and change your opinion, it's not hypocrisy it's growth. Oppressed groups do not have the choice to remain "uninterested in politics", the reality is that if you have the privilege to not care about politics, it's because the law is on your side. "To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it" MLK.  

If you have read this far, I hope you aren't too angry at the click bait, but have learned something and are willing to make a change. Post it on, spread the word.

Have you ever wondered how you would have acted in pivotal moments in history?

Let's see how you choose to act today.