The True Cost of Being Black in Britain

I originally wrote this article in August 2018 and I left it for a while as I didn’t think that the time was right, but the time is now.

As Brits when we look across the pond at the US, what do we see?

We see police gratuitously killing unarmed black people and not being held accountable, we see an American President who uses bully tactics to try and suppress black freedom of speech and then we see extreme right-wing kids shooting up black churches and schools. The extent to which racism is visible in the US is disturbing at best, but does it mean the US is a bad place to be for black people?

Remarkably the answer is no. Despite the menace that is faced on a day to day basis being black and to a further extent being a black male, there is still opportunity. Can the same be said of the U.K.?

I think the first question that applies on both sides is, what contributes to this? History. While the “no blacks, no dogs, no Irish” was still active well into the sixties, the broader notion of racist Britain has been suppressed. People see multiculturalism and the mixing of these cultures as proof of harmony as opposed to seeing it for what it is. It’s a tribute to the colonial British past. Britain does a very good job of hiding her role in enslaving people across the Caribbean, Africa and India not to forget the aborigines in Australia. How is it possible to have British Tea or sugar or even potatoes, for that matter? Where do all the diamonds in the Queen's crown come from? India! The old monied aristocracy, where does a lot of their wealth come from? From the interests they had in Africa and the Caribbean, interests being human and that they slaved on plantations. Once you understand the lay of the land you can understand the people. Many turn a blind eye to these facts.

The multicultural backdrop has lulled, not just a few into a false sense of security that there is some sort of equality at play that means that they no longer need to work twice or thrice as hard. If you go back to the Windrush generation, who experienced extreme racism whilst living in the time of Enoch Powell, they admonished if not forced their children to be better than, to work harder than the others because life was harder for us then. The truth is life is just as hard for us now but we refuse to see it.

In an article written by Afua Hirsch for the Guardian about the racist Westend, she encapsulated the point perfectly, that in a club where predominantly black music is played, there were no black faces bar hers and her friends to be seen. This is a true reflection of the U.K. Our influence can be felt but our presence isn’t wanted.

This is not to say that there aren’t people who are successful in the U.K., but there is a large downplaying of the institutional racism they experienced as they made their way to the top. There is also no talk about how to keep their positions and what it takes or took to do so. How can you break a glass ceiling if everyone refuses to acknowledge its existence?

This is almost the complete opposite to the US. The history is also very present. There is no downplaying slavery in the US. Segregation was heavily in effect until the mid-sixties, which in many senses is only yesterday. This means that every time this glass ceiling is broken, it shouted from the rooftops, this celebration of the achievement of defying what was thought to be impossible. Whether it was Shonda Rhimes owning primetime Thursday evenings or Black Panther being the highest-grossing superhero film in the US ever. Each win was supported by the black community.

The black memory is long and quite rightly so. Out of such segregation came HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) that educated and enriched and gave the students a clear sense of who they were, how hard they would have to work to achieve less than half, but instilled pride in them for being black. Out of these establishments came civil rights campaigners who not only acknowledged the glass ceiling but came to tell you they were going to blow it apart. They worked hard, fought, were falsely arrested so that they could make progress. The irony is, is that despite all the progress made and the fact that Ivy League and many other universities eventually opened their doors to black people, the need to stay in your lane and work twice as hard is still there today. The series “Dear White People” was born out of this concept to show what it takes to attend Ivy League university as a black person. Your skin colour won’t be forgotten just because you are among the elite. It will be even more in the foreground. The main point here is, in the US there is a forum to express the uncomfortable and it cannot be ignored. Naturally, loads of people found it offensive, but it did nothing to quell the production of the series. The black voice still has an outlet. Where is this outlet in the U.K.?

The stay in your lane and you can achieve anything is embodied no better that by Barack Obama. He stayed in his black lane with his black wife and kids and made it to being president of the United States. If Michelle had been white, would he have had the same success in the US, maybe not. The whole picture fits, he stayed among his own and he was successful.

There are countless success stories in the US, Stan O’Neal, the CEO of Merrill Lynch 2002 – 2007 and highest-paid man on Wall Street at the time. Vernon Jordan – investment banker and big business whisperer, Oprah Winfrey entertainment mogul and also Robert L.Johnson owner of BET and first black billionaire in the US.

Who do we have as something similar in the U.K.? There are hardly any black MPs much less black males. Do we have renowned black investment bankers in the city? Besides Trisha who had a talk show once upon a time, which U.K. black woman is doing an Oprah?

With the murder of George Floyd, many of us in Britain are closely scrutinising our position and progress or lack thereof. We were once able to convince ourselves that we belong. That the promotions would come but we just have to be patient, but now reality has hit. We aren’t a priority and being black is the reason why. The situation has left many of us bereft, distressed and unable to focus.

Now is the time for us to not only speak out but to also build our own table. We are only ethnic minorities in certain countries but globally we aren’t a minority. Understand that without us there would be no Great Britain and we are amazing, we are intelligent and we are strong. It is time for is to use our voice, our network and our money to build each other up.