Why Can’t We Sing, Dance & Protest at the same time!
A recent survey declared that there has been a rise in misogyny and Racism in our schools. Furthermore, there were concerns about parents who refused to accept school rules or take responsibility for their children’s behaviour. In recent times I have been approached by parents of Black and Brown children who have concerns that schools do not have robust systems to identify and respond to instances of racism in our schools. The unfortunate and sad reality is that Black and Brown children and their families are uncomfortable about complaining about Racism and sometimes being accused of “Playing the Race card”……and many feel that it’s not “cool” to complain about Racism as it may suggest their personal incapability to deal with it, and a sign of weakness. Also, our newer ethnic minority communities believe that any complaints about Racism would attract unwelcome hostility that may jeopardise their citizenship status in this less than friendly political environment.
It would not surprise me that many teachers are poorly equipped to identify and respond to Racism and they feel that it has become one of those hot potatoes that is best left alone. Ever since the local authorities relinquished any influence in enforcing equality issues, schools have been sensitive about not incurring the wrath of parents who are not comfortable about what they see as “woke” influences which are the very principles that challenge bullying Racism, sexism and misogyny.
The unfortunate reality is that as parents of Black and Brown children many of us do not give our children “The Talk” and I am not talking about the birds and the bees, I’m talking about equipping our children with skills as to how to defend themselves against the slings and arrows of hateful racist behaviour and how to recognise and respond to Racism as and when it occurs; without getting themselves into further trouble. Black & Brown pupils also need to be aware of their own history so that they can challenge the miseducation that they sometimes receive at school.
April 22nd was Stephen Lawrence day, and I was disappointed that too many of our young people did not even know who Stephen Lawrence was! How many of our young know about ‘The New Cross Fire”, “The Mangrove Restaurant”, “ The Bristol Bus Boycott”, “The Race Relations Acts”, “The Black Cultural Archives”. How many know of Mary Seacole, John Blanke, Claudia Jones, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Olive Morris, how many know that Alexander Dumas who wrote The Three Musketeers was Black, that Samuel Coleridge Taylor who wrote The song of Hiawatha was Black.….. and how many know of Black inventors of items such as the traffic signal, elevator doors, gas masks, the ironing board ,potato chips and so much more……and how many are aware of the great civilisations that Black people had prior to the transatlantic slave trade in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt and elsewhere. The consumption of such knowledge is an important factor in the formation of one’s true Black identity. We tell everyone else that Black Lives Matter, but we as Black people have much to do when it comes to educating our own children about our history, as sometimes we ourselves buy into the lies and misinformation that are more commonplace in public education than the facts.
The recognition of identity plays an important part in providing the confidence that is required to engage in the necessary way with all the facts at our disposal. We must also recognise that some parents themselves may not have the knowledge or wherewithal to be aware of their own identity or perhaps they themselves have been corrupted by the racism that they were subjected to either in their countries of origin or the half-truths of an purposefully biased education system in this country.
Some years ago, there were organisations that represented the concerns that parents had but these organisations no longer exist, and unfortunately ethnic communities seem not to want to recognise these issues and sometimes accept this as a rite of passage in the British education system not appreciating the impact it may have on their children.
Back in the day we had something called “Black Studies” where we taught younger people in our community about Black History and presented positive stories about the achievements of Black people in our efforts to counteract the negative images that they were infected with. Unfortunately, the Black communities are now so divided by religion, nationality, complexion and numerous other spurious identities that we have chosen to select for ourselves, there is little hope that we can come together and collectively address these issues constructively. Collective Racism is probably the only thing that binds us, which is a shocking conclusion!
I appreciate that there are many who are not comfortable about dwelling on “negative” issues and believe that we as Black and Brown communities should dwell on more uplifting issues, and I have some sympathy for that. However, if we only dwell on singing, dancing and back slapping we tend to give the impression that we are happy with our lot and allow the unacceptable issues to remain unchallenged. There is no harm in injecting some politics into the dance! Let’s not forget that our young are watching us, and many are not happy about our compliance and acceptance with the comfortable oppression that now seems to be the norm.
I made some efforts some years ago to bring together a representation of the various Black communities in the city but there seemed to be little appetite to make that happen; partly due to the fact that some of us had bought into the negative stereotypes of Black people and some were happy to only be concerned with their individual interests. Keeping us apart and divided are essential ingredients in the suppression of a unified Black voice and Black faces in high places is no longer the answer…..and oh what a force we could be if we didn’t allow those internal differences to divide us.
We now operate in a culture where Black and Brown people have either forgotten how to protest or are too comfortable about their condition. There seems to be a belief that physical protests are somewhat old fashioned and now as keyboard warriors we delude ourselves that we are making a difference. It seems that Southampton has a low level of awareness when it comes to anti racism and as and when there are protests it is mostly White people, with a sprinkling of Black individuals, protesting on our behalf whilst we carry on singing ,dancing, giving each other awards and making ourselves palatable to White communities. Am I being unfair ? The presence of right wing thinking in mainstream politics is one that many of us have allowed to be normalised. The firebrands of yesterday’s politics seem to have had their day and the younger generations seem to have accepted the way things are as they sleepwalk into an uncertain future in the hope that the wider community will not be too offended by a “Blackness” that is very often expressed as entertainment or sporting prowess!
But all is not lost! We should use the Arts which can be an important vehicle to exercise our political opinions, particularly if we can break down the white conservative systems that have a stranglehold on many of the Art institutions in the region. After all are we not supposed to be good at all that stuff. Whether it be music, visual art, literature, poetry, photography, theatre & film….should these not be the new territories for young Black and Brown people to express themselves and make a political statement! Sadly, our representation in those fields is still very often sparse and tokenistic.
So, you see…we can Protest and Sing & Dance at the same time if we choose and if we dare!