Don't be paralysed by white guilt: Teach yourself & your children about racism

My article published in today's Irish Independent:

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/dont-be-paralysed-by-white-guilt-teach-yourself-and-your-children-about-racism-39277149.html

Full blog version below 👇

The night before George Floyd was killed, I watched the scene in Normal People where a group of attractive young white students sat around a table somewhere fabulous in Italy sipping champagne. One of the assembled made a racist remark, which was laughed off by half the gathering and ignored by the other two, who fled the scene leaving a contrail of white privilege in their wake.

What bothered me, even more than twenty somethings swilling fizz, was the missed opportunity of a contemporary drama, written at a time when fascism is on the rise globally, to call out racism. The wherewithal and moral conviction just wasn’t there.

Knowing how everyday racist remarks can lead to everyday job discrimination, everyday racist abuse and sometimes murder, I was vexed. I thought of all the normal people whose lives have been brutally torn asunder by racism. Such as Stephen Lawrence, whose mother Doreen, I met when I was advising the Metropolitan Police on institutional racism. The grief laden eyes of a woman whose life was normal until her teenage son was murdered by racists in London, haunt me.

I built a life in England which ended ten months ago when I returned home as a Brexit refugee. The epidemic of far right bigotry unleashed by the EU referendum morphed into daily race hate attacks directed, not against immigrants like me, but those of a darker hue.

A Leave voting mother approached me at the school gates assuring me that “people like me” (white), didn’t vote to kick “people like you” (also white) out. It’s the “other” foreigners she had a problem with. The juxtaposition of Brexiteers issuing imaginary asylum passes to white immigrants while concomitantly ordering black and Asians, many of whom were born and bred in Britain, to “go home” was as surreal as it was sinister. I replied, “If the black and brown immigrants get kicked out, I’ll be right behind them”.

Racism exists in Ireland too and, with black voices amplified in recent days, we are hearing heart-breaking stories, such as that of Trés Jones. The 11 year old who recounted racist abuse, from adults and children, calling him the “n” word and telling him to go back to Africa.

The words of civil rights activist, Angela Davis, have been widely invoked since George Floyd’s death.  “In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”. For white people wanting to know what to do in this moment, anti-racism groups are urging us to educate ourselves and our children about black history and racism.

I’ve been teaching my twelve old about black history, mostly through stories, since he was four. When his teachers talk about Florence Nightingale, he says, “What about Mary Seacole?”. In the last year, we’ve watched The great debaters (not suitable for younger children), Just Mercy, the spectacular dramatization of Malorie Blackman’s ground breaking novel, Noughts & crosses and Dr Who’s re-enactment of Rosa Parks’ story.

None of the above made it easier for my son to comprehend how George Floyd could die under the knee of a white police officer who ignored his anguished pleas, “I can’t breathe” and “Momma, I’m through”. It just helped him understand the anger that comes with generations of pain and oppression.

There’s a plethora of educational resources online but these are no substitute for listening to black voices in this country, now. For leaders of institutions like Trinity College, for example, that involves hearing the everyday racism experienced by black and ethnic minority students on campus, and stamping it out. For agents and publishers, it’s about commissioning black stories and talent.

As well as educating and enabling, anti-racism requires the courage to tirelessly challenge racist behaviour, wherever we encounter it. Our children watch how we respond to racist “jokes”. Silence is tacit approval.

Not sure if someone is racist? The following is a useful litmus test.

Racists punch down on the powerless, be it “Nigerians coming here for a better life and sending all their money home” (unlike generations of Irish emigrants…) or “the sponging asylum seeking racketeers living it up in 5 star hotels, while “our own” are abandoned in the streets”.

Anti-racists punch up at those in power, calling out systemically racist policies that pit “our own” against asylum seekers.

Anti-racists might be inclined to think that the sponging racketeers are the private contractors who trousered an estimated €1 billion of taxpayers money for operating often substandard, unsafe, direct provision accommodation, that some residents liken to prison.

Anti-racists will have done their homework and know that the United Nations described the system as a “severe violation of human rights” and will be calling for an end to a barbaric, inhumane policy described as the Magdalene Laundries of our time.

Our black friends are frightened and traumatised. Now is not the time to be paralysed by white guilt. It’s a time to educate ourselves and our children and to call racism out. It’s a time to speak up, reach out and show people of colour that black lives do matter.