RIP Grandma Edythe đź’“
Monday, 30 November 2020
Tuesday, 17 November 2020
Friday, 13 November 2020
The women of colour that got Biden over the line have earned their rightful seats at his top table
My article in today's Irish Independent 👇
Donald Trump conceding defeat is like Hannibal Lecter agreeing to be
sectioned. He will not go peacefully. It seems fitting that the final scene of
the Trump horror show was set in a seedy parking lot where a press conference
was held between a crematorium and a sex shop called “Fantasy Island” (I’m not
kidding). It would be comedic if it wasn’t so tragic.
Trump’s four year tyrannical reign inflicted wounds that will linger
long after the stench of his rhetoric has dissipated into the choke
damp ether. His list of ignominies is longer than an Al Capone charge sheet but
the fact that 240,000 coronavirus deaths and the separation (and caging) of 666
migrant children from their families did not result in a landslide victory for Joe
Biden, should ring alarm bells for the Democrats.
During the agonising count, I tuned into RTE’s Drivetime which appeared
to have been temporarily hijacked by Fox News to promulgate far right, white
supremacist conspiracy theories on an unsuspecting Irish audience. Platforming
Steve Bannon was not RTE’s finest hour. This is a man charged with fraud and whose podcast
was removed from YouTube and permanently banned by twitter after he appeared to call for
the beheading of Dr Anthony Fauci. His sycophantic
RTE interview is still available online but it really shouldn’t be.
Fast forward, a few more days of waiting and counting before Joe Biden
emerges triumphant. Relief was my over-riding feeling. He won, but by the skin
of his teeth and he couldn’t have done it without the army of women of colour
that lent him their backing when progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders, exited
the Democratic presidential race.
Kamala Harris, who made history as not just the first female, but the
first black female, Vice-President elect, acknowledged these women in her
victory speech. She praised the “black women who are too often overlooked but
who have proved to be the backbone of our democracy”. Women like Stacey Abrams, who was instrumental
in making Biden the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in 28 years. Abrams
mobilised a coalition of grassroots organisers in predominately minority
communities, registering 800,000 new voters in Georgia alone. Fair Fight, the organisation Abrams created to combat voter
suppression also helped Biden win in Wisconsin and other key swing states.
Black women like Cori Bush, a nurse and single
mother whose own experience of homelessness spurred her to mobilise her
community to feed and shelter those abandoned by the state. Her people-powered
campaign resulted in Bush becoming Missouri’s first black congresswoman.
And there’s the self-styled “Squad” of four
congresswomen of colour: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of
Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Shunned
by the Democratic Party machine, they all secured their second terms
campaigning on Medicare for all, a Green New Deal and racial justice. They were
chosen by communities to represent their
interests, not those of corporate sponsors. Their tireless advocacy was
rewarded at the ballot box.
How did the President
of the United States, Donald Trump, greet these inspirational young
congresswomen of colour (two of whom are Muslim) to the house when first
elected in 2018? By tweeting they should, “go back
and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested
places from which they came”, despite all but one
being born in the US. Omar, a Somalian refugee, has been a US citizen for two
decades.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has 10 million
twitter followers, used her social media savvy to mobilise and energise the grassroots activism that produced large turnouts in
Detroit, Philadelphia and Georgia for Biden’s win. She acknowledged the uphill
battle to convince non-voters in disaffected communities to register and then
vote having felt betrayed by previous Democratic administrations.
Many had not forgotten nor forgiven Barack Obama who,
in return for gifting him their votes, bailed out banks that then repossessed
their homes. At the end of his presidency, unemployment figures for Black
Americans remained double that
of their white counterparts (8 per cent) and it was during the Obama-era that
the Black Lives Matter movement was born in protest against the killing of
black people by police officers.
By 2016, Obama, with the help of Hilary Clinton, had crushed
the most crucial weapon in the Democratic electoral armoury: Hope. Paving the
way for Trump’s politics of hate to fill the void.
The US far right are not going anywhere. If Biden fails to
harness the hope that an army of working class women of colour awoke to secure
his victory, another, more malignant, polished incarnation of Trump will be
waiting in the wings, ready to detonate a dirty bomb of bigotry. It will make the
last four years seem like a sepia tinted Shirley Temple movie.
Friday, 30 October 2020
Monday, 19 October 2020
Monday, 5 October 2020
Internal lockdowns are futile if we leave the back door of foreign travel wide open
My article in today's Irish Independent
When we cancelled our trip to the UK this summer, my
child took it on the chin. He pined for his British grandma, but travelling to
the country with the highest coronavirus death rate in the world at the time, would
have jeopardised the hard won gains of lockdown.
Like
most people, we heeded Dr Tony Holohan’s warning that the reintroduction of
foreign travel was a "major
threat," increasing the risk of a second-wave of Covid-19. With
the front door of domestic lockdown largely secured however, the back door of
foreign travel was left wide open. Tourism into
Dublin Port trebled from just 7,165 in May to 23,972 in August, unabated even
after a resurgence of new
infections was attributed to foreign travel from countries, including Britain.
Countries, such as New Zealand,
Taiwan and South Korea, that have pursued a zero-Covid
approach by closing their borders have opened up everything else, resuming
normal lives, mitigating damage to their economies and preventing avoidable
deaths. This is not only a legitimate, but necessary, biosecurity
response to protect citizens against a deadly disease.
As Tomas Pueyo
wrote in the New
York Times, countries that opened their arms to neighbours too soon
“got infected in the hug”.
For
months, Leo Varadkar warned that mandatory quarantine might be illegal,
despite the WHO’s guidance stating, “Quarantine
is included within the legal framework of the International Health Regulations
(2005)”. Having wasted two
vital months, Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, admitted that mandatory
quarantine wasn’t illegal after all but declined to enforce it anyway. On 9
august, when 3 counties were placed in lockdown, Donnelly asked our elderly to
go back into quarantine essentially (some never left) promising that his
Department would prepare a plan
to restrict non-essential travel from countries with high rates of coronavirus. Almost
two months later, no plan has emerged. Our vulnerable remain in hiding.
On 2 July, Stephen Donnelly announced that new cases
from international travel had gone up from 2% to 17% in the previous week.
On 20 July it went up to 21%, yet ministers continue to claim that “only 2%” of
infections are related to foreign travel. The government dashboard shows a flat-line
trajectory, indicating that it hasn’t been updated since April. Given this dubious data is injudiciously invoked by the
aviation lobby as a proverbial “dead cat”, I asked the HSE for a breakdown on
how it was established? No explanation has been forthcoming.
Given resource stricken contact tracers
only go back two days, it’s highly likely that foreign travel goes undetected,
captured later under “community transmission”, which basically means “unknown”.
A statistician acquaintance argues that, since coronavirus was originally imported
from overseas in February, foreign travel actually accounts for 100% of cases
in Ireland.
NPHET has repeatedly warned that the
importation of cases from people travelling to Ireland from other countries
would cause a second wave. Dr Ronan Glynn advised that mandatory quarantine
should be put in place for all people travelling into Ireland from abroad —
regardless of whether the country is on the green list. If that’s “unworkable”,
he said, Ireland should introduce a ban on all non-essential travel to countries
where the virus is highly prevalent, such as the US.
Coronavirus, unlike fawning governments, cannot be bullied, bribed or blackmailed into submission. As long as borders remain open, the rest of society faces a relentless, excruciating, futile cycle of persecutory lockdowns only to “open” again - at 50% capacity. All the while looking over our shoulder as the virus circulates within our communities like a silent assassin.
Last week, I sat with my sobbing son watching his
beloved grandma’s funeral streamed from the UK and I felt his agonising loss
and his sacrifice, made all the harder for knowing that it was squandered.
Friday, 4 September 2020
Anti-Traveller vitriol is socially acceptable in Ireland but let's call it what it is - racism
My article in today's Irish Independent 👇
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/anti-traveller-vitriol-is-socially-acceptable-here-but-lets-call-it-what-it-is-racism-39502475.html
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/anti-traveller-vitriol-is-socially-acceptable-here-but-lets-call-it-what-it-is-racism-39502475.html
When I
was 15, I volunteered to teach literacy to Traveller children after school.
That’s where I met Josephine, whose ensuing friendship gave me the gift,
privileged and painful though it was, to walk in another girl’s shoes.
Strictly
speaking, they were slippers, which I wore inside the caravan Josephine shared
with her parents and four siblings. Her grandmother was often there too,
imparting knowledge and love of her Traveller heritage through story telling. I
sat for hours listening to her tales, hanging on every word.
I lost
contact with Josephine, but every-time I hear racist anti-Traveller rhetoric
and reports of attacks on the community, I think of her. So when a house in Galway,
earmarked for a Traveller family was set alight this week, I thought, what if
that’s Josephine’s family?
What if
the children who were counting the sleeps before moving to their new home were
hers? How would she explain, for example, that local councillor, Noel Larkin, went
on radio, not to sympathise with the Traveller family, but to demand
consultation for residents who “have genuine fears for their own property”? Adding,
“Ramming a family into an area will cause upset to the people there”.
Thugs
intimidating builders, blockading homes with silage bales in the dead of night
and arson resulting in actual destruction of property, is not upsetting? But a
young family with children seeking a safe, secure home pose “genuine fears for
property”?
Prejudice
is underpinned by fear and ignorance. It’s not the responsibility of the
marginalised to educate their oppressors. The only thing that Mr Larkin and the
people on whose behalf he purports to speak, knows about their new neighbours
is their ethnicity. Therefore, the fear he speaks of is predicated on hackneyed
stereotypes and poisonous prejudice.
As an
elected representative, Mr Larkin knows that to consult with residents before
allocating housing to Travellers would be discriminatory. Galway City Council made that clear to fellow anti-Traveller
agitator, Noel [Golfgate] Grealish, when
he also demanded community consultation regarding the same burnt out property. If
these men were demanding consultation before allocating social housing to Jews
or Black people, it would be called out for what it is: Racist. It’s beyond
time this country spoke anti-Traveller racism by its name and strengthened the
law against hate crime to combat it.
Burning houses allocated to
Travellers is not new in Ireland. Last year, an elderly Traveller couple in Cork
had their caravan burnt out, destroying all their possessions, including their
pets. In Tipperary,
vandals targeted a house assigned to Travellers and in February 2013, a house
earmarked for Travellers in Donegal,
was wrecked in an arson attack.
What’s particularly disturbing
to me is the perception that vitriol against Travellers is socially acceptable.
Comments such as, “The people who did that deserve a medal”, “The
travellers would’ve burned down the house if they didn’t do it.” and "Pity
the Travellers weren't in there," are alarmingly commonplace online.
Scanning Travellers’ social
media accounts, the mental health impact of the constant deluge of tacitly
accepted racism is palpable, as captured in this comment: “I honestly can't take anymore. My mental health is
suffering from all the racism I am seeing against my community”. It’s
little wonder that suicide
in Travellers is 6 times that of the general population and accounts
for 11% of all deaths. Such relentless hatred would not be tolerated if targeted
at any other ethnic group in the country.
On Tuesday, a 9 year old boy, who happens to be a
Traveller, returned to school for the first time in six months to be greeted
with this from another child: “No-one likes k******s,
that’s why that house was burnt down”.
Shielding our children
against the emotional impact of coronavirus is hard enough without burdening
them with the additional psychological trauma of racism. That any child is
subjected to this hate, in Ireland, in 2020, is a national disgrace. Ireland’s
Human Rights and Equality Commission reported
in October that, “Persistence of systemic institutional racism against
Travellers and the continued and widespread existence within Irish society of
discriminatory attitudes towards Travellers remain among the most significant
areas where the State is failing to meet its [UN] obligations” to eliminate
racial discrimination.
Dehumanising
Travellers and portraying them as “other” and evil, desensitises us to their distress
and makes the conditions for discrimination and oppression possible. When we
have limited contact with people who are different to us, we become susceptible
to the shorthand of stereotypes which is mitigated by seeking out friendships
beyond our comfort zones.
When you
walk a mile in someone else’s shoes/slippers, their pain becomes your pain,
their joy becomes your joy. When I stood up for Josephine in school, she said
it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. If you’re reading this Josie,
know that your fight is still my fight and that I stand with you, your family
and your kind, compassionate community.
Monday, 24 August 2020
Sunday, 16 August 2020
Government is making life-and-death call on school's reopening. It has to get it right
My article in yesterday's Independent
Listening to Leo
Varadkar on RTÉ “guaranteeing”
outbreaks of coronavirus in schools when they open, reminded me of the mayor in
Jaws.
Mayor: “Get those kids
back in the water”. Sheriff: “There’s a shark out there?” Mayor: “We’ll just
have to live with it”. Sheriff: “People will die”. Mayor: “Yes, but tourism
will survive!”
Meanwhile, acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Glynn,
said “children don't transmit very effectively to
other children or adults”. As a parent, I found that comment alarming. He should know
that the ECDC
report published last week states: “Children are more likely to have a mild or asymptomatic infection,
meaning that the infection may go undetected or undiagnosed” and “When symptomatic, children shed virus in similar quantities to adults
and can infect others in a similar way to adults.
Infact, there are
numerous documented studies outlining the scale of risk associated with reopening
schools. In Israel
(like Ireland), where class sizes are big, the virus spread to
students’ homes, other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds
of students, teachers and relatives. Across the country, thousands of students
and teachers were quarantined. Israel’s deputy Director of Public Health Services , Dr.
Udi Kliner, said
that “schools, not restaurants or gyms, turned out to be the country’s worst
mega-infectors.”
A large new study from South
Korea shows that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at
least as well as adults do. Cases in children in Germany have increased by 50%
since they reopened schools and researchers in Berlin tested more than 3,700 coronavirus
patients and found that children carried the same viral load as adults.
Our government seems unaware of these facts given
the “roadmap” for school reopening does little to mitigate them. Aerosol
transmission, for example, is not acknowledged,
despite emerging evidence that the virus can travel up to 16 feet across an
indoor space. This raises questions about proper ventilation, face masks and the
efficacy of the roadmap’s “pods”. None of which are adequately addressed.
Another gaping omission from the roadmap is how to
accommodate the many children who have underlying health conditions or whose
family member(s) are high risk. What virtual/remote alternatives will be
provided for those children who cannot attend school but remain entitled to an
education?
What about the risks associated
with multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) which is a covid
related disease affecting children? Although the numbers are small, if
contracted, it affects the heart and other major organs in the body and in a
few cases it has proved fatal. Have teachers been made aware of the prevalence
of this disease in children and how to spot it?
Community transmission is another key risk factor. The
opening of schools safely was always contingent on levels being low. NPHET
warned Micheál Martin that, “We have to prevent the
reimportation of the virus and unless we do that we are not going to be in a
position to reopen our schools and get the economy up and running again.”
Instead of changing strategy, Micheál Martin wants us to learn to live with the virus. That’s like asking us to learn to live with a serial killer on the rampage.
However much money we throw at adapting our environments,
as long as coronavirus is in our communities it will infiltrate our schools,
nursing homes and workplaces. The only sustainable option is to adopt a zero-covid
approach, which is to eradicate the virus from our shores, as New Zealand has
done so successfully.
That requires
mandatory quarantine so that all imported cases are detected on entry thus
preventing community transmission and allowing schools, pubs, theatres and
businesses to open at full capacity, safe in the knowledge that the silent
assassin is not lurking in the shadows.
It’s crucial that schools re-open but it has to be done
safely. After 3 months of being homeschooled by me, my child wrote a poem
entitled “The Witch” which he insisted I send to his teacher. It was probably
about me but I can’t be sure.
In the words of the WHO’s Director General, Dr
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, ”Treat the decisions about where you
go, what you do, and who you meet as life-and-death decisions—because they
are.”
Until the government
can guarantee that reopening schools is safe, my child’s not getting back in
the water.
Tuesday, 28 July 2020
"Who's running this country! Micheal Martin or Michael O-fecking-Leary?"
My article in yesterday's Irish Independent:
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/its-micheal-martin-not-michael-oleary-who-needs-to-pilot-our-covid-19-course-39399358.html
Full blog version below 👇
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/its-micheal-martin-not-michael-oleary-who-needs-to-pilot-our-covid-19-course-39399358.html
Full blog version below 👇
“Who is running this
country! Micheál Martin or Michael O-Feck-ing Leary?” My 12 year smuggled a
radio into his room and listened to Tony Holohan warn that foreign travel was
the greatest threat to this country. This was
immediately followed by a psychosis inducing Ryanair
advert.
The answer of course is
Michael O-Feck-ing-Leary. The announcement of the “green (means go) list” of
“safe/quarantine exempt” countries that you definitely shouldn’t go to on
holiday (wink wink), in contempt of NPHET’s advice, was undoubtedly an aviation
lobby victory. Nonetheless, Ryanair is threatening litigation if the Irish
government doesn’t open up further.
A week earlier, Philip Nolan, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team
(NPHET) warned that of the 23 cases confirmed
that day 15 were directly or indirectly related to travel. The team recommend
that “all measures are utilised to discourage non-essential travel from
overseas to Ireland”, including mandatory quarantine.
Refusal to mandate quarantine is part
of the government’s strategy of constructive ambiguity, otherwise known as,
fiddling while Rome burns. It’s deployed by politicians pretending to do the
right thing, whilst buying time for those who seek to exploit the manufactured
mayhem.
The underhand watering down of the
wording from “quarantine” to “restricting movements”, with no enforcement,
exposes where our government’s loyalty lies.
Micheál Martin claims that
he’s acting with caution compared to other European countries. Not so. Ireland
and Britain are amongst the only EU countries that are allowing tourists from
the US, the Covid capital of the world, into the country. Despite sharing a
border, Canada has also banned US tourists.
It’s worth remembering that, when people are moving freely, one
contagious person can infect, on average 3 people, who will then potentially
infect another three. By the time you multiply that variable 10 times,
exponentially the original person could have infected over 88,000 people.
For months, Leo Varadkar exploited
constructive ambiguity around mandatory quarantine, citing “legal” issues. Last
Wednesday, speaking on RTE radio, Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, said he
sought clarity from the attorney general on the legality of quarantine. Turns
out it’s legal, but “complex”. Presumably, a resurgence and lockdown 2 is the
easy option?
Minister Donnelly,
erroneously claimed that quarantine has proven unworkable, referencing Australia
as an example of failure. In fact, quarantine has been extremely effective
throughout the country with the exception of Melbourne where security guards
breached regulations. Donnelly evaded questions about New Zealand where, as of 23 July, there had been 83 days
since the last community transmission case with all 22 active cases detected
and contained in quarantine facilities.
Having been assured that
mandatory quarantine is legal, presenting no deterrent to acting on the public
health advice, Mr Donnelly said he then sought and gained the WHO’s blessing to
effectively disregard his own public health experts and not bother with
mandatory quarantine.
This was disconcerting, for
two reasons, firstly, the WHO is not usually in the business of usurping
country based public health advice and secondly, the claim appears to
contradict the WHO’s strategic document which states: “Quarantine
is included within the legal framework of the International Health Regulations
(2005)”. Further: “Member States have, in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to
legislate and to implement legislation, in pursuit of their health policies,
even if this involves the restriction of movement of individuals”.
Having cited advice from the WHO as grounds for
ignoring Ireland’s public health experts, thereby potentially exposing Irish
citizens to dangerous levels of community contagion, a crippling second lockdown
and preventable deaths, Stephen Donnelly should make details of his alleged WHO
advice available for scrutiny.
Listening to Minister Donnelly, I couldn’t help thinking of Dr Syed Waqqar Ali and his seven healthcare
colleagues who died from coronavirus, sacrificing their lives to save ours.
And, the scandalous revelation that Ireland
has the highest coronavirus infection rate among healthcare workers in the
world. I felt, acutely, the affront to these people to whom Stephen Donnelly has a direct duty of
care. That he would seek to circumvent safeguards to protect them and citizens
of this country, against the greatest Covid-19 threat (foreign travel) reduced
me to tears of grief, frustration and anger.
Disclaimer: I lost a friend
to coronavirus and I have loved ones risking their lives as medics. I am 100%
biased in their favour and 0% buying this coalition of chaos’ blaggardery.
With public safety sacrificed
at the altar of false gods, robust, fearless, public service broadcasting has
never been more vital. Yet last Monday, Eoghan Corry, who advised against cancelling
St Patrick's Day festivities, and who recently produced a “post-Covid” airline
promo video on Ryanair, told RTE Radio listeners, “Spain is safe”. On the same
day that British newspapers reported 200
Covid outbreaks throughout Spain, resulting in Britain imposing a 14 day quarantine
on returning holidaymakers.
In the midst of a global
pandemic, RTE is either a trusted news source grounded in forensic journalism,
underpinned by evidence based health expertise, or a cheerleader for industry.
It can’t be both.
Next up, Dr Jack Lambert
contradicted the overwhelming medical consensus by defending the “green list”, disingenuously describing 88% of coronavirus cases
as “Irish bred”. He should know, because colleagues such as Paddy Mallon, professor of Microbial Diseases, told the Dáil’s Covid-19 committee that, without
mandatory quarantine, contact tracing becomes very difficult
with community transmission “inevitable” as a
result.
Dr Lambert’s reference to
“Irish bred” cases of covid also fits with the strategy of constructive
ambiguity that shifts the focus from overseas Covid carriers to blaming young
people for house parties. The truth is that, had our government followed
NPHET’s advice and that of 14
scientific and medical experts calling for the implementation of a zero Covid strategy
to eliminate the virus, as New
Zealand has done, pubs and local eateries would be open at 100% capacity now
with social distancing and masks a thing of the past.
Our children and young
people would be enjoying the summer they longed for. Instead they’ve been robbed
of their rites of passage, cheated of hope and plagued by fear for the future.
Micheál Martin promised that his decisions on
international travel would be underpinned by public health advice. He has
reneged on his promise and people will die unnecessarily as a result.
Thursday, 11 June 2020
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 👇
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.
Friday, 5 June 2020
Black Lives Matter. RIP George Floyd
The
night before George Floyd’s racist murder, I watched the scene in Normal People where a group of
attractive young white people are sitting around a table somewhere divine in
Italy sipping champagne. One of the assembled makes 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 smugness in their wake.
Knowing
how everyday racist remarks can lead to everyday job discrimination, everyday
racist abuse and murder, that scene made me angry. It’s bad enough that the
Dublin street shots airbrushed out the homeless people in its quest for cinematic
beauty but glossing over racism in a contemporary drama at a time when the far
right is on the rise, set in a country where racism is brushed under the
carpet?
When
I saw the video footage of George Floyd being choked to death under the knee of
a white police officer the next day, I felt sick, outraged, horrified and
scared. Meghan Markle’s words resonated when she said, at times like this the
only wrong thing to say is nothing (except if your name is Lawrence Fox).
I
thought of all the normal people whose lives have been abnormally, brutally
torn asunder by racism. Such as Stephen Lawrence, whose mother Doreen, I met.
The grief laden eyes of a woman whose life was normal until her son was
murdered by racists, haunt me.
Black
history isn’t taught in British or Irish schools which makes it difficult to
explain to our children how generations of systemic racism, dehumanisation and
marginalisation of black people enabled the murder of an unarmed black man by a
white police officer. Worse, that it’s not an isolated incident.
I’ve
been teaching my 12 year old about slavery for years. A friend organises black
history walks around London so my son knows that London was built on the back
of the slave trade. When his teachers talk about Florence Nightingale, he says,
“What about Mary Seacole”.
None of the above helped him understand the barbaric, racist, killing of George Floyd. It did help him understand and share the anger that comes from 400 years of pain and oppression.
None of the above helped him understand the barbaric, racist, killing of George Floyd. It did help him understand and share the anger that comes from 400 years of pain and oppression.
Education
is important but so is having the tools and courage to call out racism. The
best way to learn this is by role modelling anti-racist behaviour. My son has
seen me challenge everyday, Brexit bolstered, racism in the local Shops, at the
school gates and on public transport. So when his teacher in the UK said he’d
stood up to racist bullying in the playground last year, I wasn’t surprised.
His
role model is the daughter of a Sudanese friend who came to Britain as a
refugee and, at 10 years of age, asked for my help challenging a private school
that denied her a bursary place. She knew her grades were good enough, so did
I. When I called the school they admitted her grades weren’t the problem and when
I asked what the “problem” was, they couldn’t answer. When I asked how many
black kids from council estates they had granted bursaries to in the last 5
years? None.
That
little girl got the place that she earned, on merit. I explained to her that getting in was the easy bit.
That life as the only black kid surrounded by rich white kids and white
teachers would be tough. “Are you sure that's what you want?” Without missing
a beat, this kick ass 10 year old said, “Why should their racism stop me from
becoming a doctor and not many kids from my school get accepted into medicine?”
That
was 15 years ago. Last week she started working as a doctor in an NHS hospital
and although I’m so proud of this inspirational young woman, I’m also worried
sick.
While
20% of the NHS workforce is BAME, just 7% of NHS leaders are from BAME backgrounds. Meanwhile, more than 50% of healthcare workers who have died with the
Coronavirus are from BAME backgrounds.
There
is no evidence that black lives matter to the alt right Tory government. This
month marks the third anniversary of Grenfell Tower. 72
mostly BAME men, women and children were burned alive. The ‘Hostile Environment’,
despite being lambasted as a racist policy designed to rid Britain of the
Windrush Generation, continues today but without the pretence of remorse.
There’s a protest planned in Dublin tomorrow in solidarity with Black
Lives Matter. I share Amnesty International's view, that peaceful protesting is
a human right and should not be banned. Outlawing peaceful demonstrations is undemocratic and adds fuel to the flames, as seen in Trump's increasingly dystopian America.
A great many anti-fascists, anti-racists, like myself, will not be
physically present, in Dublin, or elsewhere. I made a personal choice not to
put my family at risk by attending. I also have loved ones who are front-line workers, some of whom are BAME and vulnerable to coronavirus.
That said, I respect the right of those who chose to attend and
make their message heard. Black Lives Matter. It would be a good use of
Gardai resources, in my view, to work with the organisers to ensure road
closures so that there's enough space to facilitate social distancing. The
organisers, Black Pride Ireland, has set out clear safety precautions on social
media for those attending.
There
are many ways to protest but protest we must. Put posters in your car and house windows, donate to Black Lives Matter or other anti-racism groups. Start the process of educating yourself and your children. I took my 12 year old to see "Just Mercy" in January and we watched "Noughts and Crosses" together. "The great debaters" is a powerful film but not suitable for younger children.
Now is
not the time to hide in a bunker, or to be paralysed by white guilt. Don’t
turn a deaf ear and a blind eye. It’s our collective responsibility to fight for a society that values
all lives equally, where our BAME family, friends and neighbours aren’t
deprived entry to elite schools and universities based on their colour or
creed, where they’re not demonised and scapegoated by despots who whip up
hatred and divide communities to distract from their own failings.
Our
black friends are frightened and traumatised. We have to speak up, reach out and
show our solidarity.
Black
Lives Matter đź’“✊
RIP
George Floyd.
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