It is not enough to not to be racist, we need to see more active anti-racists. We need to hear you. Your friends of colour are talking about leaving. Leaving the city, leaving the country, choosing a new place to raise their children. ‘Where in Europe is safe for brown people?’ we debate over coffee, as if deciding where to go for lunch. Do we go back to India, to Pakistan? No, I’ve never lived there. What about the UAE? Maybe New Zealand? Canada was a good option once but not sure about there now. Your friends of colour are worried. We’re worried for our kids. We’re making plans.
Your friends of colour don’t feel great after seeing how many people voted for the R*form party. They got 5x more votes than the Green Party in my constituency. Maybe you have a family member who voted R*form, maybe a friend. It’s time to be an active anti-racist, time to speak up for your friends of colour.
It doesn’t matter if I have a British passport, the definition of a foreigner to those people is largely just based on skin colour. I am a foreigner to those people, it doesn’t matter that I’m British. (And even if I was a non-British foreigner, what’s wrong with that? We know inequality happens because of the greed of the obscenely rich, not immigrants.)
Many of their voters would argue I’m not British. I’m a ‘Paki’, an Indian, a Palestinian, a Bangladeshi. There is no difference, we are all the same. Foreigners. That’s why, in a way, outside of normal human decency, many of us are so devastated by the horrendous treatment of Gazans. There’s an extra layer of fear because our kids look like their kids, and no government cares that they’re dying enough to stop it.
They want their country back. Fuck it, they can have it, a part of me thinks. Where should we go?
There are two options for us, really. Resist or run. Become active in your resistance and start to organise. Jeremy Corbyn is my big inspiration; I happy-cried when I saw he’d won his seat as an independent MP in Islington North. The last time I felt real hope was when Jeremy was Labour leader. I met him shortly after he’d won the Labour Party leadership election, at Ruskin House - the home of Croydon’s Labour and Trade Union Movement. It was 2015. Reggae was playing, everyone was vibing, the air was positively charged and you could feel it. ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ by The Wailers played as Jeremy got up to do a speech. That was one of the most hopeful political moments I’d felt in my lifetime. Everything was possible then.
I’ve said it before, but brown bodies are political. We have no choice. Just like a woman’s body - particularly looking around abortion rights or lack of in America - is political. Yes, if you’re a brown woman it’s a double whammy. Our history is political, our existence is political, it affects our lives, it affects our choices and it will affect our children. We don’t have the luxury of being quiet and letting it happen, because we’re the ones in danger. If you have co-opted any practices that originate from people of colour - yoga, meditation, etc - if you believe in manifesting peace - you have to speak. If you’re white, you need to speak. Your friends of colour need to hear from you now. Neutrality or silence is complicity, it’s an exercise of your privilege. Enough. It’s time to be loud.