The following is a very emotional and angry piece I wrote a few years ago (for Facebook)... Am not feeling angry today but yea, it's still relevant. My message is simple. Everyone (regardless of colour, class, gender, ability) needs to look at their own biases and prejudices. And white folk, you need to make sure you understand how structural racism works and how regardless of how not racist or colourblind you think you are, you still benefit from white privilege. 

I write lots of the subject of racial tensions in the UK but sometimes I wish I felt more comfortable with public speaking because yes, as a black woman, my voice NEEDS to be heard (as opposed to just read), I have too many stories to tell that may potentially shed light upon what it means in be black in what is to all intents and purposes a white centric world. What it means to have been treated, in soooo many countless ways as lesser in value and importance than my fellow white friends.

It's important because, as I read in a post this morning, I don't want white people, or even men talking on my behalf about the theoretical issues that underpin my struggles. I don't want to keep getting pissed off when I hear white folk suppose that they fully get what racism is and how it presents or even feels. You don't. Even if you are White European and are dealing with the hideous wave of scapegoating prejudice that we are seeing currently and politically, you don’t get what it means to have the historic oppression and violence that hangs sweetly above my/our heads and tinges responses and reactions every time the my skin colour is clocked, which is generally way before ANY other aspect of my being is taken in and interpreted.

I have had a handful of proper in my face forms of racial harassment and abuse in my life. Maybe if I were a dark skinned black woman that handful would be more like a bucketful, cos pigmentocracy is endemic. But an equally damaging and dangerous form of racism, I feel, is the subtle almost imperceptible ones. The ones that are not seen and registered by others, especially white others. The ones where, when I try n talk about it, I have had comments ranging from 'are you sure they were being racist?' to 'oh, just ignore it, I would', from white friends. Truth is, most black people do just have to learn to rise above and ignore it when, they see other people in their office getting a promotion and not wanting to act the 'uppity negro' and complain. Knowing that if they do complain, they may stand little chance of getting a positive result. Ignore it when they are on public transport and an old lady hobbles past and purposefully goes further down the bus to sit next to someone white, not them. Ignore it when they feel deep down that there is summat wrong with their hair as is, that it would just look prettier if it was straightened or if they had a weave that made their hair less...non white looking...ignore that feeling of knowing deep down, we are being ultimately de-racialised within the beauty industry, many aspects of it at least. Ignore it when you hear white folk talking about black on black fighting in the states likes its some disease inherent within ALL black people. Ignore it when you get told, in all earnestness 'you are very, erm, articulate' the silence echoing 'for a black woman/person'. Ignore it when you have white folk saying to you, well my other black friend doesn't seem to get any racist vibes. Implicit so painfully explicit here btw. Ignore it when your perspective as a black woman is clipped within your writing from University tutors, who want you to write about girl next door 'relatable' types, not unbelievable characters...not black disabled people, not black gay women because they are not real. Nobody wants to read about them. Ignore it when random people feel they are able to touch and comment upon the texture of my afro hair. Because, my body will automatically be measured against the standard normality of your whiteness. Ignore it when too many of your friends, still, after all this time of you plugging away on Facebook, screaming into the void about how relevant this stuff is, to you, to the many, still won't post and share articles around race...because...of what exactly? Ignore it but carry it. Internalise it until it becomes almost fully automated in its intent to oppress, from within. A lifetime of drip drip is equal to one violent racially motivated death. Both are parts of how genocide works. #BlackLivesMatter explained more simply for anyone who takes offence means that right now, Black lives are being treated as though they don't matter, both overtly in cases such as Philando Castilo, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland. Cases where black lives are being taken, violently and with impunity. And covertly, subtly, as in the ways I mentioned above. This type of racism is what comes under the banner of structural and institutional racism.

White allies, what can you do? You can listen. Keep listening. Keep allowing yourself to feel moved and motivated. Speak up in scenarios where you may feel discomfort. If that white lady on the bus looks to you like she is purposefully not going to sit next to the man of colour whose seat she comes to first. Get up n move away from her and YOU sit next to him. If you are being promoted at work but have an instinct that your black co worker has worked harder/is more deserving. Say something. Tough call when we are all fucking broke. But this is to do with recognising your own privileges. AND recognising that privilege does not mean that you have the world at your feet and haven’t had to work for what you have in your life, simply that you were born with a head start by virtue of your colour/culture/class/gender/physical ability etc etc.

And most importantly listen. And ask. And allow the voices of your friends of colour to be heard. Support them in those endeavours. And listen. Keep listening. Don't stop. Thank you.