The problem with black people

The problem with black people is that when we see them, something in us is unsettled.

We consciously or subconsciously think that something is odd or amiss when we see them.

When we see them more frequently, then we have to conclude that they are now part of our bubble and that in itself, if we are honest, is disturbing.

You see, the problem with black people is that they are a sign that things are not quite right.

As you find yourself in your quiet suburb going about your business at the local supermarket and then you face one of these people, things are different. It is a sign that things are not so good.

If you are able to recognise it, it is a sign that economically, things are taking a turn for the worse. When you see these people, it is a sign that, that equality and diversity course you took and dismissed as irrelevant may have to be applied, if only you could remember how.

You see, it doesn’t take a suppressed government report to highlight the issue with black people. They are a sign that we are not as progressive as we think we are. As we look to the west and hold hands with America, we do so with a moral superiority, thinking that we are better, that our discussions on race and outcomes are more nuanced, that our society is more civilised.

So how can it be that that a report can be so damning? I have not seen the report and do not need to see it to know and understand that the interaction of black people with public services from education to health is lacking.

The reasons for these are many but we cannot ignore that one of those reasons is that we continue to perpetuate a culture of blackness as secondary, blackness as other, blackness as less human. This is further affirmed when we see blackness in the context of poverty, of criminality of something that has to be integrated.

What of the NHS with its many ethnic minority professionals? These professionals are clothed in credentials. They are model minorities, they work hard, they pay their taxes, they raise their families. They are working extra hard against their blackness, they are not poor, nor criminal and their middle class incomes assures some level of integration by participation in some of our middle class habits such as garden centres and cocktail bars.

For many ethnic minorities without the credentials, they work hard, they raise their families, they live their lives. Their problem is that their race speaks before any other characteristic or qualification does. They are deemed to be problematic, difficult – because they may be a bit harder to understand, they may eat different food, they may favour a religious view too much. Before they arrive, their names on their CV suggest difficulty, suggests having to maybe adjust our speech, our manner, our expectations.

There is a claim that we are inclusive, that we can continue as we did, but be honest with me, when you bumped into that black person in your very white suburb, how did that make you feel?

Perhaps that person is a curiosity and their quiet integration with their understandable accent, understandable shopping habits and observations of social etiquette mean you do not have to move from where you are. This person understands your bubble. They have coloured it but it has not burst or had to expand.

Now imagine that 3 or 4 black families have moved to your village? How would that make you feel? If this is already your reality – watch the wariness in your eyes, in your manner. You may have taken a live and let live approach, a hyper friendly approach or a quiet aggression – conscious or unconscious – to make sure they understand that this is your bubble and you may not be ready for it to change. Are there other approaches? Probably.

In my day to day life, in my village, I see black people, enough that I don’t feel like the only black in the village. I see evidence of them in mixed race children running to school happily with my own. There is a quiet assurance about this. We are here, but quietly toiling away.

Until they came. A whole family of them. Now I am not a curiosity, I am part of a larger black caucus, with its own needs and expectations. We have created a culture that sees it as a lobbying group and a culture that needs it to have a lobbying group. This creates confrontation before a word is spoken.

I am part of a collective dogged with stigma – with low expectations. A collective for whom their interest in their children, their work, their desire for laughter, companionship and care comes second. The problem with black people is that they have the audacity to not recognise their blackness as a handicap. They have the audacity to ask to start from the same spot as everyone else. They don’t seem to understand that many accommodations need to be made for them.

They seem to think they can just live their lives.

This was written in 2018 after the release of a report on racial disparities in access to public services…or something like that.

I then hid it away, because although it got feelings off my chest, I wasn’t ready to alienate my white friends. I am not ready for that now but I cannot keep it in any more and I hope now…you may be willing to listen.