The Help, an award-winning book set in 1960s Mississippi, is set during the time period where African American civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot and Martin Luther King delivered his historic ‘I Have A Dream’ speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The book delves into the domestic lives of two black maids and a white society lady. It paints a vivid picture of the injustices black people faced not just in the South, but in America as a whole. From segregation in public facilities to a legal system that didn’t work for black people, it shines a very bright light on racial issues six decades ago.
One could be forgiven for thinking that issues like those above belong firmly in the past. But delve a little deeper into today’s society, look a little closer into attitudes and you may find that the same issues that prevailed in the American South six decades ago, still exist today. The only difference is that they are a little less discernible.
Gone are the Jim Crow laws that forbade integrated schools and the sharing of school materials between races. Welcome a time when there is almost no diversity at educational institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. According to a Freedom of Information request by the Financial Times, between 2012 and 2016, six of Cambridge’s 29 undergraduate colleges admitted fewer than 10 British black or mixed white and black students. Adieu to the days when the available job opportunities for people of colour consisted mainly of menial jobs and say hello to a time where there is little or no diversity on the boards of top organisations. The Parker Review Committee’s Report into Ethnic Diversity of UK Boards found that as at the end of July 2017, only 85 of the 1,050 director positions in the FTSE 100 were held by people from ethnic minorities. Wave goodbye to the decades where people of colour were thrown into overcrowded jail cells without fair trials. Say konichiwa to the fact that despite making up just 14% of the population, men and women from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds make up 25% of prisoners while over 40% of young people in custody are from BAME backgrounds.
Although racial discrimination is now illegal and widely frowned-upon, it is evident that there are still judgements against people of colour deeply-ingrained into society. These judgements whether fully realised or not, help create a glass ceiling most people don’t even know exist. There have been occasions where I have been subjected to such judgements. On one such occasion, I was walking up to my flat in Sunningdale, a somewhat-affluent village in Berkshire with a mostly white population when I noticed a middle-aged Caucasian man walking towards me, all the time looking at me. When we crossed paths, he then proceeded to ask me very concernedly, if I was lost. That was not the first nor the last time that I’ve been subjected to curious looks while shopping in the neighbourhood Waitrose or furtive glances while walking home from work. It is evident that that these incidents are a result of pre-conceived ideas held by those individuals.
So how do we change these attitudes? How do we root out and treat the causes of these subtle micro-aggressions? I do not think that the answer lies in call-out culture. Calling somebody racist when they do not even realise they are offending does not solve the problem. I believe that if true racial equality is to be achieved, there should be a higher level of communication. There should be more interracial collaboration in communities to solve local issues. People of different racial backgrounds should be brought together to freely and constructively discuss issues relating to race. More work should be done to ensure that people of colour are better and more frequently represented in the media. More effort should be made to get people from BAME backgrounds into leadership positions. If all these things are effectively and continuously done, then and only then do we have a chance at real change. In the words of Kofi Annan the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, “If tolerance, respect and equity permeate (daily) life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations and the world.”
SophisticateQueen 