Read the article and watch the video here.
An article and video from US network CNN on the situation of Black nurses in the NHS. One of those interviewed said she feels she's been fighting "two battles at once: Racism and coronavirus". Each of 12 nurses interviewed said they acted without hesitation when faced with the challenge of the Coronavirus virus; each of them was putting their life at increased risk, simply through being Black. Minorities make up about 20% of England's NHS medical workforce, but early analysis shows they have accounted for 60% of healthcare worker deaths due to the virus, according to media reports. One in five of all nurses across England are from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds, but about 95% of executive directors of nursing are white, according to a 2019 report from NHS England. The interviewees speak of higher chances of being put on the front line than white colleagues, and of poor levels of adequate PPE (a survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) showed that "only 43% of BAME nursing staff had enough eye and face protection equipment.") They also speak of a reluctance to complain due to fear of being seen as a trouble-maker or lazy. All evidence of systemic racism in the NHS.
Read the article and watch the video here. Six weeks on from the widespread public outrage at the murder of George Floyd and the upsurge in support for #BlackLivesMatter, a crisis point has been reached. Will the tipping point leading to real and actual change be reached, or, as so many times in the past, will support ebb away as the news-cycle and headlines move on, and with them, the short-attention span of the public and politicians?
This article by Nesrine Malik, titled "It seems black lives don't matter quite so much, now that we've got to the hard bit" takes a pessimistic view, listing recent actions such as the BBC banning its hosts and presenters from "wearing Black Lives Matter badges because it is seen as an expression of some sort of 'political' opinion" as evidence of a reversion back to as we were. Malik states that protest is easy – the hard part is sustaining the movement after that first adrenalin rush to the point of first realising what real change will cost, systemically and for individuals, and then actually making it happen. Getting past that first hurdle may prove too difficult: "Everyone applauds a movement for social justice until it 'goes too far; – when it starts making 'unreasonable demands' in the service of its 'political agenda'" "We have a great knack for supporting victims once the injustices are out in the open – when David and Goliath have been clearly identified, and a particularly British sensibility of fair play has been assailed." But... when it comes to the "underlying injustice – to making the links between the deportation and death of a Windrush citizen, the NHS worker impoverished by Home Office fees and unsettled by cruel hostile environment policies, the unelected special adviser breaking lockdown rules, and the political party we keep voting in – we’re not so good." "The same is now happening with the Black Lives Matter movement. Everyone is on board with the principle, but when it comes to the change that is required, the idealistic passengers the movement picked up along the way suddenly come down with a case of extreme pragmatism. Part of the reason for their belated reluctance is that the course of actual change is unflashy. After the first moment passes, the supportive ally has nothing to show for their continued backing for the cause: there are no public high-fives for your continuing solidarity. You can’t post it, you can’t hashtag it; most of the time you can’t even do it without jeopardising something, whether that’s your income, status, job prospects or even friendships. But the main reason for the ebbing support is that change is just hard." Read the full article here. And ask: Is this fading away inevitable? How do we keep the momentum going? In this interview in Relevant magazine actor David Oyelowo says that America won't truly heal of racism until the Church repents of its role in supporting it. The British-born actor who powerfully portrayed Dr Martin Luther King Jr in 2014's Selma, is now resident in the US. Comparing racism between the two countries he says that in America it is "far more overt. To be perfectly frank, I’d rather see my enemy coming at me than them pretending to be my friend, which is a lot more prevalent in the UK." .
As a Christian, Oyelowo speaks of his shock at how quiet the Church has been "in the midst of literally the largest protests this country has ever seen as it pertains to race" and his disgust at the Church’s "lack of energy behind this movement at the moment from a place of repentance". While finding the last few weeks very challenging he is encouraged by seeing "more Christ-like behavior in the streets from protestors who may not even profess to be Christians". Oyelowo states "there is something wrong in and with America, and the Church is tied into that. For me, nothing would be more incredible than the Church coming together and having a day of repentance — making Juneteenth a day where we as Christians go, 'Dear God, forgive us for the foundational sin on which this country was built. Help us to be better going forward than we have been in the past.'". Read the full interview here. This article about the higher death toll from COVID-19 among the descendants of slaves in Brazil illustrates again that countries that took part in the transporting and enslaving of Africans have, as a major legacy, structural racism. And this invariably results in disproportionate negative outcomes for the descendants of those slaves. Brazil forcibly brought some 4 million enslaved Africans into the country over three centuries, more than anywhere else in the Americas. About half its 209 million people are black – the world’s second largest African-descendant population after Nigeria. Though Brazil has never had legalised racial discrimination like Jim Crow, there are deeply embedded race-based inequalities shown in employment discrimination, residential segregation and a 3 year difference in life expectancy between black and white Brazilians (similar to the USA).
Government data does not include racial or ethnic information, and it was only after coming under pressure that the collection of COVID-19 racial data was begun in late April – but has yet to be released. Now outside researchers have shown that 55% of Afro-Brazilian patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 died, compared to 34% of white patients. The research has found that structural racism – in the form of high-risk working conditions, unequal access to health and worse housing conditions – is a major factor shaping Brazil’s COVID-19 pandemic. There is also extreme economic inequality. White women earn up to 74% more than black men. There are parallels here with data coming out of the UK and USA. Read the full article here. On Juneteenth, the annual celebration marking the end of American chattel slavery,a powerful and righteously angry theological statement has been released from a collective of Black pastors and theologians to emphatically repudiate white supremacy and anti-Black violence. No punches are pulled in the naming of the "incessant onslaught of anti-Black violence that is the progeny of white racist structural evil" which "constitutes the very fabric of U.S. society" or calling of "the social, moral and political failure of the 45th administration of this nation." A searing summary of 400 years of white violence is followed by a theological assertion that God is on the side of the oppressed (Luke 4:18).
"We reject the white Christ that propels so-called Christians into complicity with white supremacy and bad faith that separates justice from righteousness. We further reject the prevalence of the individualist gospel of white evangelicalism that aims toward the perfection of personal piety and the prosperity gospel that asserts “manifest destiny” and capitalist acquisition as the will of God. We affirm God’s care and option for the poor, the prisoner, the infirm, the immigrant and the persecuted." Read the full statement here. MJR trustee Dr Joe Aldred, interviewed in Christian Today about the #BlackLivesMatter protests has said he welcomes "this simultaneous combustion of racial justice consciousness. The nerve that George Floyd's public slaying by a police officer - while his colleagues looked on even as passers by protested - was a historic one made tender by the enduring injustice that has been gnawing away at black people's patience for years - centuries, even." "In my view, this devaluing of Black life has its roots in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, chattel slavery, colonialism, apartheid, and Jim Crow laws. Black people who live in 'Western' societies understand this through experience and observation to a lesser or greater extent, which mean this was a fire set to blaze and simply waiting for a match to ignite it. Many white people seem unaware of the heightened resentment black people have towards the racism that blights so many black lives in a world that moves to the tune of whiteness." Turning to the complicity of Western Churches in "the history of the practice of racism", Dr Alred states"any acknowledgement of that complicity needs to go deeper and further than being stirred by the current incident of George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives Matter-led protests that have so effectively channelled the raw emotion of exasperation, grief, anger and demand for justice." Characterised by the Biblical notion of repentance, which calls for a "high price of giving up and restoring what has been stolen", he continues, "Churches need to take this opportunity, not by any means their first, to look deep into their souls and reckon with their history concerning black people; then act in a spirit of reparatory justice. Racial injustice is a systemic issue in society and in the Western Church. The Church must call for systemic solutions that match the seriousness of historic and contemporary racial injustice." Read the full interview here. This powerful Guardian opinion piece by Afua Hirsh states: "What black people are experiencing the world over is a system that finds their bodies expendable, by design." African Americans have been saying this time after time, death after death – Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, and so many more. And now, again. Here in the UK many black people have also been saying the same things because "many of us have been fighting for this all our lives."
Instead of Dominic Raab's wanting to see de-escalation of tension, the British government "could have had the humility to use this moment to acknowledge Britain’s experiences. It could have discussed how Britain helped invent anti-black racism, how today’s US traces its racist heritage to British colonies in America, and how it was Britain that industrialised black enslavement in the Caribbean, initiated systems of apartheid all over the African continent, using the appropriation of black land, resources and labour to fight both world wars and using it again to reconstruct the peace. And how, today, black people in Britain are still being dehumanised by the media, disproportionately imprisoned and dying in police custody, and now also dying disproportionately of Covid-19." Instead it used George Floy's death as an excuse to delay the report into the disparity in ethnic minority deaths from Covid-19. Even when it appear, a key section, containing information on the potential role of discrimination, was removed before publication. Black People "have taken what we inherited and had no choice but to make sense of it. We have studied, read, written and understood the destructive power of race. And we are telling you that race is a system that Britain built here. We are also telling you that as long as you send all children out into the world to be actively educated into racism, taught a white supremacist version of history, literature and art, then you are setting up a future generation to perpetuate the same violence on which that system of power depends. We are telling you that we need to dismantle, not to de-escalate." Read the full article here. This article, by Siana Bangura in today's Independent, urges white people to play their part in ending racism.
"Racism is a familiar blade, and for those of us at its sharp end, the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota has not surprised us. However, compounded by the injustice of a Covid-19 landscape in which black people have been, once again, hit the hardest according to data from the Office for National Statistics, this instance of brutality feels like the last straw. Black women in the UK are 4.3 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white women, while black men were 4.2 times more likely to die. The report went on to say that these alarming disparities seem to be 'partly a result of socio-economic disadvantage and other circumstances, but a remaining part of the difference has not yet been explained'. Spoiler alert: it’s no mystery – structural inequality kills." Siana notes that once again with the protests in the USA "the onus has been put on black people to dismantle their subjugation themselves and to remain calm while doing so." She then quotes a viral tweet which sums up the dichotomy: “My main issue with racism is that it’s a white problem but black people are the experts” and goes on to appeal to white people to get active and get vocal. "Silence is betrayal at best, and at its very worst, it is the foundation of all covert expressions of white supremacy... You may not have directly inflicted physical pain on black people in your lifetime, but figuratively – in many cases, of course, literally – your knees have been pressed on our necks for centuries." To those who say they are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing she replies: "to create change, you must be humble enough to make mistakes, apologise with your whole heart, and be ready to keep trying. That is truly what is needed now." Read the full article. Bishop Dr Joe Aldred of Churches Together in England, and a trustee of MJR, in an interview on Premier Christian Radio has criticised the US Government for its response to protests that have swept the country following the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd. Bishop Aldred argues that the protests are a natural response to injustice. Floyd's death was not an isolated incident and people are crying out for change.
"What we've seen is that the black life in the eyes of a racist, white system has been devalued - it tells a tale of a story that has been running for centuries. It is truly sad. There is no peace, without justice. And so, one needs to look not just at the tragic killing, yet another killing, of George Floyd. One has to look at the system, the unjust system within which that operates". Read more here. (MJR Trustee Paul Keeble writes) This opinion piece in the Irish Times gives a perspective on the recent history of Britain (and the USA) is notable because of its viewpoint. Titled "We need to pay very close attention to what is happening in Britain now", writer Una Mulally is writing from an Irish context as a near-neighbour that has enjoyed (or endured?) a long relationship with Britain which gives a unique position from which to observe and comment. It's not a positive picture. Very critical of the current political regimes in both Britain and the US and the process that has led to the ascent of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, as both countries "fall apart", a question is asked for others watching on: "we must interrogate how we can prevent falling as far as these two nations. How do we hold on to civility and decency, when it has evaporated elsewhere? What kind of environment gave rise to such toxicity?" She continues: "The more we know ourselves, the less likely we are to betray ourselves, and each other. A lot of this is about empathy, but it is also about self-knowledge." For both Britain and the US a lack of self-knowledge is a barrier to progress. "If one does not confront the basic truths of one’s national identity, one will not be able to trace a path forward. Everything becomes a fiction, a narrative designed to block any kind of self-examination." For both nations a major basic truth is the "central malady" of racism. "The toxicity at the heart of America is racism. It’s a country full of white people who have never confronted the fact that their so-called 'freedoms'. and their country’s economic power, were built on slavery. ... Similarly, Britain has never meaningfully confronted its racism, which is colonialism, building an 'empire' on the back of invading and pillaging and inflicting misery on whatever shores its brutal mercenaries... landed on." Including of course, Ireland. Here I need to declare an interest. I grew up in Protestant Northern Ireland and was taught in school a selective history of the island. It was only in later life that I learned of the centuries of exploitation by the British and found out about Drogheda, The Famine, the Easter Rising and much more, arguably continuing to the present day in the dismissive attitude behind the "Irish Backstop" fiasco. I have lived in England for many years and continue to note the level of ignorance (which to an extent I used to share) about the island to the west... and how often Northern Ireland, a part of the UK, is casually referred to as "Ireland". A small symptom of a bigger problem? It should give pause for thought that this observation made by a close neighbour is that our main root-problem is self-deception about our racism, an ongoing legacy of a history of colonialism, marked by exploitation and oppression. "The violence of British colonialism is embedded in the fabric of the world, in the horrors of illegal wars, in the consequences of bleeding nations of their resources, in the couldn’t-give-a-toss attitude towards Ireland." Read the full article here. |
MJR NewsThe latest information, views and news from MJR. Categories
All
Archives
October 2023
|