Stories

Just a few of the many true stories of casual, and not so casual, racism happening here every day. Got one to add? Send us an email.
  • A middle-aged white couple set off an alarm in a Superdrug in London. Security apprehends the young black man just behind them. MJR trustee Paul Keeble writes: 'My wife and I were that couple and at the time something in my wife's bag was randomly setting off shop alarms, so we knew it was us. But before we got the chance to say anything to the security man he had grabbed the young black man behind us, who was understandably not best pleased! Our "unearned privilege" and his "daily indignity"'.
  • A couple are stopped by the police on a bridge in London. He is black and she is white. He is searched for drugs, but none are found, and they are let go on their way. ​Their cocaine was in her handbag.
  • A delegate registering at a medical conference in Manchester turns to an Asian man standing to one side and asks him where he can leave his coat. Imagine his surprise when the next time he sees the man is when he is introduced as the keynote speaker...
  • ​A black employee at a well-known company (with a Racial Equality Award) made a complaint about daily racist behaviour, such as white staff getting up and changing table when he tried to join them in the canteen. The investigation found he was to blame and made him redundant.
  • The morning after the Brexit Referendum result a black mother is dropping her children off at school, as she did every morning. One of the other mothers calls across to her: "You'll have to go back home now."
Image by Kiyun Kim, from Racial Microaggressions
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About three years ago I was walking through White Hard Lane station. I heard someone shout very loudly the N-word. It’s a word that I don’t use. I thought at first it was someone listening to an Eminem song or something, and they were thinking they were Jay-Z. So I just kept walking. The word was shouted again, and “Who do you think you are?” Well, I know who I am. So I looked round to see what was going on, in case it wasn’t directed towards me. I didn’t think instinctively that it was. And it was directed towards me. There was a woman in a flat, looking out of the flat, and she was screaming and yelling at me. I said, “Why are you shouting at me and why are you using the N-word?” “Because that’s what you people call yourself.” I said, “You people?” This was a woman who doesn’t know me. And has never seen me before, and yet she felt empowered - not 20 years ago, not 30 years ago - to use such terminology to refer to me. And that’s to show you those overt forms of racism still exist. (Onyeka Hubia. Taken from the BBC video 'Why are People Racist")
Racism is a business. Akala, English rapper, poet, and activist. "Everyday racism is the normalised experience that we encounter daily based on our difference from the white norm“.
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“I got told when I first won the X Factor, ‘because you’re black you’re going to have to work 10 times harder than a white artist because of the colour of your skin. You can’t have braids, you can’t have an afro, you can’t have anything that basically is my identity. You have to have hair that appeals to white people so they understand you better.’” Alexandra Burke, who was also told to bleach her skin. She refused.
​Read more of her story. [Image Garry Knight]
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​“I’ve been reading every day to try to stay on top of everything that’s been happening in our fight against racism, and it’s brought back so many painful memories from my childhood. Vivid memories of the challenges I faced when I was a kid, as I’m sure many of you who have experienced racism or some sort of discrimination have faced. I have spoken so little about my personal experiences because I was taught to keep it in, don’t show weakness, kill them with love and beat them on the track. But when it was away from the track, I was bullied, beaten and the only way I could fight this was to learn to defend myself, so I went to karate. The negative psychological effects cannot be measured." Lewis Hamilton. [image Alistair Rickman]
3 times a day...
  • ​A black barrister was mistaken for a defendant in court three times in one day. Read more.
  • A young black man restored and customised a car but was stopped and searched frequently when out in it – up to three times in one day. Each search could take up to 45 minutes. He decided to get rid of the car for something plainer.
“Ever since Windrush, I carry my British passport with me at all times,” said one black woman. “My white husband never carries anything. That’s the world we live in now.”