The history of racism has been whitewashed for white consumption; where do we go from here?
Protests and riots have erupted across the world demanding recognition for a simple message; Black Lives Matter. We have seen similar tragedies, similar protests and similar hashtags. This time, the eruption of public fervour is during a global pandemic which is disproportionately killing members of the BAME community.
In the past, the world stood in solidarity and then it forgot. Racism is bad, I’m not racist, not my problem. This is the root of the problem.
This time, there have been several prevalent messages; talk to each other, learn from each other and educate yourself. This driver of public discourse is necessary and positive. We know it’s working because it has made a lot of white people upset. The fundamental issue of racism is a white problem. However, the message we teach in schools either ignores or whitewashes the necessary information for confronting the issue as a society. Confronting this as adults for the first time can be scary, upsetting and confusing. This should never have been the case.
History in the western world is taught through an outdated lens of white exceptionalism. We are taught that almost every great achievement had been accomplished by a white man. This is not the fault of teachers but the result of centuries of the institutions of power relying on white supremacy. We are taught about racism with full stops. Slavery ended in 1865. Colonialism ended with the fall of the British Empire. Jim Crow discrimination ended with the Civil Rights Movement. A black president is elected into the White House.
Are we approaching a new full-stop or might we instead make a to-do list?
Civil Rights history focuses on leaders. Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks have been portrayed as the peaceful protagonists responsible for the movement’s success. This is not by accident. Both of these individuals brought about such a degree of public anger and political pressure that forced leaders to concede ground and support the message. The message of Dr King has been hijacked into a new white narrative of racism being a relic of the past. If you listen to the words of his speech, he is promoting peace, cooperation, civil liberty and mutual respect. No one today would deny these are good things. What the white narrative glosses over is the personal risk that every member of the movement in particular its leaders were forced to bear in order to be heard. Black voices were stifled, the risk to their lives was acute, they knew this, and they risked and sacrificed their lives to be heard. Malcolm X is a figure of the movement from whom we hear far less in our whitewashed discourse. His bravery in voicing in no uncertain terms the need for violent action to combat violence and oppression cost him his life, just like Dr King.
Civil Rights leaders confronted the culture of branding critics of the US as communists. Resisting racism was a greater liability for state repercussions than practicing it. Today, we see the president declare ANTIFA a terrorist organisation. They understood there wasn’t room for debate about what it meant to be an American. This too resonates today, but they confronted this in the face of forced segregation and public lynching. Today, a black man ‘resisting arrest’ can be chocked to death on the pavement with no repercussions for his murder. The focus on leaders during the Civil Rights Movement allows for a completed narrative, glorifying individual achievement without addressing the underpinning issue.
Ronald Reagan made a speech in dedication to the first Martin Luther King Day. He outlined triumphantly how Dr King brought equality and justice. This speech proudly and clearly speaks of racism as a thing of the past. One particular point stands out in an otherwise meaningless ‘one clap for Dr King, ten claps for me’ speech. He said, “in many countries people like Dr King would not be able to speak out at all.” This speech is an embodiment of exactly how racism has been covered by a veil of white exceptionalism and self-absolution. When President Obama was elected, Bush gave a speech proudly declaring; “the dream of the Civil Rights movement has been fulfilled… we move forward as one nation.”
The Civil Rights movement forced the concession that racism was wrong. In self-defence, the systems of white supremacy placed the issue as a whole in the past and applauded itself for that.
It has been easy for the world, especially the UK to look at the horrors of police shootings in the US and feel the sense that we are above such disgraceful hatred. This again is a result of a whitewashed history of racism across the western world. The belief that ‘white is right’ along with the principles of fundamental Christianity were both consistent mandates for colonial invasions. The Bible stated clearly that slavery was a sin. The solution was to categorise black people as a sub-human race. With this as a backdrop, Winston Churchill, hailed as ‘The Greatest Briton’ lead with an imperialist desire for conquest based on his belief that “the Aryan stock is bound to triumph”. Churchills own doctor once said, “Winston thinks only of the colour of their skin” yet he is remembered as triumphing over fascism. Today, our Prime Minister who is a public cheerleader of Churchill said that countries that “haven’t had the benefit of British rule” are now “less fortunate”. This is a frightening level of disconnection with post-colonial control and cultural dismissal. This is also a needle in the haystack of Johnsons history of bigoted remarks.
This week, a 125-year-old statue of a slave trader was torn down and thrown into the harbour that he once used to traffic abducted Africans. Churchills statue in parliament square was scrawled with anti-racist messages. Public space is being reclaimed. Right wing leaders have called protesters thugs and criminals, a week after celebrating the return of horse racing. These actions were planned, necessary and symbolic of the gravity of the issue. They are the result of the whitewashing of our history and the continued prevalence of the institution of racism in all of our lives.
Systemic issues are rarely solved by one person, yet racism has attracted the self-interested full-stops of countless leaders.
Each time we have reached a full-stop, it has been upon granting basic liberties and assumed prerogatives of the white population. There has never been a full-stop to assert recognition and responsibility for the white prerogative that created modern racism. Guilt, shame, anger and confusion have all been widely acknowledged and the challenge now is how do we channel those feelings into something positive. The times of solidarity are over and the times of active mass desecration and public shaming of the institution of racism has begun. The louder and longer the intensity of dissent continues, the clearer the villains will become as their hiding places collapse around them.
We are witnessing history. We are approaching mass recognition that racism is not just a problem for those who suffer from it directly. The root causes of the divisions we see today have been perpetuating for decades, regularly dismissed as ‘black criminality’. The concept of blackness has been contorted by the network of power that profits through white supremacy. When crimes are committed by ethnic minorities, the colour of their skin or their religion are presented as primary factors for their actions. When Dylann Roof killed nine churchgoers, he was arrested, put in a bullet proof vest, treated to a burger and given a fair trial. Compare that with George Floyd.
Adjusting the historical narrative in schools is an investment into our collective future. For the rest of us, we hold a collective duty to learn the bloody realities of racism throughout history and in the present day. This does not mean relying on black friends or colleagues. It is not the job of those who have experienced racism to guide the rest of us, they’ve got other shit to do as well. There is a hundred lifetimes worth of books, articles, talks and cultural material readily available. Hip hop is perhaps the greatest documentary of social injustice in history, there to be enjoyed and learned from.
Martin Luther King Jr. summarised the current mood surrounding the movement; “there comes a time where silence is betrayal”. The fact that this is still true, still relevant and a reflection on the same injustices and state failures goes to show the damage of a historical full-stop. There is no conclusion and there is no finish line. We will win when we no longer need to protest over such a basic moral remark as Black Lives Matter.