US-style culture wars won’t end racism in UK. Here’s how – Ayesha Hazarika

The Black Lives Matter protests are important and can create significant moments, but delivering real change means arduous and boring work to win people over, writes Ayesha Hazarika.

The statue of slave trader Edward Colston is thrown in Bristol harbour (Picture: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Like many people of colour, I have had many messages from my genuinely beloved white friends. “You must feel SO excited and uplifted by all the protests!”, “I feel so energised!”

Now I hate to be a big beige glumbucket but I have not felt remotely energised or uplifted by the live killing of a black man and the culture war that has erupted.

That is not to say I don’t respect and admire everyone who has taken to the street and given voice to the rage and pain so many of us feel.

But I feel frightened, depressed and cynical about what happens next.

Which is probably not very much and a lot more pain and hostility for people of colour.

I genuinely love the inter-racial solidarity but let’s get real – who are, and will be, the real casualties? Black and brown people in all walks of life.

Many of my white friends are feeling a genuine sense of sadness and guilt but they and their kids won’t have to suffer the overt and covert racism we do, no matter how much they may want to share our pain.

No matter how assimilated you think you are as a person of colour, you can’t escape it.

After my appearance on the Sky News paper review on Tuesday, where I talked rather moderately about the incontrovertible fact that slavers were bad in a “murdering folk” kind of way, I was the recipient of a charming tweet from a racist saying an “army of them were getting on their boots to come for me”.

I am not saying that the fact that the racists, bigots, so-called patriots and those who fetishise slavery are emboldened is a reason to not shout loud.

I have seen some on the Right argue we should all pipe down because all this will only end in some
 violent race war which will be of our own making.

They are the same people who said people would riot over Brexit and that we would club our neighbours to death over loo roll at the start of lockdown.

We are much better than that as a country. We prefer coming together to fighting on the street.

But we are clearly a socially conservative country. Look at who we just elected. There isn’t going to be an election for another four years. What are we going to do in the meantime?

We can get stuck into the increasingly deranged US-style culture wars, where we rage with magnificence on social media, but that approach doesn’t tend to go so well for liberals.

Marching and protests are important and feel vital. They can create a big moment like we saw at the weekend, but it often alone doesn’t deliver change – I say that as someone who proudly hosted many of the doomed anti-Brexit rallies.

No matter how much we rage on social media and on the streets, we must focus on how we make real, lasting change happen in our power structures through politics, the judiciary, media, business and other institutions. We need both limbs.

The easy bit is the hashtags and the retweets. The other stuff, like trying to take people with you, particularly at the ballot box and in the workplace, is less sexy, unsatisfying, arduous and boring.

But if you want change, you have to get stuck in there too.

Ayesha Hazarika is editor of the Evening Standard Londoner’s Diary

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director