What White People Can do Next!
George Floyd’s death was absolutely preventable says a leading cardiologist, how bizarre that the prosecution was required to “humanize” George Floyd for the jury so he was not seen as an object. He was dehumanized by Chauvin, his death embodied the terrible history of the USA in it’s relationship to African Americans.
Why on earth are they required to tell the court GF was a “momma’s boy” if not for fear of the innate prejudices they might encounter in a jury? How bizarre they have to say how he was loved in the community. They want to give a “rounded” view!!!
In the end none of this is relevant, only the simple fact that Chauvin had a knee to his throat for nine minutes!! No matter who or what GF was or had done – this was the crime.
At the same moment as GF is being humanized Daunte Wright is shot dead in Minneapolis. A boy of 20 driving his car is pulled over!! He has to die. This feels endless and terrfiying. It is scarily reminiscent of the beautiful film Slim and the Queen which I recommend to everybody. https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a29993538/queen-and-slim-real-story/. IT “ follows a black couple on the run after they shoot a police officer in an act of self-defense”. As writer Lena Waithe and director Melina Matsoukas told OprahMag.com, the film is a love letter to the Black community. Even Rihanna gave it her stamp of approval.
This film captivated me, I cared for and loved the characters, I feel at one with them in their humanit. I have nothing in common with Chauvin or any racist person or policeman. Yet, I feel ashamed, not for the first time in my life. I take all this personally. I also feel powerless. What can I do?
Emma Dabiri has written a book called “what white people can do next”! She says “abandon guilt..as a white person dwelling in either state as a response to racism is self-indulgent and white-centred, it will also dictate that you prioritise making yourself feel better rather than bringing about meaningful change”. She is so right and it is an easy trap to fall into, I put my hands up.
What can I do? I chose long ago to challenge racism and anti-semitism at every opportunity and I have occasionally put myself at risk to do so. “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” – Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee’s Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime
For me Emma Dabiri’s clearest advice is “stop reducing black people to one dimension”. Black people are people with the full range of complexity, contradiction and emotion that comes with our humanity” I give myself a qualified tick for this one – but can I ever completely get rid of the shame – that is work in progress!
Thoughts about the "Duke"
What are we to say about the loss of the Duke of Edinburgh? The BBC is doing it’s usual sterling job, swamping the airwaves and the news with stories, tributes and extended punditry. They talk of his influence as a father grandfather, his support for the Queen and the DOE Awards scheme.
Do I feel compassion for the Queen, losing her lifelong partner, what does this touch in me? I/we have lost people over the last year, many before their time whereas the Duke made 99 years. If only he could have offered some of those years to those who died young!
Yet this man, this slightly racist remnant of a bygone era has been part of my whole life. Whatever I think of him he has always been there, a remote but constant figure ironically brought to life through TV’s “The Crown”.
I wish him no ill, and remind myself that each death I witness is a rehearsal for my own. I hold my hand out to him for surviving (albeit on a diet of caviar?) 99 years in good health, keeping himself fit and busy. I hope that I can go on that long in that way. The Queen says he brought “his strength” and Nick Witchell can’t stop repeating it on News 24, I think old Nick is very attached to the Royals and finds it hard to separate himself from them, he gets passionate in their defence. What was this strength? it was the strength to survive.
The Duke had a “rootless” childhood, many of us know what that means and the despair it causes in a young child. At Gordounstoun he made himself “strong” to survive. He had no clear identity – Greek but no Greek blood then was swallowed up the the Royal machine of the UK. It is quaint the way the BBC makes sideways references to his “social life” in the 50’s along side a photo of a busty blonde. His “misjudged” remarks”.
Good for him supporting the WWF and the DOE awards. He was a little ahead of his time. More than the gushing plaudits I would like to reflect on how he dealt with difference – his own difference – his own sudden isolation in a Royal Family with no real role, cut off from his beloved Royal Navy.
I would like less eulogies and more truths about Phillip. I feel sad for the Queen as I would for anyone who has experienced such loss – believe me I get it. In the end he is a symbol of that peculiar and outdated institution that this country – what is left of it – seems to be addicted to as the only glue holding us together. Perhaps he more than any other understood the tragedy of Dianna and more recently the hounding of Meghan and Harry.
This is one of those peculiar national moments where I cannot really be part of it but find myself part of it. Not really emotionally touched for Phillip, but touched for me, for this country for the tragic breakup we are experiencing at the moment – and Phillip – like him or not was a huge part of that national fabric.