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The lived experiences of Black people can be different but it doesn\u2019t mean that\u00a0all\u00a0experiences are equal (Picture: Stephen Maturen\/Getty Images)I have yet to watch the George Floyd murder video because I know how it ends.\u00a0
\nBut for anyone who doubts racism and structural racism exists \u2013 you need to watch all nine minutes and 29 seconds of it.
\nThe lived experiences of Black people can be different but it doesn\u2019t mean that\u00a0all\u00a0experiences are equal, or relevant in all debates. If you have never experienced racism you may not understand the urgency to tackle it and eradicate it.\u00a0
\nThe Government\u2019s widely disputed race report and previous comments\u00a0seem to\u00a0suggest that Black people should think differently about their negative experiences and stop having a victim mentality and everything will change \u2013 this is government level gaslighting.
\nNo amount of positive thinking by a Black man can stop a white police officer savagely murdering him.
\nOften when I speak about racism, I\u00a0also have\u00a0to reference sexism to bring people to the understanding of the issue.\u00a0It feels as if people are more aware of sexism and so by using it as an example, those I am speaking to can start to see where I am coming from when I talk about racism.\u00a0
\nI hope that when people read this article they will not only understand but become an advocate for fairness and equality. And more importantly, become an antiracist.\u00a0
\nHere\u2019s an example:\u00a0None of my boyfriends have ever hit me. My lived experience is that I have not experienced domestic violence.\u00a0Does that mean that domestic violence does not exist? It would be ludicrous to even suggest such a thing.\u00a0
\nOn average, UK women experience 50 incidents of abuse before they report it to the police and a woman is sadly killed every three days by a man.
\nSo just imagine if I used my platform and my privilege to project my lived experience on domestic violence and imagine still if I insisted my lived experience is equal to that of someone who has fled an abusive partner and is in fear of their life.
\nNo amount of positive thinking by a Black man can stop a white police officer savagely murdering him
\nJust imagine if I insisted that I had a nuanced view of domestic violence and we should discuss it solely on the basis of what I have been through.
\nI hope this analogy will help people understand racism \u2013 and the battle to eradicate it \u2013 a little better; just because a Black person hasn\u2019t experienced racism, it doesn\u2019t make their view or lived experience\u00a0equal to someone who has.\u00a0
\nIn fact, their view is rather irrelevant if you want to tackle the issue of racism.
\nIt is hard enough to challenge racism \u2013 systemic and institutional \u2013 without our Government insisting that institutional racism does not exist. In my opinion, this was the foregone conclusion before the\u00a0race\u00a0report was ever even written.
\nThe Government claims their race report is independent, but it has been alleged by one of the report\u2019s 11 members that it was amended by Downing Street.\u00a0If true, by their very actions, it is no longer independent and the report falls apart with even the most basic scrutiny.
\nThe Equalities Minister, Kemi Badenoch MP, who is herself a Black women, is pursuing a narrative around the report that she knows will frustrate those with lived experience of racism and those who watched the brutal murder of a Black man by a white police officer in the USA.
\nBut what really struck me at the recent ministerial statement\u00a0on the race report by the Equalities Minister this Tuesday\u00a0were the\u00a0uncomfortable\u00a0facial expressions and body language of former prime minister Theresa May. As I watched her, I realised that\u00a0the current Government (her own party!) are dismantling a part of her legacy.\u00a0
\nTheresa May as prime minister established the Race Disparity Audit, a database of all the inequalities that existed. Whether Theresa May tackled the burning injustices that existed in society is a discussion for another day but she knows they exist.
\nLet\u2019s not forget that Mrs May as Home Secretary in 2012 presided over the \u2018hostile environment\u2019 immigration policies \u2013 demanding the showing of documentation \u2013\u00a0that saw many from the Windrush generation lose their livelihood, homes and lives and there are many Black people affected who did not live to see compensation for this.
\nBut even the former prime minister seemed shocked at what was coming from the front bench \u2013\u00a0at one stage her mouth sat open and in another she seemed to hold her head in her hands in dismay.<\/p>\n
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When it was Mrs May\u2019s time to speak, she stood up and gave the Government an easy win, saying, \u2018Business groups have called for mandatory reporting of ethnicity pay gaps. The commission recommended investigating the causes of pay disparities, but then did not recommend mandating the reporting that would identify those disparities, so will the minister now commit to taking a different approach from the commission, and commit to mandatory reporting of ethnicity pay gaps?\u2019
\nIt should have been a simple \u2018yes\u2019 response but the Equalities Minister failed to give a substantive reply, instead parroting the old phrase,\u00a0\u2018we will\u2026respond in due course\u2019.
\nThis Government\u2019s attempt to lie to the nation is dangerous and dishonest.\u00a0But as the former veterans minister Johnny Mercer, who resigned this week said, the Government is a \u2018cesspit\u2019 and \u2018the most distrustful, awful environment\u2019 he has ever worked in as \u2018almost nobody tells the truth\u2019.
\nWe must continue to tackle the systemic, structural and institutional racism that exists in society.\u00a0
\nWe must not allow this Government\u2019s culture war to divide us, whether we are Black, white or brown we must stick together to fight the system.
\nIf we want better policing in the UK,\u00a0we have to tackle the institutional racism in\u00a0the system. And for those who look at the brutal killing of George Floyd and say \u2018he is American and what has it got to do with the UK?\u2019 I say, there are plenty of names I could reel off, but I want to focus on just one today \u2013 Christopher Alder.
\nMore: Politics<\/p>\n
His case has recently been given new momentum with\u00a0the actor Richard Blackwood performing in an excellent one-man play\u00a0depicting Christopher\u2019s last day when he died in police custody after sustaining a head injury.
\nAs he lay on the floor dying, officers were recorded on CCTV making monkey noises. And to add insult to injury, the family were given the body of a woman to bury instead of Christopher, which was only discovered 13 years later, when Christopher\u2019s body was located in a morgue in 2011.
\nIf that is not an example of systemic and institutional racism, I hope the prime minister can explain what it is.
\nDo you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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