inequality – Jacqueline Courtenay

Righting wrongs and saving a failed generation: A debate on London’s knife crime

Hey, so it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Bit late but Happy new year! I’ve been busy with mothering, managing a home, writing and just…life. By writing, I mean:

I should take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for Left Foot Forward (aimed at political progressives) and Black Ballad (features and champions inspiring content from Black British women) for giving me the chance to add my voice to their great platforms and excellent platforms they are. Please check them out.

In this my first post of the year, I’d like to touch on the topic of Knife Crime that is happening in many pockets of London – a city I call my home. With 40 knife related crimes occurring everyday in the city, it is safe to say we have a problem. It’s not a new problem and that is what is most frustrating. Because it’s not new, I believe the government know exactly how to tackle the problem but simply don’t want to invest enough money in the right areas. If the government could see to the end of the reign of the notorious East End gangs such as The Krays, then it is ridiculous that there is a sense that the Met and other government agencies are at their wits end.

The “problem” as a matter of fact, is largely one concerning African and Caribbean people, namely young African and Caribbean Black British children, particularly boys. I’m not alone in believing that if it concerned White British children (of any socio-economic group) and if it were this group of children engaged in vicious gang life, the matter would be dealt with swiftly without the need for a well-meaning BBC programme such as London’s Knife Wars. If there was such a programme about an issue prevalent in the White community, I’d also hedge my bets that it wouldn’t be referred to as “wars” either. Whilst important, the programme failed to give members of the audience enough time to articulate and provide robust solutions towards tackling the problem and was ultimately a series of frustrated voices each using 20 seconds or less to share their insights.

A few weeks ago I got to see firsthand how MPs debate on matters as pressing as this. Just after Christmas, I got fed up, came up with some ideas on eradicating part of the problem via reducing school exclusion rates and I got in touch with the office of my local MP, relayed my ideas and have since started an important dialogue about the various disadvantages faced by some young people which makes them susceptible to exploitation by organised crime.

As a result, I was asked to come along to the Westminster Hall debate on Knife Crime on Thursday 24th January 2019 – the following outlines the most salient points raised in the chamber during the three-hour debate chaired by Karen Buck MP:

John Cryer, MP for Leyton and Wanstead:
o His constituency has the sixth highest prevalence of schoolchildren involved in gang violence
o The Waltham Forest borough has lost £100m in much-needed funding
o Social workers are now afraid to work because their roles are so dangerous and don’t seem worth doing due to pay freezes
o Cuts in mental health services is also a factor and Cryer stressed the need for more preventive causes
o He urged for: a joined up approach, a select committee inquiry as per the Tribunals Act and even a public inquiry to hear from young people touched by gang violence and knife crime, and called for it to be led by someone who “really understands the situation”.

Julia Lopez, MP for Upminster:
o Called for an increased budget in the Met for a more visible approach
o Need for Youth Rehabilitation interventions
o A crackdown on international drug operations in London

Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green:
o He called for joint-activity policing and implementation of a public health model – an approach which “cannot be patchy”

Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow:
o Discussed the lost contribution of the young people we have lost
o In her constituency alone, approximately 230 people were involved in gang life and 12 serious gangs were in operation which only seems to be increasing as the GLA (Greater London Assembly) predict a 15% rise in young people joining gangs
o The borough of Waltham Forest has lost around 200 police officers
o She discussed the business ethos of drug dealing as well as middle-class drug users fuelling the problem
o Touched on the need for more funding in schools with 41 pupils a day being excluded permanently and pupil numbers at Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) steadily increasing
o Urged for a preventable health approach where different departments could join up and work together

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham:
o Gave a rousing speech where he spoke candidly about the disproportionate exclusion rates of Black and minority ethnic children and so much more. It’s best if watched in full (see here, starts at 1:50:32)

Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon Central:
o said that in the face of significant cuts, the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) had reduced the prevalence of knife crime
o children in PRUs are most at-risk because they finish school much earlier than mainstream educated children and walk right into the hands of gang operatives
o told the chamber the upsetting story of a five year old Black boy in Croydon, who’s school were aware he had a high chance of being Autistic, but excluded him anyway for being upset in class

This being my first time at a parliamentary debate I’d not chosen an easy one to witness as I was seated closely by the family of a young bright and talented East London teenager, Jayden Moodie, who was viciously killed on 8th January 2019.

I had to hold back my own tears, as a mother, as Stella Creasy MP spoke movingly about the loss of such a young member of the community in such tragic circumstances. With his mother stoically seated just three chairs on from me, I couldn’t help but admire her as she listened to politicians practically begging the government to get it together on an issue that, I’m certain, has irrevocably changed her life.

Ultimately, there was a lot of agreement in the Chamber about what should be done and the issues being faced. I hope these weren’t empty words. The young, young lives lost deserve so much more than that. I look forward to seeing how the government deal with the comments shared at this debate.
The main takeaways for me were the need to:
– explore alternatives to school exclusion practices
– have a greater understanding of adverse childhood experiences and how such experiences dramatically increase chances of a life of crime
– support calls for a full inquiry
– advocate for a bespoke public health model to be implemented across London, similar to the Glasgow model, but one that focuses on the role race plays in the capitals knife crime epidemic

And that is all from me, for now.

Peace,

Jacqui

Dear Warren and those tired of hearing about privilege…

“Don’t you ever give it a rest” asked Warren.

“Your fellow white citizens are fed up to the back teeth of being told by this particular privately educated, Oxbridge graduate how privileged they are. F*** you”, he continued.

And so it goes. The virtual vitriol directed at people like Afua Hirsch and anyone like her who dares stand in the face of racism and demand its ejection from our society.

If you’ve not heard of Afua Hirsch, I suggest you get your Google on, ASAP. She’s the author of best-selling book, Brit(ish). A book I’ve just embarked on and have already fallen in love with. I’ve been following Afua’s career for years now and am so pleased she’s produced a piece of work as apt, on the mark and gripping as Brit(ish). It’s not really a surprise though, she’s been consistently amazing. From holding her own up against somewhat unsavoury characters, on Sky’s The Pledge and her campaign to raise reassess the statues of figures from Britain’s imperial past was an important cause. Essentially she’s full of knowledge about all things race in the U.K., she is passionate about keeping things in check and for that I’m a fan – if you hadn’t noticed already. It helps that I’ve got things in common with Afua. Both British born and of Ghanaian-origin (she through her mother and I through both parents) and both feeling very much Brit-ish. But, even if we didn’t have any similarities, I’d still be interested in hearing what she’s got to say. The same cannot be said for our dear bud and Twitter-comrade, Warren.

For Warren, it’s all a little too much. You see, Warren would like nothing more than for Afua to just shut up. With all the inequality Afua likes to point out and topic of white privilege she brings up from time to time, it’s all just a massive inconvenience for Warren. Not the racial inequality itself though, no.

So to you, the condescendingly arrogant keyboard-warrior who told Afua Hirsch to do one and then demanded I explain why Afua Hirsch is less privileged than you are. This one’s for you.

“Don’t you ever give it a rest” was the first thing I saw from you. This was the first flag of your flagrant racism. You gave yourself away with that question and so I had you sussed well before your fourth tweet, where you tried to politely persuade me to engage in a debate with you. And rightly so. People looking to correct the balance of privilege should have no time for those who insist there isn’t an imbalance to begin with. People who try to berate those fighting for justice. People who are more offended by those discussing the cancer of racism in our society than treating the actual cancer itself. People who abuse the abused.

People like you, Warren.

According to you, your life and that of your “fellow white citizens” would be made more bearable if Afua et al just ‘gave it a rest’ clearly haven’t heard that silence is complicity. To be silent where there is injustice, is to be complicit. So no, Afua should not give it a rest. I will not give it a rest. We will not be shut up because you and your mates are ‘tired to the back teeth’. Get ready for a dental appointment, because your teeth might find they’re more than just tired.

We are tired. We are tired of the everyday racism. We are tired of both the overt and covert racism that is woven in the fabric of our society. We are tired of the microaggressions. We are tired of being paid far less than our white counterparts. We are tired of tasers being used on us far more. We are tired of being jailed more for crimes, that we commit at lower rates. We are tired of the many miscarriages in bringing killers of Black, Brown and Mixed-Race people to justice. We are tired of being “under-policed as victims and over-policed as suspects”. We are tired of being unemployed at higher rates. We are tired of our young leaving school and being paid less than the youngest among you. We are tired of the institutions that harp on about diversity but still aren’t very diverse. We are tired of the higher than average “permanent exclusion rates for Black and Mixed-Race pupils”. We are tired of the media that still hound our black football players. We are generally tired of hateful media campaigns and we are tired right along with Prince Harry for the “wave of abuse and harassment” the media dishes out to anyone with a smidgen of blackness. We are tired of the excessive force used on us by police. We are tired of the higher rates of prosecution and sentencing for Black people. We are tired of being victims of race hate crimes on Britain’s railway networks. We are tired of feeling unsafe in our local areas almost twice as much as our fellow white citizens. We are tired of the squalor, substandard, overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation our poorest are allowed to live in. We are very tired of being more likely to live in poverty. We are tired of our women having four times the mortality rate in healthcare despite making up a great number of NHS care staff. We are tired of being disproportionately held under mental health legislation. We are tired of our young men being stopped and searched at an entirely too high a rate. We are tired of our young black students facing insidious racism from their young white counterparts. We are particularly tired of racist abuse by hordes of white students in student halls across the nation. We are tired of the many workplaces which fail to equally pay their non-white members of staff the same as their white employees. We are tired of being stopped at customs by airport security far more than necessary and far more aggressively. We are tired to the back teeth of the unconscious and sometimes, very conscious bias of our fellow white citizens towards us. We are the ones who are tired.

All this, even when backed up with data, means nothing to Warren and the multitudes like him, who insist that white privilege doesn’t exist. It exists. White privilege is being arrested three or four times less than your black counterparts. White privilege is being more likely to be in full time employment. White privilege is being more likely to own your own home than other ethnic groups. White privilege is having higher attainment levels for reading, writing and maths than pupils other ethnic groups, despite being just as poor. White privilege is having Canary Wharf far less policed than Tottenham, despite more substance abuse taking place there. White privilege is having your drug-taking referred to as recreational drug use rather than being linked to gang activity. White privilege is to walk around without fearing for your life. I could go on…

But apparently, Afua has “had at least as good life chances as” yourself, you say? In fact, you feel she has “had far greater life chances than the vast majority of Working Class white people”. Warren asks, “is Ms Hirsch more or less privileged than the average white citizen of the UK?” This is the point where I injected myself into the conversation, with a meme of an exasperated Raven Symone (because, like I said, we are tired). That was my first mistake, because Warren then insisted that I explain “how a privately educated, Oxbridge graduate, who has media jobs others would give their right arms for (Afua Hirsch) is less privileged” than he is. He lets me know that he is “really willing to listen if” and only if, I “can provide a coherent answer” and God forbid I respond with a meme. No, no, no. No memes because this isn’t Twitter or anything.

The entitlement. The sheer entitlement of it all. So I commit my next sin by letting Warren know that when Afua was a teen she was kicked out of a shop in her local area for not being the “type” of person” they served. Against my better judgement, I asked if he’d ever be on the receiving end of such treatment. Obviously he hadn’t, because the very reason this happened to Afua was because of her perceived blackness. Bad idea.

“I was going to write, “no, of course not.” Then I remembered I sometimes got refused service in restaurants when I was younger. Presumably, to do with the way I spoke, dressed, acted … It happened more than a few times” responded Warren.

I could sense that Warren had felt he’d triumphed in what I realised this debate now was: Oppression Olympics. My third and final mistake was this: “occurrences like that happen more than a few times when you’re of a darker hue. Believe me. As you’ve pointed out, it could’ve been your way of speaking among other things. All things you can change to reduce racial bias against you. Can you change your race,” I asked.

Still the point was lost on my Twitter comrade. He quipped back that I and another Twitter were ‘obtuse’ (love that word) “to not know that a privately educated Oxbridge graduate has far greater chances than the rest of the population, irrespective of their skin colour”. To that, I say, class differences can transcend racial barriers. That is why most Black parents raise their children to work twice as hard so that despite your blackness or mixed-raceness, you can still have a decent place in society. That’s only the theory though. In practice, the success stories are still few and far between. So yes, your question was offensive. Particularly for it’s ignorance. Did you forget that the odds are heavily stacked against Black, Brown and even Mixed-race people and are mostly in the favour of White, often irrespective of which class they fall into? Despite Afua’s pedigree, pick any FTSE 100 company boardroom, fill them with clients, and I guarantee that if you and Afua walked in together, you would be perceived completely differently thanks to skin colour alone. Why? Because you are white and male. Need I say more???

Your offensive assumptions that Afua’s “white side” got her the “best education money could buy, the right contacts and accent” and her “black side” doing nothing more for her than allowing her to “fill token minority positions” shows that you understand White privilege very well. About Afua’s place in society, I implore you to understand one thing: it was achieved through the hard-work, determination and grit of both of her immigrant parents, not her white side or black side, as you so callously put it as if we were talking about a coin rather than a human being.

Being Black or mixed race, isn’t a gravy train for filling up minority positions, the institutionalised racial discrimination and systemic racism across the board in the UK, is not a perception, paranoia or simple politics of black and brown people who detail their experiences of it. For us, it’s not an assumption and it is definitely not a figment of our imagination. It is real and it really doesn’t matter if you’re fully black and brown or mixed-race, because the one-drop rule isn’t just an American thing.

As I close this letter, I hope it has answered your burning questions about privilege. If it hasn’t, you would do well to buy Afua’s book, Brit-ish as this will inevitably answer some, if not all, your questions around privilege. I stress the point once more: if you are discerning enough you’ll notice very quickly that Afua’s privilege wasn’t down to the miracle of being half white, it was down to both of her hardworking parents. So instead of assuming, buy the book. Once you’ve read the book, I hope you’ll stop being obtuse and really get it together. With life being as short enough as it already is, do you seriously think a privately educated individual would bother wasting time talking about racial issues, with the tenacity and conviction that Afua does, if we had racial equilibrium? The answer is a resounding, no – she wouldn’t.

So ask yourself, if Afua and those like her aren’t wrong or lying about the struggles they face due to their race, then why do I have such a problem with them trying to get rid of it? Really ask yourself why people like you are more offended by those calling out racism, such as Ms Hirsch, than the actual racism itself. Why are you more offended by the mention of your privilege than the very obvious privilege that plagues our society?

Sincerely,

Jacqui

Sources:

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/latest-projects/race-report-statistics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44376688

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/05/met-police-use-tasers-and-restraints-more-often-against-black-people

A girl from the Cally.

“Let me tell you about a place called the Cally” – Jacqui Courtenay, 2018

Caledonian Road or the Cally, as its affectionately called by locals, is a long road stretching from Kings Cross to Holloway in the London borough of Islington. With the Bury’s to the east (i.e., Highbury, Barnsbury and Canonbury) and punk-home, Camden to the left, the Cally is a unique place.

Arriving in 1990, my mum, pregnant with me, found herself a one bedroom flat in the infamous Bemerton Estate just off Caledonian road. She’s lived there ever since. The estate and the local area does have a bit of a bad reputation so growing up there in the 90’s gave me all the grit I needed to survive anywhere! Rough around the edges, is our Cally. In the glory days of the 90s, the Cally wasn’t the knife crime hotspot it is now but it wasn’t picturesque either – it was a hotspot for drugs and an extension of Kings Cross’ red light district, it always felt a bit dark even for a child but thanks to my naivete, I never associated it with drugs. Perhaps my mum just did an excellent job at shielding me from the harsh reality outside of our home? Maybe. That said, I would spend entire summer days playing out and running round the blocks of the Bemerton playing knock-down-ginger with friends in the corridors of the many blocks completely freely, so perhaps it wasn’t that bad at all. Nonetheless, it was definitely a fun place to be, so it came as a surprise to me when I started to learn that my Cally was known for more than just the teenage gangs who rode around on their mopeds.

Interestingly, as surrounding areas have changed, in the almost 30 years my mum has lived on the road, it hasn’t changed much at all. The Cally is still home to immense inequality on the one hand and extreme deprivation on the other. The newly redeveloped and regenerated Kings Cross is a mere stone’s throw away but it couldn’t feel further away when you’re on the Cally. The inequality of this one road in London, speaks to a phenomenon that has been rippling through the capital for many years now. A phenomenon known as, Gentrification. Or “Super-Gentrification”, as Faiza Shaheen puts it in an article about the shocking inequality in Islington. Thanks to super-gentrification, places like the Cally are quickly being forgotten, along with their uniqueness, quirkiness, history, intrigue and worst of all, the people are being shipped out.

Despite being born and bred in the Cally, when it came time to move out of my mum’s when I got married, my husband and I just couldn’t dream of affording to live there. Oh how we miss the ease of commuting into the City via Kings Cross in 20 mins flat (if you’ve ever travelled in Kings Cross during rush hour, you’ll know it’s nothing short of the Olympics – but living near the station is a special kind of privilege). We had to move a decent way out to get some bang for our buck and that was a truly bitter pill to swallow. Not being able to raise your family in the same place you grew up is strange and moving way out, like we did, for me anyway, came with a sense of feeling a bit like a refugee. Almost three years on and I’m only just starting to feel used to our local area in east London. I’m not good with change but it’s also not being helped by the super-gentrification happening in my new part of town! Honestly, you can’t get away from it.

Sigh.

Gentrification. Inequality. Council-homes. Crime. Regeneration. It’s all abit too much.

I’ll come back to all this another day. For now, I’ve got to get to my four month old and two year old who need some fresh air – come rain or shine.

Cheers,

Jacqui