In the UK, black people and our allies are taking to the streets as I write to wake British people up out of their fantasy that this crisis of race is a problem that is both uniquely American, and solvable by people returning to the status quo.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said on behalf of Britain: “We want to see de-escalation of all of those tensions.” If he had bothered to listen to black British people, he might have discovered that many of us do not want de-escalation. We want protest, we want change, and we know it is something for which we must fight. Because many of us have been fighting for this all our lives.
Afua Hirsch (born 12 June 1981) is a British writer, broadcaster, and former barrister. She has worked as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 until 2017.
Come and see the oppression inherent in the system.
Yeah, right.
One of the most privileged women in the world is telling us of her oppression. Seriously Honey, get a grip.
She is trying to get a grip.
Of our wallets.
Sounds more like she wants the white wogs ground under her iron heel and reduced to the abject slavery which is their due.
I return to this simple question, time after time: what do you want to change? I’m in favour of getting rid of racism, I’m in favour of people not be discriminated against for reason of colour, sex, whatever, I’m in favour of a meritocracy and so on.
So what do you want to happen? Propose some changes, propose some different ways of doing stuff, and I’m happy to discuss them, maybe vote for them. So what do you want?
Around here, the “spokesmen for the black community” don’t want the complete integration that Martin Luther King spoke of; they want to be the ones cracking the whips.
Privileged she may be. But I venture to suggest the chip on her shoulder led to a paranoia about the whiteys at Sky sneering behind her back. No matter how high, the imposter syndrome is part of her makeup.
Am with Phoenix44: What exactly do you want? I don’t understand.
Since the current action stateside appears to be the burning and looting of property in areas predominantly occupied by black people, perhaps someone could burn and loot her property. Clearly she supports that, and there sure are some poor black folks could make use of her possessions.
Privately educated at school, then on to Oxford. Oh the oppression!
When I grew up, “newsreader” meant smartly-spoken black man, “dentist” meant brown chap with a welsh accent, “school nurse” meant rolly-polly black lady.