02/06/2020
It's the inconvenient truth.
I was brought up in an area where I used to walk down my local high street and there were National Front Stickers on the lamp posts. As a kid I was regularly confronted with racism, whether being chased on my paper round for being a "P**i" or being called a "black c**t" as I walked down the corridor at school. As I got older i've being called a "Taxi Driver" in a local pub and being asked by a police officer why I was hanging out in a local town called Cannock rather than Wolverhampton. As recent as 2 years back some kids hiding behind bushes shouted "P**i" to me outside my parents house.
BUT while people sometimes make "innocent" comments that I would probably consider more misinformed, I am glad to say that it's been a few years since someone has been overtly racist to my face.
That's not the point. The last few years we've seen an increase in division in society. Politicians are now the ones who are overtly looking for ways to DIVIDE us, and playing to peoples fears and using race, culture and US vs THEM to gain votes. It sells a lot more media spots and it's so much easier to to appeal to peoples fears using negativity. They tell us what makes us different rather than looking at what binds us.
FFS - Coronavirus doesn't care about race, culture, religion. It's a humanity problem.
But what does this teach our kids? Politicians subtle messages to traditional and social media are fuelling prejudice and giving people an "excuse" to BLAME others for their problems. And people fall for it.
It's 'inconvenient" when people talk about racism or prejudice, or even worse when people stand up against it. Just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
To use a George Orwell quote "We are all equal, some people are just more equal than others".
