Black Lives Matter:
A view from a Caribbean born, UK based executive coach
I was born in Trinidad and Tobago (TT), and in the last 13 years, I have made the UK my home[1]. Many forces shaped my formative years, but the primary element was meritocracy. No place is perfect; however, one thing my homeland taught me was that your birth did not determine what you could achieve. This is a vast generalisation, but I suggest as proof that all seven TT prime ministers since independence in 1962 were not from backgrounds that indicated they would end up leading the country. I grew up thinking and seeing that a PM could come from any social or economic background and not a narrowly favoured, local elite groomed for power by the colonial establishment. I demonstrate that education can open doors and create a life full of new experiences and a global orientation. I am not denying that race plays a part in TT societal dynamic (and for the rest of the Caribbean), but it was not the primary factor in social mobility.
This is the backdrop to my experience of the BLM movement. I became aware of racism in the context of minority/majority as a Caribbean person living in the UK, having studied and worked with some "iconic" British brands. This article is not intended to be a history of my experience. Instead, it is my perspective – offered as an observation and a reaction to some ways I have seen thinking on the BLM movement has played out. My observation and reflection have suggested ideology and practise that continue to shape and inform the debate. This is not prescriptive – it is offered to help you think through and progress your learning. I have pulled out four ideas to elaborate as a way of helping our thinking on this issue.
1. White privilege rankles many as a phrase
This phrase simply means you get to navigate the world as a white person without having to consider your skin colour. It does not deny anything else that might be part of your struggle - past or present. Instead, it says you are free to interact with the world where how you look is considered the norm and therefore 'nothing to see here'. You have access to public and private spaces from the point of view of being a 'natural' part of those spaces. Your skin colour does not disenfranchise you of the right to belong. Other features of your being and background might disqualify you from some of these spaces - but your colour is not one of them. It is within the gift of a white person to forget about their skin colour. It would be foolhardy of me to do that since all the statistics suggest I am at high risk (both safety wise and health-wise more recently) because of it.
2. It is not my responsibility to educate anyone on their journey to becoming aware – transformation comes from personal ownership
I have engaged with a few of my white colleagues on the issue of racism recently. There is hesitation on how to relate and genuine interest in how to progress their thinking. I say good and keep going. It is not my responsibility to take anyone on this journey – to be truly transformational this has to be self-initiated and driven. It is for those who benefit from the system to seek resources and insight from the impacted and to listen honestly, openly and objectively to their voices. Each person has to explore, learn, reflect, challenge and be different as a result. It is a highly personal, and for some, disruptive process. The burden is not on those marginalised to educate or teach - even if many of us are well-schooled in the harmful impact. Maya Angelou has a famous quote which I live by "Do the best you can until you know better – Then when you know better, do better." It is about learning to see the world differently and robustly understanding how you might have inadvertently contributed or been complicit to bias in your sphere of work – either by being blind to the lack of diversity or silent when racist comments were made. Then do better.
3. Slavery and the focus on British as liberators
Europeans had laws in the books that deemed humans as property - the same as crates of fruit. As a coach, I challenge clients to think differently to see if that gives them new insight. I offer that in thinking about slavery; re-phrase the tendency to immediately think about the role of the UK in the 'freedom of slaves". Change the perspective by beginning to realise that the nomenclature is misleading. People were transported from Africa because of laws made here, and elsewhere, that deemed them property. That never (ever) took their understanding of their state of freedom - it allowed legal sanction in the commercial trade of people. Still, resistance and revolt were essences of the plantation known by any student of Caribbean history. Micro and macro subversion were features of the transported African from the moment they were forced through narrow holes in walls in European forts in Africa. The appropriate read of history as to why slavery ended was because these acts of resistance and revolt made the slave mode of production un-economical. So, I encourage everyone - stop focusing on the grant of freedom as part of the collective catharsis. But instead, ask if, or in what form are, the impulses (and public support) that allowed legislators to pass laws that deemed humans property still around today. It is a way of looking at it differently - and to stop seeing slavery and slaves as mere objects to history; they were active agents in its demise because they were always free.
4. History is political narrative – a version of the truth – learn other truths
I first came to the UK as a MPhil student at Cambridge University after two degrees at the University of the West Indies (UWI). Apart from some great friends, one learning about epistemology lingered forever from that experience. For the first time, I was exposed to economics, history, development theory taught from the world according to the UK. It broadened my thinking on the dynamics of international development as it "offered" a challenge to see the world from the view of the 'victor' and the more powerful. Fortunately, the high-quality learning at UWI, and some spirited classmates, helped me accept this new view as further evidence that history and even scientific development were shaped by those producing it. I took the teaching for what it was – a different read of the forces that shaped the world, told by those who ruled the world (well once). Historical narrative was political - and despite the best efforts by Cambridge academics, many of us 'were not for turning'. I encourage you to consider that what is an accepted historical fact or academic truth might not be universal but is a version of events – developed through a particular set of eyes and based on certain assumptions of the "world". Look for other versions or at least the assumptions about race that might inform the history or research that you are reading – learn to audit interactions/publications/experts for racial assumptions. As I suggested above, slavery, when told from the perspective of the slave, provides an entirely different read.
5. 'He is one of us'
I have had the fortune to be associated all my professional life with high-quality blue-chip brands in the UK - Cambridge University, the Economist, BP, Shell, The Oxford and Cambridge Club, Cable and Wireless and Meyler Campbell to highlight a few. I have learnt to navigate these predominantly white, British spaces. I was not born here, and I arrived as an adult with racism mostly as a theoretical concept (unlike my British friends who are minorities with some horror stories). However, I do understand now that to be a minority requires additional mental energy to enter white spaces. That is true even for one like me who has been touched by quintessential British establishments (this was a standard introduction by a former colleague 'he is one of us'). I have a cloak of respectability and acceptability. Like any coat, you have to first put it on – it takes a conscious act of protection. Even so, even the best coat will not fully cover the whole person – the real identity will always show through somehow. "Fitting in" is hard – and is always incomplete. Wearing cloaks and masks are energy-sapping, prevents access to the full range of talents and creates mental wear – it takes a toll.
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I hope something I wrote here encourages you to think differently. This is my activism, a commitment to help push the agenda in the places and spaces to which I am privy. I will not apologise if some of this felt uncomfortable – if it is then I have succeeded. I will not make an offer to help you learn about it more. However, if in your learning, you feel the need to reach out and explore your thoughts, reactions and feelings, then I am up for that – my details are below. I will continue to react and interact with the world on the basis that my actions, my way of being with each of you, will hopefully nudge progress. My colour defines me – it goes everywhere with me – I can't have it any other way, nor would I want it to be. I refuse to allow it to be my prison despite best efforts being made by some – make sure you are not one of them.
