October is Black History Month. I often query what is so fundamentally different between black history and black present. Some people might feel surprised that I pose such a question. After all, black people are no longer in chains, but have some freedoms; some level of autonomy and some protection through legislation. Well supposedly, because the testing of laws such as the UK Equality Act (2010) reveal major barriers in achieving racial justice and equality. Those who look much deeper into the realities of black present see the invisible chains which continue to bind and destroy black lives - physically, mentally, and spiritually. Therefore, I feel the reaction to my query very much depends on where the individual has reached on their own personal journey on race and racism and their ability to be comfortably anti-racist.
Barbados is central to how I construct my black history and identity. I visited a couple of the Great Houses on the island during a recent trip, which were effectively the slave plantations where many of my ancestors suffered and died. I am still processing the experience which left me feeling as numb as my visit to Elmina Castle in Ghana. At one location, I noticed that most visitors moved through the Great House at a rapid speed, showing very little interest in its history. It was simply another place to visit on the island and an opportunity to sample the locally produced rum. With surroundings so cool, calm and lush, coupled with an eagerness to have a pleasant lunch, I can understand why thinking beyond the restaurant might have been difficult for some around me. I wanted to soak up my history and imagine what black history felt like for my ancestors who had walked in the same space centuries earlier. The tour guide explained that slaves lived on the outskirts of the plantation and their accommodation had been demolished and “paved over.” I imagine such dwellings would not have been fitting to include as part of a tourist attraction. But so much remains paved over and thus unresolved and unreconciled from black history, which impacts negatively on our black present. However, I am pleased that the island has taken steps to recognise its history of slavery, making it possible for those who are really interested to gain valuable knowledge and information.
Moving from black history to black present, it is important to recognise that we are all descendants of slavery, whether from slavers or the enslaved. Black history does not stand in isolation of other histories. The transatlantic slave trade is a critical example of man’s inhumanity to man. This was a phrase first “documented” by Robert Burns in 1784, but this inhumanity was “felt” by my enslaved ancestors centuries earlier. This inhumanity is still felt by black people today in the form of racial discrimination. Despite laws being in place to protect us, we are still subjected to racial trauma, which has a corrosive impact on our lives. Black present involves chains which are no longer made of iron, but constructed through institutional racism and bolted by those with fixed racist mindsets, who are threatened by the very notion of equality. Such individuals are performative, rather than progressive. Black present also involves being gaslighted into thinking that the problem is with black people and that racism only exists inside black heads, rather than within white mindsets to sustain white hegemonic structures. Racism stems from what happened within the Great Houses in a shared history, not just black history. Seeing our history as it was, without paving over the facts, would help in dealing with present challenges more effectively and support honest conversations about race relations in the UK. In other words, to move forward on anti-racism, we must embrace a shared history and seriously examine present socio-economic and political barriers to progress. This also involves looking at the behavioural and attitudinal changes required at an individual level, to gain greater ground.
By Sonia Warner.
Thought provoking and powerful!
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