No. 156 - 'I Can't Breathe!'

Dear James,

Each of us, in our own small ways, are judges of each other. We all think we know a good person from a bad person, a right action from a wrong action, acceptable behaviour from unacceptable behaviour. Judgment is wired into our very genes and probably comes from our original fight-or-flight response to danger in the wilderness. I see someone and I react instantly - positively or negatively - to age, gender, body shape, hair colour, size of house, accent and so on ad infinitum. I trust him because he has an accent similar to mine. I distrust her because she doesn’t. Judgment comes in many flavours and many colours. We all do it. We can’t help it. But today one major issue of judgment has suddenly come back to hit us between the eyes and it points to a fundamental injustice in our world in which, if you are black, you will be discriminated against socially, economically and often, by the law itself. It is not easy to be born black in a ‘white world’.

The urge to judge is largely genetic but justification of judgment is mainly cultural. We are intelligent creatures and so, if we can’t justify something, judgment becomes prejudice and most of us decry prejudice. The source of ‘justification’ lies somewhere between the genetic and the cultural. Some years ago an experiment was done in which two one year olds were handed sweets at an equal rate. They were happy until one was given an extra sweet. You can imagine how the other reacted. It would seem that a sense of justice is hard wired into the human genome so that when George Floyd was killed by a policeman kneeling on his neck for 8.6 minutes two weeks ago, a tsunami of pent up anger went round the world in an instant. Before he died Floyd cried out, ‘I can’t breath’. Those few words became an iconic metaphor for a fundamental, historical injustice. A new and potent symbol had been born. 

I once worked in Africa. Most of my colleagues were black. But after working together for some time, black morphed into a spectrum between light brown and coal black. Over time however, colour disappeared as a marker. My co-workers became intelligent or less intelligent, kind or unkind, boring or interesting, happy or sad, deep or shallow. In other words everyone became people just like you and me. Colour was not just irrelevant, it was no longer seen. The world still has to undergo that experience.

I am careful to explore my own instincts, James. You probably see me – if you see me at all – as a ‘leftie’, a left of centre liberal, open to most things and ready to forgive. But even I can ‘react badly’ when I see a person who, for whatever reason, is not like me. I, however, have learned not to allow that to inform my opinions. I have to override it. I have to consider before I decide and when I do, I realise that I am often wrong. Isn’t that what we all need to do? Put ourselves into the shoes of those who are misread. Feel what it is like to be dismissed, patronised at best and killed at worst simply because you don't fit the current norms? You cannot know me just by the colour of my skin. Or the name of my religion. You can only know me by feeling what I feel when you say ‘Black’ or ‘Muslim’! It is called empathy. 

On Saturday in Bristol, a statue of Edward Colston, a renowned 18th century slave trader was torn down and dumped into Bristol harbour. Colston had a plaque on his statue that said he was one of the most virtuous and wise sons of Bristol. He was not. As Deputy Governor of the Royal African Company, he transported 84,000 Africans to the Americas,19,000 of whom died. For over a decade Bristol Council has been discussing what to do with the statue but had been blocked by certain councillors. That all ended on Saturday. The video of Colston descending unceremoniously into Bristol harbour became an instant icon of repression redeemed. Other ‘slaver’ statues soon followed. Robert Milligan in London, Leopold 2nd in Belgium, Confederate Generals in the USA. Little by little, history catches up with the present. The narratives of justice and equality erupt into our world to confound the powers of conservation.

Predictably James, your party cried foul. Priti Patel and Boris Johnson called the rioters thugs and criminals. Mr Trump sent in the military and fenced off Lafayette Square against the demonstrators. The right wing press dug up Mr Floyd’s criminal record. Obviously, the fact that the law had been broken requires prosecutions. That however is, a technicality. More important is that history is being made as we speak and you should make sure, James, that you are on the right side of it.

Far be it from me to judge, but the signs are not good!

Kind regards,

BH – Your Concerned Constituent