Get past racism, anyone can
WOMAN’S BLM VIDEO TO RAISE AWARENESS
awareness of the issue. “I’m so proud everyone has collaborated and really put their ideas through. They want to be heard; they want people to understand there are issues in our community that need to be addressed.”
Bethany’s mother is white British and her father is Jamaican.
She said: “My own grandmother didn’t really want me at first. She’s from Vienna and she was educated within a Nazi regime.
“It was the worst thing in the world to have to have a black baby, but she came around.
“In my early years I didn’t know other black girls existed – which sounds far-fetched – but there were none in my classes, none in my favourite TV shows, and none that I knew in my Middlesbrough suburb; which made me a prime target for racial abuse.
“By the time I was 14 I had been physically assaulted in racial attacks on three different occasions, the most memorable of which involved a girl setting my curly hair on fire with a lighter as her friends held me down.
“I was scared to go in the sun for so long. I would be scared of getting too dark to pass as ‘alright.’ I used to stay in the house. When we would be on holiday they would all be in the sun and I would go in the room.”
As she grew older, Bethany said she was also subjected to racism while on nights out in Middlesbrough.
She said: “I used to go out when I was 18 or 19 and I used to get comments from boys and girls like ‘no she’s black she might nick it’ when talking about a drink on the side. I have had people trying to rip my hair out saying ‘it’s fake, it’s a wig.’”
Bethany said she created her own video because she wants people to address the issue with racism on Teesside.
She said: “I have seen people be more upset about animals being killed then they were about George Floyd. When animals get killed there’s uproar. When George Floyd got murdered everything I was reading was he deserved it. That’s a human being! I went down to MIMA a few weeks ago and it was fine, it was nice. Everyone was social distancing and no-one was causing any trouble.
“I was quite surprised to see how many people came along from different backgrounds. I would say there were more white people.
“These guys have taken the time to educate themselves.
“If you’re not the subject of recurrent racial abuse and you don’t live in fear of it, the prominence of ‘Black Lives Matter’ may be difficult to fathom.
“I am proud to be black and white, but I am ashamed of those who have exploited ‘Black Lives Matter.’
“I implore everyone who wants to make a positive contribution to be mindful of the information they share and respectful of others.
“If my great-grandma who was raised with Nazi ideals can overcome her racism, then we can all work to understand each other, and bridge the divide.”