Identity politics won’t help black youth

Fostering aspiration and recognising talent is the only way to help today’s youngsters succeed

My engagement with black British politics started in the 1980s – the era of Margaret Thatcher in power and apartheid South Africa oppressing black people. Back then in Britain we were fighting against the notorious “sus laws” which were used by the police to stop and search black people as a form of targeted harassment, and campaigning for Britain’s first generation of black MPS, the likes of Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng. One of the key differences with today is that we had a series of charismatic leaders who knew what they wanted to achieve.

In my teenage years, events like the Brixton riots were driven by lived experience. They were a response to the brutal racism we and our families and friends had all experienced. The Black Lives Matter protests, by contrast, seem to have been motivated largely by Instagram. Yes, they were inspired by the alleged murder of George Floyd in America. But social media, with its stark images, and the simple rhetoric of a world divided into white and black, along with celebrities and musicians urging protest, have made this a tech-driven revolt.

Despite their righteous solidarity with suffering in America, Britain’s BLM protesters have little context for their anger. They have not been suffering through years of harsh racism. Many are not disengaged youth on the margins of society but rather the beginnings of a new black British middle class.

Is their anger genuine? Of course – but the passion has been stoked by social media, which lacks any sense of nuance. It is hardly surprising, perhaps, that many young protestors, when interviewed, sound as if they are giving a paper for a gender studies or sociology module. None of them can root what they say in their own experience. Instead they are living in a lalaland of identity politics – waving phrases like “micro aggression” and “white privilege” as if they are red cards to be used every time they feel the world hasn’t been playing fair.

There are enormous dangers in allowing the sweeping charge of “institutionalised racism” to go unchallenged – not least that it removes the power of the individual.

I’m not going to be an old grump and argue that my generation definitely had it harder. I admire the way these young people have been able to mobilise. Any marketing firm would be lucky to have them. But why not use that agency to support young black people to move away from knife crime? Or to encourage our youth to eat well, and exercise, and prevent rising obesity in our black communities? We know the biggest headache facing many black communities before lockdown was not police brutality but knife crime. We know that certain black and Asian communities face disproportionate Covid-19 deaths, not caused by institutional racism but by serious underlying health conditions, which need science and research. These aren’t straightforward problems, and solving them will take more than a hashtag, but they are the sort of constructive projects that could really make a difference.

For the past 15 years, I have run a charity called Generating Genius. We find the best black talent in science and technology, and work with students from the age of 15 through to university entrance. I realised that the next era of progress needed to tackle the real issue of social mobility: to recognise those with high aspirations, find a mechanism to develop their talent, and connect it with real opportunities. The biggest problem the students on our programme have now is too many job offers.

This is how the young generation can make Britain in the 2020s a better place to be black than it was for me in the 1980s. But there is a vacuum of leadership when it comes to talking about these matters. Young black people know politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have let them down. The gap needs to be filled by a leadership able to give young people a roadmap to develop their talents, and link them to opportunity.

Such progress will not come through the simplistic lens of identity politics. Only when our young protesters abandon their navel-gazing will they succeed in their quest.

Dr Tony Sewell is the chair and managing director of the charity Generating Genius