FOR CHANGE ON RACISM, WE ALL NEED TO ENGAGE

For too long, Black people have been expected to find a solution to racism, says author Sara Collins. Here, she talks to three high-profile women about how, if we want to see real change, it has to involve all races

Each and every one of us can and should stand up against prejudice

For many of us, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May has been tinged with a horrifying sense of déjà vu. We have spent so much time mourning the long list of Black people who have died either at the hands of racist police or as the victims of hate crimes that we greet each new incident with weariness, as well as anger and grief. I was 20 when Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993 in London. Only two years before that, I had watched television footage of the brutal beating of Rodney King by LA police officers. I’d never felt anything like the anger and grief I felt at Stephen Lawrence’s murder, and I’d never seen anything like the attack on Rodney King. But, at the same time, there was nothing new about it at all. Even Floyd’s last words ‘I can’t breathe’ were an echo of those uttered by Eric Garner when he was killed by police in New York in 2014. Every time another racist killing has taken place, I’ve felt the agonising certainty that we have been here before, and we will be here again.

What does feel new in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death is the scale of the global response, including Black Lives Matter protests where you’d least expect them; a clamour for anti-racism texts that has propelled Black writers to the top of the bestseller charts; and a corporate response suggesting that perhaps, at long last, it may now be deeply unfashionable to turn a blind eye to systemic racism. What doesn’t feel new is the expectation that Black public figures will shoulder the responsibility of educating us, of marshalling our collective response; the two-fold absurdity that Black people should be expected to do all of this work, and that this should be the only work expected of us.

Writer Toni Morrison once said: ‘The function, the very serious function, of racism is distraction. It keeps you from

We need dialogues, not monologues, if we want change

doing your work.’ Mourning the lives we have lost to the pandemic of racism has led me to consider how much time Black people have also lost; in trying to account for those lives, trying to persuade a largely indifferent audience that they mattered. Part of the opportunity cost of racism is that it requires Black people to sacrifice their time and energy in solving a problem they did not create. When I spoke to actors Adjoa Andoh and Lolita Chakrabarti, we agreed that we’re fed up of having the same conversation about diversity, often when we are the only ones doing all the talking. Rather, I wanted to discuss why this feels like a significant moment and how we might meet it. I was also delighted to include Kate Williams (a white historian) in our discussion, recognising, as Williams suggests, that this is not a burden that should fall on Black people alone, and that it’s time for dialogues not monologues, underpinned by a widespread commitment to listen, engage and pay attention if we are interested in real change.