During the course of last year many of us were shocked and disgusted to see local Independent Councillor Jackie Barnes' offensive, ignorant and racist social media posts; 27 in total, including a post stating "bring back the golliwogs.", and another account where she was deemed to have acted in an "official capacity", pleading with her constituents not to join BLM protests. This was all followed by a flippant and inconsiderate defense of her actions which included a story about a "Jamaican friend" she had during her school days.
As the year progressed, it quickly became clear to see where this dangerous and disgraceful precedent has come from. Local MP Jonathan Gullis proudly stated:
"I never knew [that] gardening was racist, but apparently it is according to a BBC presenter... What a load of nonsense!"
This comment was in relation to an article by James Wong in the The Guardian, displaying not only a worrying lack of understanding about both what was said, and the English language itself, but also, an unwillingness to indulge in open and honest conversation about the issues that affect his constituents and many, many others in the UK and beyond.
I find it necessary to ask once again, is this the kind of mindless and misinformed, divisive and dangerous behavior that we should be seeing from persons who are supposed to represent their constituents? and why did Jonathon Gullis see fit to share the heavily biased and divisive Daily Mail article about this matter, rather than the original full Guardian interview?
At best, this shows a lack of consideration, knowledge and interest in the ongoing battle for equality, but when taking into consideration other statements and posts made by the Stoke-on-Trent MP, what it actually seems to reveal, is a wish to cause divide and anger by fanning the flames of the small, but extremely toxic, group of anti-equality supporters who bask in the realm of ignorance, misinformation and misunderstanding. This is simply not good enough from our councillors, MPs or any other person in a place of influence and representation.
Perhaps even more shockingly, this type of destructive and irresponsible language and rhetoric is not only witnessed from local politicians, but also from much higher up the political sphere. Boris Johnson, our current Prime Minister, has made numerous shocking and bigoted comments throughout his troubled and colourful career, as both a politician and journalist; including sexist, homophobic and racist statements.
When questioned in parliament, by Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, about past remarks including describing Muslim women as looking like "bank robbers" and "letterboxes", Boris Johnson made no attempt to apologise for these deplorable incidents, but instead chose to sidestep and distract with a petulant swerve towards the Labour Party's own anti-Semitism issues; again I state, this is not acceptable behaviour from the people we trust to take care of our country and their citizen's entirety.
The UK is not alone in its issues, recent US troubles clearly emphasized the disparities in language used by politicians and the media whilst referring to the violent, criminal and anti-democratic raids on Capitol House by hordes of Donald Trump supporters, in comparison to the language used when referring to the majoritively peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, which aims to bring equality, to cease police violence and to end discrimination against marginalized citizens.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump labelled BLM a "terrorist organisation" and called the move a "symbol of hate", yet told the crowds raiding the Capitol building that "we love you, you're very special."; whilst undeniably knowing of, and therefore publicly validating the organized-group’s aggressive intentions.
Furthermore, continuing a precedent of support for fascism, violence and far right terrorism during his term in office, which also included labelling white nationalist groups involved in the 2017 Charlottesville protests as "very fine people". So, it is of no surprise that white nationalist hate groups are reported to have grown by more than 55% during the Trump presidency, and in all of these events, there were unnecessary fatalities, initiated by autocratic anger.
With media outlets across the UK also reporting significant rises in incidents of racism and hate crime, we must demand an end to these deplorable and intolerable displays of ignorance, hate and bigotry, as well as acceptance of accountability by those who have encouraged, endorsed or embraced racism in any form.
I spoke to Sara Chev of BLM for Stoke and Staffordshire Association For Black Lives Equality (SABLE), we agreed that the majority of these statements come across as a very deliberate attempt to draw the worst from people, in order to create division and a sense that we share no mutual ground. I asked Sara how she thinks that we tackle this problem?
"We need to start by looking at institutions at the top level and making racism completely unacceptable. When we bring attention to individual incidents, these institutions have to be seen to do something. We must push for more disciplinary action and higher levels of accountability, and not appeasement."
Sara also explained that for herself and many others, protesting against racism is not a choice or option, it is her life! It is fighting against the prejudice, bias and oppression that she and many others face every single day:
"BLM is here to fix a problem, we are not here with an agenda or to gain something, like many other groups are, we are here because we are affected by this every single day of our lives."
I also spoke with Chris and Bea of NorthStaffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (NorSCARF):
"NorSCARF was formed in the 1970s, when the neo-Nazi National Front posed a real electoral challenge in the UK. Since then, we have been building united movements against hate, working with campaign groups, charities, faith groups and activists to build local activities against hate, whatever its form. It's clear from recent times that the words and actions of our elected 'leaders' - from Donald Trump to Jonathan Gullis - too often tolerate, excuse and even encourage racist behaviour and policies.''
The world that we live in is a wondrously diverse and magnificent place, right now the human race is planning to travel further into the universe that surrounds us, specifically to colonize alien worlds.
These are changing life-as-we-know-it goals, yet how can we have these dreams of exploration of strange and dangerous worlds when some of our community members are being treated as distant aliens?
Now is the time to take responsibility, and now is the time to make the change.