#MyTramExperience – “You Are Doing Racism Wrong”

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Nichole • 7 Comments

 Published by Sisters of Resistance December 2011

“You are doing racism wrong” – I think this has been the overwhelming British response to #MyTramExperience which was uploaded to Youtube this week. We denounced this woman emphatically; Croydon MP Gavin Barwell told The Voice “Frankly it is people like this woman that the country would be better off without” and journalist Piers Morgan tweeted that the woman should be deported, (what is with this archaic British territorialism?) The reality is the protesting was far more concerned about maintaining the British culture of – well, lets call it diplomacy shall we – than an allegiance to anti-racism.

Emma West was arrested. Order was restored. And we have congratulated ourselves on how civilised we are about these things. Might I remind you it is only just over forty years since Conservative MP Enoch Powell, (a member of the gang governing us now), gave his ‘River of Blood’ speech, in which he addressed the nation with the exact same message as the Croydon perpetrator above. The same year as the 1968 Immigration Act which essentially made this racism a part of government policy. Racism plays a more prominent role in our society than many of us are willing to accept.

The relentless commitment to the personification of racism – that is, conceptualising racism as a single person/action – makes it almost impossible to recognise the complex ways it informs our social reality. We – or you really – are apathetic about race/ism in this country. ‘My Tram Experience’ was trending worldwide. However when there were successive revelations of fraudulence and belligerence in the Mark Duggan case – the man whose murder was the catalyst of rioting across the country this summer – metropolitan police corruption was not trending.

I have not witnessed the same level of national outrage at the unjustifiable deaths of Black men in police custody; or that over the last six years in Haringey, for the 10300 job seekers there have been 352 vacancies1. People lets get serious. I am not impressed that we arrested a woman with visibly poor mental health for her racist ranting. This is all a part of state performance. Emma West was not doing racism right. Our government agencies have shown us there are more efficient and quite frankly less noisy ways of denigrating Black and Ethnic Minority citizens in Britain. Underemployment, housing overcrowding and incarceration have all been working fine so far. Perhaps we would turn our attention to these areas if we were not so caught up in racism through drama.

1. May 16 2011 – A Trade Union Congress analysis

Nichole Black

 

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  • Morrisquinn

    really interesting piece on this story. She’s a pretty pathetic figure all right, though she does spout some vitriol! Think it hits people when they perceive it as personal and they could imagine actually being there, when an individual rants like this directly at her fellow passengers, rather than when it’s systemic racism – particularly when it’s the authorities behaving that way. Far easier to hate a woman on a tram than an entire system that allows unacceptable behaviour towards people purely based on the colour of their skin. 

    • http://twitter.com/IamNicholeBlack Nichole Noir

      I could not agree with you more. In fact there is nothing that I can add to what you have said. Glad you understood the heart of what I was communicating. Thanks for writing back.
      Nichole

  • ski np

    The joke of it all is the black people who celebrated this but will not blink an eyelid at the issues raised in the last paragraph.

    From black deaths in custody to economic hierarchy that still exists, we are still to passive in making collective steps.

    During the riots in David Starky made comments reducing black culture to basically gang culture but the reason I feel wider society agrees with David is the fact that it fails to acknowledge Black cultures contribution.

    An example would be The Beetles, have you ever heard of the influence black culture had on their music..nope

    Do we ever speak of the part the Black Sect played in social reform in this country? Nope

    Sorry to stray and thanks for the post.

    • http://twitter.com/IamNicholeBlack Nichole Noir

      “Do we ever speak of the part the Black Sect played in social reform in this country?”

      Excellent point and I agree with you. I am actually doing my dissertation on Black political activism in this country because I feel it is a much covered history. 

      Thanks for reading and writing back. 

      Nichole

  • Ysl1

    Racism is any way shape or form is abhorrent, whether it is the institutionalised failings of which you are speaking about or the rantings of a person of (allegedly) ‘visibly poor mental health’. How ever sophisticated or unsophisticated it is, it is WRONG, just because it is in such a crude form doesn’t mean it’s less relevant than the other ways that black people face racism in this country.

    People were shocked and insulted and quite rightly so. I’m not surprised by it at all, i know that many people in this country, indeed across the world share her views. She has been arrested and remanded in custody, and will be charged.  This to me is better than no action at all being taken at all.

    • http://twitter.com/IamNicholeBlack Nichole Noir

      Hi, 

      I of course agree with you. All racism is abhorrent. That is certainly not what I am questioning here. My interrogation is concerned with the specific qualities and expressions of racism in the British context. The core of my argument is that when we take the attitude that any response is better than no response, we lose the opportunity to think about anti-racism strategies that are not insular or single person oriented. As you state ‘many people in this country share her views’ – my references of Enoch Powell supports this. I would like us to see – to demand even – a response that is rooted in education reform. We are actually sustaining a culture of racism in our current secondary school curriculum. 

      At the end of the day we have little power to change the mind of individuals, especially not adults. But we can change the vehemence of some aspects of British culture which in turn will shape individuals.

      Thank you for reading and taking the time out to write a response. 

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