Coming of age: 1976 and the road to antiracism
In the book, we recount the memories of the activists who played an important role in countering the everyday racism present in the 1970s, and whose contribution has helped create modern Britain.
The politics they practised did not come from books, but through everyday lived experiences. Thorough knowledge of their personal histories of migration, they bought progressive global internationalist perspective to Britain, leaving a positive legacy for British politics, art and culture. One rooted in anti-racism.
Funera
Many people will have heard about these events; the hostility to Asian refugees; the Grunwick strike; the birth of Southall Youth Movement; riots at Notting Hill carnival; and the racist remarks by Eric Clapton and the firth of Rock against Racism. These events are often seen as singular events, unconnected from each other. However, as we show in the book, they were inter-connected stories and form part of a longer story of racism and its resistance in Britain.
In British history, the narratives of Black and Asian peoples, and specifically of the resistance is absent. However, many of the ideas of anti-racism have over time become assimilated into the nation, in art and culture, without any recognition of where these ideas were derived from. Just think about black art, food, music, race equality laws, human rights laws how many people know how these changes occurred in Britain. If they did perhaps, they would learn that that the very notion of 'British democratic values', are not British at all.
In 'Racialised Outsiders', Satnam Virdee argues that after the defeat of the radical Chartist movement, the mid-nineteenth century became a turning point in which racializing nationalism began to permeate the working class imagination. This idea of British nationalism was carefully constructed through Britain's policy in art and culture, as much politics and economics.
When we walk towns and look at statues, look in the museums and galleries to see evidence of this even today. As we write this, there are protests taking place near the statue of the Confederate General Robert E Lee in Emancipation Park, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
The protests started after the local city council voted to remove the statue and change the name of the space from Lee Park to Emancipation Park, sparking protests from white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right'. During the demonstrations, thirty-four people were injured in clashes and one person, Heather Heyer, was killed, when a Nazi sympathizer ploughed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
The importance of tackling this history has never been more critical.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.