Best of British? Racism at its vilest…

I saw on a friend’s Facebook page earlier, a video that even shocked me – and it takes a lot these days! It reinforced not that I really needed it, why Racism Ruins Lives (a cause I champion) and why I will continue to fight all forms of discrimination around me.

I don’t really believe this woman is the Best of British, but what she is is a true reflection of some Brits in today’s modern UK. Racism still exists, and as bad as it was when my dad came to England on a boat (literally) in the 1950s.

A black lady in the video, commented to the racist woman that many people of colour were here in Britain to do the jobs nobody else wanted to do. That was actual policy after the war, the UK went to its Commonwealth allies in the Caribbean and Africa to help rebuild Britain.

Something’s haven’t change, and I have commented previously in other blogs the high proportion of black and Asian people who are cleaners, security personnel, catering staff and transport workers – the majority of these jobs unsociable where you have to get out of bed long before everybody else, and get into it long after everybody else.

Anyone who disagrees that racism doesn’t exist in modern Britain after watching this video, is very much in denial.

My experiences of racism and in particular in the public sector ‘workplace’ are well documented, but I guess I’m fortunate enough to know that I have nowhere to go back to as the ignoramus in the video would like. My Mum is white English, born during the Second World War when her parents like mainly throughout this land were fighting fascism threatened by the Nazis.

If this woman in the video had her way, I’d only be deported on a Virgin Train from London to Liverpool which seems a lot!

I have always said that others cannot truly understand racism, unless they have experienced it – walked in the shoes of those who are black, Asian or in-between like myself. There is nothing worse, than being hated for something you cannot change. Having watched the video on YouTube and childcare issues aside, the woman in question is the one that needs ‘deporting’ to the nearest offshore HM Prison for one of the gravest of crimes – racism.

Another way of understanding the devastating effects of racism, is by reading-up on the murder of Stephen Lawrence – a young black lad killed purely because the colour of his skin, an injustice that continues to this present day.

The video can be viewed at – http://youtu.be/i47HoiM0Au8

I’m currently writing my first memoir ‘Broken’, detailing how discrimination caused my breakdown, my two-year fight for justice & battle with depression, to help raise awareness & remove stigma.

This has been a reflective, ‘View from the Bottom’.

Take care, Max x

Live Healthy, Laugh Often & Love Yourself!

© Kevin Maxwell Film, Media & Performance 2011 – Published by My Mum.