The Racism Rundown
They’re afraid. With every passing week, their attempts to silence me become more desperate, outrageous and obvious. They’re panicking. Escalating their attacks, involving more prominent figures and revealing that there’s something much bigger at stake than the reputations of a few liberals. These white figureheads of antifascism are bound to something that prevents them from speaking out about the heinous racism, ableism and homophobia coming from a camp that they stuck their necks out to protect. Their inability to condemn them with the same ferocity they reserve for people like Tommy Robinson has betrayed their true allegiance. I’m not fighting ignorance, I’m fighting a well devised system that has placed white gatekeepers at the centre of our struggle to stifle revolutionary spirit and quell radical politics breeding in the left.
The week started with a bang, as Red Sarah, unleashed a torrent of abuse in our direction. Used as a prop in Dr Louise Raw’s unscrupulous plan to intimidate us by using the names of well loved socialists, Sarah says she had no idea that she was supporting Dr Raw’s attack on Black women and had she made that point, took a little L and apologised for making our situation worse, I wouldn’t be writing about her now. Instead, Sarah made a heart wrenching (for those of us who are not familiar with the strategies white women employ to demonise us) live video, cataloguing every traumatic detail of her life. She called us racists, accusing us of attacking her for being white and calling a Mixed Race woman ‘half white.’ At one point she insinuated that we believe that her misfortunes are inconsequential because she is white, painting us as Black supremacists to avoid self reflection and admit that like all white British people, she too is capable unwittingly causing harm to us.
None of us had passed comment on Sarah’s background. There was no rhyme or reason in her comments, just a reflex reaction that many white people have when their antiracist credentials are called into question. Her verbal assault was particularly nasty, she screamed, cried until we were left with no illusion that her commitment to antiracism was paper thin and that she was as willing and able to cause as much damage as some of the most hated figures on the far right. Despite making several videos and posts about white privilege, Sarah wound back the centuries and made a clear denial of her own white privilege and strong allegations of reverse racism. In Sarah’s case we can’t blame ignorance and I’m not convinced that she understands why she is being used, but she is and as a communist I know why.
There’s a big difference between Black liberation and antifascism. Antifascism reduces race politics to a simple question of education. They believe that racism is inherited from parents, stoked by governments and media to create dog whistle reactions in voters. Liberals believe or cynically promote the idea that socialist governments can tame the rampant racism that has afflicted the British population for centuries. We are reliving the seventies and as we can all see, there has been little or no change in the national psyche when it comes to race. ‘If you don’t like it here go back where you came from,’ still echoes as loudly as when I was a child.
Black liberation requires a more sophisticated approach than Louise Raw facing off with Nazis in a pair of gold wedge heels. An inspirational aesthetic at first glance, but looking deeper into the type of symbolism that has convinced the UK that they’ve been actively fighting racism for decades, reveals a stagnant struggle, unable to create the type of currents required to drown the monster once and for all.
Racism is a by product of capitalism. Our enslavement was dependant upon our dehumanisation. The devaluation of Black and Brown lives has always been a for profit exercise, our struggle is tied to the material and it will take more than the waving of placards to restore our rightful image of full human beings with a right to freedom and autonomy. One fairly recent example of the indifference to our lives and deaths was highlighted when the body of baby Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach. Until the shocking death of the fair skinned infant, the British public had been overwhelmingly silent on the the tragic loss of lives of those crossing the channel in dinghies. Alan triggered a wave of consciousness that had not previously been seen when the bodies were Black and Brown. He looked like them and so was worthy of sympathy. This deep sickness cannot be cured by shouting at racists.
With white women pedestaled as figureheads of British antiracism, the radical response required for Black liberation will always be swept aside as they opportunistically pedal left wing politics on the back of our struggle. Pushing the Labour party as the antidote to racism, they provide no real threat to capitalism and imperialism that keep us eternally bonded. Louise Raw and Red Sarah talk a good fight, but both are yoked to the Labour Party, its imperialist nature and its fruitless promises of equality. For anyone who doubts the validity of my claims, ask yourselves why these leading figures in UK socialism would fall and die on a filthy hill littered with racism, homophobia and ableism for all to see.
I’m not a well known activist, art is the revolutionary act I’m most comfortable with. That and standing up to racism each and every time I see it, whatever threats or consequences may come my way. I have a very small platform and wield none of the power that people like Dr Raw are privileged enough to hold. Still the response to my tackling one racist amid the #SocialistSundays circle has seen large Twitter accounts line up one after the other to denounce and degrade my cause.
Shockingly, this week saw the intervention of United Against Fascism whose social media operator took it upon themselves to polish the scratched pedestal upon which Louise Raw is held aloft and issue a message of support to her and banana throwing at Black people, antifascist organisation, #ResistingHate. Taking a swipe at those of us who have attacked Louise Raw’s intervention to defend the racist Monkey account throwing bananas, UAF labelled us trolls.
For those of you who have never experienced racism, being constantly disbelieved is one of the hardest parts to bear. A thousand socialists have expected to be spoon fed our trauma in evidence sized bites over the last few weeks. Having to explain all over again to one of the best known antifascist organisations in the UK was particularly disturbing. I hit them up with a retweet and myself and comrades flooded their mentions with evidence of our abuse. The ratio was near perfect, with only a couple of comments from #ResistingHate cultists and the post was removed without comment. The next morning I spoke to one of the heads of the organisation who was unaware of the post. The person who posted without authorisation had no doubt been doing a favour for Louise Raw and #ResistingHate, either with or without the full facts. They were suspended immediately and later resigned their post. United Against Fascism took a couple of days to issue a public apology, reducing the issue to the use of emojis without mentioning bananas and offering no solidarity with the victims or any condemnation of the individuals or organisation that have been targeting us for weeks.
You’d think it would be easy for an organisation to stand shoulder to shoulder with victims of racism. That the abhorrent nature of the attacks against us would be just the kind of behaviour they would wish to challenge. Their lukewarm apology was more evidence to me that the very people that claim to be fighting for us are more concerned with protecting the image of the gatekeepers of antifascism and their political agendas than affecting radical change.
With no lessons learned, she of the gold wedges and the antifascists gone rogue released another weapon from their arsenal. A strange putty like creature, moulded in the form of Mr Magoo (thanks Mikey) stepped forth with another crap blog. Tim Fenton of Zelo Street, plundered the fabricated blog full of racial stereotypes and ableism published by #ResistingHate and put out a scathing article. Relying on the premise that I am ‘mad’ and the notion that years fighting fascists had left the #ResistingHate racist, able to smell bad faith actors intent of causing division a mile off. Already well known for his ableist critiques of autistic people, Mr Magoo thought that his opinion as an elderly white man was somehow relevant in this conversation about race and antiracism 2021. In typical crap, favour for a friend journalism, I was not contacted for comment and was blocked by Magoo so had no right to reply. At last count, the blog had just a handful of shares and now his ass is in the Racism Rundown. Hi Tim!
Following a statement from #ResistingHate’s founder Roanna Carleton Taylor announcing her resignation from RH and the end of her bizarre antifascist group, there’s been no let up on the attacks. It’s been a long and eventful week and I’m sure that the next person who is willing to show their entire arse to intimidate me into submission is waiting in the wings. However, the more prominence this issue gains the more determined I become to pry back our struggle out of the hands of these opportunists. Black liberation requires a radical solution. The fall of capitalism and imperialism. Widespread understanding that the Labour Party will always protect this nation’s capitalist interests. The removal of white figureheads who speak for us, write for us and take up paid spaces in the struggle for equality. The efforts of an entire class of people who are also the victims of capitalism and imperialism, but are yet to recognise their own exploitation. The death of liberal hope and the birth of unified movement to kill the monster that has been eating us all for centuries. They’re afraid and they’re panicking because Black liberation frees everyone.
Much a Jude About Nothing 