Anti Racist Cumbria

Are you new to anti-racism, or looking to go further and dig deeper? Do you want to be anti- racist but feel overwhelmed or don’t know where to start? Our 4-part anti-racist online programme might be for you and we have new dates coming up in the new year! There are two sets of dates to choose from ⬇️ 1. Tue Jan 28th 18:00 - 21:30 2. Tue Feb 25th 18:00 - 21:00 3. Tue Mar 25th 18:00 - 21:00 4. Tue Apr 29th 18:00 - 21:00 OR 1. Wed Jan 29th 09:30 - 13:00 2. Wed Feb 26th 09:30 - 12:30 3. Wed Mar 26th 09:30 - 12:30 4. Wed Apr 30th 09:30 - 12:30 Through the 4 modules you'll be exploring: 💥The History of Racism 💥What Does Racism Look Like Today 💥Understanding Whiteness 💥Your Introduction to Anti-Racism You might have done ‘unconscious bias’ or equality, diversity and inclusion courses in the past, but the work that Anti Racist Cumbria do is different. We are all about creating safe spaces to have open, authentic, (sometimes difficult and uncomfortable) discussions and conversations. Spaces where people have time to think and to process and come to their own conclusions. By having conversations we help address the norms that enable racism to continue. Click on the link for more details and information on how to enrol! https://lnkd.in/e7AzF3Vb

Last week was #CongoWeek. If we’re honest, it took us by surprise. Recently, we asked you to remember Congo, Haiti, Tigray and Sudan in your activism, but that call was also directed towards ourselves. We need to do better. We often post to give an anti-racist perspective on current events in the news. This is important as there is so much racism which is not being highlighted, but it sometimes means we are complicit in the racism which influences what is in the news cycle. What we should all question is why the situation in Congo is not covered in the news? The Congolese in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) achieved independence from Belgium, in 1960. As is often the case for countries who rid themselves of colonisers, the story does not end there. There is not enough word count to do justice to the cycles of pain, violence, and trauma the Congolese have endured for generations and are still enduring. We want you to take two actions from this post, the first is to go and learn more about what has happened, and is happening, in Congo. The second is to ask the question, why did I not know this? This question becomes even more relevant, when we consider how connected we all are to the it. 70% of the world's cobalt is from the DRC. It's used to make the lithium-ion batteries essential for electric cars, mobile phones, laptops… anything with a rechargeable battery. The laptop I am writing this post on, the phone you are scrolling on are directly connected to this. So what's going on here? Anti-Blackness is at play. We are conditioned to see Black lives as less valuable. To empathise less with Black pain. To understand the continent of Africa as ‘uncivilised’, ‘under developed’, ‘third world’. In the public imagination, Africa is simply a place where horrible things happen. A place of poverty, war and suffering. Because of this, any news about conflict, humanitarian disasters or genocide in Africa just doesn’t break through. It fades into the background. It fits our understanding of what Africa is. It’s simply ‘what happens there’. Let this sit. Ask yourself, ‘how can I play a part in pushing back against anti-Blackness?’

TW: extreme violence The acquittal of the police officer who shot Chris Kaba, an unarmed Black man, has reignited the debate about racism in policing. Chris Kaba was shot during a police stop in September 2022, despite his vehicle being blocked by police and no weapons being found. The officer who killed Chris justified the shooting by claiming he feared his colleagues were in danger, citing the car’s erratic movements. When Chris was stopped he did not get out of the car and instead moved the car forward, hitting one of the police cars blocking him in. What this fails to acknowledge is the role that racism plays in this scenario. People who say ‘well he should have complied with the police and got out of his car’....stop for a minute and think. Can you imagine the fear and adrenaline, as a dark-skinned, Black, man in this scenario? You have police with guns pointed at you. Report after report has shown that the police are institutionally racist. You know that police are more likely to use force against you because you are Black. You might know people who have faced aggression or violence from the police because they are Black. You are in fight or flight, intensely aware that this could be life or death. People often fall back on the excuse that officers make ‘split second’ decisions in these situations. That same ‘split second’ grace is not given to the Black man who - possibly in blind panic - moved his car forward instead of complying. What is being ignored is the deep rooted racism that leads to officers disproportionately perceiving Black people to be a threat. The most recent government statistics for England and Wales show that the rate of the use of force was x3 times higher for Black people compared to white people. Between 1990 and 2022, Black people in Britain were nearly twice as likely to die in police custody or from police actions than white people (Institute of Race Relations). We’ll end on the words of Chris’s family: “We will continue fighting, for Chris, for justice, and for real change. Chris’s life mattered, and nothing, absolutely nothing, can take that away from us”. We need meaningful action on racism in policing. We need it now.

We’re often asked, “what does institutional racism look like?” It comes in many guises and most organisations will find multiple examples if they dig a little deeper. So what are some of the ways it can show up? 💥 A marketing team that just uses Black and Brown people in a tokenistic way, to show their diversity. 💥 Products or services designed only for a specific, narrow definition of a person, based on an assumption of ‘the norm’. 💥 A workplace culture where stereotypes and microaggressions slip by daily without challenge. 💥 A HR department with an EDI policy but nothing else that addresses racism head on. 💥 Pay and progression disparities for Black & Brown staff. Another way institutional racism can rear its ugly head is in the form of outsourcing which is used by employers to get away with giving some workers poor pay and conditions. Often large organisations such as universities and most recently in the news, The Department of Education, will outsource low paid workers such as their cleaning staff. The majority of The Department of Education’s cleaning staff are Black and Brown and migrant workers. Just last week, members of the union representing the cleaners outsourced by The Department of Education to contractor ISS UK Limited won a deal after a year of industrial action. This is a big win, and shows the power of coming together collectively to challenge institutional racism. Often organisations, like the Department of Education, will remove themselves from the scandal of poor pay and strike action by stating that these workers are employed by a contractor insinuating that they are not ‘in the wrong’. What this fails to do is acknowledge that the Department of Education made a choice to outsource some of their workers to this contractor. As the public, we expect government departments to be run efficiently, but often budget cuts show up in a way which is racist and classist. Outsourcing mostly Black, Brown and migrant workers to employers who mistreat them is an unacceptable symptom of institutional racism. How else does institutional racism show up in plain sight? Give us some examples in the comments ⬇️⬇️

TW: extreme violence This week we woke up to the horrifying image of 19-year old, Shaaban Ahmad, being burnt alive after Israeli IDF forces attacked a shelter for displaced people at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza. Shaaban was burnt alive whilst attached to an IV. He had only recently survived an earlier Israeli bombing at a mosque on the 6th October. His murder was preventable. He didn’t have to die. He didn’t need to experience the unimaginable trauma he had already experienced before he was burnt to death. His family, grieving the murder of his mother who also died in the fire from the attack, are living through a kind of hell which didn’t need to happen. This was preventable. Shaaban, who at just 19, had a whole life ahead of him. He was studying software engineering. Even whilst displaced, living in fear of bombing with his family in a tent, he continued to study and he was part of scholarships 4 gh4zza (on Instagram), which works to secure international scholarships for students from Gaza. Only last week, we posted about just how many people have been murdered in a year of violence perpetrated by the Israeli government in Gaza. The figure is estimated as greater than 118,908. Every single one of the people who have been murdered were like Shaaban. They had lives ahead of them. They had friends. They had families. Their deaths were preventable. Over a year on from October 7th, and the Israeli government's strategy continues to escalate. Our own government continues to support this. In September they suspended just 30 of the 350 licences they have for Israeli arms. This isn’t good enough. It feels like we are shouting into the void. But we will not stop shouting, and we ask you to continue shouting with us. If you are filled with horror at the images we are seeing, channel that horror into action. 💥Join a demo in your local area 💥Write to your MP 💥Sign Petitions 💥Donate to crowd-funds and those working on the ground in Gaza 💥Use the BDS movement Boycott list

This time last week our volunteers were out in force, wearing their bright yellow Anti Racist Cumbria hoodies, talking to local businesses in Ulverston and Penrith, asking them to put up our Anti Racist Cumbria Supporter stickers. We are very excited to say that we now have stickers up in 300 local businesses and organisations! Our stickers are up in hairdressers, art shops, antique shops, bookshops, butchers and bakers to name just a few! To celebrate this, some of our amazing volunteers have made a digital map so that we can see where all our supporters are. As you can see from the map, there are local Anti Racist Cumbria supporters right across our County, from Carlisle to Windermere! https://lnkd.in/eXzby4Pn Whilst out on the sticker campaign last weekend, our volunteers had some brilliant conversations with local business owners, workers, and local people about anti-racism. The number of businesses who proudly display our badge shows how supportive Cumbrians are about the concept of anti-racism once they hear a bit about it. We see this as part of creating a widespread conversation about anti-racism in our communities, and a first step towards anti-racist action which is needed if we are to make Cumbria the UK's first anti-racist county. 300 is already alot, but we are looking for places to add to the map, so if you still don't have one you can get one free from our shop if you cover the postage or you can wait for our next sticker day which happens bi-annually!

If you’ve been in London, Birmingham, Manchester or Bristol recently you might have seen these billboards. “Let Black Girls be Girls” is a campaign led by Eboni Lamine and Martha Omasoro, backed by Getty Images and BUILDHOLLYWOOD. It’s raising awareness of adultification by contrasting it with positive images of Black girlhood, shot by Black British photographers Aicha Thomas and Jade Reynolds-Hemmings. Adultification is a form of racism perpetrated against Black children when they are treated as adults in a way that white children aren’t. A study by Georgetown University on adultification bias revealed that adults believed Black girls between the ages of 5-16 years old to be ‘less in need of nurturing, support, and protection, and that they knew more about sex and adult topics.’ Jahnine Davis, director of the child-protection company Listen Up, explains that Black children are all too often seen as a threat: “something to be safeguarded from, rather than safeguarded”. Not only does this lead to safeguarding failures, and significant racial trauma, it also influences the way schools, social services and police treat Black children: 💥Black pupils are more likely to be excluded from school in England - x3 times more likely in some areas (BBC) 💥Black children are x4 times more likely to be strip searched (BBC) 💥Young Black people are more likely to be stop and searched, less likely to get unconditional bail and more likely to be remanded in custody then white young offenders (gov report) The creators behind the campaign, said: “With Let Black Girls Be Girls, our goal is to create a campaign that educates society on the deep-rooted impact of Adultification Bias on Black girls and afford every Black girl the innocence and vulnerability of childhood, not marred by race”. Head to letblackgirls.com to find helpful resources, links and studies that educate on adultification bias. There’s a supporting content series called Growing Pains, and personal letters from Black women sharing their experiences on this inter-generational issue. “Don't let Adultification Bias taint the childhood of young Black Girls in Britain” #letblackgirls 🤎

Last night three of our young Black people were guests at the Opening Night of Steel at Theatre by the Lake (TBTL). Steel was written by Lee Mattinson and produced by TBTL. It’s set in Workington and is about two 17 year old lads, James and Kamran. One wet night, James discovers he is heir to a single mile of the British railway system, but in order to get the hands on the £1 million the mile of track is worth, he needs to produce the contract from his great grandfather and has only 12 hours to track it down. The two lads find themselves on an hilarious town-wide treasure hunt for the document. The spiel on TBTL’s website goes on to say “in a town once rich with coal seams and ore, with community and carnivals, with sea air and ale, James and Kamran are fed up with feeling different – tonight they’re painting the town technicolour and asking what it means to be a man in a play about first loves, forging identities and the wild, wild hearts of teenage boys”. So why were our young people invited? Because Lee did a whole series of workshops with young people in Cumbria and he found he still wasn’t sure Kamran’s story as a Brown gay cis man was well represented. So he asked if he could run a workshop consultation with some of our young people, and pay them for their time. The young people said the results of their workshop could be seen threaded throughout the play and they absolutely loved it. The character Kamran, played by Suraj Shah who played a further TEN characters over the 90 minutes of laughter, love, pain, poignancy and some good old Workington joy, strongly highlighted the subtleties of racism and its intersection with his sexuality perfectly. And in the Q&A afterwards Lee explained how important it was for him to include this in the play and acknowledge his own limitations in being able to do so. The young people loved catching up with the cast, Lee and Producer Jamie Walsh and said, ‘everyone should see it, so many issues were covered and in such a funny as well as educational way’. We can’t help but agree! It’s on at TBTL until 19 October and will then tour West Cumbria, full details on their website.

It’s one year since Hamas attacked Israel, killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Today, we remember all those people who were murdered, traumatised and the families who are still in the process of grieving. To those living life on pause as they desperately wait for their loved ones to be returned. To those who are waiting for their worst fear - a phone call telling them that their child, their partner, sister, brother has been killed. This is a kind of hell that no one should have to go through. Over the last year, we have spoken out against the violence perpetrated by the IDF and the Israeli government on civilians in the occupied Palestinian Territories. A recent letter from 99 American professionals working in Gaza, estimated that it is “likely that the death toll is already greater than 118,908”. Palestinians are being repeatedly displaced, starved, and traumatised by constant violence from Israel. In light of this, as we remember those who were murdered on the 7th October, we should continue to question narratives implying that Israel’s actions have any kind of justification. This includes the recent invasion and attacks on civilians in Lebanon. The murder of 1,200 people should not be used to legitimise the murder of tens, or potentially hundreds, of thousands of people. The attacks by Israel in Gaza, have been sold as a ‘justified’ response to October the 7th. In reality, they are an escalation in the oppression and violence against Palestinians which has been building for 75 years. In 2023, even before the Hamas attack, it had been the ‘deadliest year on record for children in the occupied West Bank’ with at least 38 Palestinian children killed. We ask you to continue to raise your voices, to call for a ceasefire. To call for meaningful peace negotiations. To demand that our government stops arming Israel without question. It is possible to acknowledge the unimaginable pain felt by those affected by the horrors on October the 7th, and still stand up for Palestinians. It is possible to criticise the Israeli government and not be antisemitic. Every death is a tragedy, but more deaths are preventable.

You might have noticed it’s Black History Month. We have. Mainly because of the flurry of last minute (unpaid) enquiries asking us to speak about it or to be involved in events. In our first few years as ARC, we engaged with Black History Month, despite having some misgivings. We have always felt torn. It's so important that work is done to bring Black history back into the mainstream idea of what ‘history’ is but at the same time Black History Month is all too often one of the only times schools, organisations and institutions actively engage with this idea. And that’s when it gets difficult and feels somewhat tick-boxy and exploitative. There’s no denying that despite being around for decades Black History Month has not succeeded in challenging the whitewashing of history throughout the rest of the year. That’s why this year we are stepping back from it. We are turning down any requests for anything related to Black History Month. We also won’t be posting our usual Black History Month content on here. Instead, we’ll be concentrating our efforts on the work that we do every day - supporting people and institutions to do the deeper work of anti-racism. That’s not to say we won’t share posts from people also working in this field, there’s some good stuff out there and we want to shout about it, but if you’re attending a Black History Month event or planning one yourself, we simply ask you to reflect on how anti-racist you or your organisation are for the rest of the year? It is not anti-racist to do a Black History Month event, or to post a blog about Black History, if that’s where it ends. Anti-racism is not something you can dip in and out of. It has to be embedded across everything and it has to be year round. There’s loads of resources on our website that dig a bit deeper: whether you’re a school, business or just an individual looking to learn. We also have lots of different anti-racist training options for individuals and organisations!