GRIOTS REPUBLIC - An Urban Black Travel Mag - Jan 2016

To be Black and British is to have a
strange relationship with
immigration. Not too long ago we
were stoically soldiering on in the
face of cries of “go back to where you
came from!”,” spat at us by red-faced
yobs. But now, in light of recent
waves of immigration lapping against
the shores of this small, entitled
island, our otherness is somewhat
more familiar. Our former harassers
have fresher targets for their thinlyveiled
violent and racist rhetoric.
These new immigrants absorb the
frustrations of a beleaguered
working class, whose communities
have been undermined by successive
governments, but have instead been
sold a convenient scapegoat in the
form of immigrants.
While faceless mobs scream about
immigrants stealing jobs, living off
the state, and taking up all the
housing, government ministers
quietly pass legislation to cut state
benefits, sell off affordable housing
to the private sector, and increase
the amount of low-paid, insecure jobs
to add a superficial boost to
employment figures.
If we’re honest, some of us Black
Brits are just glad that the heat is no
longer on us and our families. There
are those who try to cement the limp
embrace offered by White Britain by
naively parroting nationalist
sentiment to ward off the asylum
seekers and migrants. It surprises me
how easy it is for some to regurgitate
IDENTITY
ˌīˈden(t)ədē/
noun
the fact of being who
or what a person or
thing is.
“No,
where are
you from,
really?"