Publicity Is Oxygen To The Fire Of Racism
This morning I cried.
My tears were not because England lost against Italy last night, that was only a game.
My tears were for these three wonderful young men and for the whole Black community in England, having to face the racist abuse being hurled at them by a small number of overt racists.
I was triggered by the hateful social media messages I saw this morning, but what upset me more were the +1s, the hearts and thumbs ups I saw in support of the racist comments & images that were shared. Some of them are so vile and triggering that I will not re-share them here, you can find them all over every social media platform. I have included one of the less horrifying images to give you some idea of the level of hatred show towards these Black players and towards the Black population in the UK.
This situation triggered me more than when I watched the video of David Chauvin choking to death George Floyd under his knee. In that situation it was the institutional racism of a member of the local law enforcement murdering a Black man. In this instance we are witnessing the interpersonal and internalised racism of people we work with, live next to and even live with; expressed as the target of their frustration and disappointment of losing the Euro2020 final.
A simple article on the 4 types of racism
The impact of these online racist attacks on the three Black men is as raw as if we were being attacked ourselves, because we have personally suffered attacks just like these. Please don’t think I’m being overly dramatic, Black people and people of colour in England are feeling fearful and unsafe because of the potential retribution by those racists (and the “not racists”) who are looking for a physical outlet for their anger and disappointment. In addition, I also want to take time to recognise the women, who have and will suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands of these men.
As employers and colleagues of Black and Brown staff, I ask you to be extra sensitive towards your Black and Brown colleagues today especially, those in England because we are hurting and some of us are in fear of violent verbal and physical retribution.
To conclude, below is a message I received from a white man on LinkedIn this morning and I have included my response:
White Man: “By posting these tweets all you are doing is amplifying the ignorance and utter banality of the tweet. Has everyone forgotten that denying the ‘oxygen’ of publicity is the way to go with this ignorant message.”
Keith: “I’m so glad you used the example of publicity being the oxygen to the fire of racism. Here is a definition of a backdraught (US: backdraft)
‘A backdraft occurs when a fire which has been starving for oxygen suddenly gets plenty.’
‘If someone is standing in that door two things will happen. They will be blown back by the explosive force and they will ignite because the heat is higher than the ignition temp of their clothing ( about 700*F), also at this point everything flammable in the room will ignite causing what is called flashover. The explosion is the backdraft.’
We black people are the “someone in the doorway”, we always get hurt and killed by racism.
