BY NIKKI ADEBIYI, FOUNDER @ BOUNCE BLACK
The past week has been exhausting for Black women.
Last week, we learned that the biggest donor to the ruling party, the Conservative Party, is alleged to have made some scary remarks about the UK’s first Black female Member of Parliament, the Right Hon. Diane Abbott MP. At age 70, Aunty Diane is the longest serving Black MP, having held it down for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987.
Despite her longevity and commitment to serving her constituents, it is reported that Frank Hester, CEO of healthcare tech firm The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), said in a 2019 work meeting that seeing Diane Abbott on TV makes him “want to hate all Black women”. Furthermore, he said “she should be shot”. If that wasn’t enough, he is said to have added that “it would be much better if she died. She’s consuming resource. She’s eating food that other people could eat”.
How can someone’s mere existence make you so uncomfortable that not only do you loathe that person, you are also tempted to feel the same way about anyone who shares certain characteristics with them (i.e. Blackness)? And seemingly the only way you can be at peace is to have that person cease to exist?
It’s been a week, but those words have yet to metabolise in my system. They have been even harder to stomach as a result of watching a callous few deny, downplay and dismiss the manifest racism and violence in those words.
There are people who read the same words that I (and you) have read, and came to the conclusion that either Hester’s words had “nothing to do with race and gender”, or that they did, but we should get over it and focus on more important things. All at once, such people betray their true feelings about racial justice. At best, they bear the belief that racism is not a big deal, and at worst, they have outright contempt for the cause.
Regardless, Florence Eshalomi MP’s ad libs in the following video encapsulates the feelings of Black women and people across the UK:
Can you imagine that for 5 years those comments seemed to have been swept under a rug without being challenged? And after the revelations have been made, there are people in power who are trying to sweep it back? With no consequence? For someone that is funnelling money in volumes into the party that is currently in power, and having money funnelled back in his direction through lucrative contracts with the public healthcare system?
Shame. Shame on those who hesitate to call it for what it is at the expense of Black women who, like Diane Abbott, are fighting for their lives, livelihoods, wellbeing and sanity amidst persistent attacks on their dignity and humanity. Shame on those who whether they call it for what it is or not, still seek to hush and rush, attempting to mute very necessary dialogue and move quickly past it. Shame on the institution that made it possible for a discussion to be had about the experiences of a Black woman while neglecting to pay attention to that same Black woman as she stood indicating that she wanted to speak 46 times—forty-six! Again, can you imagine?!
In a post-Jo Cox MP and Sir David Amess MP assassination world—where right-wing, anti-Black, racist extremism is rife among other forms of terrorism—a Black woman MP’s life was declared dispensable, and some people are essentially telling us that it’s not that deep?
My own experience of systemic oppression and institutional betrayal was enough to convince me that Black women aren’t cared for, but there has never been a time I’ve been more certain of it. Until now.
With the exception of the wonderful allies whose heartfelt efforts keep me from cynicism (or the bad vibes skinfolk who ain’t kinfolk who drive me towards it)—Black women, we all we got!
We are all we have got.
That’s why I created a forum for Black women to speak frankly on their workplace experiences last October at our first live event: ‘Black Women, Work and Wellbeing’ (available now on YouTube).
That’s why, despite the fact Diane Abbott is not my MP, I joined the rally outside Hackney Town Hall on Friday to literally stand behind her, and remind her that if no one else does, we, the people, love her.
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
Maya Angelou
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