#Nurses of the Windrush

[ausetkmt]

Black nurses have shared their experiences of racism in the workplace, as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) commemorates the 75th anniversary of Windrush at its annual conference this week.

In June 2018, the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, commissioned the Windrush Lessons Learned review – a report reflecting on the causes of the Windrush injustices. The independent review was in response to mounting evidence that members of the Windrush generation were losing jobs, homes and access to benefits, as well as being denied NHS treatment, detained, and forcibly deported to countries they left as children.

The findings, alongside the testimonies of black British citizens affected by the hostile environment, are truly anguishing.

Wendy Williams, the HM inspector of constabularyappointed as the independent reviewer, has examined the key legislative, policy and operational decisions that led to the Windrush injustices, and spoken to those who suffered grave and catastrophic consequences from becoming entangled in the government’s hostile immigration policies.

Williams’ review draws a stark conclusion: the UK’s treatment of the Windrush generation, and approach to immigration more broadly, was caused by institutional failures to understand race and racism. Their failures conform to certain aspects of Lord Macpherson’s definition of institutional racism, enshrined in the Macpherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, published in 1999.

Macpherson defined institutional racism as: “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”

The Windrush Lessons Learned review pulls no punches in describing the failure of ministers and officials to understand the nature of racism in Britain. It shows how the government’s hostile environment immigration policies had devastating impacts on the lives and families of black citizens within the UK.

The fact that black British people who had spent much of their lives in Britain, working and paying taxes, were accidental victims of the government’s immigration policies, perfectly illustrates how the coalition and Conservative governments not only failed to adhere to existing race relations legislation, but also showed a complete lack of understanding about “indirect discrimination” – a concept accepted in legislation as far back as the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Neither that lesson of “unintended discrimination”, nor the definition of “institutional racism” from the Macpherson report, seem to have been learned by Britain’s policymakers and politicians. Not only is intent irrelevant for assessing whether policies are racially discriminatory, but race equality laws (including the 2000 Race Relations Amendment Act and the public sector equality duty) appear to have made little difference to immigration and citizenship policies affecting people from different ethnic groups.

This reveals a shocking lack of understanding of what racism is – namely that it’s not solely about intent. In April 2018, the dramatic apology by the then prime minister, Theresa May, showed a failure to understand this lesson, when she insisted it wasn’t her government’s intent to disproportionately affect people from the Caribbean in the operation of hostile environment immigration policy.

For policymakers and politicians to learn the profound lessons of the Windrush review, they must not only “right the wrongs” suffered by the Windrush generation (as well as those from other ethnic minority groups), but they must also understand how and why immigration and citizenship policies, and Home Office culture, have repeatedly discriminated against black and ethnic minority citizens over the decades.

The Windrush generation are owed a full apology – an apology that is based on understanding that their treatment wasn’t an accidental misfortune, but the result of institutional failure to understand the role of race and racism in Britain.

[theroyalsandi]

The Prince of Wales meets Blanche Hines, Windrush generation nurse of nearly 50 years, at the NHS Big Tea Party

[creatingblackcharacters]

hello, cool blog!! I’ve skimmed through some of your posts that you have pinned (mainly your stereotype ones). I’m currently planning a book (that I’ve been planning for years, we’ll see if I ever get around to actually writing it lol !!) and one of the 3 main characters is black-British (the whole thing is set in Britain and I know you’re coming from an American perspective, I’d just like to know your thoughts). I’m thinking about family dynamics and jobs for family members of the main characters and I want to stick with what I know from where I grew up without leaning into stereotypes. For example, a lot of black women who came during the windrush generation got jobs in the health service as nurses and that has continued but like I said I wouldn’t want to be leaning heavily into stereotypes. do you have any thoughts/opinions on this? thank you !!

Black. There's not much I can tell you right now about your story with just a prompt. Just make sure you're researching Black-British culture (e.g., are they Nigerian-British, Ghanaian, where from in Africa, as well as the diasporic experience); there's a lesson on that as well. Research the stereotypes that are often associated with Black women, and then make sure that you actually understand them so that you don't lean into them. I know you said you skimmed them, but the stereotype lessons have a lot of good links for you to use as a resource to dig deeper into these topics 👍🏾

[world-of-wales]

The Prince of Wales is hugged by Mrs Blanche Hines, who's a nurse from the Windrush Generation as he attends the NHS Big Tea Party at St Thomas' Hospital ahead of the NHS's 75th anniversary today || May 2023

[ladymazzy]

Windrush generation: hundreds ‘sent back to Caribbean from UK hospitals’

[justforbooks]

Despite the occasionally visceral and often rebellious nature of his poetry, Benjamin Zephaniah, who has died aged 65 of a brain tumour, had such wide appeal in the UK that he became something close to a national treasure, attracting devotion among all classes and types of people, young as well as old.

With a down-to-earth mission to take poetry wherever he could – and especially to those who would not normally read it – his reach also extended to other parts of the world, where he was respected as a writer and performer who could be relied upon to speak his mind with forthrightness, honesty and self-effacing humour.

From an unpromising start to life in Birmingham, Zephaniah hauled himself into the public eye during the early 1980s by hitching himself to a post-punk caravan of streetwise performance poets such as John Cooper Clarke, Attila the Stockbroker and, at a slightly greater remove, Linton Kwesi Johnson – all of whom eschewed the abstract in favour of writing with a fierce political edge about everyday life.

Focusing initially on the debilitating effects of racism, including through his breakthrough poem Dis Policeman Keeps on Kicking Me to Death, Zephaniah later branched out to consider other topics that were close his heart, including unemployment, homelessness and, as a vegan from the age of 13, animal rights.

In addition to writing novels for adults, he also harnessed his talent for simple language to become a bestselling author for teenagers, with books such as Talking Turkeys (1994) and Windrush Child (2020) that became standard school reading material in multicultural Britain.

Zephaniah was born Benjamin Springer in the Hockley area of Birmingham to Oswald Springer, a post office worker, and Leneve (nee Wright), a nurse, who had emigrated to Britain from Barbados and Jamaica respectively. He had a twin sister, Velda, and six other siblings. Experiencing racism as a child on an almost daily basis, he also felt unhappiness at home, where his father was a distant and violent figure, especially to his mother. When he was 10, after Leneve had received an especially savage beating, she and Benjamin went on the run together.

Living a hand-to-mouth existence, the pair never returned, leaving the other children of the family in estrangement. The dislocation that followed had its effect on Zephaniah: at 13 he was expelled from Broadway school, later spending time in borstal, while in his late teens he was imprisoned for various offences, including affray and burglary.

Poetry, Rastafarianism and an iron will were his salvation. Realising that he was going to face further longer spells in jail or even an early death through gang-related violence, at the age of 22 he left Birmingham and headed for London to be a poet.

One of his first memories of composing poetry had come as a small boy while walking to the corner shop, and, though dyslexic, he had inherited from his mother a great lyrical facility. By the age of 15 he had a reputation as a wordsmith, and when the elders of his mother’s church, feeling he had a prophet-like quality with language, dubbed him Zephaniah (“treasured by God”), the name stuck.

In London he became part of the punk, reggae and alternative comedy scenes, reading his poems during breaks at gigs. His first collection of poetry, Pen Rhythm, was published in 1980 by a co-operative, after which, like Johnson, he began to turn to dub poetry, adding reggae music to his words with a debut album, Rasta (1982).

Soon in demand for radio, TV and film work, Zephaniah played Moses in the film Farendj in 1990 and had a TV play, Dread Poets Society, screened by the BBC the following year. His first novel, Face, about a young man whose life is dramatically changed by facial injuries he receives while joyriding, was published in 1999, but in the preceding years he had continued to produce a steady stream of poetry collections, including The Dread Affair (1985), Inna Liverpool (1988), City Psalms (1992) and Propa Propaganda (1996).

In addition to his 14 poetry books and seven dub poetry albums, over the years he produced further novels and children’s books, as well as seven plays. Among his more high-profile acting roles was a stint as the street preacher Jeremiah Jesus in the TV drama series Peaky Blinders.

In later life he moved from London to Lincolnshire, where he lived quietly, notwithstanding the energy he threw into countless projects. Although committed to widening access and undermining elites, Zephaniah saw this as compatible with academic work, and in 2011 accepted the post of professor of poetry and creative writing at Brunel University, where he was a regular, friendly presence in the staffroom and a committed, hardworking lecturer.

More recently he had been spending three months of the year in China, where he practised tai chi, but, despite his largely peaceable nature, he remained an angry man with a punk sensibility, identifying, he said, most easily with anarchism and observing that “when I see what people have to put up with from their governments, I’m surprised they don’t rise up more often”.

Consistently radical to the end, he refused the offer of an OBE in 2003, and 15 years later scotched any idea that he might become the poet laureate in succession to Carol Ann Duffy by explaining in poetic form: “Don’t take my word, go check the verse / Cause every laureate gets worse”.

His 1990 marriage to Amina, a theatre administrator, ended in divorce in 2001.

🔔 Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah, poet and author, born 15 April 1958; died 7 December 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[latentheart]

You called...and we came

You called…and we came.

In ships bigger than anything we had seen,

dwarfing our islands and covering them

in the shadows of smoke and noise.

Crowded, excited voices filled the air,

traveling to the ‘motherland’

– over weeks, over oceans that threatened to engulf us.

Driven by a wish, a call to save, to rebuild

and support efforts to establish ‘health for all’

in the aftermath of war.

You called….and we came.

Women and men of position in our homelands;

nurses with a pride in the excellence of our care.

With experience of management, organisation

and a sense of duty.

We appeared.

Smiling and eager to work on the wards, communities and clinics

of this England.

You called….and we came.

Our big hearts, skilful hands and quick minds

encased in our skins – of a darker hue.

Which had shimmered and glowed

in our sunnier climes..

But now signified our difference

– our un-belonging.

Matrons became assistants

Nurses became like chambermaids.

All the while striving to fulfil our promise

– to succour, to serve, to care.

You called….and we came.

The blue of the sister’s uniform

– seemed as far away from us as the moon.

Unreachable by our dark hands in this cold land.

But we were made of sterner stuff.

The hot sun, which once beat down on our ancestors,

when they too left their lands,

Shone within us.

Forging our hearts and minds

with the resistance of Ebony.

You called….and we came.

Rising like the Phoenix,

from the heat of rejection.

We cared, we worked and we organised.

Until the quickness of our brains

and the excellence of our care

made it hard for you to contain us.

And slowly, so slowly,

the blue uniforms had dark and lighter bodies beneath them.

The professional care in our touch

was valued despite the strangeness of our speech

and the kinks in our hair.

You called….and we came.

A new millennium – new hopes spread across this land.

New populations, engaging and reflecting

the varied, diverse and vibrant nature of these shores.

Challenging and reflecting on leadership for health.

Moves to melt the ‘snow’ at the peaks of our profession.

Recognising the richness of our kaleidoscope nation.

Where compassion, courage and diversity are reflected

In our presence and our contribution:

Not only the hopes and dreams of our ancestors.

– Human values needed to truly lead change…and add value.

Remember… you called.

Remember… you called

YOU. Called.

Remember, it was us, who came.

                    - Professor Laura Serrant OBE

Today marks 75 years since the HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Britain on 22 June 1948. 800 passengers from the Caribbean arrived in the UK, having been encouraged to make the move to help shore up the workforce after World War II. The Windrush generation and their descendants faced incredible difficulties as they built their lives in the UK. Racism, poor living conditions, and a dismissal of their previous professions and skills were just some of the struggles they faced. And yet the contributions the Windrush generation made to the UK cannot be overstated. The NHS, for example, would not be the insitution it is without the contributions of Caribbean nurses and midwives (who btw are still underrespresented in leadership positions in the NHS today).

I could write an essay tbh but it’s late and I need sleep. I’ve added a few links here which gives way more info on the Windrush generation. And not sure if it’s changed now but when i was at school they never taught us ANY of this.

[itsrattysworld]

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[xtruss]

Cotton Capital: ‘A Necessary Step Forward’: Readers on the Guardian’s Cotton Capital Series

Your reactions to the project investigating the Guardian founders’ links to slavery and the impact of the slave trade

— The Guardian | April 5, 2023

The Cotton Capital project has explored how slavery changed the Guardian, Britain and the world. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

Eight readers share their reaction to the Guardian’s Cotton Capital project, a special reporting series stemming from an investigation into the Guardian founders’ links to slavery and exploring how the transatlantic slave trade changed this newspaper, Britain and the world.

‘Lessons cannot be learned if these stories remain hidden’

I welcome the Guardian researching and clarifying its past links to slavery and the cotton trade in Manchester. I too had a great grandfather who had involvement in the cotton trade and a grandfather who was involved on a smaller scale, both liberal in temperament, both readers of the Guardian. A stain on our family which we must embrace and make amends for. Slavery might have been abolished, but it’s not defeated. While the history of slavery stays hidden in plain sight the lessons will not be learned, and racism, ignorance and discrimination will continue. Sara Robbins, 70, Isle of Wight

‘It’s so important that our country’s past is not whitewashed’

I have been learning about a history that I knew nothing about. My ancestors were slaves in the Caribbean island of Grenada. I grew up with my great grandmother who told me stories of her life on the island following the abolition. She told me that her own grandmother was born a slave and freed when she was three days old. As a child my great grandmother was always told to run and hide when they saw the devil on his horse. So much of our history and links to Britain – the mother country – has been forgotten. I’m happy that the Guardian has started writing these stories. The Windrush scandal has made it more important that our country is truthful about the past and does not whitewash it or pretend that it is unimportant. Lydia Maureen Bancroft, 69, retired nurse, Mistley, Essex

‘I wish all companies and wealthy people would research the source of their wealth’

I wish all companies and wealthy people would research the source of their wealth. An organisation should be set up to collect this data and work on “compensation” payments. School curricula (and universities) should include this history, so books and teacher training is needed.

Just about the only thing anyone knows about Africa is that Africans were slaves. Nothing is known about Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans, or about the societies and fate of Indigenous peoples when Europeans settled in the Americas. We need to re-educate everyone, including politicians, the police, teachers, et al. Marika Sherwood, 85, researcher into history of “Black” peoples in the UK for the past 2,000 years and trade in enslaved Africans, lives near Faversham, Kent

‘The Guardian has a vital role to play in shaping public discourse around issues of race and racism’

The acknowledgment of the role the paper’s founders played in transatlantic slavery is a necessary step forward, and the Guardian has a vital role to play in shaping public discourse around issues of race and racism. However, it is important to recognise that this acknowledgment comes after years of silence. Black journalists and other people of colour have been fighting for years to be represented and included in the newsroom, but continue to face barriers.

The commitment to restorative justice and the investment of funds are important, but it must be recognised that reparations cannot be effective without addressing internal issues. To begin this work, the Guardian should work with Black communities to co-produce a radical antiracist framework for the company. It must undertake an ongoing process of internal reform and accountability, working to eradicate systemic racism in every aspect of the organisation. It is time for the Guardian to take a long hard look at itself and to take real, concrete steps towards becoming an antiracist institution. Only then can it effectively contribute to the broader struggle for racial justice and equality. Lee Jasper, Black activist, former senior political adviser to Ken Livingstone, London

‘These stories were not taught in school, but should be’

I’m really interested in this as I grew up in the north-west of England – my parents were both weavers and my extended family (grandparents and great aunts and uncles) worked in the mills. I grew up learning about King Cotton and the impact on local communities. I didn’t learn about it from school but from my family’s stories. My mum entrusted me with her copy of King Cotton by Thomas Armstrong. It covers the Lancashire cotton famine during the American civil war and is a really relevant backdrop to the Guardian’s project. The weavers refused to weave slave-picked cotton, leaving them and their families to face starvation and the awful, shameful prospect of the workhouse.

I would like to see the history of the transatlantic slave trade taught in schools as it forms the basis of the lives we live today. This project is excellent for educating us about this period of our hidden history. Jean Willmott, 62, Lincolnshire

‘It was painful to discover my family profited from the cotton trade’

I am the descendant of a cotton mill owner from Bolton near Manchester. The realisation of my family involvement in the slave trade came in a Black US literature course I took in Maryland, US. I was able to take this BA course because I had just received a small inheritance from my father, whose money came from the cotton trade.

It was a very painful moment, but it made me understand just how much of British history is tied up with the slave trade and how much it is still hidden and not discussed. My immediate family are socialists, as am I, so it came as a shock to me to discover that this issue was never discussed. Now I realise that this is not uncommon. I’m glad that Guardian journalists are talking about it and that this issue can be put out into the public domain and become part of our cultural discourse. Anonymous, 74, Cornwall

‘I hope Australia’s history of slavery will be explored next���.

I feel heartened to see, at last, a process of truth telling that uncovers the legacy of brutality behind the wealth of the UK and better still that, however imperfectly, attempts will be made at meaningful reparations. I would like to see this extended to other British colonies, beyond the North Atlantic slave trade. The model of British imperialism that was exported to Australia includes a history of slavery, of inhumane treatment and dispossession of First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, the legacies of which continue today. As much as we must face that with a Makarrata truth telling process at home, the connections to Britain must also be part of it. Anonymous, 33, a doctor, Melbourne

‘An international reparations movement is a mechanism for taking responsibility today’.

I am deeply grateful for the Cotton Capital project. I have been teaching and writing about racism in the United States – past and present – for my entire career and have advocated for truthful recognition and acknowledgement of the enduring impact and legacy of enslavement in fostering inequality, contributing to the wealth of the UK and US, while impoverishing countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

The internalisations of historical and structural racism in the form of biases and stereotypes, as well as the persistence of institutional racism continue to haunt both of our societies to this day. I commend the Guardian for excavating its own history of entanglement in the slave trade and for going beyond this to contribute to an international movement of reparations, encouraging others in the UK to do the same. The project of reparations will never undo the terrible harm wrought by slavery and other forms of racism, but it is a mechanism for taking responsibility today. Joshua Miller, professor of social work and writer about racism and coloniality, Northampton, Massachusetts

[ausetkmt]

Action is needed to show nurses of colour that their contribution is valued and their lives matter, as opposed to words, nursing leaders have warned on the third annual Windrush Day.

On this day in 1948, the first group of people arrived in Essex from the Caribbean on the Empire Windrush cruise ship, pictured above, answering the UK’s call for public sector workers following the Second World War.

“There is still so much to do to level the playing field for people of colour in the UK" Trevor Sterling

Many of these passengers and the other members of the Windrush Generation – along with their descendants – were or would go on to become nurses, helping to create the National Health Service.

The government announced in 2018 that 22 July would become an annual holiday to celebrate the British-Caribbean community and to thank those who helped to rebuild Britain after the war.

The designation came in the wake of the Windrush Scandal in which stories of Commonwealth citizens being wrongfully detained, deported and denied their rights came to light.

Windrush Day this year is particularly poignant as it coincides with a time of national and international reflection on the racial inequalities in our society brought to stark attention by Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matters movement.

More on this topic:

Workplace racism linked to BAME nurses’ higher virus risk

Action on BAME nurse risks coming, minister tells Nursing Times

Nurses from Asian backgrounds at highest Covid-19 risk, finds PHE review

‘Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter have placed racism in the spotlight’

High death rates among Filipino nurses in UK now on global radar

BAME groups at ‘higher risk’ of getting Covid-19 with deprivation among factors

Exclusive: BME nurses ‘feel targeted’ to work on Covid-19 wards

NHS leaders set out new measures to protect BME staff in pandemic

Professor Greta Westwood, chief executive of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, said more needed to be done to “redress the current imbalance” in nursing in terms of race.

While 20% of the overall NHS nursing and midwifery workforce in England is from a black, Asian or ethnic minority (BAME) background, the percentage reduces to 4% for director-level nursing posts.

“It saddens me today to see that our BAME staff, whose own ancestors helped to build the NHS, still feel that they have to break through glass ceilings to succeed,” said Professor Westwood.

Greta Westwood

The foundation launched the Windrush Leadership Programme to help BAME nurses at bands 5 to 6 reach senior leadership positions and now also runs Windrush Leadership Scholarships.

Some of the BAME nurses and midwives who applied to the programme had been in their band 5 roles for more than 20 years.

“Since its foundation, the Windrush Leadership Programme has helped BAME staff find their voice and rightfully claim their place as senior leaders in the NHS,” added Professor Westwood.

“I urge my fellow NHS and other healthcare leaders to redress the current imbalance. We as the foundation will continue to foster this talent, but it is our collective responsibility to work together. Action not words create change.”

One Windrush scholar, Deborah Hylton, said when she joined the programme, she was working as a band 6 health visitor and was struggling with “self-doubt” after being continuously turned down for band 7 roles.

Inspired by her sister and sister-in-law who both came to the UK from the Caribbean when she was 13 and trained as nurses, Ms Hylton joined the nursing profession as a mature student with two young children to “give back to my community”.

She said the “confidence and skills” she gained through the course helped her to secure her current role as a lecturer in children’s nursing at London South Bank University.

“I am now in a position where I can encourage student nurses from all ethnic groups that nothing is impossible. I am able to stand in front of them as their lecturer and role model and make them aware of another career direction that nursing can offer,” said Ms Hylton.

Meanwhile, staff from four London hospitals will tonight mark Windrush Day by gathering outside their buildings at 5pm and taking a knee to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protest will be observed by workers at St Thomas Hospital, Kings College Hospital, South London and Maudsley Hospitals, and Lewisham University Hospital.

The action is being organised by Unite the union at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and Royal College of Nursing Inner South East London.

Mark Boothroyd, Unite branch secretary for Guy's and St Thomas', said: “The NHS has the same problems of systemic racism as every other part of society.

“With over 50% of nursing staff in London being from BME backgrounds and directly affected by this, its important staff can show their support for Black Lives Matter, and push their own employers to make changes to tackle the ongoing issue of racism in the NHS.”

The RCN is also using Windrush Day to urge the Home Office to grant indefinite leave to remain to all international health and care workers who have worked in the UK during the pandemic.

“The NHS has the same problems of systemic racism as every other part of society" Mark Boothroyd

Dame Donna Kinnair, RCN chief executive and general secretary, said: “The best way to honour the legacy of Windrush Day is to ensure no nurse, or health and care worker, who trained overseas, and helped in this pandemic, feels alien in this country.

“Granting automatic, indefinite leave to remain to international health and care workers who helped tackle this virus should be instinctive.

“The services and support that they provide, though brought to the fore through this pandemic, have always been essential. They are, and always will be, key workers.”

More than one in 10 of the total registered nursing workforce in the UK come from overseas, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. As of September 2019, 77,065 registered nurses came from outside the European Economic Area.

However, international nursing staff must wait five years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and are required to take a test to prove their Britishness before they are granted it.

Donna Kinnair

Another organisation demanding action over words is the Mary Seacole Trust which exists to educate the public about the life of the British-Jamaican nursing pioneer who cared for soldiers during the Crimean War, working against both racism and sexism.

The trust oversaw the creation of a Mary Seacole statue in 2016 in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital, becoming the first statue in the UK in honour of a named black woman.

To mark Windrush Day, the organisation is calling for a national “black plaque scheme” to educate the public on UK black history.

It has written to the prime minister and London mayor to request that plaques are put up next to all British statues to explain the historical context, with the wording decided in collaboration with members of the black community.

Trevor Sterling, chair of the Mary Seacole Trust, said: “Windrush Day has a huge significance for me, my family and countless other black people in the UK.

Trevor Sterling

“Since the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in 1948, we have been contributing to our communities in Britain, and yet like Mary Seacole, our contributions are not fully recognised.

“There is still so much to do to level the playing field for people of colour in the UK, as seen most recently in the disproportionate number of BAME coronavirus deaths.

“Education about black British history must be central to all policy changes. If we are to truly address racism in the UK, we must first educate British citizens."

[the-empress-7]

Prince William’s speech today at the Windrush Day event was excellent. 

“Thank you for inviting Catherine and me. It is a privilege to be here with you all.

Today is a day we celebrate and honour the Windrush Generation and the enormous contribution each and every one of them has made, and continue to make, to our society.

I am delighted that so many of that generation and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are here today.

When the Windrush Generation sailed from the Caribbean to rebuild war torn Britain, they did so as British citizens, answering a plea to help our country thrive again.

Many of them were not strangers to these shores. In the decade before 1948, thousands served in the RAF, either flying, navigating or as ground crew keeping our squadrons airborne – including Allan Wilmot, the eldest Windrush pioneer whose family are with us today.

These people didn’t have to come. They volunteered to fight for King and country – in the full knowledge that many would never make it home again.

As one of the inheritors of that great military tradition I understand how much we owe to these men and women. Today’s ceremony would not be complete without remembering their sacrifice.

Over the past seven decades, the Windrush Generation’s role in the fabric of our national life has been immense.

Today, as we look around us, we can see just how many of the institutions in our country are built by that generation: commerce and manufacturing, sports and science, engineering and fashion.

Here in Waterloo Station, we are reminded of the role played by thousands of people from the Windrush Generation in our essential public transport system – from train drivers to conductors and technical staff.

Although it is not where the passengers of the Empire Windrush first arrived, subsequently many thousands of Caribbean people did pass through Waterloo and dispersed to cities across the UK. So the placement of the monument here is an acknowledgement of the contribution of those people to one of the most important elements of our national infrastructure.

Just down the road, in St Thomas’s Hospital, we can reflect on the Windrush Generation’s huge contribution to the NHS, a service founded only two weeks after the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Since then, over 40,000 Windrush and Commonwealth nurses and midwives have cared for those in need.

Indeed, every part of British life is better for the half a million men and women of the Windrush Generation.

Be it public life – and we are a stone’s throw from the Borough of Southwark, home to Sam King MBE, Windrush passenger, postman, founder of the West Indian Gazette, the first black mayor in London, campaigner and the co-founder of the Windrush Foundation.

Be it arts and culture – and we need look no further than Floella, the face of children’s television to millions of young people for more than a decade.

There are simply too many people to list. And we know without question, that the Windrush Generation have made our culture richer, our services stronger, and our fellow countrymen safer.

My family have been proud to celebrate this for decades – whether that be through support from my father on Windrush Day, or more recently during my Grandmother’s Platinum Jubilee, as people from all communities and backgrounds came together to acknowledge all that has changed over the past seventy years and look to the future.

This is something that resonated with Catherine and me after our visit to the Caribbean earlier this year. Our trip was an opportunity to reflect, and we learnt so much. Not just about the different issues that matter most to the people of the region, but also how the past weighs heavily on the present.

Sadly, that is also the case for members of the Windrush Generation who were victims of racism when they arrived here, and discrimination remains an all too familiar experience for black men and women in Britain in 2022.

Only a matter of years ago, tens of thousands of that Generation were profoundly wronged by the Windrush Scandal. That rightly reverberates throughout the Caribbean community here in the UK as well as many in the Caribbean nations.

Therefore, alongside celebrating the diverse fabric of our families, our communities and our society as a whole – something the Windrush Generation has contributed so much to – it is also important to acknowledge the ways in which the future they sought and deserved has yet to come to pass.

Diversity is what makes us strong, and it is what reflects the modern, outward-looking values that are so important to our country.

Today, as we stand together to witness Windrush Pioneers, Alford and John unveil Basil’s landmark monument, we are reminded of our shared history and the enormous contribution of the Windrush Generation.

Without you all, Britain would simply not be what it is today.

I want to say a profound thank you to every member of that generation, and the generations that have followed. And I want you to know that you can count on mine and Catherine’s continued support in helping us achieve a future they would be proud of.

Thank you again for inviting us to join you on this important day.”

[ingek73]

‘Perfect storm’: royals misjudged Caribbean tour, say critics

Calls for slavery reparations and Jamaica’s PM insisting country was ‘moving on’ signal sea change in relations with royals

Rachel Hall and Amelia Gentleman

Published: 18:14 Friday, 25 March 2022

It was supposed to be a visit to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee – a chance to present the modern face of the British monarchy to a region where republican sentiment is on the rise.

But it really didn’t turn out that way.

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge end their week-long tour of the Caribbean on Saturday, they will report back that the tour may have accelerated moves to ditch the Queen as the head of state.

Calls for slavery reparations and the enduring fury of the Windrush scandal followed them across Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas – overshadowing a trip aimed at strengthening the Commonwealth and discouraging other countries from following Barbados’s example in becoming a republic.

Upon arrival in Belize, the couple were met with protests from villagers over a land dispute involving a charity William is a patron of. In Jamaica, the prime minister told them in an awkward meeting that the country would be “moving on” to become a republic, and a government committee in the Bahamas urged the royals to issue “a full and formal apology for their crimes against humanity”.

The Duchess of Cambridge shakes hands with children during a visit to Trench Town. Photograph: Reuters

From photos of Will and Kate shaking hands with Jamaican children through wire fences, to the military parade in which the pair stood, dressed in white, in an open-top Land Rover, the optics of the visit has been described by local campaigners as a throwback to colonialism.

“This was another photo opportunity, and rather presumptuous to assume that Jamaican people were suddenly going to welcome William and his wife with open arms,” said Velma McClymont, a writer and former Caribbean studies academic who was born in Jamaica and was five when the country gained independence.

“My grandparents could trace generations back to slavery, but they died believing Jamaica was fully independent. Imagine, 60 years later and it’s still an extension of the British empire. It’s an infant colony, not standing alone.”

Followers of the trip in the UK may have gained a different impression. On Friday, the Sun reserved its front page for the tour, gushing that “Kate dazzles on Jamaica tour” and suggesting that the pair had “touched hearts”. On Wednesday, the Daily Mail splashed a photo of Kate, the “diving duchess”, scuba-diving with nurse sharks in Belize.

The same could not be said of the coverage in the Jamaican media. “It was dubbed in [the UK] media as a charm offensive, but I’m not quite so sure it came off that way. It wasn’t a royal failure, but I wouldn’t quite deem it a regal success either,” said Tyrone Reid, an associate editor at national newspaper the Jamaica Gleaner.

Reid added that local publications had devoted considerable column inches to the views of “a growing number of Jamaicans demanding the British monarch and British state apologise for and accept its role in the abhorrent slave trade of years ago.”

Royals experts, including one former palace PR, said that an enormous amount of planning went in to the visits, often starting years in advance. They are led by government in line with Foreign Office diplomatic, culture and commercial priorities.

Philip Murphy, a professor at the University of London and former director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, said that although the palace had “taken a relaxed view” about countries removing the Queen as head of state, “the British government has been less consistent about that” – ministers are thought to be anxious to preserve the soft power benefits of the Commonwealth after Brexit.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge view a portrait of the Queen during a visit to Sybil Strachan primary school in Nassau, the Bahamas.

“I think the Foreign Office is sometimes a bit naive, and it doesn’t have much institutional memory any more. There are profound sensitivities around the legacies of colonialism and slavery and around the royal presence in the Caribbean, and sometimes you get the feeling that the Foreign Office doesn’t quite get it,” he said.

Murphy pointed to the growing emphasis on the relationship between colonialism and racial oppression after the Black Lives Matter movement, along with damage to the royals’ reputations after Meghan Markle’s accusations of racism and the British government through the Windrush scandal. “All of those things make it politically very difficult to stage this visit at this time. You’ve got the makings of a perfect storm,” he said.

A better approach to the trip, said Prof Trevor Burnard, director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull, would have been for the royals to go prepared to directly acknowledge and apologise for the family’s role in the slave trade, including through memorial visits to sites connected with slavery, such as Kingston harbour, to express sorrow instead of upbeat photo ops.

“They should recognise that members of the royal family from Charles II to William IV were involved with and supported slavery and the slave trade, and that this is part of their past.”

Although a “quiet minority” in Jamaica were supportive of the Queen as head of state, there was “a great deal of antipathy and resentment toward the monarchy”, said Cynthia Barrow-Giles, a professor at the University of West Indies who has researched the British monarchy in the Caribbean. “[The visit] smacks of political opportunism and is disturbingly self-serving,” she said.

Many members of Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean are increasingly questioning its purpose, especially since they have received little support during the pandemic, which has devastated the Jamaican economy and left 120,000 children out of school, and are pointing to unequal access to vaccines, which has resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths in an island of 3 million people.

Jennifer Housen, a lawyer in Jamaica, said the fact the UK revoked visa-free access for Jamaicans in 2003, with applications regularly refused, had led people to feel “the relationship is pointless”.

The Duchess of Cambridge attends a dinner hosted by Patrick Allen, governor general of Jamaica, at King’s House, Kingston, Jamaica. Photograph: Toby Melville/PA

“These are discussions we need to be having with them – not pretty flags and smiling black children pushing their hand through chain fences to say: ‘Oh, you know, I’ve touched the royals’; that’s garbage, that’s fostering something that is completely cringeworthy.”

The reparations movement has been growing considerably over the Caribbean in recent years, led by the 15-country strong intergovernmental Caricom Reparations Commission.

Rosalea Hamilton, one of the campaigners for Advocates Network who organised slavery reparations protests in Jamaica, said there was currently a “heightened consciousness of the history”, including “understanding of the legacies of colonialism today, economic, sociological, psychological”. There was, she said, an increased awareness that this had led to trauma in the population that affected confidence levels, along with swathes of the population living in “unhealthy, unsanitary, unsafe” conditions.

Reid said the reparations movement had been “gathering significant steam” in part because of increased access to information about Jamaica’s history that went beyond the school textbooks that had traditionally taught a British interpretation of history.

“The man on the street is demanding reparations as well, it’s not just at the intellectual level. That’s when you know something is really gathering momentum, when it’s spreading across a broad section of society. More people are recognising the horror of slavery and the atrocities that were committed, and becoming aware of the impact that has on modern day life.”

[consciously-naive]

Something I've noticed lately in the Call the Midwife tag is that a lot of people are focusing on 'Turnadette' to the exclusion of all else... meaning that there's little to no discussion of the events of the episode. No hate to Turner fans, I just find other aspects of the show more interesting, so I wanted to do a recap of the most recent episode and try to start some different conversations about the social issues it highlights.

SPOILERS BELOW!

This episode was a huge one for Lucille and Cyril - let's talk about Lucille first. She's been through a lot this series, first discovering that she was pregnant despite taking the Pill and having to adjust her expectations about what kind of home she would be raising her family in. Then, tragically, just as she was starting to get excited about her pregnancy, she experienced a devastating miscarriage. It was really heartbreaking to watch her deliver another woman's baby while going through so much herself - but as Lucille said, in the delivery room it is only the birthing mother who is important. So as a nurse and midwife, she feels she has to put her own feelings aside and prioritise her patient. But Lucille herself is also in need of care, which is where Phyllis steps in. I've really enjoyed seeing their friendship develop during this series.

Lucille also had to consider how motherhood might affect her career - a question that women are still asking themselves to this day. Retraining as a health visitor sounds like a good compromise, but would it take her away from Nonnatus House?

Cyril, meanwhile, was struggling with his own career path - despite being amply qualified and passionate about civil engineering, he's struggled to find a job in his field because of racism. I think this was really at the heart of his argument with Lucille; he feels powerless and at times resentful of Lucille, who seems to have so many more career opportunities available to her than he does. He even says 'there's no career for me here, a job is just a job' - as a Black man and a member of the Windrush generation, he is expected to work but not to aspire. There's also a gender angle, as he wants to be able to support his family but Lucille doesn't want to give up the career she's worked so hard for, which he misinterprets as a sign that she doesn't have faith in him. Of course Cyril does eventually succeed in getting a job, but I was struck by his conversation with the police officer, who is clearly engaging in racial profiling (still a problem in the Metropolitan Police to this day). Cyril is already at his lowest ebb, and now he's treated as a criminal when he's done nothing wrong. It was a stark reminder of everything that was and is wrong with British society.

Elsewhere, I'm still feeling sceptical of Matthew 'slum landlord' Aylward, but his relationship with Trixie seems to have taken a huge step forward in terms of both physical and emotional intimacy. I'm interested to see where this will lead - especially whether Trixie will ever tell Matthew about her struggles with addiction. Going to Portofino will no doubt remind her of that time in her life, so will she need to lean on Matthew for support?

I also haven't yet discussed the 'patient of the week' storyline about the Packer family. It was a horrifying story of domestic violence and abuse - which, as Trixie points out, are not always the same thing. It also touched on the issue of disabled people being abused by their caregivers, which is a real and urgent problem. Mrs Packer is able to conceal the abuse for a long time, in part because she is white and middle class - without these privileges, would she have been able to resist intervention for as long as she did? However, as we've seen earlier in this series, 'the Welfare' can be rather a blunt instrument when deployed against so-called 'problem families'.

END SPOILERS

This post ended up being much longer than I anticipated, but it just shows how much there is to discuss. Please reply or reblog and share your own thoughts on the episode!

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

Prince William - Windrush Speech 22/06/2022

Thank you for inviting Catherine and me. It is a privilege to be here with you all.

Today is a day we celebrate and honour the Windrush Generation and the enormous contribution each and every one of them has made, and continue to make, to our society.

I am delighted that so many of that generation and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are here today.

When the Windrush Generation sailed from the Caribbean to rebuild war torn Britain, they did so as British citizens, answering a plea to help our country thrive again.

Many of them were not strangers to these shores. In the decade before 1948, thousands served in the RAF, either flying, navigating or as ground crew keeping our squadrons airborne – including Allan Wilmot, the eldest Windrush pioneer whose family are with us today.

These people didn’t have to come. They volunteered to fight for King and country – in the full knowledge that many would never make it home again.

As one of the inheritors of that great military tradition I understand how much we owe to these men and women. Today’s ceremony would not be complete without remembering their sacrifice.

Over the past seven decades, the Windrush Generation’s role in the fabric of our national life has been immense.

Today, as we look around us, we can see just how many of the institutions in our country are built by that generation: commerce and manufacturing, sports and science, engineering and fashion.

Here in Waterloo Station, we are reminded of the role played by thousands of people from the Windrush Generation in our essential public transport system – from train drivers to conductors and technical staff.

Although it is not where the passengers of the Empire Windrush first arrived, subsequently many thousands of Caribbean people did pass through Waterloo and dispersed to cities across the UK. So the placement of the monument here is an acknowledgement of the contribution of those people to one of the most important elements of our national infrastructure.

Just down the road, in St Thomas’s Hospital, we can reflect on the Windrush Generation’s huge contribution to the NHS, a service founded only two weeks after the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Since then, over 40,000 Windrush and Commonwealth nurses and midwives have cared for those in need.

Indeed, every part of British life is better for the half a million men and women of the Windrush Generation.

Be it public life – and we are a stone’s throw from the Borough of Southwark, home to Sam King MBE, Windrush passenger, postman, founder of the West Indian Gazette, the first black mayor in London, campaigner and the co-founder of the Windrush Foundation.

Be it arts and culture – and we need look no further than Floella, the face of children’s television to millions of young people for more than a decade.

There are simply too many people to list. And we know without question, that the Windrush Generation have made our culture richer, our services stronger, and our fellow countrymen safer.

My family have been proud to celebrate this for decades – whether that be through support from my father on Windrush Day, or more recently during my Grandmother’s Platinum Jubilee, as people from all communities and backgrounds came together to acknowledge all that has changed over the past seventy years and look to the future.

This is something that resonated with Catherine and me after our visit to the Caribbean earlier this year. Our trip was an opportunity to reflect, and we learnt so much. Not just about the different issues that matter most to the people of the region, but also how the past weighs heavily on the present.

Sadly, that is also the case for members of the Windrush Generation who were victims of racism when they arrived here, and discrimination remains an all too familiar experience for black men and women in Britain in 2022.

Only a matter of years ago, tens of thousands of that Generation were profoundly wronged by the Windrush Scandal. That rightly reverberates throughout the Caribbean community here in the UK as well as many in the Caribbean nations.

Therefore, alongside celebrating the diverse fabric of our families, our communities and our society as a whole – something the Windrush Generation has contributed so much to – it is also important to acknowledge the ways in which the future they sought and deserved has yet to come to pass.

Diversity is what makes us strong, and it is what reflects the modern, outward-looking values that are so important to our country.

Today, as we stand together to witness Windrush Pioneers, Alford and John unveil Basil’s landmark monument, we are reminded of our shared history and the enormous contribution of the Windrush Generation.

Without you all, Britain would simply not be what it is today.

I want to say a profound thank you to every member of that generation, and the generations that have followed. And I want you to know that you can count on mine and Catherine’s continued support in helping us achieve a future they would be proud of.

Thank you again for inviting us to join you on this important day.

[beetlebethwrites]

Hiii Beth! I hope you're doing well! ❤️ Anyway, I'm pretty interested in #1, if you don't mind: Briefly describe the way their parents grew up, and how it affected the way they raised them.

I hope you're well too!! I've been hoping for this question so...

1. Briefly describe the way their parents grew up, and how it affected the way they raised them.

Matt is from a middle class family, who basically raised him the way they were raised. Overall it was a good environment, but slightly competitive between him and his brothers and his parents were caring albeit slightly distant.

Eve's mother was raised in a strict Catholic household, and although she moved away, she still has some tendencies towards Catholicism. She did try hard to not pass her hang ups onto Eve though, and she did that successfully. Eve's father is not a part of her life and was never a part of her upbringing.

Alex's parents are both Catholic. Their father moved from Portugal in his early teens with his parents. He was forced to adjust to the UK quickly, which hardened him to those outside of church. He met Alex's mother, who is also Catholic, and they married young and had Alex. They were equally strict as their parents (even as Alex's grandparents mellowed) and as a result it created an environment that Alex struggled in and it forced them to push back massively.

Jordan's father is a first generation immigrant who came over from Jamaica to join his father and older brother who were already living in the UK. When he was there he met Jordan's mother, who is a second generation immigrant to parents who came over in as a part of the Windrush. Their family has always enjoyed being active in their community and Jordan was raised as a part of that too. It takes a village to raise a child and Jordan and their siblings were the same.

Char's parents are both working class. His father is from a farming family and his mother is from a family of cleaners and hospital porters. She chose to become a nursery nurse and she's exceptionally compassionate. Because of this, Char couldn't have asked for a better mother. She learnt sign language along with them, and dragged Char's father into it as well. She and Char still use BSL for most of their conversations.

Bo-yeon's parents grew up in a tight knit extended family and that continued into the way xe was raised. Xe loved it and would want to raise children to know xir family as well, even if xe was settled in the UK instead of in South Korea.

[jackoshadows]

Listening to the BBC this morning and all the Brexiteers and old white people going on and on about how the UK is going to be great once again after Brexit. And how the Brits went through WW II and The Blitz and economic depression and came out stronger and better and they will do so once again after Brexit because the British people are just that special and are just that great unlike the lazy, good for nothing people in other countries. And of course this rhetoric goes unchallenged on TV because the BBC is nothing but a propaganda arm of the British government. British exceptionalism is a hell of a drug.

What these folks fail to realize is that after WWII and the Blitz and the depression, Great Britain still owned a lot of colonies. The Brits owned more of the world than anyone ever has. It was the British empire that made Great Britain rich. The English have invaded around 180 of the 193 countries in the United nations. Think about that. 

They grew opium in India, because they owned India, and sold it in China - and when they Chinese resisted, they bombed it, opened China to opium and destroyed the country.

Have people heard of the Windrush generation? The name refers to the ship MV Empire Windrush, that sailed to Britain in 1948, bringing workers from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands, to help fill post-war UK labour shortages. The UK could get cheap labour from their colonies. And to their great shame, it is this generation and their children that the current Tory government is trying to deport back to Jamaica.

They grew cotton in India, destroyed the looms and weavers in India, took the cotton to the UK and developed the British weaving industry.

The East India Company enforced their buyer monopoly in the Indian textile trade with an iron hand. Bolts describes how weavers who either refused to sell to the British or who tried to sell their products to other buyers were oppressed: “...weavers...have, by the Company’s agents, been frequently seized and imprisoned, confined in irons, fined considerable sums of money, [and] flogged…” (194). He also describes how “winders of raw silk, called Nagaads, have been treated also with such injustice, that instances have been known of their cutting off their thumbs, to prevent their being forced to wind silk.”

The Company didn’t just focus on crippling Indian handlooms and weavers in the short-term with their price fixing strategy and enforcing it through violence; they also adopted long-term taxation strategies to ensure that the Indian textile trade would be permanently crippled.

Britain imposed draconian taxes on imports of Indian textiles into Britain, while levying drastically lower taxes on British textiles that were imported into India. Nakatomi (1993) writes that British manufacturers were levied an 85% tax for importing Indian hand woven calico (chintz) and 44% for importing Indian muslin under the British Raj. On the other hand,  British textiles were only imposed with a 5% import tax in India.

They looted their colonies for resources and labor. British industries became rich because their colonies had to buy from them. And a lot of the colonies got their independence and went only in the sixties and seventies. And the advantages for the UK continued on for a while.

Unfortunately this is not taught in British schools and the English still think that colonizing the world was an act of benevolence, that they brought civilization to the savages. Never mind that homosexuality is still criminalized in many parts of the world because the British brought their Christian ideals to their colonies and criminalized it. For example, the British criminalized homosexuality in India - Hinduism does not say anything on this topic. The British criminalized homosexuality in Singapore.

The recent controversy around the National Trust wanting to acknowledge that many of the historic buildings, castles, historic homes in Britain has been build using wealth looted from the colonies, proudly displayed many of that loot, and furnishing their homes with that loot. And immediately, the current British government wants to review the funding for the Trust because how dare they link British wealth to colonialism and slavery.

What are they going to do after Brexit? They can no longer destroy their former colonies to develop their own country. An UK outside the EU is less important to the US. Other countries now realize that they can get better deals with the UK because of it’s current weaker position. When there is a shortage of nurses in the NHS, they can longer export cheap labor from the colonies.

Brexit is going to be a painful, agonizing and embarrassing gradual realization that British exceptionalism is not a thing. When Ireland - one of England’s first colonies - offered to send food to the UK if there was a problem, that should have been a humbling experience. But we are not there yet.