Racism is a form of hate; it is used as a tool to divide and segregate people. There is nothing positive about racism and for me I only want to live in a world where there is positivity. It is through positivity and cohesion that as people we can grow and achieve beyond what we can imagine impossible. The greatest achievements of humankind have occurred during civilizations where racism does not form a part of the society. An anti-racist society is important because it’s critical to the survival of the world.
My Aunty is Beverly Lewis, a young, Black, deaf blind woman who died in 1989 and who has a refuge for women with learning difficulties fleeing abuse set up and named in her honour. An inquiry into the circumstances surrounding her death led to changes in the procedures used to treat people with mental health conditions and illnesses. The inquiry concluded that the cause of death was pneumonia due to emaciation, and a brain disorder and that she was only visited at home by social services eight times in four years.
What was left out of the inquiry, and what my mother has been a driving force behind, is drawing attention to the role that institutional racism played in the treatment that Beverly and my grandmother who had schizophrenia, received. It is my mother’s belief that as black Jamaicans, the conditions they lived in, and the behaviour displayed were considered ‘normal’ for people from the Caribbean. This meant that the mental and physical health of my grandmother and aunty was not given the same level of attention as it would have if they were white British.
The circumstance of her death are repeatedly used as an example to learn from in the practice of social services and inspired my mother in her career choice as a social worker. However, even today many of the academic papers that study the case, fail to reference Beverly’s ethnicity, and discuss the role that institutional racism contributed to her early death. Therefore, my mother continues to raise awareness of this and speaks at the Universities that study the case.
It is my mother’s conviction to fight injustice that inspires me in my own life choices. Whether it is my mother’s fight in highlighting the treatment of her sister, the institutional racism she has experienced in her own career or her journey as a lone parent raising children while working and putting herself through education. It is a work ethic to never settle for what people expect of you and to always strive for what you want in life. It is an echo of my grandmother leaving my mother behind in Jamaica to come to England and build a better life so she could send for her children to join her. It is something that makes me proud to be black and proud that I’m fortunate to have inherited this legacy and with that comes a feeling of responsibility to honour it and carry the torch forward, to better myself and to make the path easier to follow for those who come after me.