Looking Forward to a Year of Writing and Advocacy

Looking Forward to a Year of Writing and Advocacy

What do Martin Luther King, Adam Smith and Ben Ansell have in common? 

In January I spent time thinking about where best to focus my writing and advocacy in 2024. As inspiration, I read pieces by Martin Luther King, Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations), and Ben Ansell (Why Politics Fails). I didn’t expect the readings to have common themes but they did. Each said, in different ways, that the white middle class values power, advantage or the whip-hand (literally, in the context of Wealth of Nations) over justice, equity or economic stability.

It’s true we are no longer fighting for freedom from bondage or the right to vote, but we recognise that the fight for racial equality is ongoing. Ansell argues that today the middle class uses wealth in equally pervasive ways to maintain their advantage; e.g. by gaining access to the best schools and in the process excluding others.

Some of my articles last year point to the power of the middle class to subvert racial equity sometimes through actions but often – and more powerfully – through inaction that maintains advantage. These articles reflect my fear, not of the far right but of the ‘near middle’; the white middle class who as King put it:

“prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension 

to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

My New Year’s reading clarified for me that we can only achieve equity with equal access to finance; and that inequality itself poses an existential threat, because it stops us from working together when we need to deal with our biggest challenges, like climate change. There can be no solidarity in solving these threats without equitable access to wealth.

Through my advocacy work this year I intend to encourage the ‘positive peace’ that King speaks of. This involves posing difficult questions to the middle class that will require answers, not peaceful avoidance or silence. In particular these questions need to be asked of the leaders of funding bodies who, through their funding choices, can catalyse the more equitable distribution of finance.

These funders cannot seek to control the outcomes of their funding but they can provide access to it. Equitable access to wealth creation is an outcome in itself and the single best way to produce Smith’s robust economy, King’s open democracy and Ansell’s idea of politics that  produce more equitable outcomes in education, health, employment, housing and criminal justice.

As King suggests, tensions are an inevitable part of the process to a social peace. I will sharpen my pencil and write with love but not fear.

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Where I sit on white middle class activism

Where I sit on white middle class activism

I have combined my two latest articles into one place because I think the first gives important context for the second – but for those short of time the articles can be read independently of each other.

 

My journey from shame to activism

Growing up, my instinct as a black child was to belong. If I (a foreigner) was compliant, then perhaps they (the white community) would accept me. As such activism was an anathema.

Being an outsider meant having no right to social or political dissension. I would have been ashamed to be called an activist, and I was embarrassed by those in my community who dared raise their voice for racial equity.

 

Prejudice as a natural instinct

Like many children, I internalised racism. This happens because children categorise others based on distinguishable physical characteristics, like colour and gender. The tendency is natural, but quickly turns to racial or gender prejudice if left unchecked. Children as young as three associate race with traits like intelligence, honesty and attractiveness.

As children adopt stereotypes, they start to use them to understand established social hierarchies in society. They then position themselves within them, according to their own physical characteristics – as someone who is black, white, female, male,  black female, white female, and so on. I wanted to belong to the in-group: white boys. Being a black boy put me in the out-group.

Without early intervention, these social hierarchies become normalised and accepted as natural. Some people have less because they are less; some have more because they are ‘better than’ and so deserve more. Deprived of good quality conversations about our differences and sameness, children internalise prejudice and can unwittingly work against both their own and others’ interest.

From there are sown the seeds that undermine our social fabric – now and in the future – and jeopardise our very survival.

 

How in-group bias plays out in social activism

Racism is a distortion of human relationships, created by in-group bias and inequitable distribution of power. It poses an existential threat by creating competing priorities just when we need to work collectively.

As an illustration, social activism on the political left, where people share liberal values of equity and inclusion, is never completely free of racial bias or inequality. It’s an issue I’ve highlighted in previous articles and podcasts.

It’s not incidental that an issue like climate change receives more investment, media coverage and political and public engagement than racial inequity. There’s been more progress on this in a decade than on racial equity in the last half century. It’s because the white middle class (from the left and right) prioritises climate change and has the power to drive this agenda forward at pace.

Those of us who agree that both a net-zero economy and racial equity are important will divide, broadly speaking, along racial and socio-economic lines when pushed on which we should prioritise.

For example, many of the poorest – a disproportionate number of whom are black – would prefer to have their basic needs met before investing in upgrades on inefficient heating systems or polluting cars. This has been Rishi Sunak’s recent argument for delaying emission reduction targets.

We are less able to deal effectively with an existential threat like climate change if we are divided. So we must treat the division itself as a primary threat. The more equitable a society and a world we become, the more robust we will be in dealing with crises that demand collective action.

So black people’s voices are needed in the climate change debate. Our perspective adds something new to the argument, based on our own biases. Bias is not wrong; but a diversity of biases (or perspectives) creates greater equity which makes us stronger.

 

What does this mean for me as an activist?

Activism at its best seeks the sharing of different perspectives, new knowledge and a more equitable distribution of power. Any quashing of a person’s ability to be active is a burn to the individual and to society. In this sense good activism, even when it disrupts, is very much pro-social rather than anti-social.

Coming back to my antipathy to activism as a child: I experienced discrimination living in a society where in-group bias, combined with unfair distribution of knowledge and power, distorted my thinking. The natural tendency for me to have a bias towards the black community was subverted. I preferred white people, so much so that I silenced myself to win approval and was ashamed of those in my community who did the natural thing – using their voices to ask for what was rightfully ours.

Having found activism through writing, I use it to disrupt the status quo to create greater unity. Being an activist isn’t an act of separation from society, it’s a statement of belonging. The more I write the greater my sense of being part of – rather than separate from – society.

 Activism has connected me to who I am, and to who we are. We are black, but we are the same. We are women, but we are the same. We have a disability, but we are the same. We are refugees, or economically-deprived or gay, but we are still the same. We demand equity as human beings, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It is necessary for our very survival.

 

 

My uncomfortable stance on climate change

 

If I had to put it into words, what drives my activism is the racially equitable distribution of money/wealth by any legal means necessary. This often involves holding seemingly competing ideologies, and I regularly find myself on what feels like the ‘wrong’ side of the political argument. Good long-term policies can have unintended short-term consequences and too many of these disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities.

Take Rishi Sunak’s recent U-turn on a range of policies designed to achieve the UK’s net zero targets. He has ditched some and delayed others by 5 years to 2035. Given the inequitable distribution of wealth in the UK, I instinctively support this policy shift because of its immediate benefit to Black communities. Unlike many of his critics, I’m less concerned with his possible motivations than with the practical outcomes; especially for those who can least afford the initial costs of reducing their carbon emissions – who are disproportionately from Black and Brown communities.

An equitable transition demands that those who have most pay most. An effective transition means that we remove polluting vehicles from the system altogether, and not export pollution to other parts of the UK or the world, by reselling old cars on the open market. To have both an effective and equitable solution we need to fully subsidise the cost of transitioning for those who can least afford it. Current efforts to do this are underfunded and simply leave too many people behind. For example, while the wealthiest move to low emission cars and continue to drive in London, those least able to replace their old cars are faced with daily charges of up to £12.50 per day. Their only other option is to absorb an up to a £3k loss if they apply to the Mayor of London’s scrappage scheme; which provides a grant subsidy (typically less than the value of the car) when someone chooses to get rid of a polluting car.  For those without cars – again, disproportionately Black and Brown communities – there are few benefits without better or free public transport.

I’m torn by my position on this because on the one hand I am allied with a policy that is short term and politically expedient, but on the other, from a race equity lens, one that feels more realistic and fairer. I’ve heard the arguments about the longer-term negative implications of this policy change, including on the least wealthy; but long-term thinking is a privilege. Financial survival means that those who have least don’t have the luxury of thinking beyond the next pay cheque; spending thousands to reduce their carbon emissions is a social necessity too many just can’t afford.

In terms of transitioning to net zero, wealth divides us into those who can and do, those who can but don’t, and those who simply can’t. For this last invisible group, the imposition of inequitable net zero transition policies is (at the very least) a significant inconvenience and at worst a financial tipping point into destitution.

The ideal would be to stick to the original net zero targets and properly subsidise the investment in transition for those who can least afford it. Beyond the initial transition costs there would need to be an investment in new technology to make sure that any ongoing costs associated with running and maintaining any new eco-tech (e.g. an electric car or a heat pump) are kept as low as possible.

Effectively we would need to invest in accelerating the eco tech revolution and protect the poorest whilst this is happening. We are not yet there.

Whatever Rishi Sunak’s reasons for the change to net zero targets, the principle of ‘taking the poor with us’ in the transition to net zero is the right one. Even if that principle is maintained for disingenuous reasons, I’ll support it, whatever side of the political fence it leaves me on. For the poorest the practical outcome of financial survival is more important than the political manoeuvres that deliver those outcomes. Those debates and any subsequent participation in the political process are, unsurprisingly, left to those who have the money and time to engage.

This brings me back to what drives my activism; a more equitable distribution of wealth leads to greater participation in political discourse and in the political process; and political engagement makes for a fairer, more cohesive, and more democratic society, which benefits us all.

 

 

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I don’t hate the Arts Council (article)

I don’t hate the Arts Council (article)

Through almost monthly blogs, articles and talks on social media over the last two years, I have sought to highlight how Arts Council England (ACE) has consistently failed to achieve racial equity in its distribution of funding. This might be considered slightly obsessive, or as a personal attack based on acrimony. But that isn’t the case.

ACE is an organisation which fascinates me. It seems to be continuously on the brink of transformation around inclusivity, but it never quite makes the leap. From the side lines, I’ve been willing it to make the changes necessary for it to continue to be relevant in the 21st century.

But as they say, ‘it’s the hope that kills you’. But it is ‘hope’. And that doesn’t come from animosity but from a place of relationship. I have a strong, but complex bond with ACE.

A strange relationship

Having initially funded my first project Tribal Tree, they then withdrew funding 7 years later despite the project’s obvious successes. The funding was reallocated to support the redevelopment of the Roundhouse, located just across the road from our building.

I was crushed and unsure what my next career move would be. But it was ACE again, a year later, that sponsored my place on the Clore Leadership Programme. That led to my next project MeWe360 that ACE helped launch with an initial investment of £1m. And eight years later came Create Equity, whose early development ACE also funded.

Having been the cause of an existential trauma, ACE was then a key part of my recovery and growth as a social entrepreneur. But it was also part of my growth as an activist. While at Clore, I carried out research on race, power and identity. That research – a personal enquiry – drives my current thinking on structural inequalities and my motivation to do something about it.

ACE has created this beast that hounds them and continues (at least for now) to fund my projects. It’s a strange relationship: with one hand I gratefully receive its support while with the other I write regular critiques on its inability to fund in a racially equitable way.

Why do I seemingly bite the hand that feeds me? Why not just take the money and be quiet?

Silence, power and racism

My silence would be tantamount to being racist; endorsing a system I know to be racially inequitable for my own benefit.

ACE is the largest funder of the arts in the UK by a long way, with more funding than the other major arts funders combined. Its dominant position means that as well as distributing its own budget (c.£943m in21/22) it exerts considerable influence on how other funders distribute their grants as they regularly support organisations in receipt of ACE funding.

ACE’s scale and ‘financial pull’ means that were it to distribute its funding equitably, a likely outcome would be that all arts funding would become more racially equitable. But the major block is that currently ACE is not able to distribute funding in a racially equitable way. After fulfilling its obligation to fund the major museums, galleries and theatres, it has insufficient money left to do so.

90% of ACE funding is allocated to incumbent institutions. Even if the remaining 10% were diverted to BAME-led organisations, ACE would still not achieve racially equitable funding. This is what I call ‘incumbency bias’ and is not necessarily a problem in itself. My challenge is that ACE remains silent on incumbency bias.

Ibram X. Kendi’s work on anti-racism provides a frame on which to position such organisational silence. To be an anti-racist organisation you must act when faced with processes and procedures that deliver inequitable outcomes. According to Kendi, the act of naming systemic inequalities – simply talking about them – is in itself an anti-racist act.

Silence, he says, is the opposite. ACE’s silence makes it complicit in maintaining a racist system. My almost singular focus on ACE over the last two years is not because they are the only holders of silence, but because they are by far the most powerful.

If I were to remain silent (or inactive) in the face of ACE’s inability or refusal to fund equitably, I would also be complicit. Such silence, according to Kendi, would also be a racist act. Uncomfortable as it is, and I sit far from comfortably when writing these articles, there is no hiding place for ACE, or for me, when it comes to taking an anti-racist position.

Champions of a better system

I am a product – at least in part – of ACE’s various funding programmes over the last 25 years. I could reasonably be considered its poster child; one of its too few racial diversity success stories. But to remain silent would be to abandon all the learning and leadership that ACE has enabled over the past 25 years; it would be to waste the money they have invested in me.

Racial inequity cannot be allowed to stand simply through our complicity or silence. It must be challenged. In this sense, we who call for a fair distribution of ACE funds, who point to its policies and practices that prevent it, who suggest possible solutions, should be seen not as ‘haters’ of ACE but as champions of a better funding ecosystem, of which ACE is a major part.

In the upcoming outcomes of its spending review (October 26th), ACE has another chance to reimagine what great arts organisations of the future might look like. And, just as importantly, who will get to build them.

ACE is on the brink of another opportunity to transform itself. My hope springs eternal – that this time it will distribute at least 7% of its NPO funding to racially diverse organisations and publicly commit to racially equitable funding (14.4%) by 2031. And if it genuinely can’t, then it should take responsibility, as the dominant arts funder in the UK, to say so and to cede some of its overwhelming power to others who can.

This article was first published in Arts Professional

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My Motivation (video)

My Motivation (video)

Our most powerful motivations are often rooted in our lived experience.

In this 60 second video, I share personal motivations which have driven my work over my career as founder of Tribal Tree, MeWe360, Skin in the Game and Create Equity.

These projects are about cultivating human potential through personal development, community building and system change.

Malcolm X perhaps sums it up best:

“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”

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A Personal Reflection on Getting Old! (article)

A Personal Reflection on Getting Old! (article)

My resistance to emerging social norms like gender fluidity makes me feel old. Attitudes have ingrained over the years and now seem stuck despite logic to the contrary. My kids have no such problem, their young brains adapt quickly. I increasingly feel on the wrong side of the saying: ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’

Just before Christmas (pre-lockdown) I tore my calf muscle playing tennis. My doubles partner heard it snap standing at the net. I have never torn a muscle, or broken a bone. This injury is another sign of age and physical degeneration … a stark and unwelcome reminder that I can’t take liberties with my body anymore. One of life’s cruelties is having to reconcile a mind that is still willing with a body that is less able. 

But what is harder is the torture of hair loss and the sudden fret when your memory fails and you can’t recall a name. Or worse, when you forget the name of someone you were introduced to just minutes earlier.

There are upsides. I am more patient and lose my temper less. My basic DIY skills seem to be improving with age. I’ve also started to teach myself to play the drums again – I learn more slowly now, but I am better able to apply myself.

I value life and am less judgemental about all its weird forms, even though they still unsettle me. I’m willing to share my house with the odd mouse rather than trap it. I think: “live and let live!”

Given a choice, I would never swap age and experience for youth. But that doesn’t stop my grief at its loss, especially when it comes to accepting rather than just tolerating new and necessary social norms.

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Letter to my 16 year old self (article)

Letter to my 16 year old self (article)

Dear 16 year old Kevin,

It saddens me to think of you with the anxiety of any 16 year old trying to find themself, made a thousand times harder because who you are has been shaped by racism. It has become part of you. It runs so deep that you will learn to split your personality to fit in, be normal, be acceptable, be white. 

I wish I could tell you that racism, the unpicking of it and putting yourself back together, understanding it and healing from it, will be painful but ultimately rewarding work. Work that you will come to love. 

I wish I could tell you that dyslexia doesn’t make you stupid and that your mediocre exam results won’t matter. That much what you were taught was perception, not truth. That you weren’t taught much of what you needed to know to face the world with genuine confidence, and that ‘front’ you showed was not of your making. 

I wish I could tell you that being all of yourself is okay, that being black is okay, really okay. Not just because you’ve heard it said and because you were told that’s how you should feel. But because you understood the truth of it and the truth in it: that we are all the same. That we are all human, even though sometimes we can be inhumane.

That it all turns out okay and that I wouldn’t have done it any differently.

I wish I could tell you that you are ready for it all and that most of the battle for happiness and contentment is learning to love yourself and trusting your instincts. Trite as it sounds, it’s true.

I know, from watching Back to the Future, that tampering with my past would risk changing the present. So, I wouldn’t tell you any of this for fear of it taking you down a different path. But I do wish that somehow I could be there to ease the pain, just a little. 

Without you, there would be no me. Thank you for your resilience, for being a dreamer, for staying optimistic and for believing the world might be better one day, even though you didn’t know when and how. This resilience and dreaming have stayed with me. So, thank you. Keep dreaming.

 

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