a post by Tarah Reed
“Multi-culturalism isn’t working” is the phrase that I heard over and over again during the recent race riots here in the UK.
Which got me thinking, “it really depends where you’re looking.”
I’m half Black Jamaican and Half White English: I went to primary school in Cornwall, secondary school in Jamaica, and did the rest of my studies here in London, and I have to say that for me, London does multi-culturalism pretty well.
“London does multi-culturalism pretty well”
I am not saying, by any means, that the capital is perfect but this is my experience:
When I go away on holiday, I always breathe more easily returning to London, because even though I may miss the countryside, or the beaches, or the warm sun, London is where I feel I belong, it’s where I feel safest being me.
The brownness of my skin doesn’t turn any heads, or get any specific attention, in fact I’m usually one of many black and brown faces in the crowd.
When I walk down the high street after the schools have finished for the day, I see mixed groups of young people, who’s ethnic/ancestral backgrounds are different from one another. I go to the park on a typical summers day in London and see groups of 20/30 year olds sitting on picnic blankets, with a blend of black, brown and white faces all present, all happy to see each other, all welcoming.
My borough is considered to be one of the most culturally mixed in London: I have a black British family opposite, a Muslim family next door, a Hindu family next door to them, a Sri Lankan family on the other side, and the list goes on and on, all the way down the rd.
“The brownness of my skin doesn’t turn any heads, or get any specific attention, in fact I’m usually one of many black and brown faces in the crowd.“
When I look around the office here at Mary’s, or at the trustee and volunteer team that supports the work we do, I see a mix of faces looking back at me.
Most importantly, when I walk past the young people enjoying Friday night Youth Club or playing cards in the community room during drop-in sessions, I see a beautiful mix of skin tones, ethnicities, cultures, and religions: friendship groups are mixed, and a black and a white set of best friends is normal and commonplace.
This is the Britain that I know and love, and I think the younger generation understand this better than the rest of us.
We still have a long way to go of course, and I’m not ignoring or pretending that racism doesn’t exist in London, or that black culture, history and heritage is given the respect it deserves. But what I do feel is that London is doing a relatively good job of integrating different cultures (including the black culture), and that even though the struggle to integrate and honour different ethnicities is still very real, the young people of London are teaching the rest of us some lessons that we should probably be paying attention to.
“even though the struggle to integrate and honour different ethnicities is still very real, the young people of London are teaching the rest of us some lessons that we should probably be paying attention to”
It can take a long time to find a place you feel you belong, and that is one of the things I love about the youth club: it’s commitment to creating a space where young people can explore and express their identity
One of the programmes I think does this particularly well is the SIS Project, a programme for girls aged 10-20.
If you’d like to donate to this project or any other of our programmes, then please click the link below.
Thank you in advance!
Written by Tarah Reed
Business Operations Manager
