YORK, England – Haddy Njie had been in this historic English city just over a week ago when she first experienced racial abuse.
It was 2015. She had moved from London when a taxi driver called her the N-word and ordered her to get out of her taxi.
“When I moved to York I was amazed at the omnipresence and openness of racism and discrimination based on the color of my skin,” Njie said, as she sat on the banks of the River Ouse as she approached the medieval walls of this predominantly white. city in the north of England.
Five years later, Njie hopes that people in York may be waking up to racism, her eyes widened in part at the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of white police in Minneapolis in May.
“The whites were suddenly saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I never understood or knew you went through this every day,'” said Njie, 36, who works in risk management and moved to York for a job opportunity. .
Black Lives Matter and other anti-racism protests spread across the country, igniting a conversation about unconscious biases, Britain’s colonial past, and the gulf between black and white experiences.
Treasured English institutions, from Rugby Football Union to English Heritage, which care about historical sites, have vowed to do more to defend diversity or better contextualize the past. In York, the revulsion that followed Floyd’s death led many to consider racism that exists closer to home, addressing the issue at dinner, on web chats, or participating in protests.
“It really brought home how people have this all the time,” said Philip Jepson, an electronic engineer.
Jepson, 57, said it was not the first time he considered his own biases. However, Floyd’s death and subsequent protests against racism in the UK had prompted further reflection.
“I don’t think it’s very easy not to be racist,” said Jepson. “It is something that you must be aware of and against which you must work on a personal level.”
An ancient past
The city of York is almost 2,000 years old and has its roots in the Roman era, before being colonized by Anglo-Saxons, conquered by Vikings and then invaded by the armies of William the Conqueror. Historians and archaeologists say there is evidence of people of color living here in Roman times.
In his book “Black and British: A Forgotten History,” historian David Olusoga cites an isotopic analysis that found that about one in 10 of the approximately 200 human remains found at Roman burial sites in the city were of African descent. .
But in more recent history, York was not a center for mass immigration, and compared to other major industrial cities it did not attract large numbers of workers from the sprawling British empire, said James Walvin, professor emeritus of history at York University. .
The 2011 census found that of the nearly 200,000 city residents, 94 percent identified themselves as white. In 2016 Gary Craig, a social justice researcher and visiting professor at Newcastle University, estimated that ethnic minorities made up about 12 percent of York’s population. However, he said, people see the city as a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
In conversations with passers-by, some acknowledged that York may have more to learn about racism than other more ethnically diverse centers. And many were surprised that the number of racism-related hate crimes reported by North Yorkshire police has increased.
From 2014 to last year, the number of race-related hate crimes reported by the police force, which is responsible for York and the surrounding area, increased by 111 percent.
Police-recorded racially-motivated hate crimes in England and Wales increased by approximately the same amount over a similar period.
“It is not adequately recognized,” said Hillary Bryan, a retired journalist, about racism across the country. She took the example of her 20-year-old son Jamie, who had recently asked her if racism was as big a problem in the UK as it is in the United States.
“I said, ‘Yes, it is, Jamie, really, it’s probably less obvious. But if you were a black teenager and you were detained all the time for no reason, you would soon realize that there is racism here as well. ‘”
A survey carried out last month by British pollster YouGov found that about 5 out of 10 adults in the UK feel that Britain is very or quite racist. Conversely, a separate survey by the same organization found that approximately 8 out of 10 black and ethnic minority adults felt that racism still exists a lot or somewhat in the UK today.
Black British activists have found themselves explaining, on the streets and in television studios, that racism is not just an American problem, counteracting a reflex among many white Britons to point to the United States when they talk about racism.
Data from the coronavirus pandemic have shown that death rates have been significantly higher for black people and ethnic minorities than for white people in Britain. A government study published last month found that historical racism and social inequality may be contributing factors.
‘A little disrespectful’
Not everyone in York sees racism as an issue, and some feel the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests have gone too far in scratching old wounds as the UK has progressed in recent decades.
“I don’t think our country is holding anyone back,” said Paul West, who was preparing to dig test pits for anti-terror barriers on a central street in York.
West, 33, pointed to former York Archbishop John Sentamu, who is black and retired last month, as well as other ethnic minority leaders in the country as evidence that people of color can advance.
He supported the right of protesters to take to the streets, but did not agree with his goal of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose legacy of leading Britain to victory in World War II is tainted by evidence of points racist and white supremacists.
“My grandfather fought in the war. I feel like a little bit of history is spitting in our faces; when your ancestors fought in that war, it’s a little disrespectful, “he said.
“He walked away from what was relevant and made it irrelevant in my opinion.”
Saphora Smith / NBC News
However, many in this city say that the way history is portrayed is related to today’s social problems.
Olivia Wyatt, an undergraduate student of history at York University, is working with northern schools to teach the history of British blacks, inspired in part by her own experience of learning about the slave trade at school, where she said that slavery was largely framed as an American and only loosely connected to Britain.
Otherwise, black Britons were not listed in the pages of their school history books, something he said can make people see black British history as marginal and removed from their own lives.
“The danger of that is they start seeing black and Asian or black and brown people as non-British,” Wyatt, 21, of African-Caribbean and Indian descent, from his hometown of Leeds, said by phone.
Young people in York seemed to feel more comfortable with the nuances of the UK racism debate. The half-dozen or more teens and millennials who spoke to NBC News said they felt that systemic racism was a problem in the UK and that they had been actively involved. She tried to better educate herself by reading or watching videos online.
Many pointed to social media as a major source of information that has exposed them to a global conversation about race, be it through the endorsement of BLM celebrities, soccer players kneeling on the field, or people on their networks who they share information.
The global conversation is also promoting concrete local activism.
Njie said that in the past he had raised the issue of racism with the city council and had discussed an effort to listen to the stories of those who had experienced racism in the city to implement the change. But Njie said the council had shuffled their feet and none of that came out eventually.
But city councilman Darryl Smalley said the council was acting and that in response to Floyd’s death and recent protests, he had established an action group to develop policies to combat hate crime and racism in the city.
Floyd’s death and subsequent protests also prompted Njie to establish Speak Up Diversity, a grassroots group that aims to tackle systematic and institutional racism in York, focusing, among other things, on education, awareness and reporting of racist incidents in the workplace. .
“It is a historic opportunity,” he said. “Whites really come and say what can I do?”
