Stories

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A middle-aged white couple set off an alarm in a Superdrug in London. Security apprehends the young black man just behind them. MJR trustee Paul Keeble writes: ‘My wife and I were that couple and at the time something in my wife’s bag was randomly setting off shop alarms, so we knew it was us. But before we got the chance to say anything to the security man he had grabbed the young black man behind us. Our “unearned privilege” and his “daily indignity”.’

A couple are stopped by the police on a bridge in London. He is black and she is white. He is searched for drugs, but none are found, and they are let go on their way. Their cocaine was in her handbag.

A delegate registering at a medical conference in Manchester turns to an Asian man standing to one side and asks him where he can leave his coat. Imagine his surprise when the next time he sees the man is when he is introduced as the keynote speaker.

A black employee at a well-known company (with a Racial Equality Award) made a complaint about daily racist behaviour, such as white staff getting up and changing table when he tried to join them in the canteen. The investigation found he was to blame and made him redundant.

The morning after the Brexit Referendum result a black mother is dropping her children off at school, as she did every morning. One of the other mothers calls across to her: “You’ll have to go back home now.”

Racism is a business. — Akala, English rapper, poet, and activist.

“Everyday racism is the normalised experience that we encounter daily based on our difference from the white norm.”