Orkney futures...

Racism revelations over Zoom

Of all the developments accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis lockdown, Zoom been a revelation.

Quiz nights with friends, family birthdays, discussions around renewable energy, fuel poverty, and the potential for a green post-pandemic economic recovery – all have made use of this cloud-based peer-to-peer platform. Places south of Orkney, who never seemed to get our requests for video conferencing as a way of cutting down travel have suddenly seen the need. It has brought us closer together.

One particular evening Zoom event will forever stand out among all lockdown link-ups for me. It took place in early June and has drawn me into the campaign to have Scotland’s Black history and our role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade more widely known. With an apparent lack of knowledge and understanding around these issues, it seems clear that education will be key to ensuring all folk in this country understand how this partially buried history affects life in Scotland today, particularly for our Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities.

The meeting invitation, circulated by Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn MSP Bob Doris, and headed ‘BAME/Black Lives Matter’, had spelt out the format of the event:

“Today, Monday 8 June from 6.30pm to 8pm, there is an online briefing for SNP MPs & MSPs. It will be hosted by [Glasgow City Councillor and SNP BAME Convener] Graham Campbell.

“He is inviting any BAME person living in Scotland to attend and the purpose is for us to listen to what they have to say. Graham will moderate but the intention is that we will each have the opportunity to say who we are and he will then pose a number of questions to the attendees eg ‘what more could we be doing to support you?’ and open it up so that everyone attending has the chance to address us.”

Maree Todd, the Highlands & Islands SNP MSP for whom I carry out some part-time work, was driving down to Edinburgh to attend Holyrood the next day, so I volunteered to ‘go’ in her place. As I saw it, this meeting was another example of activity sparked on this side of the Atlantic by the re-ignition of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the horrific death on 25 May of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested by four police officers.

In another related action, I had been tasked to find contacts for all the Up Helly Aa committees in Shetland for Maree so that she could back a campaign to stop squads in these events using blackface. This humiliating practice dates back to the minstrel shows of the 1800s, where white performers would blacken their faces or use masks in order to caricature enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. The campaign to rid Shetland’s fire festivals of this upsetting and offensive practice has been led by local woman Ellie Ratter, who decided to write to all committees to ask for a ban. Early signs are that blackface will indeed soon be a thing of the past.

More directly in Orkney, I had been pleased to see all three of my daughters had become active online in spreading the Black Lives Matter message. The girls were engaging with folk in Orkney who seemed unable or unwilling to understand the reasons behind this growing campaign. One of them had come through on the Sunday evening before this meeting opportunity came up, and said to me that she was ‘tired of fighting racists’.

Attending this meeting, it seemed, was an ideal opportunity for me to get a picture of what was happening throughout Scotland and how things needed to change.

However, nothing I’d encountered online over the previous week or so could have prepared me for what followed.

As soon as I was online, it was clear there was a huge attendance. There were already around 80 folk in the ‘room’ and apparently more trying to get in.

At two days’ notice, the registration for the meeting had become an astonishing:

• 126 Black and Asian people living in Scotland.
• 21 MPs.
• 10 MSPs.
• 18 Councillors.
• 7 Researchers for parliamentarians unable to make it.

So keen were the Black, Asian and other minority ethnic folk to give us their stories – and set out potential solutions to the racism that they have experienced on the streets and in so many of this country’s institutions – that the end of the meeting was first extended from 8pm to 8.30pm and then to 9pm.

Not only did we hear the sometimes understandably angry and emotional voices of these folk, many of those attending – who gradually saw that they would not have time to speak – filled the ‘chat’ column with their stories.

For someone sitting in Orkney, where our ethnic population is probably hardly out of double figures, this was like an out-of-body experience.

I knew, of course, that plenty of folk around here have at best questionable views on ethnic minorities. I can still recall, after all these years, the ‘playful’ way that his St Margaret’s Hope school pals called Luke Sutherland ‘Roots’ (from the television adaptation of the Arthur Haley novel) as he made his way up to the track at Kirkwall Grammar School for an athletics competition sometime in the early 1980s. Luke, who has gone on to work as a musician (playing with Mogwai among others) and writer, related far worse experiences since then, and his 2004 novel Venus As A Boy is well worth a read.

These events were in the back of my mind as one woman told how she’d had to remove her children from school due to racist abuse, describing some of the conversations she’d had with educators as ‘disgusting’.

“I want every other child of colour in Scotland to grow and not to go through what my children went through,” she told us.

Another said of Scotland’s education system: “Issues about people that look like me don’t get talked about. That allows the bigoted and ignorant views that we still get today.”

There was a strong feeling that the story of Scotland’s Black history, and the country’s role in the Atlantic slave trade needed to be part of the curriculum.

“We are part of Scots history; we were here in the past and we are here now.”

A social worker said she felt that cases were allocated to her based on skin colour and that she was the ‘token Asian person’ in her workplace.

One of the stories that affected me most was a woman with a legal qualification who had to requalify in Scotland to even stand a chance of a job. After lots of rejection, she ended up changing her African surname to a more Scottish sounding one. When she finally secured an interview she was questioned on arrival as to whether she was really who she said she was.

“I believe I am not the only one. It’s not right at all,” she told us.

She questioned whether Scotland really was her home.

Another speaker agreed that the public needed to be educated: “The cancer in our country is lack of empathy.”

He concluded: “If we celebrate diversity but ignore the disparity then that is hypocrisy.”

Even as the meeting progressed, you could sense that some folk felt they had been here before, and were sceptical about the potential for change.

“How do we avoid the cycle of being periodically asked to speak about racism, then when it is no longer topical, we are asked to be quiet because people in power feel they heard enough?” asked one.

The racism experienced in the education system has a massive impact on future options.

One woman said she felt children were not being supported to pick the right subjects on the guise that they will not manage.

“My niece wanted to take IT and was offered Home Economics. It is the assumption that her future lies in the hospitality sector not technology?”

“As parents, we need to encourage our children to enter every kind of professions we can think of. We need to stop dissuade BAME young people getting into professions like teaching, policing or social work because of fear of racism,” was one plea from one mother.

Another said: “My son does not even know he could be a teacher because there is no single black teacher in his school despite the so called inclusive programme.”

One suggestion, from a man who said he’d had beatings on an almost daily basis as a schoolboy, provided Scotland with an opportunity to show what could be done.

“I’d love to see Scotland lead the way with education in schools teaching our out of Africa origins and how we are climate evolved humans not different races. This will destroy racism when people know our shared history.”

And it was clear that the identification and awareness of what constitutes racist actions or language needs to be learned by all of us, so that we can avoid it or stop others if we see it happen.

“It should be alarming to you all, that every single person of colour in Scotland can attest to suffering a racist incident. Yet no white person in Scotland admits to being or knowing a racist person. How does that add up?”

One contributor suggested: “All our educators, managers, police, literally everyone in a position of power overlooking any group of people should go though some form of racial sensitivity training. The level of ignorance can no longer be allowed to continue. It is easy enough to be insensitive to something you have not been sensitised in. If you do not know what a racial micro aggression is and its impact, how will you know when you are either doing it or witnessing one. It should be alarming to you all, that every single person of colour in Scotland can attest to suffering a racist incident. Yet no white person in Scotland admits to being or knowing a racist person. How does that add up?”

These are a small selection of the stories we heard and read in what was an overwhelming and highly thought-provoking meeting. That online gathering – important though it was – must be merely the start of something that leads to lasting change in Scotland in terms of attitude to every citizen, whether they are born here or choose to make this country their home.

That is certainly Graham Campbell’s intent, and a couple of days after the event he said that the feedback had been extremely positive. The biggest message, from both the politicians and the participants was: “Monday night has to be the start of something that leads to meaningful change. Being listened to is great, being heard is better.”

Graham has pledged to push forward, and although the initial meeting was for SNP politicians and representatives, he hopes the project will be one that many in the SNP and hopefully other parties and other walks of life will be keen to support.

One of my favourite quotes from an SNP politician is from Bashir Ahmad. When launching Scots Asians for Independence at the SNP conference in 1995, the man who went on to be Scotland’s first non-white and first Muslim MSP said ‘it isn’t important where you come from, what matters is where we are going together as a nation’.

That message needs to permeate Scotland right now.

I would go further even, and suggest it might be more accurate to say where you come from may not be important, but knowing that you belong here certainly is, and that you are a valuable part of this country’s future.

For that reason I needed no second asking when Scottish-born polymath Eunice Olumide, who has dual British and Nigerian nationality, encouraged me via Twitter to sign her petition to the Scottish Parliament. This seeks to urge the Scottish Government ‘to reform the national curriculum to include Afro-Scottish history including artefacts of African diaspora, cultural and economic contributions, the role of the British Empire and the benefits to Scotland from colonies of the Caribbean and Africa’.

In presenting the petition, Eunice says: “Like me, many have been horrified by the recent conflicts in America, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, fanned by hundreds of years of oppression and racism.

“It is easy to think that this does not happen here but in fact statistics and personal accounts prove otherwise. When Black parents have ‘the talk’ with their sons or daughters, it is often about what to do when you are racially abused, attacked, or assaulted. It can be argued that much of the discrimination and racism faced by Afro-Scots is due to the poor levels of education on the history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Scotland’s role, and how Scotland benefitted economically from this.

“The current national curriculum also does not highlight the many prominent Afro-Scottish and Black British figures who have contributed significantly and positively not only to Scotland but to the UK as a whole.

“I believe this has led to racial profiling, physical and mental abuse, and to Afro-Scots being less likely to be recruited after achieving a degree.”

She concludes: “I am calling for a commitment and pledge from policy makers for pro-active anti-racist action. In recognition of these historic times, a meaningful step that can be taken is the implementation of a thorough and robust account of Afro-Scottish history through the national education system. This would negotiate, rectify and recognise those real-life events and contributions that continue to shape and support our society today culturally, socially, and economically.”

The petition is open until 5^th August, and can be found here: http://external.parliament.scot/gettinginvolved/petitions/afroscotshistorycurriculum

Orkney Oot Wae Racism

Meanwhile back in Orkney, the Black Lives Matter-inspired campaign is a socially distanced and online one, and is being run under the title ‘Orkney Oot Wae Racism’. Given the tone of some of the comments on social media when this group emerged, there is a fair bit of work to do in the islands. There is strength in numbers though, and the group has already made links with our neighbours in Shetland, who helped back the Up Helly Aa blackface ban campaign, and who operate under the ‘Shetland Staands Wi Black Lives Matter’ banner.

There are also a few instances where blackface has been used in fancy dress parades in Orkney, and I understand that organisers of these events are being contacted in a similar way to the Up Helly Aa campaign in Shetland.

There has also been discussion in Orkney over whether Dundas Crescent and Dundas Street in Kirkwall and Stromness respectively are ripe for renaming – or at least a plaque to explain the connection of the Dundas family to slavery. Sir Lawrence Dundas, who bought the earldom of Orkney and lordship of Shetland for £63,000 in 1766, owned two slave-owned plantations in the West Indies. He was a cousin of Henry Dundas, who was instrumental in obstructing the abolition of slavery.

Addressing the present day instances of racism in Scotland, recounted so powerfully by so many voices during that early June Zoom meeting, isn’t something that will happen somewhere distant from Orkney. The truth is that it needs to happen in every community in this country.

Similarly, as we have seen emerge at the same time, the evidence of the role of Orkney families in the slave trade is there in our history books. That will be the case in communities across Scotland. It is a past that has been buried to an extent, but needs now to be uncovered so that we can move forward as a country together – no matter where we have come from.

It seems, then, that George Floyd’s death – amplified by a global crisis that has changed the way we communicate – has launched a re-examination of our past, present and future to an extent that no one could have foreseen.

The results can surely only be positive.

Birthday bonus

Just over a week since I last wrote Kara celebrated her birthday. That was Thursday, May 28 and we had a lovely spread of lunch put together by the girls and enjoyed at the same time as Nicola Sturgeon – as promised the week before – announced the slight easing of lockdown restrictions. Folk could meet up in gardens, parks and other open spaces with folk from one other household, socially distanced.

The Leslies slightly jumped the gun by hosting a few family members on our social distancing bench on the Thursday, but the stays were brief as folk were mainly just dropping off presents.

And after a day that was a bit chilly, the sun did poke through as I cooked the birthday barbeque, although we did eat it inside because it wasn’t quite warm enough to sit outside!

Cooking Kara’s birthday barbeque

Maybe the Aussie shirt brought out the sun for the barbie!

Some Books Wot I Have Read…

I haven’t had time for all the social media challenges that have been set, but one that I made the effort on was picking seven books that have been enjoyed. Without going into the reasons, here are the ones I chose, with the Neil Gaiman one having been posted up the night before we learned that he had made his marathon journey from New Zealand to Skye! I think that was wrong, but I’ll still be aiming to re-read The Sandman series for the third or fourth time:

Also in the last couple of weeks of May, I signed a petition to support Power for People. They are a not-for-profit organisation who have drafted the Local Electricity Bill and are campaigning for it to be made law. They already have the support of a cross-party group of 151 MPs but they need many more and to achieve this the need your help. This would give community-scale renewable energy a massive boost by empowering communities to sell their energy directly to local people. It could certainly help reduce fuel poverty in Orkney, where so many folk rely on expensive electricity for heating their homes.

Net Zero Week

With my learning and researching part of furlough now well through its second month, I had started to pick up ideas around how a greening of the economic recovery could start to take shape.

Not least in highlighting the possibility of a New Green Deal was Edie’s Net Zero Week.

I ‘attended’ two of the three days of events that were streamed to a wide audience. From the comments in one of the sessions I sat in on it was clear that at that UK level an energy efficiency drive was seen as the quickest way to kick-start a green recovery.

It was very revealing to hear former Tory MP and life peer Greg Barker, the ex Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change recognise the weakness of the Green Deal as he agreed energy efficiency retrofit was where support was needed. He said that the private sector had ‘underestimated the complexity of retrofitting people’s houses’. I would argue that this was a rather kind description, and in reality we have had a bunch of cowboys running round ruining many properties using Green Deal and ECO funding.

Baron Barker of Battle, who now sits in the House of Lords, went on to say that the reality is that if we are going to retrofit homes and businesses, then we are going to need ‘very serious government intervention’. He said government would need to be ‘much more hands on’ and that there had been ‘market failure’ on time-critical energy efficiency work. He said he hoped the government would realise it was not just about passing cash over to business, but ‘being much clearer on how that money needs to be spent’. All pretty remarkable stuff from a free-marketeer.

I understand that discussions on the economic recovery in Orkney have included the circular economy, and this was also a major topic during Net Zero Week. One contributor suggested that around £10 billion of infrastructure investment would be required, in the shape of recycling plants across Britain, and argued that this would be a way of rebuilding the economy in a green and sustainable way. These would create jobs to replace those wiped out during – and probably after – the pandemic.

Political messages

Thanks to a Shetland SNP member, Ian Johnston, who was a key member of the General Election campaign in November and December, late May and early June saw me take part in a couple of online events or programmes on the topic of independence.

The first was Netherlands For Scottish Independence Online rally

This saw me record a short speech in the garden here in Orkney at about 10pm – one of our fine nights – to be broadcast on Facebook the following day along with speeches and music from folk from the Netherlands, Germany and all over Scotland.

Ewan McGregor has one too!It was a strange experience but on watching some of the event the next day I reckon getting together with these folk – and many more – at their event in the Hague would be great if that can happen again. Indeed, if we can and need to do so ahead of another referendum, I would love to make the visit.

The second recording was made along with Fiona Grahame of The Orkney News. This was for the IndyLive Radio IndyPram Podcast. It was great fun being interviewed over Zoom by the presenter from his home in Glasgow. We covered lots of ground while giving our thoughts on what independence for Scotland could mean for Orkney.

It was pretty clear from the start of all this that sticking to a diary of events wasn’t going to happen – and it wouldn’t have been all that interesting either. It’s not that every week of furlough/lockdown has been the same – there have been ups and downs; there has been tears, there has been laughter; cats, dog and humans have all had their moments.

Food has been bought, cooked, baked and eaten in massive quantities. Recycling has mounted up, been reorganised, crushed, squashed and finally sorted for eventual collection starting with glass next week.

Zoom has been our main means of contact with friends and family, work meetings for some, study for others. Facebook live drumming lessons have been regular features too.

And with a few family birthdays having happened during lockdown, the familiar gatherings in each household at this time of year had to be replaced by Zoom gatherings with food and cake delivered round houses so that we could all join in online and celebrate. It worked fine and we had plenty of laughs.

In a previous life I used to enjoy attending live music events and enjoying the odd beer or dram in pubs – remember those days?

As a way of supporting some of the musicians who saw their summer of gigs and festivals disappear over night, I have bought records and CDs, and also signed up on Patreon for one act so far. I also bought a subscription to The Big Issue, as the vendors are off the streets and needing support until such time as they can get selling again. It may be that we need to change the way we support artists and enjoy art, and how we consume news and views for some time to come.

All these things have happened among some folk working, some folk studying, and me furloughed and trying to keep some sort of pattern to life at the same time as keeping up a training/reading schedule for 20% of my working week.

But that will be a familiar pattern for so many folk, all the while waiting to see when our lockdown situation is likely to change, and what lies at the end of it.

It Can’t Be
Business As Usual

One of the threads that I have maintained throughout the lockdown and furlough period has been the shape of things to come for us economically, environmentally and socially. Of course these are all influenced by political choices – and keeping up with all the ideas bubbling around during the virtual freezing of our economic and social life has been challenging.

One of the developments I mentioned in a previous post was the group formed by members of the SNP to look at some of the ideas coming out of Scotland’s Common Weal think tank. Since then, I have taken part in a Zoom meeting of SNP members across Scotland who have joined this group, and discussed the kind of changes to the way the economy functions that might be necessary to promote a fairer and more equal society.

While this was a significant development – and a good start to finding out what policies might need to be promoted for adoption through SNP channels – I was more excited to find that Orkney Renewable Energy Forum had invited Common Weal’s Robin McAlpine to speak about their Common Home Plan policy document – which outlines proposals for a Green New Deal for Scotland – at an online meeting.

The Common Home Plan covers topics including Building, Heating, Electricity, Transport, Food, Land, Resources, Trade, Learning and ‘Us’ – we the people as the human resources. Without going into it in depth, the plan was published long before this pandemic, but if anything the present situation – coming at a time when the climate crisis and associated environmental issues were ramping up the agenda – put fresh urgency on developing some of the ideas within it.

It was encouraging to see folk in Orkney taking interest in the Common Weal’s ideas – some of which would require independence to come to fruition – as Orkney may just be the right place to press ahead with some of the proposals, especially around energy and transport. I suspect that the emphasis on district heating contained in the Common Home Plan may not, however, be best suited to the islands.

Looking back at the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008, it is clear that we cannot – must not – end up accepting a return to that ‘Business As Usual’ scenario. There was a call at the time for a major drive on energy efficiency to pull folk out of recession, with the improvements to existing homes and the jobs created by a step-change in the levels of retrofitting being carried out being seen at the time as a ‘win-win’.

What we got instead was a shadow of what was needed. The Green Deal was a flop, and putting energy efficiency improvements through ECO (the Energy Company Obligation) in the hands of private enterprise has ended up with disastrous consequences in some areas.

This time around there is greater need not only for a ramping up of household energy efficiency, but massive decarbonisation across the economy. Anything less than a socially just transition to a more sustainable and greener economy must be strongly opposed.

Anyhow, I’ll get off my soapbox now and wait for Nicola Sturgeon to unveil her road map out of lockdown on Thursday, after which we will know a bit more about when we can start developing some of these ideas for change.

We’ll all be looking for something positive to focus on in the weeks and months to come after all.