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Disclaimer: I am not a fan of the term ‘person of colour’, however I am using it because everyone understands what I mean by it and it will help SEO etc.
Wow-ee-ka-za-rii. I consider myself a left-leaning person and always have. In the UK I vote for the Labour party. Most of my socio-political views are centre-left; I support social democracy, regulated capitalism, the NHS, high taxation on the wealthy, secularism, etc. In many social spaces both online and offline, I interact with people who have similar views to me.
Unfortunately, a common trend popular among left-leaning folk at the moment is ‘wokeness’ and the obsession with identity politics. This is not a new fad, it’s been going on for several years now. It doesn’t just affect the Internet, it bleeds into real life. Take the latest JK Rowling controversy.
There are many folk like me out there who are anti-woke, anti-cancel culture, and tired of identity politics being thrust upon us all the time. Tired of being told that Disney films are ‘problematic’ and that racism is everywhere and all white people are privileged (which they really aren’t).
Unfortunately again, a lot of people who I have similar anti-woke views to end up gearing off in another extreme. I recently joined a few anti-woke and anti-SJW groups on Facebook, only to sadly find that most of the people in these groups were white and leaning towards a ‘right-leaning’ anti-woke-mentality. They swung to the other extreme, saying that Chauvin is innocent and that George Floyd died of a heart attack or a drug overload or some other nonsense.
This kind of sucks. It’s a problem I have been increasingly aware of over the last several years. The problem of being a person who has liberal left-leaning views, but who doesn’t support the mainstream ‘woke’ ideology, who scoffs at terms like ‘mansplaining’ and ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘white privilege.’
It’s even harder being a person of colour in this instance. Why? Because the overwhelming narrative perpetuated in many brown and black social spaces IS wokeness, which is tough. This is especially common in the arts, where many brown poets and writers are obsessed with racial identity. A person of colour who doesn’t have these views is seen as ‘conservative.’ But I am not conservative either. I can’t identify with black conservatives. And unfortunately AGAIN, there aren’t many mainstream brown folk who are anti-woke. Writers like Zadie Smith, Tomi Adeyemi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — intelligent authors whose work I appreciate, still bring a lot of things back to identity politics, which is tough for me, more so as someone who is against feminism. (I’ll touch on this shortly.)
There is, of course, the infamous Candace Owens. But Candace Owens IS a conservative. And more discerningly, Candace Owens is insincere. Candace Owens strikes me as someone who doesn’t really care about black issues, she cares more about herself. I watched her video commenting on George Floyd and found it very unnecessary not to mention riddled with factual innaccuracies. (i.e. she claimed that black people are the only people who celebrate criminals. I think she missed Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Saville, and Jeff Bezos who doesn’t pay his taxes which is technically a crime, but cool.)
As a person of colour there are things, REAL things, specifically to my experience that irk me in this world.
Examples:
- Being told that I sound ‘white’ or ‘posh’ or that black characters in my books don’t ‘sound black’
- Often being the only black person in a social setting
- Having to explain to white friends in the past why my haircare routine differs from them
- Constantly reading stories by white authors where a white person is referred to as a ‘person’ but a black person is referred to as a ‘black person’
- Being told I don’t act like a ‘typical black person’
- In school questioning and being annoyed at the lack of Afrocentric history taught in schools and that the only black history I ever got to study were the Ancient Egyptians and the US Civil Rights Movement
- White feminism in general
None of these ‘issues’ are particularly terrible. But they are all part of a broader conversation about race which I feel like I can’t contribute to. This is because as soon as I open my mouth, a person of colour will harp on about white privilege and white supremacy and usually end up somewhere in the field of ‘white people=bad.’
So where do I fit in? I’ve spent my life avoiding making race a large part of my identity. And it isn’t. I understand that for a lot of people, race, gender, and sexuality are a large part of their identity. But I see these things as superficial. EQUALLY, I recognise that most people DON’T see them as superficial, and that sadly we can’t ignore them completely even though I would like to. Because ignoring them means I ignore all of the things listed above.
No, me being black does not make me ‘oppressed’ or ‘marginalised.’ It also doesn’t mean that I can’t champion things like calling for more diversity in fiction which is essential when done as part of the narrative. One of the things that irritates me about the contemporary romance genre is the saturation of books about white middle-class Anglo-Americans. Part of my ‘counter’ to that has been writing a romance series WITH diverse characters. The characters’ ethnicities/sexualities are not the sum of who they are. They are but a small part, and don’t affect the plots all that much. But they exist to show readers that not everyone looks the same. I grew up in London, one of the most multicultural cities in the world. My experience is heavily influenced by that.
A word on feminism: I will probably do an entire blog post on this at some point, but I am finding it increasingly hard to be a woman in the arts who is outspoken and driven and left-leaning AND anti-feminism. Most intellectual men of colour over the age of forty are aware of the damage that feminism has done to the black British and black American working-class communities. Creating a division between black women and their men, and leading to a generation of young black men being raised without fathers. This is something white Anglo-American/British feminists do not talk about because they do not care. Why should they? White feminists have no reason to care about the struggles of black men. Black men are probably one of the largest casualties of feminism. I’m not saying that feminism is wholly responsible for issues concerning black men in the UK and America, but it has contributed horrendously.
This is not a popular narrative. Even by typing these words I can feel the alienation among some of my friends who have views that I am speaking against. I fear a divide. I do not want to stir up hatred or controversy, but I can’t sit ‘quietly’ because the two ‘extreme’ mainstream views; wokeness on one side and right-wing extremism on the other, are dominating the socio-political zeitgeist. And they are spilling out into the kind of TV we are able to watch, the movies that are being called ‘problematic’ and other nonsensical adjectives. How long before art starts being banned? I am an artist. I support freedom of expression. I am aware that Enid Blyton was probably a bit racist, does that mean I shouldn’t read her books? No. I take them for what they were. How can we progress if we don’t learn from the past? Equally, how can we expect non-white authors to write diverse characters if ‘woke’ people will slander them for ‘being offensive’? It’s madness.
There are many well-meaning white progressive folk out there who again, I care for in my daily life. But I can’t stand patronisation. It’s condescending for a white person to ‘assume’ that my life is hard because I’m black. This goes back to what Malcolm X once said about distrusting white liberals. The new white ‘wokeness’ made prominent by people like Robin D’Angelo is riddled in self-gratification. ‘Look at me, I’m such a good progressive white person!’ No. Just be as you are. Brown people do not need white people to pride themselves on not being racist or to put themselves down and say things like ‘hmm yes I am aware being white makes me privileged.’ Being white doesn’t make anyone privileged. We can’t choose the colour we are born with. Also, ‘white’ comes in various shades: German, French, Turkish, Romanian, Jewish, poor, working-class, homeless, disabled, schizophrenic, etc.
I really don’t like the concept of ‘ally-ship.’ I am not an ‘ally’ to the LGBT+ community. I treat my LGBT+ friends and relatives with the same degree of respect, sincerity and politeness that I would do with anyone. I write LGBT+ characters into my books because they exist and I believe they are people. (And no I’m not going to include the other letters of the alphabet because I already put a plus sign, that is suffice for you to know that I am including others part of that group. And if it ain’t, tough.)
But look, if someone wants to be an ally, that is their choice. But then BE an ally. Don’t say that you are to try and win points or a pat on the back. Actions speak louder than words. A friend of mine once said that she practices feminism rather than calling herself a feminist. Now even though I don’t support feminism, I respect that, because anyone can call themselves a ‘something.’ But what are you actually DOING about it? How are you helping the cause? We live in a culture of people posting pictures on Instagram and black squares on Facebook to win likes from people. What happened to goodness for goodness sake? Doing something quietly in the background and letting the work speak for itself is always much better.
So to sum up, I am a person of colour, and I am anti-woke. I believe that #black lives matter, #alllivesmatter, and #allblacklivesmatter (not just ones killed by cops). And yes, white lives also matter but saying ‘white lives matter’ often goes hand-in-hand with white ethnonationalism (which is rather sad).
Maybe we can start a new movement, the anti-woke movement for people of colour who don’t see ourselves as victims. Because being brown doesn’t make me a ‘victim.’ White leftists, please stop calling me ‘marginalised.’ I am not marginalised on the basis of my skin colour. Certainly not as a upper-working-class/lower-middle-class person living in 21st century London who has published 8+ books.
