In October 2020, and to mark Black History Month, FINTRAIL ran a team book club dedicated to reading books authored by Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Inidigenous people and People of Colour (BAME and BIPOC). We did this to improve our understanding of racism and the issues faced by the BAME/BIPOC communities, as well as to facilitate an open discussion, ensuring that everyone in the team participated actively in a discussion about racism. We wanted to share how we set up the book club, our key takeaways and our next steps.
We devised a list of books by BAME and BIPOC authors, and asked each person in the team to pick one book to read. We asked a series of short, generic questions (what was the story, what did you learn, what challenged you about the book) and then all met (virtually of course in these COVID-19 times) and each ran through the book we’d read and answered the three general questions. This meant everyone could share their individual take on the book they’d read and we got to learn about a wider range of books than if we’d simply picked one book for us all to read. The team at FINTRAIL offers a huge note of thanks to Meredith and Ishima for coordinating all of this.
We held a lively and engaging discussion, the main takeaway being that we all experienced an overwhelming feeling of shock and frankly horror at the injustices BAME and BIPOC individuals have faced on a continuous basis throughout history. We learned from Mikey’s reading of “In Black and White” [Alexandra Wilson] about the injustices faced by black criminal barristers in the UK, and how the mistreatment of black people in the legal profession - often mistaking them for defendants - negatively impacts how justice is served to our BAME populations in the UK. There is a horrible and unjust (pun fully intended) irony here. Meredith read “Indian Horse” [Richard Wagamese], centering on the author’s experiences as an Indigenous person in Canada of the residential care system. The practice of residential care for indigenous people was only disbanded in the 1960s in Canada, and it subjected indigenous children to religious cleansing, child labour and sexual abuse in many cases, turning on its head the notion that Canada has been sensitive in its handling of indigenous communities.
We observed too that there were wild discrepancies between how much black history we had all covered at school; some colleagues had covered elements of black history in detail, whereas others hadn’t touched on anything specific. For many of us, this discussion was one of the first opportunities we’d had (or taken) to discuss racism openly and learn about black history. That all being said, and as Maya pointed out based on her reading of “Black and British” [David Olusoga], it became clear to us that we need to start teaching black history not as a history of black people in Britain, but as an integral part of the history of Britain. We lose important context if we do the former. As such, it seems critical that schools and educational institutions examine urgently how they are teaching history that fully encompasses the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic/BIPOC experience.
As regards other practical steps to be taken, we learned from James’s reading of “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” [Reni Eddo-Lodge] that the need for black equality is not about inverting the power balance between black and white people, but rather rebalancing that power evenly. James noted - in a work-based example - that the notion therefore of hiring people solely on “merit” was no longer sustainable, and that to redress the imbalances caused by racism, more proactive hiring of BAME/BIPOC individuals is needed.
Finally, we learned from a number of the books we read that white people have been conditioned not to talk about race, or deal with their privilege and that this has to change if we are to make inroads into the battle against racism. Therefore, a small, but important logistical observation stood out: running the book club the way we did - with each person reading and commenting on a different book - facilitated a very open discussion. In turn, this ensured that everyone participated and had to start that conversation about white privilege and Black, Asian and Minority Ethinc/BIPOC oppression with the group, and - most importantly - with themselves.
If you’d like to learn more, please contact Gemma Rogers, Co-Founder, or email us at: contact@fintrail.co.uk.