The Deafening Chorus Of Silence

This week, I inadvertently joined the deafening chorus of silence.

I am talking about the 'majority silence' of people who saw the latest in a very long line of stories about a black man, George Floyd, losing his life unnecessarily and brutally at the hands of a white police officer.

The majority saw the senseless death of a man begging for his life, given no compassion from the law enforcement that was supposed to protect and serve him. Neither from the man who killed him, nor the others standing around watching. The majority saw this.

Yet this majority moved on, went about their day, and didn't do anything about what they saw in front of them.

Was I saddened by what happened to George Floyd? Yes. Was I enraged? Yes. Was I enraged enough to do something? Clearly not.

I didn’t speak up about it, didn’t call it out, haven’t joined forces to drive change. I have been a spectator.

As I saw what unfolded, I didn’t really know what to say or do. I watched on as incredible friends of mine spoke as courageously, powerfully and eloquently as they always do about the plight of race issues in the world. I felt like I wanted to say something, but thought “what can I meaningfully add to this conversation?"

So I stayed deafeningly silent this week. Like the majority of people.

Carried on with my life and went about my business. Afraid to have a voice, or show empathy or compassion publicly.

I got hindered by the magnitude of the conversation, and worried I have nothing to add.

So I stayed deafeningly silent.

But then I realised, it’s not about “adding to the conversation”, it’s about joining it.

Join in, join up, join together.

Be outraged together. Be committed together.

Fight for justice together.

Get knocked down 7 times, stand up 8.

It's about having the resilience to continue on. The protests in the US will eventually dissipate; the sweltering rage and feeling will calm.

I know this because my sister lost her entire home and everything she owned in the Tottenham riots, escaping only just with her life on that fateful first night. I know that things will return to calm, despite feelings of utter rage, sadness and loss.

And it's then that we need to have the resilience to carry on.

When the headlines go away and life returns to the "new normal", we need the resilience to carry on.

Many people in the UK will not be affected by what happened to George Floyd. Not because they are dispassionate or overtly prejudiced people, but because it's all the way over there in the US.

But this is not a Black America problem.

We have cases of disproportionate force by police on black and brown people here in the UK too.

However, this is not a Black UK problem either.

This is not a black problem to solve.

This is a global, societal problem. 

And there is one side of society where the biggest share of the problem lays, where people sit in privilege, either consciously or unconsciously, over others.

Now, it's important to make a distinction. This brutality was a result of anti-black racism, endemic in society, leading to the all too often disproportionate response towards and persecution of black people.

Whilst the majority do not live their lives in anti-black racism, the important thing to note is that it has been created and established by and for white people in the main and therefore non-black people have broadly benefited from it in different contexts too.

White privilege is a polarising term. It's an uncomfortable truth that people do not want to confront.

Not for the hard right or the supremacists, they'll just flat out aggressively deny it.

No, it's uncomfortable for the silent majority.

I'll bet that the majority of this majority, who are good, kind and virtuous will not even stop to think of their privilege because they aren't even aware of it and don't see the world in that way.

But this is exactly the privilege we are talking about - the vantage point that prevents one understanding the perspective, feelings and experiences on the other side.

It's not about empathising or seeing it from their position - it's not really possible to ever know what it feels like to be a black person if you are white.

It's about saying "I see it clearly in front of me, I acknowledge your experience, I hear you, I believe you and what can I do to help?"

The silent majority is where the biggest opportunity for change is.

The numbers can swing this away from a black problem that just black people need to solve from a place of oppression, to something bigger for us all to address.

Let's get another thing clear though - this is not just simply about white privilege. I am a British asian male and I acknowledge that I benefit from privilege too. In the UK, 11 in 1000 asians were stopped and searched in 18/19, compared to 38 in 1000 black people. There is privilege in oppression too.

We need the majority to stand up now.

And we need them not be silent anymore.

In all honesty, I don't know where to start with that. But I know that I can start by doing things myself:

• I am going to ensure that Josh and I will keep talking about this on our 115 Miles podcast regularly, and we will bring on co-hosts who will add to the debate
• I will use my expansive business network and my influence to drive positive change
• I will ask my influential friends to join a conversation with us and use their voices as a ripple effect
• I will seek to learn more about that which I don't know, and I will ask others to join me. When I am stuck, I will seek out help
• I will hold myself and others to account in making change happen

What can you do?

• Learn, learn, learn - be inquisitive, be curious, and be respectful when learning about other people's lived experience
• Get people together, get agency around change and have conversations about the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Turn conversations into actions - however small, they will ripple. Talk is important, but actions speak louder.

I am lucky to know some incredible people who have inspired and helped me learn along the way, and I encourage you to follow them and their organisations:

• Ben Lindsay, CEO of Power The Fight & author of We Need To Talk About Race
• Hanna Naima McCloskey, CEO of Fearless Futures

What are you going to do?

Please let me know, so that we can all do something together.