Your say / Race Equality
‘My dream is to transform Bristol into the best city for people of all colours, all cultures and all classes’
As a Bristol-born Knowle West Indian, I think that this week’s Race Equality Week is really important. We live in a city that has a history of the transatlantic enslavement of my ancestors, juxtaposed with electing the first mayor of Black African heritage of any major European city. And then there’s all the stuff that’s in between.
Many people say that Bristol is a great city to live, work, play and study. Surveys say how brilliant and amazing it is. And it is. But today it is also the seventh most unequal city for a person of colour and I just don’t think that’s acceptable in the 21st century in a cosmopolitan city that speaks 91 languages and has some 150 religions.
Bristol is a city that projects and dines out on its diversity. But truthfully, do we deliver it? I look around the city’s institutions. I look at the streets that I walk on, the buildings that I work in and walk into, and the disparities that still exist in health and education.
is needed now More than ever
Some institutions like Avon & Somerset Police have admitted that they are institutionally racist. Others like the University of Bristol have put their money where their mouth is – let’s give them credit – by putting £10m over ten years behind a reparatory justice programme.
So what that tells us clearly is that we have work to do. It was well said at Paul Stephenson’s recent memorial. We had all these wonderful accolades about his life and there were some great stories that we learned about him as a person and his motivations.
But at the end and what stuck with me was something said by Peter Courtier, the first director of Bristol Racial Equality Council, which came out of the Race Relations Act, who said that Paul would be the first to say to us all – if he were he – that the work continues. He was not a man of words, he was a man of actions and he would definitely be up for getting stuff done around racial inequality in this city and in this country.
I see myself as an agitator. I’m all about making good trouble happen. Good trouble matters. I don’t like inequality. I’m a victim and have been a victim, overtly and covertly, of the consequences of the systems that embed inequality. I’m simply driven by the fact that I have three daughters and I just want them, like Martin Luther King said, to be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
Unfortunately, however, the trajectory is that when they turn 13 they will continually be judged by the colour of their skin. They will also have the double diversity dilemma of also being a woman. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024, it will take 134 years to reach gender parity. So if you think it’s going to take a woman that long, how much longer will it take a Black woman? How much longer will it take a Black man?
I see myself as a provocateur, an agitator, a catalyst for positive social change. I believe in Martin Luther King’s dream. I’m driven by the purposeful activism of the Bristol Bus Boycott. I believe we’ve got to co-create and we’ve got to challenge. We’ve got to be critical but we have to also be very clear about what we want.
As Frederick Douglass said: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” We have to be very clear about what are our demands. When we say we want change and we want it now, what do we mean?
How can we as a city become the best city for people of all colours, all cultures and all classes? That’s my dream; to transform Bristol into that. Let’s not forget that racial and social equality is not just good for business, it’s everybody’s business and that’s what I’m in the business of.
In Bristol, we are currently at a crossroads. We have some choices to make about what kind of city we now truly want to be. We know we have the resources. But do we have the capacity and do we have the will? Put those three things together and we have the way.
One of the ways to catalyse that is to bring Martin Luther King III to Bristol, whose father’s ‘I have a dream’ speech was spoken on the same day that the Bristol Bus Boycott defeated the colour bar. That was a battle and an important milestone moment, but we are still in the war.
We have got the flame carrier of his father’s dream coming to Bristol and helping us as a city to really drive through a joint vision that is about raising up the voice of under-represented groups. Martin Luther King wasn’t just about race. He was a true activist; about jobs, equality and peace as well as racial justice.
So here’s the challenge to Bristol: I want our city to get behind this dream of bringing Martin Luther King III to Bristol to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Race Relations Act on November 11 at the Wills Memorial Building.
I need this city, our corporate and civic change-making leaders to not be active allies but to be generous with the resources they commit to allow this to happen. Because this will stay in the city’s DNA for generations to come. He’s going to be creating moments for people that will generate a whole new way of them seeing themselves. And I think we can’t afford not to do this.
Julz Davis is the founder of Curiosity UnLtd, a think and do tank for social justice. To get in touch with Julz about the visit of Martin Luther King III to Bristol, email connect@curiosityUnLtd.com or fill in this form
Main photo: Martin Booth
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