Get Over Yourself.

Get over yourself.

People have been saying that the coronavirus is the great equaliser. To some extent, they are right. Covid-19 has affected our whole world: rich and poor; young and old; educated and non-educated; those in good health, those in poor health; men and women; white, brown, black…

However, not everyone has been affected to the same extent. Let’s make no bones about it.

I think finally, some people that wanted to pretend inequality does not exist, are waking up to smell the coffee.

This post is not intended to make you comfortable. Get over yourself.

Oh don’t worry, that phrase – which you are going to see again and again as your eyes follow the trail of these words – is one I have used for myself, too - and continue to check myself with. I am not picking on you.

The fact is, most of us live with some kind of privilege.

It is comfortable to be privileged.

As a black Christian woman who lives with a long-term condition and speaks with a Northern accent, I’ll admit that I’m not usually the most privileged person in the room.

However, I do live with privilege. I am from a middle-class home. I have never spent a night on the street. I have never had to worry about whether or not I could afford pads for my monthly cycle. I went to good schools throughout my life, and then went to one of the top universities in the world.

None of this is my fault, nor am I ashamed of it. But it would be stupid to start an argument with someone that has known a life of being homeless by stating, “Well, I used to tour with a Christian drama company, and sometimes we didn’t even know if we would have a place to stay that night!”

Erm… That would be an extremely dumb thing to say, and would be utterly missing the point.

Likewise, it would also be incredibly foolish for me to say to someone who grew up on an estate where all the local schools were poorly funded and were filled with students unwilling to learn, that I know exactly how they feel “because I didn’t go to Eton, I went to a state grammar school”. 

If I said that, I would feel an overwhelming urge to slap myself in the face.

Privileged people are generally quite inept at seeing their own privilege. My guess is that it makes them feel uncomfortable. Recognising that they are at the top of the ladder leaves room for someone to topple them from the highest rung. It also means they might have to do something to turn the tables. And they don’t much like that idea. 

Actually, it’s not a guess. I KNOW that it makes us feel uncomfortable to see our own privilege.

I have a lot of amazing friends. And many of them are involved in social justice causes. I have a number of friends who champion the needs of the homeless. At university, many of my friends were involved in “homeless outreach”, where they would get up close and personal with people on the street, provide them with food and talk to them about Jesus.

I never got involved with homeless outreach. Not because I don’t care about the homeless, or sympathise with their plight. It was more because the idea of getting involved made me feel uncomfortable.

To be fair, I was involved with a huge amount of societies at Oxford and I generally needed some time to rest on a Friday. However, I could have gone just once. I never did.

Why? Because the idea of making friends with homeless people made me uncomfortable. I had given small amounts of cash to people before, and I came to realise they were almost certainly using-it for drugs. I also felt uncomfortable because I was a young 18/19-year-old woman and most of the homeless people I would be helping were older men.

However, in dwelling on these realities, I did not leave much room in my brain to consider the needs of these people. When we focus on our comfort, we often do not consider other people’s humanity. The first step in recognising privilege is recognising that we are all the same, in essence: therefore, none of us has a right to believe themselves any better than anyone else. The next natural step is to do something to give a leg up to those squashed by the status quo. Unfortunately, society rewards those higher up on the social ladder, meaning that this can be counterintuitive. 

We want a world of peace. However, peace can only reign where there is justice.

If one us is suffering, we all suffer.

Covid-19 is finally forcing us to realise this reality.

People are dying. I’m not interested in your comfort. 

If you know me, you’ll know that I get very angry about injustice.

The forms of injustice I see used as ammunition against people based on the very essence of who they are, get me the most het up.

Racism and sexism are some of the big ones.

I believe that every human being is made in the image of God. Therefore, when you treat another human being as less than – based on an attribute that is in their DNA – well, you are not just insulting them, you are insulting God.

Get over yourself.

I have friends of many different hues. I love it. I love that the colours of our skin are not a barrier in establishing meaningful and lasting connections.

I therefore have conversations with my friends about race fairly often. I don’t shy away from it. I most certainly do not apologise for talking about an injustice that is causing death to many, and ruining the lives of countless people.

Some of my white friends actually will begin these discussions themselves – they care about injustice, and therefore, racism is not off limits. They also LISTEN when I talk to them about my experiences, and enlighten them on elements of my culture that they may not know about.

Conversations with some of my other friends do not quite follow this pattern. I’ve found myself in conversations with white friends where they start CORRECTING me on racism. Better yet, some seem to think it doesn’t exist. Excuse me, but as a white person born and raised in a white-majority country, how do you really think you can invalidate my lived experience as a black woman who has lived in several white-majority countries?

It took all the grace of God and strength of Jesus for me to not say something VERY RUDE back to them. Instead, I would politely tell them that were completely wrong. 

https://media.giphy.com/media/OUzJPYHSblGKI/giphy.gif - press play on this video.

I am fully aware of when people get uncomfortable about me bringing up racism in discussion. They do that thing where they shrink back in their seats and take an audible breath in, looking around as though they would rather be anywhere but THERE.

Ohh, I’m sorry, does this make you UNCOMFORTABLE??

Well, how do you think it feels to get pushed on the metro with people muttering horrible words about your skin tone? How do you think it feels to be beaten up on the street because you are black? How do you think it feels to be attacked on the street just because you are Chinese; people accusing you of bringing the coronavirus into the country? How do you think it feels to be KILLED just because you are a brown Muslim? Do you think that the thoughts of these people at the time they are attacked is, OH MY GOSH, I FEEL SO UNCOMFORTABLE RIGHT NOW?!

Get over yourself.

People of colour, don’t sit there looking so smug. Sometimes we need to get over ourselves too. You think black or brown people can’t be racist? So why is it possible that some of my family members might never speak to me again if I were to marry a white man? 

Some of you chocolate people only make friends with other chocolate bars. Why? Some of you spend a lot of time complaining about how awful white people are, yet you live in a country inhabited mostly by white people - because some white people gave you permanent residence. You had better get over yourself.

My melanin brothers and sisters, some of you are spending all of your energy getting worked up about white people wearing dreadlocks, when people are dying because they are black and brown. I think you need to pick your battles.

WE ALL NEED TO GET OVER OURSELVES.

If you feel uncomfortable as a man when a lady starts talking about how difficult it can be to be a woman, and how sexual harassment and assault is a common evil we learn to live with, you need to get over yourself. I know some amazing men who will actually listen, but I know of those who will immediately feel as though their masculinity is under attack – “Not all men do that!”

Did we say so?

Why don’t you try saying that to the woman who has been physically and mentally abused, raped and much more by a string of men in her lifetime? Are you really trying to tell me that toxic masculinity is not a thing?

Sure, you might not be a toxic male. I recognise that not all men are. Thankfully. However, to get offended when someone makes the point that toxic masculinity is a thing is completely missing the point.

Get over yourself.

I Got Over Myself.

Where I might have once been uncomfortable around homeless people, now when I see the homeless man that is a regular outside a nearby supermarket, I stop and talk with him. Sometimes I buy him food, if I have anything to spare. A few years ago, I would have given him a quick smile and rushed past, before he could ask me for anything. Now I know his name. Last time I saw him, I prayed for him.

What changed? I got over myself.

I recognised that the cause of the homeless was not solely the job of my friends, already doing a great job championing those on the streets. It was mine too.

It is not just MY (or any other black / brown person's) job to raise awareness about racism. Nor is it just Ruth’s (or any other woman's) responsibility to talk about sexism. Have you been thinking, Oh Ruth is an ambassador with Press Red, so I’ll leave it to her to address issues like domestic abuse?

Any form of injustice against humans is a HUMAN problem.

Racism, sexism, classism, ableism and a bunch of other discriminatory behaviours have bred a world of inequality. Are you going to:

1. -          get over yourself
2. -          hold your lips and listen to those at the bottom

… So that we can start to even things out?

Oh, I’m sorry, does that make you UNCOMFORTABLE??

Social justice ~ Socialist.

The most famous and widely-read book in the world has amongst its many wisdom-filled lines: ‘The love of money is the root of all evil’. Some would say that the Bible is outdated and doesn’t fit our modern-day society but I would say that it is still relevant, thousands of years after its writers first penned the words that fill its pages. For even that one assertion has plenty of evidence to prove it valid: yes, still in the 21^st century.

I never used to be interested in politics. I saw it as boring and the concern of middle-aged men. But one sentence I heard uttered some time ago by a guest speaker on a radio programme changed my position. She said: “Women often say they’re not interested in politics. But the fact is, they want change. And that’s what politics is all about; it’s about seeking to change things for the better.” Her words struck me. They made me realise that I have actually been political since I was in primary school. I have always spoken my mind on matters that I believe to be indicators of societal problems and I have always sought to do what I can to change things. You already know that: you’re reading a blog post on The Change Channel.

As a child for whom the extent of political knowledge was the Prime Minister’s name, I remember once asking my mum what the job of the Conservatives was. Voting Labour is the the generally accepted thing to do around where I live, so I didn’t know much about ‘the other side’. She told me in simple terms: “the Conservatives are all about conserving things, keeping things the way they are.” She added half-in-jest: “They just want to keep all the money to themselves.”

It may have been a very simplistic explanation but even now I still think it’s an accurate description of the Conservative party. That is, the principal right-wing party in the UK. Now I’m not about to launch into eulogising Ed Milliband or begin a discussion on the rubberiness of his voice. Instead I’m going to tell you why I think a socialist approach goes hand in hand with social justice.

What is social justice?

Social justice is generally agreed to be ‘justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society’. Thomas Jefferson’s world-famous lines assert “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So if we were all born equal, what happened in between?

It’s self-evident that there are multiple inequalities in the world in which we live today. They can be found between men and women, the rich and the poor, whites and non-whites, the sheltered and the neglected, the able-bodied and the disabled . . . Social justice aspires to rid the world of these wrongs with the aim of bringing about a better, fairer world.  

And the place to start is acknowledging that some groups in society are dealt a better hand than others from the start. So we may all have been “created equal”, but the minute we enter a very unequal world, we are either ushered up to the top of the pile or shoved to the bottom, according to who society deems laudable or undeserving. The words of Rousseau come to mind: ‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains’.

Capitalism

As I’ve grown older I’ve come to realise just how much the way our society is run is dependent on who’s got the largest amount of money (or who’s got hardly any of it). The fact is, money is power. So if you “ain’t” got much of it, you “ain’t” got much power. Capitalism as a system is characterised by the private ownership of the means of production (the raw materials and the labour force), and inevitably results in the unequal distribution of wealth. As its name suggests, it centres on capital (wealth), unlike its counterpart ideology: socialism, which radically places society at its focus, pushing for a society in which wealth is evenly distributed and is owned by a collective community, usually through the state. I studied Marxism as part of my Sociology course at Advanced Level and although the principles its founders propounded seemed interesting to me at the time, I never really fully realised the import of their ideological approaches until I came to uni. It was here that I saw Max Weber’s theories acted out in real life.

In simplistic terms, the model which Marxists created saw society as divided along class lines, the working class (the proletariat) and the upper classes (the bourgeoisie); staying in tune with a system intended to keep the labour workforce in their place – working hard for the richer people. Provided the proletariat stayed in their place, other institutions, like the media and education could flourish effectively. Flourish effectively for one group of people that is. Yep, you guessed it: for the rich dudes (the bourgeoisie folk). Very simplistic illustration but that’s basically how capitalism works – there are people on top who push others beneath them and make them do all the work so that they the rich people at the top – can have a good life: whilst the people breaking their backs get very little or nothing in return.

Doesn’t sound very fair to me! How about you? Not really the right conditions for social justice, I would say: makes for unequal  distribution of wealth, opportunities and privileges in a society. Want me to give you a few examples?

Women

OK so let’s look at the position of women in society. I’m sure you’ll agree that even in the 21^st century a massive amount of inequality exists between men and women. Women make up 51% of the global population but worldwide figures show us that women are less likely than men to get an education, be employed or be elected to parliament – all the while they are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, rape; more likely to be victims of sex trafficking; forced to be child brides – and worse still, some will deny females their right to live before they are even born, based on the lie that they have nothing good to offer the world.

Pretty horrible state of affairs.

You might be wondering what all this has to do with ‘the love of money’ that I referred to earlier, and the Marxist model and all of that. Allow me to explain my thought process: men have been the ones in positions of ultimate power for the past several centuries. In this modern age, women face fewer obstacles (although still many) to their endeavours than they once did, and so positions of power are no longer solely occupied by men.

It follows that some men feel threatened by the emergence of women in an arena in which they once found themselves alone. They resent that women will now have more of a say in their own lives, rather than having matters decided for them by those who want to “keep them in their place”. As things currently stand, in many cases women are still not paid the same amount of money as their male counterparts for the same work and they find themselves up against a ‘glass ceiling’ which prevents them from getting promoted in their fields because those positions are reserved for men.

How can we explain this if it not with capitalism? The more women get promoted, the fewer men get more cash in their pockets. Capitalism has a system to uphold and anything that shows any signs of messing with that status quo is soon stopped in its tracks. Think Jimmy Savile, that fishy so-called philanthropist who in actual fact used his powerful position to abuse thousands of young girls. Looking back on his life and the plethora of complaints made against Savile in his lifetime, it seems mind-boggling that something was not done earlier to change things.

But once I thought on things more deeply, I could see that it suited the interests of capitalism to leave a powerful man like Savile alone. The guy had been honoured by the Queen and was one of the most famous presenters on the TV: if he were to be charged, that would mean the end of high ratings for the BBC for Top of the Pops. If they got a man with that much power into trouble they would surely lose out on the power stakes themselves. People often have difficulty understanding why survivors of rape do not immediately report the crime: but in Savile’s case should it be so hard to believe? A rich white man loved by the British public against young teenage girls – who would be believed?

To my mind there is a clear link here between ‘the love of money’ and the evils sustained against women. Capitalism stacks the odds against those whose oppression it benefits from.

I’m not saying that capitalism is to blame for all the inequalities that women face today. However it is responsible for giving men more opportunities than women and it does grant the powerful safety nets which protect their interests, and this governs who ends up where. In spite of all this however, women continue to work hard and are still achieving great things. Despite being told they couldn’t do it, they are making their mark on science, sport, literature and many other fields. The thing is, it’s just so much harder for them to get there than it is for men. And that’s not fair.

Class

Capitalism presumes that the path to success is easy – because the path to success for those at the top of the capitalist ladder is easy. David Cameron (leader of the Conservative party) comes from a family which to this day is still benefiting from the ‘compensation’ they gained when they lost their slaves after the abolition. This sum, which equates to millions in today’s money, didn’t do Cameron any harm when he attended some of the highest fee-paying schools in the country.

The Conservatives, in their practice of capitalism, would tell us, ‘Work hard and you’ll get to where you want to in life.’ That’s their answer to everything. Work hard, that’s all well and good – but what if you have the attitude of a high-flyer yet are constantly having the opportunities which are your due right snatched away from you? That’s what happens if you’re a member of the lower classes – we see it everywhere.

Here at Oxford, where I’m studying, the evidence of classism is plain to see. It is with good reason that the university has a reputation of being a place for the cultural elite. Within the infrastructure and the intake of the students each year the upper classes most definitely come out on top. Studies in the past have shown that applicants from private schools were 14% more likely to be offered a place at Oxford than those with the same grades who went to a comprehensive school.  Although only 7% of British children attend fee-paying schools, students from private schools make up 43.2% of Oxford students! I mean, is that classist or what??

How can we say that where you get to in life is dependent on solely how hard you work when we have figures such as these staring us in the face? We all know that Oxbridge-educated people dominate the political sphere. David Cameron went to Brasenose College, Oxford, Ed Milliband went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Nick Clegg went to Cambridge (don’t expect me to give further details, we two universities are arch rivals!). I write from a college where the first and only female Prime Minister of the UK so far, Margaret Thatcher, and India’s first woman Prime Minister, Indira Ghandi, completed their degrees. 

So it’s evident that people that go to universities like these are more likely to have a say in the running of their countries. If they’re more likely to have a say in how the country is run they will be directly impacting on the lives of thousands, even millions, of people. And if only one small subsection of society is allowed to have a say in how people live their lives, how are things ever going to change?

We need a change from the bottom-up. The working classes and middle classes need to be given a say in how the country is run – because they make up over 70% of the nation. When less than 20% of the country is making the decisions that affect everyone then things are never going to be fair.

That means that universities like Oxford and Cambridge have a duty to accept more working class and middle class students than they currently are. The education system at large needs a massive overhaul to get the less well-off and the more deprived on the straits to success. At present those who live in poorer, more crime-filled areas, are less likely to get admitted into good schools. ‘Good schools’ being those who provide an adequate amount of teaching staff with decent sized classes so that each student is given the opportunity to learn properly. They are also more likely to be encouraged to take more vocational paths, being whispered the lie they are not skilled enough to go into the field of academics. And of course it is those who go into the academic field that end up having the most power in society. So the false consciousness to which the Marxists referred – the state of being that the working classes often find themselves in: where they are so accustomed to being exploited that they no longer question it and instead adopt the views of their oppressors – becomes instrumental in maintaining the status quo.

Many repeat that oft-used phrase: “They’re taking all our benefits!” to excuse the mistreatment of the working classes. But what they fail to realise is that the “scroungers” that sit on their bums all day and get paid by the state are very much in the minority: an unfortunate piece of the puzzle but very much in the minority. There are thousands of people in this country who work hard but find themselves displaced from the top-earning positions in the world of work (for reasons I have discussed above) and rather find themselves earning just enough to be out of the benefits cap but not enough to live comfortably. With childcare costs at a ridiculous high, many young families find themselves in debt before they have hardly gotten off the ground – and still they find themselves faced with that mantra: “Work hard and you’ll get where you want in life.”

It’s for people like this that I believe we need a re-structuring of wealth distribution. The richest 10% of the UK population owns something like 40% of the wealth. That’s just not fair – especially when those at the top largely didn’t work for what they had, but were just born into it – whilst those at the bottom find themselves dealt an unappealing deck of cards.

Race

Equality of opportunity is important again when we consider the structural inequalities that result from divisions along racial lines. Racism just isn’t over. If you’ve read my post about racism and the role of ignorance, you’ll already be familiar with the advice that black parents are wont to give their children:  “Work twice as hard at everything you do, because it’s going to take twice as much effort for you to get as far as a white person”.

If the working classes are in the minority in Oxford then ethnic minorities are an even rarer find. Out of term-time I live in the highly ethnically diverse and multicultural city in the North of England known as Manchester. It’s a vibrant place of friendly faces. The contrast between Manchester and Oxford couldn’t really be more different – when I return to the city of Dreaming Spires it’s literally a game of ‘spot the black people’. I can remember when I told a friend that I had been admitted into this university. He said: “You’ll be the only black person there!”

Figures have shown that in years past, over 25% of white applicants to Oxford University were successful, with only 17.2% of ethnic minority applicants getting in. White applicants to Medicine were twice as likely to get a place as minority ethnic candidates, even when they had all obtained 3 A* grades. Institutional racism is very clear to see. Only 3.9% of Oxford’s professors are of a BME (black, minority ethnic) background, to talk less of the curriculum being fiercely Eurocentric. Oh and don’t forget, one of the world’s most notorious racists has a library and a scholarship in his name over here. (That would be Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the man behind the apartheid in South Africa.)

Thankfully I don’t go to one of those super elitist colleges in Oxford where I’d be the only black person there in 5 years, or the only person from the North of England in my year, or something ridiculous like that. Somerville College is one of the more open and diverse colleges, with the majority of students having attended state schools. (I’m also proud of it for being one of the first colleges in Oxford to cater for women.) However that hasn’t made me oblivious to the racism that unfolds here in this university on a daily basis. 

Every time I go to a debate at the Oxford Union I am genuinely astonished by just how oblivious some people are to the plight of others, and just how easily they can spew racist bigotry without batting an eyelid.

Equality of opportunity as far as race is concerned is imperative if we are to see true social justice take place in the nations of the world. Ethnic minorities find themselves more likely to be demonised by the police, more likely to find themselves out of work, less likely to get good housing, less likely to be believed when filing a crime complaint . . .

The status quo keeps the traditional owners of wealth and power at the top. They “keep us in our place” by telling us that we’re not good enough, not pretty enough, (here I explore the relation between capitalism and the “beauty industry”), not skilled enough.

Disability

Disabled people are a group I fear we don’t talk enough about. They’re often forgotten in discussions about discrimination and equality. They shouldn’t be: there are over 11 million people living in the UK with a long term illness, impairment or disability, meaning they often cannot work. The school of thought that puts society first says that everyone should have the same amount of wealth so that we can all lead fair lives even if we're born into difficult positions: those who are on the capitalist side will only make those who are hurting the hurt even more. (click here to read more about how disabled people are already unfairly treated under current law.) Not a very just system, I don’t think.

I’m a socialist because I believe in social justice: fairness and equality in society. And I think I’ve explained why I don’t think capitalism is the best model for this: ‘the love of money’ gets to people’s heads and makes them forget what humanity is all about. As a Christian, reminded of the importance of helping those less fortunate than myself, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing anything other than supporting the side that puts society’s interests at heart. That’s a much better picture of society to strive for than the one that we currently have.