Banbury, Chipping Norton & North Oxfordshire Labour Party Labour party for the Banbury constituency, which also includes Chipping Norton, Charlbury and the villages of North Oxfordshire.
Welcome to our first ARC newsletter
Together we are moving forwards with this incredibly important work. Thank you for joining us!
We pick up the same sword and shield, passed down from all those who came before us. Brave campaigners who battled for what their generation needed most. The work needed for our times is our responsibility. We must do even more in this moment than they did in theirs if we want to move things forwards.
The collective responsibility moving forwards is with us now, as it was with them then.
If you’re just joining us, welcome. It’s already a long, gruelling fight and a hard road to walk. Antiracism work is emotional. Its effects are very personal. Tackling racism is challenging. Being an anti racist campaigner is tough. Being affected by racism is tougher.
Everyone is starting from a different place and has a different experience. Racism and privilege affect everyone very differently. We appreciate you. Whatever your experience, we are glad you’re here to fight alongside us!
In this first edition of our newsletter we focus on recognising and witnessing personal racism. We provide links to more material you can use to educate yourself about what systemic racism looks and sounds like. We can’t fight what we don’t understand.
Check out Claudia’s ARC blog on some of the most useful antiracist activism do’s and dont’s. We all have to start somewhere and even if you’re a seasoned campaigner, there’s always something new you can learn.
Campaigning Smart- Spread The Word On Social Media
It’s pretty clear that Covid-campaigning is going to be very different than we’re all used to. So we are working with the Labour Party Community Organising Unit to access the latest resources and share know-how on safety, and effective strategy. We only plan to publish our newsletter once a month. In the meantime, stay alert! We’ll share new info and action on our social media platforms along the way…
Check out the Coming Up section below, and keep your eye on Suzette’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We must always be active and inclusive about the solutions to racism and everything that comes with it. We’re calling for a BAME Labour Group to be set up in our area and want to hear from local members who are from an ethnic minority background.
You can get in contact at arcbanburybicester@gmail.com
What we do here on the ground, in our community, in our families and in ourselves is the catalyst in making a change and stopping racism. It’s the day-to-day work with people we know which will make a difference. Check out our guide on how to talk to your family and friends about racism.
The best place to start that work is in our own hearts and homes.
Coming Up
There’s plenty coming this autumn to develop your skills for spotting and stopping racism. We have a series of three workshops and training sessions, plus Q&As, pop up live-streams and more with our ARC online programme.
This autumn we continue our education and outreach programme starting off by discussing anti-Black racism; and moving onto anti-Jewish racism.
If you want to join our new Antiracism training workshops or Zoom seminars, do please get in touch at arcbanburybicester@gmail.com we’ll put you on the list.
Autumn Workshops
This autumn we will be offering three excellent training sessions to start us all off on the same page and boost our knowledge.
- Equalities, Diversity, Disabilities and Safeguarding Training (September)
- The psychology of bias, prejudice and stereotyping (October)
- Recognising Racism (November)
Weekend Zoom Seminars/Q&A
Racism began millennia ago starting with the horrors of anti-Jewish racism- which we now call commonly call antisemitism. A few centuries later, and racism as a means of segregation and discrimination based on skin colour, physical features and culture emerged as a mechanism for elevating white Europeans above everyone else.
Racism is a pervasive system of hierarchical white supremacy. An organised discrimination based on the wholly manufactured concept of “race”, using pseudo science, real psychology and invasive propaganda to prop up the false presumptions of race as the centuries progressed, racism has now become embedded in our socio-economic landscape, and our subconscious.
To take it on, we need education. Racism thrives on ignorance and repetition. It won’t be defeated unless we know what it is and how to identify it every time it appears. In our weekend Zoom seminars, we hope to combine education with a moderated discussion on how we can tackle this challenge in our local communities.
September 20th, 2pm: Anti-Black racism
September 27th, 2pm: Anti-Jewish racism
Pop-up Chats: Instagram Livestreams
This season we dedicate a live space to talking through tough topics. Over the coming three months there’s so much to go through in our Livestream Pop-Up Chats.
How do you challenge and confront racism? What does a successful action look like? How can we make the change we want to see in the world actually happen?
Antiracism is very much the work of listening, sharing and connecting. At its heart, antiracism is about humanising- it has to open people’s hearts and their eyes. Antiracism is about bringing together people across our community. In this season of pop-ups, we also talk about how we can use storytelling to start that humanising process- how we can reach out.
As ever though, we have to translate that into practical strategies. Strategies which bring people together around shared values. Join us online as we pop up and talk together, creating conversations which underpin the campaigning work.
This grassroots process gives us a shared language, knowledge and connection to make real change happen. Effective campaigners are effective communicators. Join the conversation over the next season and hone your skills.
Follow teamsuzette on Instagram for pop-up details including dates, times, guests and topics.
Featured Video
How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time, by Baratunde Thurston
https://www.ted.com/talks/baratunde_thurston_how_to_deconstruct_racism_one_headline_at_a_time
Antiracism is a practical, principled fight, deconstructing injustice. If we aren’t working on changing systems, then we won’t really stop racism at the root. Putting something better in place needs to happen structurally – in law, in culture – so it can happen in our daily lives.
An ARC at its best will be many things at once: personal, local and practical. Reactive and proactive.
With our ARC, we unite around that approach-from-many-angles. We know by reaching out to those who have different perspectives and experiences we model what we want to see in the world. Antiracism argues for change that’s constructive and inclusive. We do that by building positive space in our own circles and our local area first. Creating unity by breaking down division and actively dismantling racist hatred, one piece at a time.
We Recommend
We think it’s important to be prepared if we’re going to be effective! We’ve assembled a few of our hand picked choices for the month. We hope our recommendations will give a fresh perspective on antiracism, racism and the fight for equality today.
With the US Presidential Election and racial tension much in the news, this is a timely article on colourism, who can be “black” and who belongs. Using people’s reaction to Kamala Harris’ appointment as a springboard, we head into tough territory and discuss the history of race.
This article discusses anti-Black racism, the problems with not seeing the distinctions between different forms of racism and how they’re experienced.
MLK, Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah’s daughters discuss racial justice. As protests demanding equality and justice for black people continue to shape global conversation, the historic struggles against racism and colonialism illuminate the present as much as the past.
Black Lives Matter in the UK, here and now
Films & Documentaries
BlacKkKlansman
Director Spike Lee
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/BlacKkKlansman
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/
The Black Godfather
https://www.netflix.com/title/80173387?s=i&trkid=13747225
UK Podcasts
https://www.bustle.com/p/podcasts-about-the-black-british-experience-race-in-the-uk-22949227
Welcome to ARC!
Best wishes and stay safe,
Suzette & the ARC team
#staysafe #stayhome #stayinformed 😷🧴