A black female microbiology student spoke of her frightening ordeal on a train to Aberystwyth as she and other people of colour were targeted by a group of males and females who performed Nazi salutes and chanted racist abuse.
Rose Williams said that her harrowing experience was unprovoked and unexpected. She told BBC Wales that she was on a train on the 30th May with a group of friends when they were subjected to a vile torrid of racist abuse by a group of white males and females for around twenty minutes. When her friends got off on their stop the white group turned on her and began chanting ‘There’s a dog on the train‘. One of the men even pointed at her and called her a ‘big black dog‘. (BBC: 04/06/2021: Racist abusers targeted Aberystwyth student on train)
Laws Cannot Eradicate Racism
Rose’s racist ordeal is every person of colour’s worse nightmare. You’re alone, and you are faced with a group of white racists who are making obvious racist remarks. I’ve often wondered why white racists tend to target single black males or females travelling alone, or Muslim men and women who are elderly or on their own. They also tend to target educated people of colour. One could speculate and say that racists are cowards and choose to target these types of people because they are easy targets however, history has shed some light on this type of behaviour.
In my article The Black Wall Street: How white supremacy destroyed a successful African-American town, a successful African-American town is destroyed by white supremacists who become envious of the success of the town’s people and savagely go on the rampage in a barbaric slaughter of innocent black people. Racists and racism has always been about the superiority of Europeans over the ‘darker’ races. No amount of laws and legislation can remove the centuries of inbuilt psychological training that Europeans have received through education and the mainstream media.
Can An Abuser Change?
I believe that is time for people of colour to challenge white supremacy from a different angle. In my article The Hidden Racism Behind The Government’s Race Report, I challenged the reader to read the same statement and substitute the term racism for sexism and anti semitism, and the meaning changed dramatically. Racism has been downgraded, cheapened and diluted to the point that the word has become meaningless, and this is what happens when we allow the perpetrators to define the experience of the oppressed.
I see racists and racism as a form of abuser and abuse respectively. So, if you look at the common consensus on whether an abuser can change, you will find that the answer is, some can, but it is very difficult. In her article ‘Can A Violent Man Change? Turning The Lens Onto The Perpetrators‘, Emily Verdouw spoke to counsellor David Nugent, who saw himself as an emotional abuser. Nugent said, “Yes, some violent men can change. But it’s a lifelong journey.” (Huffington Post: 10/12/2015)
The National Domestic Violence Hotline says in the article ‘Is Change Possible In An Abuser?‘, that “While people do have the capacity to change, they need to deeply want to and be committed to all aspects of change in order to begin to do so — and even then, it’s a lot easier said than done.” (https://www.thehotline.org/resources/is-change-possible-in-an-abuser/) The commitment includes attending therapy and committing to a lifetime of change.
When it comes to racists and racism there is no equivalent to what is mentioned above. The law is not enough. People have to want to change and be committed to that change, and let’s be honest, how many white people do you know that would attend therapy and anti-racism programmes to address their racism?
The truth is uncomfortable and ugly and I do not believe that any well intentioned therapist or domestic violence group would encourage a female victim of abuse to go back to her abusive partner, nor would they encourage the victim to try and ignore the abusers past, or give the abuser another chance. So why when it comes to racism must people of colour do the opposite I ask?
Is It Time For Us To Leave Our Racist Abusers?
My last point leads me to a growing phenomenon that is taking place in America with many African-Americans who are choosing to leave racially divisive America and set up home in Africa. (BBC: Accra Pidgin: The African American who moved to Ghana ‘to escape US racism‘: 24 August 2019)
Ghana is fast becoming a country where many African-Americans are choosing to relocate from America. They have chosen to leave their abuser and set-up a new life elsewhere and determine their own future.
I believe that the only emanication from white supremacy and racism is to leave the abusers behind and start life elsewhere.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
For further research:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57349289
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-49394354
