Being Black in Britain can increase life expectancy (Black African women have the highest at 88.9 years) and educational outcomes (Black African students achieve the highest GCSE attainment), but this requires maintaining cultural identity through acculturation rather than assimilation, as demonstrated by the contrast between UK Black communities (who retain healthier lifestyles) and US Black communities (who have the lowest life expectancy due to long-term assimilation). The session emphasizes that cultural institutions like Notting Hill Carnival and Black Saturday schools are vital for preserving Black British identity and preventing the loss of historical knowledge that leads to negative outcomes.
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Being Black In BritainAjouté :
almost 10 years and um one of the churches that I pastored at was it has been around for over 150 years. So he has seen a lot of changes and as I was passing as I was pastoring there I was noticing that a lot of my members who had kind of come around the wind rust generation was just passing.
And I mean almost every week I was doing a funeral and I was um just sh celebrating the life of this this wind rush generation and I said man I we need to kind of capture some of these stories. We kind of need to to have this conversation as I noticing that a generation of people are passing on. And I'm saying we need to perhaps, you know, capture some of their stories, open up some conversation as I kind of sense that we may be in this this transitional stage. And so I was um speaking with my friend Chanel. Chanel you will see um a little bit later. And she has also done some awesome projects in the space that she occupies and works in. You will hear a little bit more about her. And I said, "Chanel, listen. Let's let's do something. Um, this is not a traditional conversation that you may find in a in a church environment, but I believe it's important not just for those that, you know, attend, but just generally for anybody that is that is that is interesting. And uh we we we thought let's let's do this. We don't have a name for this project. We just said we're going to do something." Um and this is where we are this evening. So again, welcome once again. Um we'll be having various interactive ice breakers.
We'll be having a keynote sessions.
We'll also be having um some Q&A and um various things throughout the the evening. Uh so please do engage in the conversation that we are about to about to have. Um, I want to open up this this space just to say a just a quick word of of prayer. Um, I recognize that maybe not everybody is Christian or um may be going to church, but we just wanted to to just say a quick prayer um to begin.
Is that all right? Awesome. Awesome.
Just bow your heads with us as we pray.
Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for this space, for this day, for the beautiful weather. Uh Lord, we know um how the sun does amazing things for our mood and so we're grateful um for the brighter days, for being um seeing more sunshine. Lord, I pray that you will be here as we uh discuss and open up this conversation here this evening. I pray for those who are are traveling. Um Lord, as I was even driving in, I've seen red tapes and um helicopters. I don't know what's happening, Lord, but I pray for that situation and and those that are traveling on their way. All these things I ask in your name. Amen.
I'm going to invite Chanel to to come and um share a few things with us now.
Awesome.
>> Hello everyone. Um so I'm Chanel. Um, so I guess firstly I just wanted to set the tone in terms of this is a safe space.
Um, and as Warren said, it'll be interactive. So although Kane is hosting or speaking, uh, feel free to ask questions. Um, share your thoughts, no judgment, we're all here to like talk and just network with one another and create a community. As Warren said, we don't really know what this will be in the future, but that's why we're all here today. And hopefully we can understand it a little bit better. So, I think on soon on the screen there should be a QR code. If you can scan it, um there'll be a few things that you can kind of interact with throughout the session. So, at the end, we'll have a Q&A with Kane. So, if you'd like to anonymously ask questions to Kane um based on anything at all or what he's discussing today in his keynote, then you can use um the website that it will take you to. And then also at the end, you can go on to the same QR code and you can leave us some feedback uh in terms of how you found the session, but also what do you want to see uh in this community space in the future? What would interest you, what would interest other people? Um so yeah as Warren said this idea came about um I guess just through conversation and feeling that maybe this community space was missing.
Um so I work in HR and I do like people and culture. So I was doing a lot of inclusion events. Um, and then somehow in conversation I shared my dissertation on Windrush with Warren and he read it and it was on how black identity has changed from Windrush generation up until like now in the contemporary. Um, so that's how the idea kind of came about. But this isn't just about Wind Rush or past events. It's really meant to focus on the future of being black.
And I was just saying to you guys before, it's not about talking about topics that will make us angry or upset or feeling down. It's more about turning that into something that can shape us going forwards and just understanding who we are, our history, our identity, etc. So, I will pass over to Kane in a second um who will kind of lead on his first part of the session. Um so, yeah, thank you.
as as Chanel goes out to get it. I just wanted to introduce um Kane Kawazaki um and as you kind of from from his website, it it shares that he's an award-winning cultural theorist, a UK black history educator based in Peekom, Southeast London. Anybody from South London?
Anybody from East London? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't really mind about the rest of London.
I'm joking. Anybody from North London?
Hey. Hey. West London. Anybody from West London? Nobody. Imagine we're doing something in West London and nobody is from Northwest.
Okay, cool. I know. They they like to kind of separate themselves. The Northwest. Um, but yeah, it's definitely definitely different. Um, I I like how it says in 2020, Kane shifted his focus to UK black history, expanding his reach through digital platform and building and engaged attendance over 80,000 followers. His works combine historical insight, cultural analysis, and datadriven perspectives to deepen public understanding of race and identity in the UK. We are super honored um to have Kane in in our space to deliver these sessions. Um awesome guy, humble individual and um we're just grateful to have you in this space and um we just want to welcome you. Can we get a round of applause as Kane two on two? Thank you for the introduction, Warren. Uh, it's a pleasure to be here tonight with you guys. Um, the weather, wasn't the weather absolutely beautiful? I was actually back there changing because I had shorts on and I thought it'd be inappropriate to be in church, a church space, and have shorts on. So, I was back there changing. Uh, this is going to be the interactive sess session. So, make sure you've got someone sat next to you, sat beside you, because I want to hear from you guys. Okay. So the first thing that I want to ask you guys and it should be on the screen is number one, how British do you feel? On a lick it scale from 1 to 10, one being the lowest and 10 being the highest. How British do you actually feel? Number two, I want you to ask the person next to you and conversate about how black and when I say black, I've put a little disclaimer at the bottom. connected to your heritage country. Be it Ghana, Jamaica, Anguila, Aruba, Antigga, Barbados, you guys get it.
And then we're going to be looking at being black in Britain. What does that mean? Okay. So, over to you guys. Two minutes to discuss those two questions with the person next to you.
30 seconds left.
Okay. So, draw those conversations to a close, please. It's great to hear the chatter. You guys have had exactly on the minute two minutes as I said you would have. Uh, I was speaking to Sterling on my right. And do you mind sharing, Sterling? Yeah. One thing that Sterling Sterling, stand up for me. One thing that Sterling said about question number two that really made me laugh, he was just like, you know, I'm dark skin, I have locks, I'm 6'4, I feel very black. But yeah, over to you.
>> Sure. So, which question would you like me to respond to?
>> Oh, so um how British do I feel? So, I was saying um so I've recently been abroad, so I've been in different countries and um one of the things that gets commented on is how you speak, like your accent and stuff like that. So immediately you sort of um identify with being British. Um I guess being born in the UK means that um British is a is a wide kind of spectrum of what it means. I think I gave it like did I say a seven?
>> I think a seven in terms of black I'd give it like up there like a nine 10 kind of like what was just shared around like my appearance um and also my heritage. Do you want me to answer to number three?
>> Okay, cool. So, number three, I just wanted you guys to marinade on and hopefully by the end of this, we should have a better understanding of what that means to us. Did anyone find the question a little bit difficult? You know, it's a little bit undefined. What does it mean, etc. That's why we're here. Okay, that being said, it's going to be over to you guys once again. If you can go on to the next slide for me, please.
And I suppose with that question, how black do you feel? What's interesting is that it's variable, right? So, someone who has Jamaican parents as myself, I feel very Jamaican. When Sherekica Jackson just won the 200 meters and beat Shakiri Richardson and my Jamaica points have gone up, I'm feeling very very Jamaican, it goes up, it's in es and flows, but then equally when Jamaica, you know, the football team isn't performing very well and you know, people are then, you know, it kind of decreases, you know. Okay, cool. So this one um as Warren rightly said um I am a cultural theorist and a UK black historian. Um what that means is I'm frequently in and looking at the statistics. These statistics are from the office of national statistics. So it's the government website and what they did is is that they've essentially got the life expectancy according to both gender and ethnicity. Okay? So these are the official statistics from our NHS. What I want you guys to do is I want you to stand where you think which group has the lowest life expectancy.
Okay? So, if you think it's black African women, I want you to stand over here and potentially be thinking why that might be. If you feel like it's white women, I want you to be standing somewhere in this region over here.
Let's separate a little bit more over in this region over here. If you're saying black Caribbean men, right in the middle. If you're saying white men over here and if you're saying mixed race men over here somewhere. So I'm going to give you literally 30 seconds to make a decision and stand in that region. What ethnic group do you think has the lowest life expectancy in the UK?
So if you think it's black African women, you're over here. If you think it's white women, over this direction.
If you're saying black Caribbean men, you're in the middle. If you're saying white men, you're over here. And if you're saying mixed race men, you're over there somewhere.
Okay, so this is my black Caribbean men group.
Are we black Caribbean men group? Okay, cool. Um, black African women.
>> Yes. Okay. And then we've got white men group over here. And then anyone in the mixed race men group?
My mixed race friend in the mixed race men group. Oh, we've had a last minute decision. Oh, okay. Okay. Love that.
Love that. Moving over. Okay. So the group or groups that has the lowest life expectancy in this country in the UK statistically via the Office of National Statistics is white men and mixed race men.
Okay, everyone take your seat. I'm going to explain why that is.
Hey, listen to the chat. Everyone's like, "Oh, I knew it. I knew it.
So we've spoken about the lowest life expectancy.
The group with the highest life expectancy in the UK, black African women.
Can you see where we're going with this?
It deserves a clap. It deserves a clap.
It deserves a clap.
Bearing in mind this is not my statistics. If you type into Google Office of National Statistics Life Expectancy via ethnicity, this will come up. Okay. So, black women, if you go to the next slide for me, please, I've done a handy little arrow. And by all means, have a look at the other ethnic groups as well. So, black African women, females, their life expectancy is 88.9 in this country. 88 years.
They rank first place. I want you to be thinking about why that is.
Well, they do have uh black cover on there. Uh but if you read the methodology, it does kind of go into and break down. basically is how people self-identify in regards to the boxes that they tick in regards to when they go to the NHS. Okay, that being said, last place, and I've drawn two arrows, uh essentially quite similar, neck and neck, uh when you look at white men and mixed race men, they finish last place in the UK in regards to their life expectancy.
Uh, next slide for me, please.
30 seconds over to you guys. Speak to the people next to you. Why might that be? White men and mixed race men lowest life expectancy. Why might that be? 30 seconds over to you guys.
10 seconds left.
Okay. So I can hear great conversations going on around me.
Does anyone want to share uh what they spoke about and or their thoughts?
Uh I'm going to come to what's your name? I heard briefly that you're talking to Sterling. If you introduce yourself and say what you're talking about.
>> Yeah. Hi Kam. Um I was saying that I think maybe African women live longer because a lot of Africans are first generation.
in the UK compared to some of the other races. So maybe they had an upbringing where they were eating certain foods or living a certain lifestyle that was probably better for them. Um so by the time they've come to the UK, they've had a better foundation to go from. Um and on the flip side, if you're looking at white men, then actually if you've grown up in the UK and you've lived this lifestyle and eating the diet that they have, um I feel like a lot of their diet is less plant-based than maybe someone from the Caribbean or of Africa this cat please guys. Thank you.
So this is what the office of national statistics has to say. So black African and Asian other groups who migrate here so similar to what you were saying tend to live healthier lifestyles healthier than others.
uh Office of National Statistics, not my lyrics. It says, "These ethnic groups engage less in harmful health related behaviors, less likely than a white ethnic group to smoke or drink alcohol."
Okay, so this is what the Office of National Statistics had to say uh in regards to why they feel like this is the case. Okay, of course there are a myriad of different reasons. Black people, this doesn't mean that we're off the hook. Okay, black men, we know that we are disproportionately affected when it comes to prostate cancer. By the time we hit 40, 45, we need to make sure we're having our checks. We know that our groups and communities suffer from hypertension. Okay, so this doesn't although it's fantastic, there is a caveat to this. Okay. Equally, what's really interesting is this idea that not only is it white men at the bottom, but it's also mixed race men at the bottom. And I'm going to be digging into why I think that may be.
Next slide for me, please. The title of today's session is being black in Britain. Being black in Britain increases your life expectancy.
That's the first thing I want you to know.
Okay. But like I said, there's a caveat to that. Next slide for me, please. And the caveat to that is assimilation versus accultriation.
Okay. What that means is when you come to the UK, you can choose to do one or two things. You can choose to assimilate.
So I'm coming into the UK and I assimilate. Let me let me get a prop.
Can I borrow this, please, bro? I'll borrow this. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm assimilating. So this is my culture.
When you come into Britain, if you assimilate, drop the culture. Come in, assimilate, be like us.
I believe that's why mixed race men are equal to white men because they've assimilated through the generations.
Okay. Being black in Britain, I would say that there's a fear that we could assimilate so much that we don't benefit from that healthier lifestyle.
A cultriation is the opposite of that.
And this is what I encourage everybody to do. A cultriation is you still come in, you still work hard, you still pay your taxes, you still are a member of society, you're still doing your thing.
But a cultriation means if this is my culture, this is coming with me. Okay? I can still be who I am. I can still talk the way how I could talk. I could code switch. Yeah, I could do all of that.
But my culture is not getting left at the door. The more we practice accultation, the better it will be for us. Okay.
Next question.
This is very interesting and I'm not going to get you guys to discuss this, but I've put under assimilation and culturation USA, the black community life expectancy.
The person with the lowest life expectancy in the US is the black woman.
Black people have the lowest life expectancy in the US because they've been there so long and have assimilated for so many years that they have taken on the bad habits, the disparity, the racism, the discrimination, everything bearing down, down that they now have the lowest life expectancy.
If we dash away our culture, that will be us in 400 years time.
Question.
Statistically, it does highlight uh native people at the bottom as well. Um but equally it's almost like an oppression Olympics. So both of them for very different reasons are at the bottom. Okay. So what I would suggest so similar to when I showed the statistics on the board as you can see Asian people have quite life high life expectancy. I didn't mention them purely for the sake of time and purpose but equally you can check it out. Okay. Okay. So I have focused it on the black community but equally when you look at the statistics both groups are at the bottom. Okay. Uh next slide for me please.
There's this scripture Romans 12:2 and it simply says do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Okay remember we spoke about assimilation acculturation. this idea of conforming, this idea of changing who you are.
And I really like this scripture. This scripture was written about 2,000 years ago by an apostle called Paul.
And what's interesting about this scripture is he was writing this 2,000 years ago to the early church. But then some 2,000 years later in 2026, this message still rings true. this idea that if you conform, if you change who you are to the patterns of this world, but he offers up a suggestion. He says that you need to renew your mind and there's a practical suggestion in that this idea of renewing, bringing something new.
So to the second slide for me please.
Physically and I'm not going to call anybody out. I just want you to think what do you consume?
I see very interesting conversations about black British culture where people try to say oh yeah chicken and chips is black British culture. That ain't my culture bron. I don't know whose culture that is but that ain't my culture. But unfortunately, when I'm driving in Southeast London and I drive past at school time, I see majority black kids in there. We know them things there ain't healthy for them, but they're conforming to the patterns of the world.
So much so that they actually think it's a part of their culture.
When I was growing up, my culture was sour sap, akan saltfish, mango, Julie mango, banana. That's my culture.
Not chicken and chips, not lions, not mullies. We don't even own those places.
So it'll be different if we're like, "Oh yeah, we own the places. That's our culture." We don't even own them. We just consume it. And yet people are trying to take it on as their culture.
Wild work.
So I asked physically, "What do you consume?
And how intentional are you in the way how you live?" So I know on the on the front row with the lads we was talking about physicality and things like that which is fantastic and of course it's all going to help to increase your life expectancy.
Uh next slide for me please. Moving on from life expectancy which ethnic group achieves the highest at GCSC. So coming to uh the man's point here the gentleman's point here I haven't included every single ethnic group. I focus just on three question.
Yeah. Go for it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If we can have a little Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So, black African in regards to these three ethnic groups that I've chosen.
Okay. So, it's not inclus including Asian that outperform these three groups. Just these three groups that I've identified. Not including Chinese that I've left out. not including gypsy, Roman agypy, etc. Just these ethnic groups that I've chosen. Uh these groups achieve the highest. Oh, sorry. Black African achieves the highest at GCSE.
Once again, matter of fact, I'm going to Yeah, next slide for me, please. Over to you guys.
Why is that? One minute. Over to you guys. Discuss.
Okay, 10 seconds.
Okay, if you draw those conversations to a close and if you're at the back, I encourage you to come forward and partake. I can see someone like, "No, I'm too hot."
Yes. Um, and interestingly, I caught the end of your conversation and and an example of that is, are you aware of the YouTuber Patricia Bright? She's uh the first black female to achieve a million followers on YouTube, and she speaks about her mother's humble beginning, being a cleaner, and using that as aspiration to get her to where she is at now, a multi-millionaire. know a a physical example of someone who you know other than yourself has kind of you know taken that on and uh used that to propel forward. Uh that being said um uh Patricia Bright. Yeah. Yeah. We was talking about um we we'll summarize in a minute. I'll catch you up to speed. Uh so why is that the term that they use and I put it in a vertical commas if you've just walked in. I am a black historian and a cultural theorist. So I deal in theories. Okay. The theory is migrant optimism. So this idea that when you come here, education is the key.
Okay? It's going to provide you with social mobility. Uh I grew up in Peekom.
Peekom has the largest Nigerian diaspora community. And growing up hearing Dr. Lawyer engineer was very standard. That was the expectation. Um as a result, my mom, bless her, back then she didn't necessarily have the words, but she had this idea. here. She was like, "Cane, go and hang out with the Nigerian boys.
They do well at education." Definitely not politically correct and definitely not something you should say in today's day and age. But as a millennial back then, she kind of saw, hang on a second, there's something going on here. There's an understanding here. This isn't just unique to West Africans, specifically Nigerian. Uh you would also hear this in black and brown communities, this idea that, you know, education is the key, attainment is the key, etc. What's actually quite sad about this is as an educator, I was an educator for eight years in a secondary school and uh Malcolm X famously quoted and said that uh you know education is the passport to the future.
Rosite dissatisfying in 2026 is that I no longer feel like that is the case. If you're unaware, um the amount of students in uh Kenya are producing uh work for students in the UK, in the global north, in in Europe and and in and in America at high rates, high percentages. That is no longer the case where education can get you where you need to go. So the tide is slowly changing and it it makes me question is the ethos of Dr. lawyer engineer necessarily going to benefit us and and best serve us. However, I do have a statistic which is extremely interesting. Hold that thought for me, please, because I'm working on the time.
I'm working on the time, but don't worry, we will get there. Uh, next slide for me, please. Being black in Britain increases or at least can increase your educational outcomes. Now, I say that with a caveat because black Caribbean boys are marginally better. Well, black Caribbean boys who are eligible for free school meals are marginally better than white British boys who are eligible for free school meals. Marginally. There's a myriad for of reasons for that. A lot of our parents grew up in an education system that was against them. They were sent to educationally subnormal schools.
They had to bear a brunt of a lot of racism. And as a result, I feel like they produced young people where they were like this idea that education is the key isn't necessarily all what it's cracked up to be. So I say that to say being black in Britain can increase your educational outcomes. Now I'm quite pleased to report that the GCSE attainment for black Caribbean boys is marginally getting better. So throughout the course of the past three four years like by 1% 1% 1% one still not where it needs to be but it is increasing small.
Okay. Uh next slide for me please.
Next slide.
So once again this idea of do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. What's the practicality in that? What can we do? Some of the suggestions should be on the next slide.
simple things like reading uh books, literature, um just making sure that we're having a diet that best feeds us.
I'm not someone who's against social media, but it's like what are you consuming? What are the young people following? What channels are they following? Are they following educational channels as well as other channels or is it just pure crassness and entertainment?
uh other things, music, social feeds, conversations, environments like this, all of these help in that transforming and the renewing of the mind, making sure that you have diversity in the things that you consume.
And we know that sometimes intellect is just, you know, you know, one of them ones back in the day they used to say, "Oh, yeah, you're intelligent, but you're not road smart." Yeah. And I've always said, I don't want to just send my child to some private school and just have them just be an intellect, but they ain't got no road smart. You know, that's going to be our next that's going to be our next problem where we're like, what do we do? What kids are we going to next slide for me, please? Okay. So, this idea of conforming, and this is going to be our last point, because you could sit here and be like, Kane, well, you're painting this picture that everything's all rosy for the black community in Britain. And let me tell you, Kane, I've seen a few things. It's not. I'm very much aware that it's not.
So, we know I've put smoking and excessive drinking. The reason why I put that on there is not that it applies to us, but it applies to white and mixed race. and they use that as a reason on the office of national statistics as to why their life expectancy is so low.
I'm going to hand it over to you guys.
30 seconds. What are some of the conforming some of the negative behaviors that we're starting to see manifest in Black Britain? So, I would say from millennials down, what is some of the negativity, some of the conforming we're starting to see coming that doesn't necessarily isn't necessarily a part of our culture? Over to you guys.
Okay. Uh, draw those conversations to a close for me, please. Does anyone want to shout out and say what they potentially think is going to be out there? Uh, the lads and I were able to work one of them out.
Oh, food. Okay.
Uh, music.
Processed food. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.
Mhm. Mhm.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And funny enough that you said, what's your name, by the way?
Symphfy. Nice to meet you. I'm Kane.
Funny you say that. Um, I run the directory for the black Saturday schools in the country and um, I went to one of the black sat Yeah, big up for the black Saturday schools. Not for me. I'm just a vessel. Uh, but I say that to say I visited one of the black Saturday schools in Lewisham because I think it's also important to identify a problem and then identify someone that's doing action. And I feel like we do great stuff but it's on such a small scale that sometime not a small scale but sometimes we just do it in private.
we're doing it in the comfort of our own four walls and people don't necessarily know about it. And I see that's where I come in with my social media following to amplify what's going on so people know what's going on. So to say that I went to the Black Saturday school in Lewisham um and they had a food provision where essentially it was their role. So the kids would be going and having their educational attainment and then the adults would be getting together and bringing together all of the food that they had acquired and just sharing and distributing for those who who hadn't or those who couldn't get to the market and I was just like this is such a great initiative. Imagine if this was happening in Lewisham in Pekkham in Brixton it may even it may even be so um but to see it physically it really encouraged me. So that is an action to one of the problems of food just kind of seeing what the Black Saturday schools are doing. So, I say that to say if you haven't and you want to find something like that, National School, uh, National Association of Black Supplementary Schools. It's also linked in my Instagram. And just check out what your local Black Saturday school are doing for the community because chances are they're doing things more than just education. Yeah. Um, so the things that are on there, by no means is this a completed list. Okay.
So, I put on there Manosphere. There's no statistics for that, but I'm going to show you why I put manosphere on there in a moment. I put chicken shop, which comes to food. Uh gang culture, which we're probably aware of. Um and unsafe uh or promiscuous behavior. Um and that's what we were discussing on the front row. We were discussing some of the reasons for that. Uh next slide for me, please.
Here are the statistics. Have a look.
Have a look. Have a look.
So just in case your eyesight is failing you, the third group in that green line extremely high.
second in like neck andneck black other and black African mixed race very close behind and specifically this is most prevalent in 15 to 24 year olds are most likely to be diagnosed with the most common types of STI.
Okay.
So, once again, there are a myriad of reasons as to why they think this is, but I say that to say we need to be having some conversations with ourselves, with our young people, because this is shocking and it alarms me.
And I pulled this up because I didn't want to paint a picture that everything's all rosy. Okay. So, yes, being black can increase your life expectancy. Yes, uh being black in Britain can increase your educational outcomes, doctor, lawyer, engineer. But also as well, being black in Britain.
Next slide for me.
I'm not going to do the gang culture one. Next slide for me, please. Reason why I put the manosphere. Did anybody notice that out of the main protagonists on the Louis Faru documentary, if you saw it, give me a little wave, the Louis Faru documentary on Netflix? Yeah. Did anybody realize that out of the three main protagonists, four of them were men of color?
So, I'm not going to pretend and act like I know who these people are. I know who Harrison HS Ticky is, the guy on the far right with the glasses. The one at the top, no idea. But from a quick Google search, it says that he's mixed mixed black and white.
And then the person on the bottom left, once again, I'm not going to pretend I know who he is, but allegedly according to Google, his family come from Africa.
Okay. So I thought it was very interesting that the most well-known people in the manuscript, even if you throw in Andrew Tate, a mixed race man.
So once again, we cannot paint this picture that everything's all fine and dandy. There is actually some alarm bells ringing.
Last slide.
So I want you to give Three points to keep it simple. I wanted two positive and one not so positive. But the one that's not so positive means that we have action there, something to do. Be it research, be it investigating, be it a deep dive, be it a conversation. Okay.
Last last last thing. I'm not going to do next. Oh yeah, this is it.
And one thing that somebody told me which I thought was very very poignant for me in my career. They said to me, Kane, careful that you're not making an idol out of your culture.
And that really struck with me because we all know those people that go so far that they become unrelatable that they can't even have a normal conversation with you. They can't just talk about sports or shrieka Jackson winning and you know it always has to be something about us that's so potentially alienating. I call it sometimes you can be so heavily minded that you're of no earthly good and I never want to be that person. I want to be relatable. I want to be approachable. And what's unfortunate about being labeled a community activist or however you want to label it is that unfortunately a lot of our community activists who are wellknown like the Aalas of the world I'm sure there are other people out there that you could name end up becoming so insular and they end up having to step away from the community because sometimes they become a little bit jaded then the community become a bit jaded and I remember a black Saturday school saying to me we reached out to ex person and he didn't come. I was like, it's fine. Maybe they're not it's not for such a time as this. Maybe there's another time. So, we all need to operate in a level of grace. And I feel like grace comes from that element of spirituality where you allow Christianity to lead and not the other way round.
Okay. So, I say that to say I'm spiritled first.
So, of course, I prepared resources, but coming in here, I made sure that I prayed first.
I made sure that I said, "God, put the people in here that you want to be in here to hear the message." Not just hearers, but doers.
Doers. Bless you.
Doers of the word. Okay? So, I want you to know that you're here because you chose to be here, but also I prayed for you to be here. And I prayed for you to be here for a reason.
One thing that can happen is that you can have like the dopest session, the dopest, you know, you can feel inspirational and then you leave the doors and then that's it. I don't want that to be the case. And that's why I highlighted an action point.
So I say that to say and to wrap up.
Being black in Britain encapsulates so many things.
And later, a little bit later, I'm going to do a keynote on something that I've been working on that will hopefully help increase both the Britishness and blackness and the pride that we feel in our culture.
Give a round of applause for Kane.
Awesome. This is just a warm-up. Uh don't be alarmed. There is still a little more to come. Um I've there's a few more of us that have um joined us.
Um so I just wanted to put the Padlet um QR code if at any time you want to throw a question in if there we're going to have a Q&A afterwards. Um but if there's any thoughts or there's a wall there so that you can write throughout the session. Um, so we're not going to uh stop um in the keynote, but we're going to just put it all on there and we'll capture it and we can um get some conversations um flowing. We we're just going to turn our attention just to the screen. As I said earlier, my name is Warren Gillan.
I am a pastor in the San Devetist Church. And um one of the reasons of kind of making building this space or creating this space is to also kind of capture the stories of those that have gone before us. Um you'll see a video of one of um my previous members who was just sharing a few thoughts on her her experience of um transitioning from one place to another place. So, we're just going to turn our attention to that for a few minutes and then we'll invite Kane um back to do a a keynote session. Thank you.
>> Monsurat and life in Monserat was hard in my way of looking at it. But we struggled on thinking coming to England it would be a better life.
But I was shocked when I came here to find that it was worse than what I left behind. Well, the hearing about it is my parents because I was still with my parents.
And this man from Barbados, he's the one that came to Monstrate and told us that England is open, that we can go there with no problem. So we all just raced to it. We were glad for the opportunity. Um at the time it was 64.
Well from the 29th of November to the 12th of December I arrived here in Southampton.
>> Where was your route at?
>> It wasn't directly. I took passage from Six Monat St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Lucia and we got to the Azour. From there we came over to England. I didn't know anybody else.
>> The chap you came to.
>> Yeah.
>> Who is this chap tell us about?
>> Someone I met in St. kids is uh it was a love at first sight but we we make do help me with my fair. Well, it was terrible because living from my mom and coming over, you know, was like it's like she was selling me to him, you know. Anyway, we made two and we managed until we got married.
>> Oh, you married him?
>> Yes. So, as I say, it was love at first sight. But we And he's the nicest person I've ever met. That's why now I don't bother with anyone cuz I don't think I could find anybody as good as him. He was like a father to me. I never look anywhere else.
>> Did you have any other lovers?
No, I I I just stick to like to me like I owe him something.
Oh, well, we didn't have challenges because he he made me part the way. He always he was such a a good old soul, you know. We never had problem when I go to work and I come home and if I see your trousers and I like it. I I'll buy it for him. He never say he don't like it. He will accept it. And we save together. We had the same one bank account. He never had his and I had mine. Somebody that treat me like that. I have to go on from there. Make the best of life. I was so happy to be in England that nothing bothered me when it comes to the people.
I hear people saying, "Oh, this doesn't bother me at all because I'm in England.
I'm happy I'm in England." I don't let nothing bother me. I I I never hold this prejudice and whatnot. If you have to get on with it, you you just let it buck you down. you don't have time to sort of um get involved in situations.
We used to go to each other's houses and um you know we make the best of each other and we used to run this thing they call partner that you oh so many people we've been to court and whatnot fights and so on over these monies because some people they take the money and they don't want to pay it back and you know what to go to s you get these teddy boys and these bad boys and so on you keep out of their Okay, you know, cuz I mean they'll beat you up and whatnot. But our boys, they they didn't care. Our boys from the Caribbean, they were tough and the teddy boys used to run from them because our boys were really tough.
Well, it's terrible to be poor. That's what I learned because had I not been if my mother was able to pay my fear and do what's to be done.
I mean my father used to plant cane and we used to have sugar barrels of sugar and you they have a place like a plant where you crush the kids and get the molasses and the sugar, the wet sugar and so on. And most of that sugar comes to Britain, you know. So all our labor is it's it's here in Britain. I mean we've been robbed, you know. So >> could you tell us about the first time you in case you said you met >> this this individual? What's his name?
>> Ben.
>> Ben Richard, but we call him Ben. He said to me, he he loved me cuz that time I was young and beautiful.
>> It's still young and beautiful. It's so beautiful.
>> And he sends £50 for me.
>> And £50 those days, huh?
Where I hide it, I don't think Rat couldn't find it.
>> A life of necessity.
So I wouldn't share it with my daughter to tell her to pick up any old post now.
And you know, >> you kind of did what you need to, >> you know. Yes. I I I I wanted to my desire was to get to England, you know, and that's why I I I stuck to him. I never look over my shoulder to anybody else. Oh, it was tough life. But I never I never the type of girl to run here, run there. I I I I'm a stable person and I like to behave myself. People always look up to me.
Well, you got to survive in it. You got to survive. There's nothing to keep you going, but you survive. I said to her, it doesn't pay to be running here and running there. Stick to one person and you have a better life. You live longer and things like that. When you have a stressful life, you you you don't get anywhere that you're not putting the books in the bags anymore. You hold your book in your hand. Proud to be an Adventist, you know. And over the years, I'm always proud and happy to be an Adventist. And I I don't like running up and down. I told my children, especially my daughter, I said to her, "You only have one life, and if you live it well, you'll survive.
Going to invite Kane now.
two one two uh if I can have the PowerPoint up as well.
Yeah. And let's go for the second slide.
I like a bit of interactivity. Thank you, sir.
Yeah, that'll do.
Okay. So, hands up if you've been to Notting Hill Carnival before.
Everyone look around. Matter of fact, hands down. Hands up if you haven't been to Notting Hill Carnival.
Okay. Four people. Okay, cool. Um, who knows who this gentleman pictured behind is?
Yes. These hands up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, cool. I think probably about five people. Okay, this gentleman make a mental note is part of the reason why we have Notting Hill Carnival.
But yet when we look out the room, the majority have been to Notting Hill Carnival, but the majority don't know who this gentleman is. Okay, so this gentleman is I did have a clicker somewhere. Did I leave it? This gentleman is Kelso Cockrane. If you didn't know, please, please, please, please, please make sure you make a mental note of who he is. He was racially murdered on the 17th of May, uh, 1959.
Uh, part of the reason, uh, why I chose to speak about this is because of an initiative that I did in the past, an initiative that I've got to come, but also as well the poignantness of us uh, being in May/June um, and Notting Hill Carnival coming up.
Also something for us to think about in regards to being black in Britain.
Kelo Cockrane was originally from Antigga. Any antigens in the house?
Anyone been to Antigga?
Okay. Yeah.
You don't seem best pleased.
I went to Antigga last year. It was absolutely beautiful. Um and even the lady on the video who mentioned St. Kits. Ah, if you get a chance to go St. Kits, go St. Kits. It's just Anyone been to St. Kits? Yeah. Yeah. Nothing like it. He was I love it. Nothing like it.
Absolutely nothing like it. Uh Kelso Cockra being from Antigga, he was classed as and touted as one of the first racially motivated murders recorded in Britain. Often you hear it shortened to the first racist murder in Britain. Okay, I've added some words to it to say the first recorded because chances are Yeah. That being said, what we saw last week Saturday, nothing new, Bread.
Nothing new.
This is the White Defense League around that time in Trafala Square, nothing new.
I put a scripture at the top. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.
Hosea or Hosea 46.
And this scripture is quite important to me because I think it highlights exactly that.
When I see this, I see a people with a lack of knowledge.
When I see this, which is literally within the Carnival Route, um I believe it's Princedale Road. Don't quote me on that. I'll double check. Uh but this essentially is just of Notting Hill. So, could you imagine if you see the person at the bottom right, that's somebody's grandmother, someone's great-grandmother, someone's mother, working, which seemingly for the NHS, some kind of health profession, and having to walk past a white Defense League shop.
Can you imagine what our generations had to go through?
Coming back to Kelso, this is the site where he unfortunately lost his life in West London. If you go there today on Southam Street, it's actually a part of the carnival room.
So, it's actually where the procession kind of starts and then turns and you'll see a little plaque outside a pub. Uh then it was the lingerette and you'll see a little plaque dedicated to Kelso.
And every year, as someone who grew up with Notting Hill Carnival, um my Chinese Jamaican grandmother had a shop on All Saints Road. And if you speak to anyone in West London, she she's passed away now, but she was that girl.
She literally would feed the community as we was talking about, you know, food and food, uh the need for food. She didn't run one of them Caribbean restaurants where you know you would keep up the stale food and then you would serve it to customers the next day and you know go wicked and bad and think say that you know it's not going to come around and come to bite you right what she used to do with the food is she used to give it out to the kids in the local area the food that didn't sell she would give it out and as a result anytime I say yeah my my granny's madam people are like madam so I say that to say I grew up with Notting Hill Carnival And every year I hear the same thing. No one remembers the history. The history is being lost.
No one remembers the history. And I go into many rooms like this and I mention it and I say, "Do people know who Castle Cockrane is?" And not many people know, but everybody goes, "We need to rectify that." Okay? Because a lot of the conversations we're having now is because we're not rooting ourselves in history. And people perish because of a lack of history, a lack of knowledge.
Now, I want to take that scripture and obviously there's the IC Jesus and the exig Jesus, but I even want to say that it potentially will be lost if we don't root it in the history.
Now, you may be thinking, well, why is that a bad thing? Wait till I get on to how much money it makes.
So when Kelso Cockrain unfortunately lost his life due to this racialized murder, he was attacked by a gang, a group of four to five white men outside this place. He was making his way back from Paddington General Hospital. He had a fractured farm. He was a carpenter with ambitions to be a lawyer. Lawyer, doctor, engineer.
And he was attacked for no reason. No apparent reason. He did not know these individuals and he was attacked with a stiletto knife that was imported from Europe.
Does that sound familiar? Imported knives, zombie knives. The same rhetoric. People perish because of a lack of knowledge.
And yet when it comes to black British culture, people want to push that ideology on us that gang culture comes from us.
Are they not aware of the faulty elephants in Elephant and Castle? Are they not aware that the name hooligan actually comes from oh hooligans which is an Irish group that's their surname gang culture is not root or at least black British is not rooted in us it survived before us is because we were dipped into these areas and we had to defend ourselves. So if you can imagine in West London growing up in this area and you hear that an innocent man who had a fractured thumb essentially he's not able to fight these people coming back from the hospital late at night.
What do you think that the black individuals are going to do in West London if they hear that someone's been attacked and no one has ever been charged?
Of course they too are going to carry weapons to protect themselves. These imported stiletto knives.
black people aren't importing them things.
And of course, we protested. We hit the streets and there was this rhetoric that black and white can unite.
We started that. We were pioneering that. The people of West London were pioneering that.
And one of said pioneers who saw what happened to Kelso and she and uh Mrs. Garvey got together and they raised £200 which doesn't sound like a lot but I'm pretty sure if you equate £200 in the 50s up until today it would be some serious money and they put together a burial a procession a funeral procession fit for a king. There were thousands of people as you can see from this photo. Claudia Jones amongst many things uh was known for pioneering one of our first newspapers, the West Indian Gazette. She had an office in Brixton was heavily attacked. They had flags outside.
They ramacked her shop. They weren't happy that there was a West Indian Gazette, that people were being educated, but people perish because of a lack of knowledge. So, of course, they're going to target the centers where education is being promoted.
She's also known for bringing about the first Caribbean carnivals.
Uh there were a few others as well, let's say specifically for London.
And there's a plaque outside St. Pancress Town Hall.
And this was all before Notting Hill Carnival even started.
Dark as hell. He said that if it weren't for the Notting Hill Carnival race rights and if it weren't for the murder of Kelso Cockrane, the carnival that we know today wouldn't have existed.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but Notting Hill Carnival celebrates 60 years.
Yes, that 60 years of party and neness, potentially some slackness, but it's also 60 years of protest, of pain. And yes, we can party, but we need to remember the pain and the protest so we can party in the present.
What's interesting, and I've got a book here if you need additional information in regards to the Kelso Cockrane story.
It's called Murder in Not in Hill. It's a fantastic book.
It says this.
The police at the time were worried that Kelso's final resting place, which is in Kenzel R Cemetery, Kenzel Green Rice Cemetery, Kenzel Rice Cemetery, they feared that if Kelsa was buried here and not in Antigga that it would become a political shrine and people would protest.
But do you know what ended up happening instead?
Six months later over thousands of people. Six months later it became desolate.
People forgot.
His family were in other parts of the world, the US, Antigga, etc. And people forgot. It fell into disrepair. So, I'm not surprised that when I stand here today and I say, "Who's aware of Kelso Cockrane?" I'm not surprised that not many hands shot up.
I did this at Spotify um for their Black History event and it was predominantly uh white people and they were all talking, "Yeah, we all go n crickets."
And I don't think that should be the case. But the charge is with us because if we don't say then how are they to know? Even in regards to Notting Hill Carnival and some of the contemporary conversations.
I'm like, "Hang on a second. There's always this talk about Afrobe, SOA, this that." And I'm like, "Guys, we're actually talking about the wrong thing here." Cuz if we were actually to go back to the roots, then we can discuss about the fruits. Cuz I'm pretty sure if someone said, you know, Antigga, this this Kel Cockrine, this this this, people ain't going to care about the initial conversation about Afro beats and SOA, they're going to be like, hang on a second, we need to keep this tradition alive that people fought for.
It's a celebrating 60 years.
How many cultural institutions do we have?
I would say we've got the Black Saturday schools which I'm working on amplifying.
They've been around for 30, 20, 40 years some of them. We've got Notting Hill Carnival 60 years. We've got the Voice newspaper.
Who's purchased The Voice recently?
So, we going to let our cultural institutions die because people perish because of a lack of knowledge. Our culture will perish because of a lack of knowledge. And being black in Britain won't mean nothing. Your life expectancy will lower. Your educational outcomes will lower. The STI's gang culture will probably rise because people aren't rooted.
When people talk about Windrush generation, I refer to them as the rooted generation.
They're the roots. They came, they planted, they swed.
We're here to tend, to grow, to look at the fruits.
What do you think Claudia Jones would say?
Ronnie Lasslet, she's a lady that started what has now become the Notting Hill Carnival.
She's an Irish lady with some Native American heritage and she started it initially same ethos as Claudia Jones to bring the people together.
Dark as how Kelso cockray what would they have to say about this?
Is this being black in Britain? Is this our culture? Is this what we want to take on?
I can even see some of our cultural flags in that picture.
Is this what we want Gy culture I think that's a Trinidadian flag there as well.
Is this what we want Gy and Trinidad culture to reflect and to be?
So I decided to do something about it.
I was like, there's no way that my granny madam, who had a shop on All Saints Road, which is a stones throw away from where Kelsa was taken, a stones throw away from where the procession was, there's no way that I'm going to let this legacy die.
So, I did a quick Google and I found the biggest billboard on the route of Notting Hill Carnival and it was this one.
And I put out a GoFundMe.
First, I asked my mom for the money because it was £2,000. That's a lot of money. Cost of living.
So, I was like, "Mom, can you lend me £2,000?" She was like, "For what?" I was like, "A billboard." She was like, "Yeah."
You know, you just got that mom. Like, she's that girl. Um, that woman, you know what I mean? And she gave me the money and I said to her, "I'm going to do a fundraiser." And I was just like, you know, if it doesn't get the money back, then, you know, I will pay you back in installments. She was like, "Yeah, fine, son.
We the community, not me, raised the funds in 1.5 days.
It goes to show that people do care.
We just need to be audacious.
Now, I don't know if you can see, but to the left, yeah, even the fact that Grenful is graffitied underneath. I'm not sure how many people, you know, kind of think about spirituality and discernment and signs and purpose, but when I saw that, I was like, hm. And then to the left, you can see that there was some demonic film conjuring something or other being advertised. I was just like, hang on a second.
This is spiritual warfare. It said something like, I can't remember the exact saying. It was something like, yeah, something you're going to die. I was just like, why would people want to put this on the Notting Hill Carnival route? These billboards are poached literally 10 months in advance. People want to advertise at Notting Hill Carnival. It's the second largest street festival festival in the world, only second to Rio. And we built that. We And we can't let it die. The Voice we Black Saturday schools, we if we let it die, we're not going to have no cultural institutions. Why must we press reset and start from the ground up again?
pointless, fruitless.
This was me taking some photos outside Notting Hill card, outside my billboard.
And one thing that I encourage my friends to do, and I'm going to be hosting an event as well, is to simply when my event is going to be, listen to this title, it's heavy.
It's called paint and protest. So, similar to a sip and paint and we'll provide the materials, the board, the whatever, and you just create your own sign and bring it to Notting Hill Carnival. Why not? You go out and you buy a Jamaican flag from an Asian vendor to go and rep your country and rep your flag, but yet the money hasn't gone back to your community and it was actually mass-produced somewhere else.
Why can't we come with a proper message?
One of the things that I I don't know if you can see it there, but just something simple as justice for Wind Rush. Remind people that we're still waiting for compensation.
So yes, we can party in the present. And trust me, I'm always up for a good party.
You see the billboard, you'll see me outside the billboard doing party and history, handing out flights.
You know who this person is? Yeah.
That will be me.
because of this. I can't let these people down.
We wouldn't have this if it wasn't for this.
People often look at Notting Hill Carnival as a failure. The reason why it's not a failure is because the remit was black and white can unite.
You go there today and you will see black and white can unite. We healed racial tensions in West London and we need to celebrate that. Not only that, but it's a cultural institution.
It makes 400 million for the London economy.
How much you think the London Eye makes a year? It's open every single day. Bar two, Christmas and New Year's. How much money you think it makes?
90 million. And it's open every single day of the year. Notting Hill Carnival is over a weekend and it makes 400 million. So I say that to implore you.
Don't go and buy just a little thing that has a Jamaica flag just because it has a Jamaica flag. Invest in the community. Buy from our vendors.
Invest. There is money to be made.
The last thing that I'm going to end with is just simply this. People are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Now we have this knowledge of the voice, Notting Hill Carnival, Black Saturday schools. I don't want to do this mission by myself.
So I say that to say this year we're going bigger and better. So, not only do I have the one billboard, I have the other one next to it. Yeah, the community have paid for one. We're about 400 pound short, but I had I stopped it because of uh the hurricane relief efforts. We have one paid for by the community and the other ones paid for by Noting Hill Carnival Trust. Cuz I came to them and said, "Listen, we need Claudia Jones and Ronny Lasset. We need both of them plastered up so when people are walking down, they know say who started this thing.
So we got two billboards. When I was there last year, I was there with my brethren and one other person and we were going up to young people and just simply saying, "Do you know who this person is? He's castle is part of the reason why." And they were like, "Oh yeah, no. Okay, cool, cool, cool. This year I want more volunteers, just more people that want to even if it's just an hour." You know what I mean? I'm not looking to spoil up your whole something or something. Do you know what I mean?
Even if it's just an hour to hand out flyers and to be like, "Yeah, you seen this? This is this is the initiative.
this is what we're doing because people perish because of a lack of know could perish if people aren't aware of the reason. So I say that to say and to conclude book if you want more fundraiser open if you want more and DM me if you're like Kane I could give an hour half an hour I'm going to be at Carnival anyway why not come share the love speak to people simple asks that being said thank you so much guys for your Can we get one more round of applause for for Kim? We're going to quickly do um answer a few questions. Um, so if you could just put the the slides back on, uh, the Padlet back on. Um, if there are any questions that you would like us to ask, going to invite you to, uh, join us here.
Awesome.
You could take the um the armrest. You know, you you've done some good work.
Um, let me get your uh mic as well. So yeah, if you have any questions um please do share on the Padlet. We're going to go straight over um to Deb. There was the first question that says, "How can I keep my culture close but still code switch as people of color? Should we be cold switching in the first place?"
Uh so I answered the first bit about keeping culture. Um, specifically for, uh, anyone in their 20s in here? Uh, specifically for this demographic, uh, have, who here has visited the heritage country from the 20s?
Okay, hands down. Was it on your own accord or were you with auntie, uncle, mom, dad, parents?
There's nothing like going and doing it when you're an adult. Okay. Without that supervision. Part of my worry and fear is that you only do it with your parents and as a result it becomes something that isn't, you know, desirable, isn't cool, isn't necessarily what it needs to be. I feel like it removes a part of that exploration that you will have if you were just by yourself as a 20 year old. Am I right in saying that? Yeah.
It's not the same going with your parents. And what I'm starting to realize is because of the rise of Tik Tok and things like that is that our young people tend to go to Dubai and Thailand and things. And that's great.
do go to those places, but prioritize going to your heritage country because in terms of your culture, that's the easiest way to connect to your culture.
You go there, you ground, you kick your shoes off, you put your feet on the ground, and you will come back a different person. You will not be the same person. So, I encourage first of all, if you want to connect to your culture, simply go there. Go to the roots. You are the fruits. Go there ground. In regards to code switching, this is a funny one because before I used to code switch in my early career and I was like, "Yeah, this is how I'm going to, you know, navigate and do this and XY Z, but I was code switching and I was still getting the same microaggressions. I was still being told that my hair was like a cloud." That my hair was like, "Hey, that I wasn't getting the promotion. I was stuck on the 40k barrier for eight years." And I was just like, "Hang on a second. This isn't" And then people were like, we was having this conversation the other day.
It was this idea of, you know, you have to go to the pub, you have to network, you have to connect. And I was just like, that's not my place. That's not my scene. Why do I have to do that? Why can't it be just simply based on my own merit? So I say that to say there may be a part of your career where you feel like you may need to code switch. But personally question has that led to anything? If it has, tread tentatively. Remember I said there's a difference between assimilation and occultation.
Okay? Make sure you do not drop your culture. I feel like code switching is a skill and when I'm in schools I encourage students to be themselves but then equally there'll be times when I say do not use the word like in the wrong in the wrong sentence unless you're using it for a simile and don't start your sentence with the word basically and that's just to prepare them for the real world because I feel like code switching is a dying art when we speak to our young people it's just my cousin is Jenz and he's just monotone he's got no code switch I'm like what's going on so I say that to say would I suggest doing it. I would say it's largely uh dependent on you and your circumstances.
But one thing I will say is that acculturation not assimilation.
>> Awesome. Thank you very much. Question says, "What does being our brother's keeper mean to you today?"
>> Uh there's a scripture in First Peter and it says that the enemy is prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour.
And if you watch David Amber and those type of documentaries, when you see that scripture literally comes to life when you see that the enemy is prying around looking for its next prey. And I use that scripture and that example to say that being a brother's keeper to me when you see those documentaries often they escape because they're in a pack because someone else has seen the lion, someone else has seen the danger. So for me, being a brother's keeper is literally that, having your brother's back, making sure that you have peripheral vision, making sure that if anything does come up, you're like, "Hang on a second. Let's divert. Let's change. Let's change course." That's what my brother's keeper means to me.
And then interestingly is that my name is Kane. Obviously, it's spelled different from Kane in the Bible because my grandma was like, "No, Sel."
But that's where my brother's keeper that that's where that comes from because God asked Kane, you know, are you brother's keeper? And he was like, no. So I feel like I resonate with that scripture. Um, and yeah, my granny custom name. Hence why my name is K A Y N E. You know, my mom had to do a remix cuz she liked the name that much. She weren't a churchgoer.
>> No. Awesome. Thank you so much for for sharing that. Um, another question says, um, what are your thoughts on the current Tommy Robinson, uh, farright rise? How worried should black Britain British people be? Uh, many of my friends are first and some second generation are looking to return to countries their families migrated from.
What are your your thoughts to to that?
>> Where do we start?
>> Uh, Tommy Rob is an informed. Um, there's just so much to cover. I'm not even necessarily sure where to start.
Uh, okay, cool. So, what what I would say is, uh, we I would say that we're quite good, actually, of being politically aware.
Young people, 20s, did you vote recently? Give me a little Okay, I'm I'm loving the honesty. I'm loving that some people are like, "Nah, I didn't." Okay. I I appreciate the honesty. Um, what I would suggest is make sure that you do, not because I ever promote outwardly politics. My politics I don't promote on my platform. It's largely for myself.
Um, but the reason why I say to do so for yourself is to see, you know, the Windrush scandal. Which party did that happen under? Um, what have they been doing since? Which party is that under?
what are the other parties saying about the wind rush scandal and the compensation and what's owed and what's due. So I would say always try to keep uh what's happening in the community in mind and try to ask those questions in regards to where we stand politically because we are at a politically charged time. We have seen a rise of numerous different groups now coming into the conversation and we're seeing that diversification which I think is a larger reflection of where we are at just in general. I don't believe that monoculture really exists anymore. Who remembers back in the day when you and your family would sit and watch XFactor and BGT and watch it all together and you'll be sat down. Now we live in an era where there is no longer monoculture. There is no longer just a Michael Jackson. Now we live where you know this person could be listening to Pink Panther. This person could be listening to Central Sea. This person could be listening and as a result we're seeing that politically as well. Um so I say all of that to say you just have to make sure that you keep reading.
>> Yeah. No, thank you. Um, and and I guess if I could push you a little, you could kind of see those videos of some in our kind of community that will will have I guess those some polarizing thoughts. And as you kind of speak about there isn't just D or mono. I guess there's also an difference of thought within the black community where I guess could I say we're not really thinking the same and I guess we've never really thought the same but it seems now there's a biggest kind of schism.
What what what do you make of that in the face of I guess you know now we see in a party a black woman leading you know we growing up I probably didn't think we would ever see something um like that. What do you make of I guess that schism of thought or disparity of thought within I guess the black community in in Britain or black British community.
Yeah, I think it's really important to remember that we aren't monoliths and part of that will be politically um and you know we have free will and essentially that's you know the people's choices. Um I am someone who believes in communitarianism this idea of getting together. Um, and I would say that everybody should practice communitarianism. And with communitarianism, it says that you can come and you can have a different opinion, but what it can't do is it can't pull the rug from under what we built. So that's your mark of measure, communitarianism. If someone is pulling the rug from under what we built, then it's a problem. So, it's not a problem to have a different political view necessarily, but if it's pulling the rug from under what we've built, then it's a problem. Communitarianism is the word.
Bank it in your minds.
Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing. Just in the interest of of time, we're going to end here. Um, amazing presentation, Kane. Um, do you think in the spirit of occulturation the concept of black Britishness as opposed to Africanness or Caribbeanness separates us all and splits our communities into fragments? Nuance is great, but sometimes I fear that blackness alienates from the homeland and could lead to a separation from where we come from.
>> One thing that is largely ignored is African diversity.
You always hear especially from like you know people who are online they're like yeah I'm going Africa I'm like which 50 plus place where who what when you never say yeah I'm going Europe okay so I say that to say even within places like Nigeria there is so much diversity and it's about acknowledging that diversity so us now coming here and all trying to get onto one page it's a work it's a process the other day I was at a Nigerian traditional wedding the other day I went to um my friend married a Nigerian artist and he's huge and has a big concert and he was invited me and it was just you know this whole thing and I was just like wow 400 years has separated me from this so much so that I'm disconnected to a certain degree but connected also to a certain degree like I said growing up in Pekkham the largest Nigerian diaspora community so I not only DNA wise are majority Nigerian, but also culturally I feel quite Nigerian because all of my friends are Nigerian. So I say that to say grace because black British this term is new. So if you were born the people who are 20s, this term is new. When I was growing up, black British wasn't a tickbox. It's new. So, we need to show ourselves grace because it was never really an option.
Now, it is an option. It's something that we're building out slowly but surely. So, naturally, politically, culturally, historically, there are going to be differences. But with Caribbean people specifically, and Caribbean people in the room, give me a little wave. Give me a little weave. Uh, I speak to you from, you know, someone who is from the Caribbean, we have to deal with what I refer to as the triality of the transatlantic slave trade. Okay. What that means is is that a lot of us are sitting on an incomplete journey. Okay? So we were brought the majority of us from West Africa to the Caribbean. That's one journey. One reset, language reset, cultural reset, reset, reset.
Then the second part of the triality of the transatlantic slave trade, we were brought from the Caribbean over to the UK. Okay? And now we're here.
But there's still a part that's missing and that part Caribbean people is making sure that you visit Africa as much as you possibly can, West Africa, your DNA. Where is it from? Visit, have a look. And I feel like part of that will heal some of the disparities, the differences, some of the arguments, etc. cuz once again when you go like when I went to my friend's uh traditional wedding you're like this feels strangely familiar and then once you actually go I've been Ghana I haven't been Nigeria yet I missed out on Nigeria cuz my friend was getting married but I was a teacher at the time I've been Gambia I went Sagal anyone been Sagal Sagal yo Sagal that's all I'm going to say one more Senagle.
>> It blew my mind. So I say that to say we need to complete the triality of the transatlantic slave trade. And part of that will be part of the healing and even better get your West African friends to take you. Say take me. I want to go. I want to see take me.
And I guess even further to push that question, there's this kind of conversation where where individuals may or even seeing um a little online where it's I'm not going to I guess claim black Britishness. Rather, I'm black English.
>> What do you Where do you sit with that?
How does that sit with you?
>> You can hear how it sits with me. Jesus.
Do you know what funny?
>> So, what makes you say that? What makes you >> You know what? Funny enough, a lady came up to me. Uh I spoke at the city hall London Mayor event uh for Black History Month just gone, and a lady came up to me and she said, "You know, well, um I I tell my kids that they're black English."
I was like, "Okay, okay."
Um I >> break that down for us. Break that down for us.
>> So, Okay. So, it's just Yeah, it's Yeah, it's just it's just a no. It's just a no. Yeah, I'm going to have to leave it there.
Same way with the woman. I was just like out of, you know, not catching offense, I was just just going to leave it there.
I'm just going to leave it there. Put it this way, it's going to be more polarizing if you choose to try and pioneer black English because what we're seeing on the far right is this idea of Englishness.
And I feel like we've gotten to a place where they're like, "Yeah, black British, you're all right." You know, yeah, you know, you see the the figures coming up and doing their, you know, their thing that they're doing. Um, so essentially I just say, yeah, black English, I see it as as a panda puppet where you're being orchestrated to try and tow the line of blackness and whiteness at the same time. And I don't feel like it's going to be a helpful device for us moving forward. So I would be very worried and careful if someone chooses to claim that. And then also as well, why reset what we've built? We've built Black British to a certain point.
Why now do we have to then reset once again? If you look at America, for example, black, what we know as African-American, has been reset nine different times. They've been referred to as nine different racial categories.
White people have had their reset in America twice.
So why now are we considering resetting again what so we can mirror our African-American cousins and we all know what they're going through what I highlighted earlier with their life expectancy. We cannot be building and rebuilding again. We cannot do it. We need to support our already existing cultural um institutions and we simply cannot start again.
>> Awesome. Thank you very uh thank you very much. Uh last question as I've see um the time is is is far gone. If you could implement one structural change tomorrow, what would it be? Structural and cultural change.
So much so so many. Okay. So uh first thing school >> I would say that for our young people we need to push the need for media studies.
Media studies studying the media either in their own time andor in school. The reason why I think this is so important is because our young people are largely taught to just be consumers. When you look at Asian countries, they're taught to be critiquers and creators. We need to move our young people from just consuming. I say that to say if you use Spotify, if you use Snapchat, if you use Tik Tok, critique it. Write a review.
What's good about it? What's bad about it? What's even better if? What works well? That's going to make you realize a gap in the market. Then you can become a creator and create something that's going to supersede what already exists.
Some of the young people here who are 20, you might not be familiar, but there was a thing called MySpace, and then Facebook came along and trumped that.
And there was a thing called Bibo, and then a thing called Musically, and then Tik Tok came and trumped that. That's where I want our young people to be. And that's not even just for black. That's just our young people period. I want them to move from just being consumers just being worker bees. I want them to be able to exercise their full creativity and be creators in the tech field. And the reason why specifically tech field even with AI is because it's not as gatekept as some of the traditional industries. So, as we're seeing with the music industry where we know that we make up, you see that study the other day where it says how much black British music makes is heavily gatekept. So, as a result, we can't get to the higher higher echelons and make all of the money that's readily available to us. So, largely, we're at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to music and some of those uh larger wages and packages and and money to be made. Whereas tech has largely been um it's not as gatekept because it's newer. So, there's an opportunity to really insert yourself and really make a lot of money. And we're seeing that with some of our young black entrepreneurs.
>> Awesome.
>> And then culturally, >> yes, >> structurally. Oh, last thing. How much time I got? structurally. Okay, I'll quickly run through them. So, that was school. Structurally, we need changes in regards to the NHS and our black maternal uh outcomes. Black women are five times more likely to die uh during childirth um compared to their white counterparts. Structurally, that needs to change. Um schooling, obviously, black Caribbean boys being uh you know, marginally better than white British boys who are eligible for free school meals. We're excluded at larger rates.
We're stopped and search at larger rates. We're even pulled over on those little mobilized scooters more than anybody else. So, structurally, there is a lot of change that needs to happen.
Culturally, um I would say the change that needs to happen is we need to look at ourselves and look at our brothers and sisters and see no enemy. Growing up in Pekkham, one thing that I've been trying my hardest to do is to see another black brother and just smile.
I am so afraid because I've been socially conditioned that I cannot be a begott that I am afraid to approach another black man and simply say hello or hi or wagan or how are you? I'm afraid and I went to New Orleans this year and the black people are so friendly. They're so friendly. And I was just like, how are these people so friendly? They will come up to you even in the bathroom, the most awkwardest of places, and they'll be like, yo, you trying crawfish? And I'm like, "Brother, I'm in the bathroom. What do you mean, Crawfish?" Like, but they're they're they're so friendly. And part of me said, "I want to bring that southern hospitality to South London. I'm still working on it, but please please try and join me. When you leave here today, you see someone, just smile and just say hello." Um, because I feel like culturally we need to see no enemy. So even me being able to sit on the front row and talk to my brothers was just so refreshing and talk about not just nonsense but to actually you know dig deep and actually talk about something that's actually progressive. Um so culturally that needs to change. And then last thing that I would say is culturally it takes a village to raise a child. So what is your role within that village away from uh the parents grandparents uncles aunties my role is a teacher.
What are your role? There's gatekeepers, there's educators, there's youth workers, there's mentors. What is your role?
>> I like that. I like that. I like that.
What is your We talk about this kind of village, but kind of actively identifying where you play a part in this.
>> What is your purpose?
>> What is your role? What is your purpose?
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Um, we could be here all all night. Kane. Um, I'm wondering books. I know you mentioned uh murder in Nottton Hill. Is there any other books, resources, places, spaces that you can just let us know where we can just kind of dig a little deeper?
>> Yeah, I've got a reading list. If you go to my link in my bio, it's um bookshop.org. Get your book from there specifically because it's not Amazon and essentially they support the independent bookshop. Uh, so I've got a link on there and essentially all the books that I read and I like, um, yeah, that's where I put them up. So yes, check it out and see what I've been reading. And, uh, I go live every Tuesday and I do a deep dive into a different black book.
Um, this is on my Instagram and my Tik Tok. And this Tuesday coming, I'm going to be talking about, um, the last person to be executed in this country was a black man. And this was in 1963. Uh, it's knowledge that's not readily available. Uh, I've got the book. I've read the book and I'm going to be sharing that information so people once again are aware of this knowledge because who knew that the last person executed in this country was a black man.
>> Indeed. Indeed. And where can we find you? Your Instagram, Tik Tok, that is your name, Kane Kawazaki.
>> Yes.
>> Simply on the post so you can find him here. Tell us a bit about your event.
You mentioned it. Where can where can we find more information about that?
>> The details aren't out as of yet, but I'm working on it. I'm going to be doing a um an event for the Notting Hill Carnival 60. That one's going to be at the London Dockland Museum. That one's going to be for families. So, you can bring your young people and they can create their own little avatar and make a little Caribbean kind of character and stick feathers and diamontes and kind of engage. So, I'm doing one for the kids uh and then I'm doing one for the adults where those who are going for Notting Hill Carnival come and make some protest signs so that when we hit the streets, people not see what's going on. Do you know what I and know that we're some real serious people. We've mobilized.
We're active. We've gathered. And not only have we gathered, but we've actioned.
>> Awesome. Give me a round of applause for Kane, please. Thank you so much.
>> Can I just one last thing? Um, also as well, thank you to uh the guys and the team for having me. This is the first time I've ever had any kind of conversation in a church. Uh so it's actually quite refreshing because often when we look at other ethnic minorities and we say why are we not like them? Why are we not like them? It's because they often have a spiritual principle that keeps them rooted in their ideology. Now I'm not here to push a spiritual ideology. However, it is refreshing to be invited into this space. Last thing that I would say uh just as an example that there is a banking society that has been created by black people and that is run by the Pentecostal bank service. So that lets you know that there is something powerful when we gather regularly and put our resources together. We saw it historically with the pardoner. But I do believe that moving forward, we would need to be grounded in spirituality. That doesn't necessarily mean that you must come to the sum something. But it does mean that because we see the Pentecostal banking system doing something regardless of your beliefs, you need to support it.
Because I'm not sure if you're aware of slider cuts, the barbers, he actually got his loan from the Pentecostal bank.
So the Pentecostal bank, blackowned bank is supporting a blackowned business.
Thank you. One more round of applause.
Awesome. Awesome.
Thank you. No, I am encouraged. Um, and many people will be like, why are you kind of having this conversation in a church in the in the context of of of of church and as a pastor, you you know, should should you be leading this conversation? And I kind of think back to even just the civil rights movement and how it was basically led and birthed by preachers, by pastors. We look at like MLK and some of the guys around him. So this is something that is um there to me as somebody that lived in America for 3 years um that we kind of have this conversation um in every setting as much settings as we can. So I'm super grateful Kane uh for just being here for um making a time. I know there's thousands of things you could be doing and um just just just being here. We're grateful for that and that doesn't go unnoticed and unappreciated. So, we say thank you um for that. Listen, um the questions on the Padlet I will pass on to Kane. It is open. Um I know you kind of do some Q&As's and stuff like that. So, if there's any question that you wanted to answer or or kind of look at, um we will pass over to him and so look on his Tik Tok and his Instagram. Um you may kind of find some some things there. Um just before we conclude um one of the things that Kane mentioned um cultural ch um change that we could implement is linking I guess the diaspora back to their kind of home country. One of the things that we are doing um in the space that I am as a youth director in in our church is a mission trip to to Jamaica.
Of course, we all heard of the destruction and the milissa um that has has has taken place. So, in August, we will be taking um about 30 to 40 young people uh to Jamaica, young people that may have never been to the islands who have heritage there. Um we we have a little video there that could be played.
Um, but we also I will also have the QR code if you do want to support that trip. Um, we are supporting we're rebuilding four community homes and two churches in Jamaica there. So, if you do want to uh donate or give to that cause um we do appreciate that as well. I'm going to invite um a co-organizer Chanel who will kind of give us some closing remarks um before we um depart. So Chanel, if you could uh join.
>> Hello everyone again. So yeah, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for everyone uh for attending. It's one of the first events that we've done. Yes, exactly. Of many. So, just a reminder for the um QR code that was up before for the Padlet where you ask the questions for the Q&A, there's also a few questions if you like slide to the right asking what would you like to see in this community space going forwards because Warren and I we spoke about some of these things could look like workshops, interactive discussions like we've done today. Um, but it could also be experiences. So like cooking together or going to theater trips or the Windrush Museum or exhibitions that are currently happening. Um, and then educational pieces as well. So there's so like kind of different pillars that we want to touch. Um, but I guess initially we wanted to gather a group of people who are also interested to find out what you guys would also like. Um, so yeah, if you could leave any suggestions uh on that Padlet page, that would be much appreciated. Um, but I guess I just wanted to leave with a few things to think about. So Kane touched on being our brother's keeper. So what basically it's not just about the past. It's not just about history. Um, it's about survival and legacy, but also our future. So what part are you going to play in your village? Um, and how can you actually provide some positive change rather than us just learning about like American civil rights in our history class and nothing more? Even if it's helping Kanu at Notting Hill and just educating people or even if it's not that and just speaking to your friends and your family who also probably don't know half of the things that we discussed today.
So yeah, what's one responsibility that you're willing to take? And we just want you to think about that and when you leave here today to actually action it.
Um and yeah, just think about your your role to play in your community today. Um so I'm just going to finish with a closing prayer. For those of you that want to join um with me, please bow your head.
Dear Father, thank you for bringing us here today together. Um, as we said, hopefully one of the first of many events or spaces that we will open up for people. Lord, I thank you for Cain, for his knowledge, for his words, for sharing pieces of information that maybe we haven't thought about or reflected on before. Um, thank you for Warren, to the youth ministries for making this event happen as well. Lord, I pray for everyone in this room. I pray that you will help us to really take away a c call to action. What are we going to do to bring positive change to the black community, the community that we live in, to our village, to the young people especially um that we're surrounded by.
So Lord, I pray that you just continue to protect us, to bless us, to help us to bless others for the mission trip to Jamaica um in the summer as well. And yeah, Lord, I pray that you just help us to continue to stay connected um and that this will just continue to grow um as a safe space um for all of us and for our community. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
So, just want to bid you good night. Get home safely. Uh God bless. And as Kane said, he's trying to um let's find three or four people and just smile at them so we can make a a positive change on our way out. I just want to say a a last thank you to Kane and um have a good night guys and um we have I guess some contacts and we will continue to share some feedback there and um you'll hear a little bit from us shortly. God bless.
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