UPDATE


04 It’s not enough to be nice


Roger Mckenzie, co-chair of the Black Members’ Council, reflects on the importance of anti-racism and the council’s work within the union.


T


he Prime Minister Keir Starmer now claims to regret the comments he made suggesting that the country was in


danger of turning into an “island of strangers.” I am oſten told - not usually by Black people - that I should accept someone’s apology when they say something that could be interpreted as a racist comment. I have never been good at accepting this advice. Te problem is the damage has, more oſten than not, already been


done. Te permission, if it was needed, has already been given and acted on.


Te comments by Starmer have Visit the NUJ’s BMC page to


Action •


read more about the council’s work.


Watch previous recordings of the Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture organised by the BMC each year.


•


more than an echo of the infamous Rivers of Blood speech by Enoch Powell in April 1968. Tis speech was given in Birmingham, less than 10 miles from where I was born and raised in Walsall. Sadly, many locally did not need permission for their racism. But the speech by Powell certainly gave them a new impetus. I, like other young black kids, had


to struggle each morning to get to and from school in the face of racist abuse and atacks. Many of us can remember having our homes atacked and various disgusting and sometimes dangerous things thrown through our leter box. Starmer would have known about the impact his words were likely to


have. But he chose a form of words that he clearly thought would speak to the supporters of organisations such as Reform UK. Te botom line is that words have consequences. Something that all of us as journalists will be only too well aware of.


So much of this is not just what is said but how we report it. Tat’s why our union and our Ethics Council are so important. As Black members we would expect that our members take the greatest possible care over how these sorts of exchanges - which I dare say we will see much more of in the coming months and years - are


reported. For the Black


community the hostile environment created by the invention of this thing


called racism to justify enslavement of Africans some centuries ago shows no sign of ending. We need more than just people who


are nice - of which I have come across very many in our union. We also need anti-racists. A key part of this anti- racism must be listening to the voices of Black people. In the NUJ that means taking serious notice of the union’s Black Members’ Council.


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