Mary Seacole once again was thrust into a battle for recognition. Picture from Every Generation
Longstanding gains made by cultural and political activists over decades for equality in the arts and education appear to be under attack. The hurried attempt by education minister Michael Gove to airbrush black historical figure Mary Seacole out of the national curriculum recently was thwarted by close to 30,000 objectors, including artists, writers and politicians. Paul Macey argues that the battle isn’t over as Gove’s actions reflect the government’s unashamed disregard of equalities generally.
I have to admire the determination of all those committed to challenging inequality and discrimination in the face of the coalition government’s determination roll back hard fought gains in the area of social justice and literary equality.
The end of 2012 saw the Prime Minister up the ante when he told business leaders attending the CBI conference, that he was “calling time” on Equality Impact Assessments for government policy. In short, there was no longer any need to assess whether government services were actually meeting the needs of black and minority ethnic taxpayers.
As Dr. Robert Berkley, director of the Runnymede Trust, the race equality think tank, pointed out in a recent Guardian article, there are currently more young black men unemployed than employed and the government’s own research has shown “that those with an identifiably African or Asian-origin name need to make nearly twice as many job applications to even get an interview”.
The list of shame goes on, from black people being seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white people to the general acceptance that the NHS reforms will seriously disadvantage those from BME communities. Facts the government refuses to share with us, despite legal instructions to do so.
This sustained attack on equalities is taking many guises and isn’t all about protecting big business and reigning in local government. At the department for education, its gaffe prone minister Michael Gove inexplicably tried to remove Mary Seacole from the national curriculum late last year.
Attempting to revise a significant historical moment is extremely dangerous. When that attempt also includes an implicit disregard of the achievements of BME communities and steps to downgrade a feted heroine such as Seacole, who topped the100 Greatest Black Britons list, voted on by black and white alike, is indefensible.
This cultural amnesia on the part of Gove explains why he wasn’t prepared for the sustained backlash to his irrational decision to remove Seacole from education. The impressive array of petitioners (close to 30,000) who worked with Operation Black Vote and Every Generation to get the decision reversed was eye wateringly impressive – from Zadie Smith, Bonnie Greer and Rev Jesse Jackson to Kwame Kwei-Armah, Stephen Twigg and Malorie Blackman.
Take the former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the book Churchill’s Empire –The world that made him, written by Professor Richard Toye, the subject’s treatment and views of ‘non-white’ people from Kenya to India mark him out as far from heroic, yet this has been airbrushed out of the continued praise for his leadership. One wonders if these facts will make it onto the national curriculum.
So a few months into 2013 the fight continues as there is a direct link between Gove’s defeated action with Seacole and Cameron’s continued undermining of the equalities. Doing away with evidence and fact in service delivery and how needs are being met only allows the government to create the world in their own skewed, largely male and white image.
In January Gove was at it again, calling for the removal of the ‘due consideration’ of a child’s race, culture, language and religion when placing them for adoption in the proposed Children and Families Bill.
The gains we are fighting to preserve are too precious to lose to an insensitive and short-sighted government full of privileged individuals who only care for their limited version of history and the unequal future the systems and outcomes it inevitably creates.
Paul Macey is Words of Colour Productions’ director for internships and community development.