Stop Trying To Save White People
The glorification of Black Lives Matter ‘hero’ Patrick Hutchinson has seen him showered with a plethora of plaudits and now immortalised in a bronze statue. However, does branding him a hero create more problems than it solves?
Several years ago, I remember speaking to my friend about growing up as a black teenager in a London secondary school. He told me something I had never heard before but would subsequently discover was a sentiment shared by many other black people. Because of the constant abuse he encountered at school, and the disparaging way black people were shown in the media, he said that during his formative years he wished he were white. For as long as I have known him, he has been an intelligent, empowered, articulate and proud young black man, so I was taken aback by this confession. I felt that this must have been a rarity, but upon closer inspection, this was actually a passing sentiment shared by many other black people at least once in their lives.
I have never wanted to be white. Even at school when I was teased for my large, broad nose. The year the Channel Tunnel was open was when the bullies started calling me ‘Euro Tunnel’, which was just one of a plethora of names which haunted me for my entire time at secondary school. Even so, this non creative attempt at an insult never penetrated me. I always have been proud of my colour and my features and would never allow any white person to dictate how I should feel about the skin I was born in.
Black people appeasing white people has been a method tried for centuries to survive white supremacy patriarchy. Many black people believed, and some still do, that if we assimilate into white culture, we will be accepted, black people will thrive, and racism will effectively end. This of course is naïve. This myth has been perpetuated for centuries and racism is still prevalent, so it evidently hasn’t worked.
Secondly, when black people effectively put their feelings to one side in order to make the opinions of white people their priority, it means we end up diluting who we are and moving further away from our ancestry, our culture, and our true selves. There are many negative consequences of this way of thinking that have survived and infested our way of functioning and behaving as black people. Whether that’s going to extreme lengths to modify our external appearance, which is not only expensive but dangerous, seeing other black people as enemies rather than allies or exclusively surrounding yourself with people who are not black. When you constantly put others on pedestals, you end up seeing yourself, and others who look like you, as inferior.
In June 2020, hundreds of racist white men marched through central London as a reactionary demonstration against the Black Lives Matter protests that had taken place just days earlier. One of the racist white men got injured, however Patrick Hutchinson, a personal trainer who also works for a security company, saved him from potential further harm. The man in question was Bryn Male, a former police officer and detective constable for the British Transport Police. This is probably one of the most famous images from any of the UK based protests from the Summer of 2020. And one that will be kept in the archives of every right wing, centrist journalist, and media commentator for years to come.
Bryn Male is a grandfather. I do wonder if his racist ideology has infected his child, and in turn, his grandchild. Were they proud of their 55-year-old relative marching through the streets spewing hate against black people or did they feel shame and disgust? How did his former work colleagues in the police react? We already know that the police are institutionally racist, so I am sure some of his former associates share his bigoted beliefs.
Male is also a keen Millwall supporter. The same team whose players were booed for taking the knee in December 2020. Some people have a naive idea that racist people are a small minority hidden on the fringes of society when the reality is, they are police officers, football fans, fathers, mothers, and grandparents. They are your work colleagues, friends, families, and partners. They are ingrained in the fabric of our society.
To clarify, this is not an attack on Hutchinson. Although I would not have done what he did, my main issue is with the way white people will use his name and image to further dilute, control and supress our anger.
I believe anger is more productive than hope. Anger is justifiable. Anger should be used as a fuel for positive change. However, anger is a natural human emotion that for centuries racist white people have made us feel shamed for expressing and dehumanised us by spreading the myth that black people were angry and therefore animalistic and lacked culture and intellect. This would be used to justify enslavement, segregation and the oppression faced by black people.
Once black people began to use their anger to fight for freedom and equality, racist white people had to build on existing systems to keep them supressed. One way that they did this was by divide and rule.
Covert racists are selective about which black people they choose to promote and celebrate. There are strategic measures behind the reasons why people like Hutchinson are celebrated but other more radical black people are not.
Racist white people only feel safe around black people who are subservient and obedient, don’t vocally or actively call for the dismantling of white supremacy or whose lives’ or narrative they can manipulate and control in order to influence other black people.
In 2019, white police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting and killing Botham Jean whilst he was watching tv in his own home. She fired at the unarmed black man after she claimed that she mistook his home for her own. On the day of sentencing, Brandt Jean, Jeans younger brother, hugged and openly forgave his brothers killer and proclaimed, ‘I love you as a person and I don’t wish anything bad on you.’ Guyer then began to cry in his arms.
This image quickly gained traction outside of America and was broadcast throughout the world with most the media and commentators praising Brandt for his ‘leadership’ and ‘forgiving nature’.
Through the eyes of the white covert racist, Hutchinson and Jean both widely represent the face of the friendly, safe, and respectable black person. If you as a black person exist outside of these perimeters, or question why we are expected to exist as a monolith, then you will be deemed problematic.
Hutchinson didn’t have this challenge as Male was condemned by most people in the public eye including Boris Johnson. ‘They were racist’ said the Prime Minister who is notoriously remembered for calling black people ‘piccaninies’ with ‘watermelon smiles’ and admitted that seeing a ‘bunch of black kids’ worried and scared him. Johnson is the same man who attacked anti-racist reforms implemented in response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence when stating Britain should ‘axe large chunks of the anti-racism industry’. He also claimed to believe that there is ‘greater likelihood of being mugged by young black males than any other group.’
The Daily Mail called Hutchinson a ‘hero’. The same Daily Mail that regularly demonises black and brown people and refugees and allows their readers to fill their comment section with the same bile. The Mail was also one of several publications that called Male a ‘counter protester’ or an ‘anti BLM protester’. As you can see, I call a spade a spade. Male was and is a racist. Its problematic, but wholly intentional, when the media refer to racist individuals as anything but that. The media will insist on downplaying and gaslighting us into believing that racism is not an issue in this country which means we as black people start to lack the tools and the vernacular to spot and confront it. We often see the subjective way the media portrays white people in comparison to black people. The famous Family Guy meme regularly takes a humorous approach to spotlighting our media and social biases during incidents of social unrest.
If Hutchinson had ignored Male, which he would have been completely justified in doing so, the media would have painted Hutchinson out to be a violent, self-centred thug and Male would have been depicted as a hard-working former police officer, a supportive father and grandfather who was looking forward to retirement after years spent dedicated to his community.
But why was it never discussed why Hutchinson felt he had to defend Male? Why must a black person calculate their actions through the eyes of how white society will perceive them?
Let’s change the scenario. If there was a group of homophobic men marching through London, and one was hurt, would we expect a gay man to help him?
If they were a group of Nazis, and one had an injury, would we expect a Jewish person to offer them salvation?
How about misogynistic men? Should a woman carry one on her shoulders?
Black people have to battle racist people and then get told to save them too. We are encouraged to educate them but also to ignore their ignorance. We are praised for carrying them on our shoulders but not for complaining about the weight. We are expected to take their abuse and return their anger with a smile.
I have personally never put the feelings of a white persons before my own. And I never will. But many black people feel they need to go to extreme lengths to align themselves with whiteness in order to progress through life.
This manifests itself most vividly in the workplace. Code switching happens both before and during employment and this can reveal itself via speaking with a ‘white voice’, keeping your hair and appearance more European looking and silencing and diluting yourself so you are not deemed angry, emotional, or aggressive; negative tropes often used by white people to demean black people who aren’t afraid to have an opinion. Anything associated with blackness can be deemed nonprofessional either internally by the worker or externally by the employer.
Appeasing white people is something black people don’t even realise they are doing. Black people need to stop doing this. Trying to save racist white people when we should be saving ourselves. Protecting and forgiving our enemies. Literally carrying the weight of our oppressors on our shoulders. We’ve been doing it for 400 years and it hasn’t got us anywhere. If I saw a racist man suffering; I would leave him to rot.
This constant seeking of white inclusion and white approval is detrimental to all black people and reeks of desperation. We will never progress as a people if we continue to seek out conformation and approval from our white counterparts. We are drowning in the ocean yet are expected to save someone frolicking on the beach.
If a white person wants to save themselves from perpetuating racism, they don’t need us to hold their hands whilst doing so. There is a plethora of free information available to them via their phones which can be found in the form of books, articles, seminars, pod casts and Instagram accounts. If they want additional information, then make sure you send them an invoice as we will no longer be offering them our services without remuneration. And no, exposure is not a currency we accept as it does not pay the bills.
Hutchinson was recently named as one of the GQ Men of The Year and a statue has been made of the famous image of him during the protest and will soon be placed somewhere in a prominent location in London. The artist: Hector Guest, who is a white male, chose not to use the face of Male and instead replace it with his own. He stated on his Instagram page; ‘I decided to sculpt myself on Patrick’s shoulder, in place of the counter protestor, as this has been an introspective journey for me.’ There is so much to unpack in this one sentence alone that I could write a dissertation. I will soon write an article regarding the way ‘white woke allies’ centre themselves in the discussion of racism and capitalise and profit from promoting their artificial pro black ideology as this is one negative, yet unspoken, outcome to the BLM uprising of 2020.
Between 2017–2018 there were 496 temporary exclusions for racism in primary schools in England. That’s a rise of 40% on 2006–2007. If a young black child sees this statue, what type of messages are we sending them? We are telling them to allow racism to dominate their lives, to act in a way which appeases the white gaze and rather than combatting anti-black individuals, to accept their rhetoric and carry them to salvation. I don’t even need to explain to you what ideas we will be sending to white children who may stumble across this bronze sculpture.
From the enslaved, self-hating Stephen in the film Django Unchained, to Michelle Obama’s ‘when they go low, we go high’ catchphrase, the image and glorification of Hutchinson will be used for years as a tactic to dilute and restrain black people and to infantilise racist white individuals. As a white or black person, if the original image of Hutchinson saving Male makes you smile, then you need to ask yourself why you feel so comfortable seeing the oppressed protecting their oppressor.
