‘Bristol deserves more than irie vibes and eulogising Banksy’

Whether we like it or not, race and class will be high on our city’s agenda for the foreseeable future.

The toppling of Colston’s statute has amplified the association of Bristol with the transatlantic slave trade. Subsequently, national government has declared war on ‘town hall militants’, ‘woke worthies’ and ‘baying mobs’.

Following the conversation, it seems to be forgotten that the statute fell during a Black Lives Matter protest against police brutality and structural racism.

Unless I was out of the loop, the organisers had nothing to do with the statute’s fall nor was it their focus.

The 2017 report from the Runnymede Trust was the latest in a series of reports that exposed the depth of structural inequality locally. One might argue that this is the perfect time to tackle those inequalities revealed.

Marvin Rees and Asher Craig – photo: Kerry McCarthy

In the preceding year, Marvin Rees was elected mayor and Asher Craig became deputy.

Between 2018 and 2019, activist and Green Party councillor, Cleo Lake, served as Bristol’s lord mayor and platformed race and class divides.

Former Bristol lord mayor Cleo Lake is the Green Party candidate for police & crime commissioner – photo: John Craig

Expectations were high. Surely, this down home Bristolian-bred cadre could sort out the web of inequalities that according to the Runnymede Trust had not significantly shifted in the past 15 years.

I am reminded of Balitmore’s fictional mayor, Thomas Carcetti, in The Wire.

Once in office, Tommy finds the coffers are bare, the federal government won’t increase funds and entrenched interests refuse to budge in his direction. He’s hamstrung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le57bn1ZBW4

Bristol isn’t Baltimore – fictionalised version at that – but there are parallels. The decimation of our public services, with scant regard to equalities impact, is the back drop to Marvin’s ascension. Any attempt at a radical levelling up programme would have to contend with a bleak climate.

Disappointment might ensue for some but perhaps this says much more about an unrealistic starting point, one which hasn’t considered the fiscal and legal straitjackets upon an administration that has come to power.

There is the question of disappointment but also what of assumption? In a pre-pandemic discussion, I was asked if a certain Asian Tory politician was a “coconut”.

Underpinning the question was a conflation of racial identity with one’s politics.

“The strangest animal I’ve ever seen is the black Tory.” so sayeth activist poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Strange, maybe. But they have a right to exist.

Surely, freedom from racism must mean the freedom to align politically with how ever one perceives the world?

By the same token, from the left in Bristol, there have been criticisms of the current mayor and deputy that seem to suggest they have failed to deliver a socialist programme that would end all inequity.

But was such a programme ever promised? Were such pledges ever made?

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Bristol’s mayor and deputy mayor have reiterated loudly and clearly the importance of having a seat at the table. A reformist response, like it or not, but hardly misleading.

Is it then a question of betrayal or rather an assumption that as Black Bristolians they should follow a particular leftist path? Are we in danger, white and Black Bristolians, of imposing a racialised narrative upon Black representatives that denies their autonomy and agency?

Part of that autonomy includes respecting the ability of Black leaders to read the city’s wider politics.

White backlash carries the connotations of racist rage. I would say this is simplistic.

Marvin Rees and his deputy mayors, Asher Craig and Craig Cheney – photo: Ellie Pipe

It might be my penchant for tweed, or being five feet five inches in heels, but I tend to attract fairly honest conversations with white Bristolians.

Opinions range from the perception that the plight of white Bristolians are being ignored by white and brown liberals; sympathy but unease over the toppling of statutes; confusion over the relationship between the now and the past.

My anecdotal experience are nothing to the mail bags and emails received by the Evening Post or the city council where the ‘unwoke’ make their voices heard. They will of course contain the vile and obscene.

Balancing racial inequality, while presenting a clear offer to white Bristolians is no mean feat. The subtext of Brexit seems to suggest that the two things are mutually exclusive.

I beg to differ but recognise the difficulty of the task.

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Whoever wins the mayoral election on Thursday will inherit a city of tremendous promise. To fulfil that promise they will need a clear and sincere commitment to equality whilst maintaining a wide mandate.

It is perhaps tempting to eschew the challenge. There are other fish to fry like climate change.

But diversion or distraction isn’t possible. We are locally on tenterhooks and the eyes of the world are upon us following Colston’s toppling.

Besides, Bristol deserves more than irie vibes and eulogising Banksy outside the Star & Garter.

The statute fell because an idealised notion of what it could be captured the moment. Can the election bring that ideal a touch closer to reality?

Edson Burton is a writer and historian

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