Why (as a young Black person) I want to fight for a world that goes beyond survival and embraces joy, fulfilment and belonging
Being young, Black and British in 2021 it's hard to not live in a state of constant rage.
The rage you feel deeply has many layers, roots and consequences. The rage is both personal and political
The rage is simultaneously communal and collective. The rage is rooted in the historical and the present. The rage that surrounds you paints, shapes and colours the lens you navigate the world through. It’s hard not to feel fearful, bleak and defeated. There are enraging injustices all around you. Here’s a short summary: In the history classroom Black stories of resistance, joy and contribution are lost, minimised and erased as a one dimensional perspective on Black life and history is presented as empire, colonialism and slavery is presented as the sum total of Black existence. It’s witnessing year after year the wasted potential of young people in your community as a result of an underfunded and ill-designed education system, whether it be the disproportionate school exclusion of young Black children or the existence of the school to prison pipeline. On a wider scale, it’s seeing and being hyper aware of the violent, traumatic and ever-present impact of institutional racism. From cases of police brutality captured on social media, to the deportations of the Windrush generation, to the Grenfell Tower fire - we see the violent impact of a world working against the communities we are from, have grown up in and deeply love.
What I’m talking about is inextricably linked to the mental health of young Black people.
In recent years we’ve started to make the important steps of destigmatising and highlighting the importance of therapy. But in this conversation about how we improve the mental health of our communities, we have to talk about the impact that systemic racism has on mental health. In the conversations within our communities and different spaces and action on Black mental health we have drawn the connection between the importance of tackling the stigma of mental health conditions in our community. We have to also more clearly draw the picture of our disproportionate exposure to poverty, violence, social, economic and educational exclusion and more of the violent implications of racism and disricmination. The world that I want us to build, that goes beyond survival, would help us tackle these underlying drivers of some of the mental health problems in our community.
For me, rage hits me the most in those rare but powerful and significant moments where my expectations of what the world could be like are raised but bitterly disappointed. To add context to this, in the backdrop of all that happened in 2020 but remained the same in 2020, this is what I felt. It’s hard to not have a bleak outlook when tens of millions marched in every corner of the world, protesting against racial injustice, police brutality was under a new spotlight and Black people spoke out against the systemic racism we face everyday, things remain fundamentally as they were before any of this happened. I thought out of the ashes of pain, crisis and action we would emerge into something radically different but instead the ashes have settled on how things always were. Despite the statements and promises by various powerful economic, cultural and political institutions we have seen very little material change for Black people around the world. In this context it’s easy for rage to kill our capacity to imagine and envision a better world. It’s hard not to be bleak and feel defeated when it looked like the world would change but it didn’t. This blog is my attempt to think about how, by nurturing and safeguarding our imagination through art, we can envision a world for young Black people that goes beyond survival and embraces safety, joy and fulfillment. Caleb Femi, the 28 year old South London poet, is one of the most important voices of our generation. His poem and the attached video of “Secret Life of Gs” is a powerful artistic representation of a society and world for young Black people that goes beyond survival and embraces joy, safety and fulfillment. This blog is a reflection on Caleb’s art, the importance of dreaming and working towards a world for young black people that goes beyond survival and some ideas of how we can practically get there.
“You all know what it is to live in a place where everything works against you. The policies, the politics, the police, the bloody weather”
“raise the roof praise the youth ask us how we made it through”
“take me away from the block where the sunrise has a different accent and we crack smiles not bones where there are more trees than lampposts more life in our shadows than ghosts more good mornings than who’s morning”
Here Caleb articulates pain, joy, resilience and a vision for a better future. Those are just a few lines which connect with me most of what is one of the most impactful and important poems that you’ll ever hear. But how do we actually go about getting there?
It’s all about feeding and protecting our imagination, setting out frameworks and structure for supporting young people in changing the world and in our vision for a better society building spaces, systems and organisations which allow all young Black people to live lives that go beyond survival and embrace fulfillment, joy and belonging.
In the age of social media in which my generation is pushing forward social change it’s an increasing collective challenge to walk the line between raising awareness and callously putting forward the last moments of Black people who die at the hands of the police as if that in itself will change things. The feelings of despair and hopelessness and powerlessness I and so many other Black people felt in the face of the constant replaying of George Floyd’s brutal murder does nothing to push forward the cause of tackling police brualility. We have to see more respect for Black life. We can’t shy away from the reality of the situation but we can only sustainability fight for a better world if we safeguard and protect our imaginations from the relentless images of Black death and trauma which surround us. Part of this is about creating physical space in which young Black people can learn, find and build connections and have space for joy in their lives. Youth clubs once served this purpose but in the last decade of austerity they have been increasingly lost as youth services have been relentlessly cut. We need to imagine how we can bring back spaces that make joy a reality for more young black people.
In our fight for this world beyond survival we have to empower people to take action. Everyday I meet young Black people who have the drive and ambition to not only see where they’re talents can take them but also to improve the world in the process. The key is resources, structure and mentorship. Whether it be young poets, activists, historians, writers or anything else we need to think more fully about how we can practically support young people in developing their skills and changing the world.
The world beyond survival is also about big, bold and transformational change to the systems that we have from the economy, to the criminal justice system to the way schools are run. We need an economic model that puts the well-being of communities in hand and that of the climate above the relentless pursuit of profit. We need an education system built to harness the potential of all young people and equip us for the skills needed to survive the wilderness of adulthood. We need a criminal justice system that recognizes the safest communities aren’t the most criminalised but those with the most resources. Even as this world does not yet exist in the process of fighting for it we have to build spaces of joy, discovery and fulfillment for young Black people.
Words by Athian Akec @athianakec
Athian Akec is an eighteen-year-old activist, writer and speaker. His main areas of focus are climate change, youth violence and racial inequality. He's written for the Guardian, Independent, Huffpost, Huck magazine and other national newspapers. He's been profiled by The Times and was a cover star for i-D magazine's 40th anniversary up and rising profile of Black activists, writers, photographers and actors. Athian has spoken in the House of Commons as a member of the UK Youth Parliament in 2018 on the topic of youth violence. Athian also sits on the board of a youth charity and commission in Camden focusing on economic renewal following the pandemic, and is a special advisor to a Parliamentary inquiry into the teaching of Black history in British schools. Athian is set to be published by Penguin in September 2021 as a part of the "Black Joy" collection with an essay on the Black British cultural renaissance. Much of Athian’s new work is focused on highlighting forgotten aspects of Black history whether through the parliamentary inquiry, in TV features such as the AlJazeera Generation Change episode or through writing articles such as his 2020 opinion piece published in Esquire Magazine entitled “To Address Systemic Racism, We Need A New History Curriculum"