Pride & Prejudiced #clapforourcarers
The British media whitewashing our National Health Service [NHS] has really got to me. Inspired by ‘Mathematics’ by Hollie McNish and Gina Yashere’s video, I wrote this poem.
the first front-line workers to die from this disease
were Muslim minorities whose
actions were erased last week from history
see doctors who were Pakistani and British-Sudanese
hashtag clap for our carers, they say
meanwhile, whitewash their actions at news day
I want to talk of the Black nurses that saved our NHS
but white people will say “this is not about race”
so why do our newspapers only show their grace
it leaves multiracial Britain angry and cross
they talk BAME, but simultaneously don’t give a toss
I ask them what British healthcare is
without Blacks, Asians, immigrants, refugees
lost in a sea of CVs with strange last names see
like Ahmed, Khan, Asante and Chowdhury
but British media paints a picture
of England before the Windrush came
before the Jews and Irish came
who built Britain in all but name
because their actions have been tamed
why do the media not show us the news
of the National Health Service whose
workforce come from all over the world
watching old imperial attachments unfurl
when the Black nurses wandered lost
as the wind rushed into Tilbury Docks
I talk about Ireland, India and Pakistan
famine, oppression and partitioned land
and imperial maps of stolen land
and how Britain made war in foreign sand
and that’s why British media
are so underhand about Libya and Syria
I’m tired of racism’s subtle approaches
and these people are not
to be compared to cockroaches
and when I see their actions erased today
it upsets me to see the NHS in that way
because your paramedic could be mixed
Black mother, White father but no less British
the doctor who cures your bad knees
could be Nigerian or Japanese see
and that’s the great thing about diversity
and your ugly ideas and ill-thoughts
ignores WW2 and the pilots the Polish brought
these headlines forget what makes national health
and colonies where Britain plundered its wealth
disregards those selflessly working for you
as we the British public voted blue
ignores the stories of immigration
as we clap for our carers in self-isolation
but race is worthy of note as
our nation’s health service is kept afloat by the people of colour
who came here by birth or by boat
but if we write them out of COVID-19
we’re claiming they don’t deserve to be seen
representation is more than Black versus White
it’s about seeing yourself in those holding the light
and the professional with interesting last names
leading the way in the dark holding the flame
