THE EYES of the world will be paying close attention to England’s Second City as Birmingham hosts the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the summer, writes Dario Bharat.
This year’s Games will be the first time the West Midlands has played host to the so-called ‘Friendly Games’, and only the third time the multi-event extravaganza has in fact been held in England, following London in 1934 and Manchester in 2002. With the spotlight firmly on the West Midlands, what can national and international spectators alike expect from Birmingham as a whole?
The city has seen a major transformation, from its humble origins as a market town to a busy and dynamic industrial powerhouse.
Local ‘Brummies’ would be quick to point to The Custard Factory for its exciting art and nightlife venues, the iconic Cadbury World based in Bournville for its much-loved chocolate, and the Bullring for the hustle and bustle of its busy shopping centre and markets. Birmingham has been largely known as “the city of 1000 trades”, with its chief industry centred around motor vehicles and engineering.
The city also has influential grassroots arts, music and literary scenes, and its major institutions such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Hippodrome and the Birmingham Royal Ballet amongst others, have gained international recognition.
The wealth of existing sports venues and arenas have made it an ideal location for the upcoming Games, with the Alexander Stadium set to host the ceremonies as well as the athletics.
The city is also well-known for being a melting pot for people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, and has often been referred to as the most diverse city in the country. Much of this has had to do with the city’s industrial history.
Rather than specialising in a particular industry, which many Northern English cities took the route of, Birmingham was known for its smaller artisan trades. This has meant skilled workers have been drawn to the city for many years, and continue to do so to this day.
As of the most recent census conducted, just under half of the city’s population is of an ethnic minority, with black and Asian communities making up the majority of their backgrounds.
Birmingham itself is home to 8% of the overall African and Caribbean population of England. The economic devastation of both world wars coupled with the division of the British Empire saw England, and with it its major cities, begin to house many migrants during this period.
Many of these new arrivals quickly settled into the Midlands, with most minority communities congregating largely within Birmingham and the neighbouring ‘Black Country’ towns like Wolverhampton and West Bromwich.
Birmingham has itself played host to some important events for the minority communities, with both the Birmingham Caribbean Festival and African Heritage International Festival both held in the city in recent years.
Much of the community’s most notable names have managed to find their way out of Birmingham and on to a national stage, from UB40’s reggae music hits, to Lenny Henry’s comedic works, and even The Godfather of black British photography Vanley Burke.
The relationship the city has with its demographic is one that makes it the community that it is, and anyone who makes the journey to the West Midlands will be able to feel that almost immediately.
Birmingham itself can be considered a Commonwealth simply for the diversity and sense of belonging that it offers to its people, and as such the decision to make the city the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games is one that is long overdue.
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I lived in Birmingham during the 1970s & 80s and I and My associates cannot reconcile the rosy Political Correct image of Birmingham being broadcast by BBC Radio 4’s “Brum Britain.”
We have felt so outraged that the letter below has been sent in protest to the BBC’s Director General, the Controller of BBC Radio Four, and the producer Ms Helen Lennard which I want to share with the readers of the Voice.
Mr Darren Harriott, c/o JLA Agent, 14 Berners Street, London, W1T 3LJ, July 23rd 2022.
OACC would welcome you sharing this letter with Producer: Helen Lennard, Professor Carl Chinn, Steel Pulse founder Basil Gabbidon, Mr Benjamin Zephaniah, the BBC Director General Mr Richard Sharp BBC Chairman and the BBC Governors and the Controller of BBC Radio Four.
Dear Mr Harriott, Re: Archive on 4, “Brum Britain,” broadcast 21,00 hours Saturday July 23rd 2022.
The Associates of Oxford African Caribbean Conversation (OACC) listened to your rosy description of England’s Second City Birmingham, during the 1970s & 80s, a description that is pure Left-wing fantasy and bears no likeness to the grim reality of life for Birmingham’s thousands of “West Indian Youth.” “Apartheid Brum” was the apt description “West Indians” referred to 1970s & 80s Birmingham for good sound reasons.
For OACC Associates who lived through “Brum Britain” during the 1970s & 80s, “Brum” was England’s Soweto of Apartheid South. “Brum was Dr Martin Luther King’s Birmingham Alabama of the 1960s; so real, visceral and comprehensive was Labour Supporting Left-wing Caucasian-heritage Birmingham working-class people’s skin-colour racism against “West Indian” youth; as we were called in the 1970s & 80s.
OACC Associates are angry that yet again another whitewashed BBC Radio Four broadcast has completely sugar coated the grim reality of life for Birmingham’s “West Indian Youth in 1970s & 80s “Brum.” OACC Associates recalls vividly the violent 1976 National Front March through Digbeth; and the active support and assistance the National Front Supporters received from the West Midland Serious Crime Squad. The racial abuse shouted at “West Indian” football players was the principal reason “West Indians” supporters avoided Birmingham City Football Club. Most of Birmingham’s City Centre nightclubs had a notorious and well-earned reputation for barring “West Indian” men and women. The comprehensive schools in Aston, Lozells and Handsworth had a long practice of disgorging hundreds of mainly “west Indian” heritage pupils after the Easter Holiday preventing and discouraging them from taking their final exams. The massive unemployment rate for “West Indian” youth. These are the vivid memories of an OACC Associate recalled from his life in heavily and overtly skin-colour racist working-class CAUCASIAN BIRMINGHAM of the 1970s & 80s.
Encountering violent working-class Labour voting Caucasian-heritage National Front Supporters and the military trained and violent C-18 supporters was real and “West Indians” being attacked in places such as parts of Erdington, Northfield, Kingstanding, Chelmsley Wood and various parts of the Black Country were real and frequent through out the 70s & 80s and where Birmingham “colour bar” at major “Brum” employers; Public Houses and Social clubs was real, and widespread across Birmingham and the Black Country.
Birmingham’s notorious NHS administered All Saints Mental Health Hospital’s disparity of diagnosing “ganja” psychotic disorder on West Indian men; and medicating West Indians intravenously with the powerful lithium which reduced the West Indian men and women into shaking, spital dribbling people; who slept for twenty hours a day; and who could not recall their name or other personal details. Traditional Christian believing “West Indians” who would never touch “ganja” were diagnose by the racist Doctors of All Saints with “ganja” psychosis. This was apartheid Birmingham of the 1970s & 80s.
OACC Associates knew “West Indian” young women who had their uterus removed by skin-colour racist Doctors who offered this procedure as the remedy for heavily or painful menstrual pain experienced by youthful “West Indian” women. This was apartheid Birmingham of the 1970s & 80s.
Not only did the Labour MP Lord Rocker refused to accept skin-colour racism was real, Lord Rocker labelled the “west Indian youth” who participated in the Handsworth protest in 1981 as “criminals.” OACC Associates can recall numerous “West Indians” who were “fitted-up” by Constables from the West Midland’s Serious Crime squad; who would openly say to West Indian youth, “who do you think a Birmingham Jury will believe the word of a Police Constable or the word of a nigger?” Many West Indian’s were sentenced to long prison sentences purely on the word of a Police Constable; and many other West Indian youth lost the balance of their mind after being “fitted-up” by the Constables of the West Midland’s Serious crime Squad; that was disband in 1989, due to its criminal behaviour and practices.
Birmingham was the City where South African Apartheid policies were practice by the majority of the City’s Employers; the City Council, the Polytechnic and Birmingham University, the Social Service department, the Education Department, the Judiciary, the Labour Party, the Anglican Church and other public institutions.
An OACC Associate recalls Professor Chinn being lauded for his working-class credentials. However, when this Associate reminded Professor Chinn; who was a lecturer at Sally Oak’s Fircroft College and a Birmingham University lecturer, of the skin-colour racism endured by “West Indian” youth, Professor Chinn accused this youthful “west Indian” of “causing trouble” and Professor Chinn reminded this “west Indian” youth that he should behave and be compliant like the senior “West Indian” men. This was the favour of life for the “west Indian” youth of Birmingham in the 70s & 80s. It is an outrage that this BBC Radio Four “Brum Britain” broadcast completely whitewashed and sanitized the reality of life for Birmingham’s “west Indian youths.”
OACC Associates are angry that Handsworth’s African-heritage poet Mr Benjamin Zephaniah participated in this distorted and racist BBC Radio Four broadcast that whitewashes Caucasian-heritage Birmingham people’s apartheid-like public policies. OACC demands that BBC Radio Four broadcast the truth of Birmingham’s apartheid like policies against Birmingham’s “West Indian” residents. Since 2017, OACC has been demanding an hourlong weekly BBC Radio Four News; Historical and Current events programme produced by African-Caribbean people with a genuine and lived experienced of having African-skin in a skin-colour prejudice England. “Brum Britain” is one of the reasons why “West Indians” can no longer tolerate Caucasian producers and editors on programme such as Woman’s Hour mediating and interviewing African-heritage historical contributors and personalities.
Sincerely
Chaka Artwell
Secretary, Oxford African Caribbean Conversation.