WINDRUSH LIVES MATTER
Windrush is NOT just Jamaica. Windrush is The Bahamas, Barbados, The Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Dominica, Montseeray, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Guyana St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda.
Windrush are real flesh and blood families Barnes, Bryan, Green and Wilson. Who don’t need reminding that they are British and most importantly that they are HUMAN. So what if you came here on your mother’s passport, it was vetted and you were authorised. While you were busy working and paying taxes, they seized an opportunity to rob you of your identity, health, dignity, YOUR privacy, YOUR rights, YOUR privileges. YOU asked them for original paperwork, when YOU know that YOU shredded thousands of landing cards, then YOU cynically inform them that the laws concerning this has changed. All because of the spreadsheets and the numbers not adding up when they ALL have a NAME.
Why didn’t you correct this BEFORE they gave the best of themselves to the world of work for years and years? And valuable ones who are UNFORGOTTEN and UNNAMED who have passed prematurely from the screen of life, because of the immeasurable stress caused and threats made, scheduled flights, deportation and economic exclusion. Shame.
They now flaunt their hard won citizenship when they were already LEGAL citizens to begin with. Paid into the system, never shirking and always working, neither did they take advantage of the system, like the slick illegals that YOU can’t catch, but who have the nerve to be working anyway.
They got their own back. They have biometric indefinite leave to remain and thankfully, they have their lives back on track. They proved that there is little difference between being a British Subject and being a British Citizen.
Glenda Caesar and Sonia Williams ARE “Urban Stateswomen”.
Written by Jennifer Akre in response to The Unforgotten, a free interactive art installation at the Young Vic which participates in and contributes to the ongoing conversation within the Black Lives Matter movement regarding whose image we uphold and elevate, offering our community an alternative view of leadership. To find out more visit YoungVic.org/TheUnforgotten
