GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

So I am the product of Violet Thompson and Stanley Thompson who came on

the Windrush migration here. My father died when I was seven. My mother

was a young widow and I moved from Wolverhampton to the inner city of

London. The colour of my skin was not an option. I could not get rid of that,

but I got rid of my accent. “Dandelion!” (spoken in a Wolverhampton accent) .

You get rid of your accent pretty quick, because you have to adapt to your

environment. At this present moment in time we are not adapting to our

environment and what our youth culture are not able to cope with as they face

the challenges and opportunities of life. It has never been a richer time, I am

told. So why are we so polarised between the haves and the have nots in a

system of middle, lower and upper? Again, another reason of suggesting you

cannot move up and down the escalator of life. Well, I can, I have. But as I

moved to the East End of London, my mother as a young widow taught us that

we must be politically aware. My political awareness was coming from abroad,

the civil rights movement. Angela Davis was my poster girl! I had a fist, it was

black, and an afro comb and a polo neck, ’76, one of the hottest summers. It

just shows when you are interested and you are focused what you really want

to realise. I also saw Clyde Best in 1972, the first black footballer at West Ham

Football Club. I said to my brother, “I want to go to West Ham” and he clapped

me over the head and said, “Don’t be so flipping stupid, we’re going to

Tottenham, because if you go there you might actually live!” Sport reflects

society. By the way, I had all of sport and all of the arts, because it was my

escape, because I was pretty angry that I lost my father. I was pretty angry I

had to put soap on my face to play with my white counterparts, because they

would not allow me to play with them, but I wanted to play so badly I was

prepared to forego looking like a Black and White Minstrel just so I could play.

Does anyone remember the Black and White Minstrels? Alf Garnett? How

would they fare today? Alf Garnett, bless him. Being the Chair of a university

(by the way, I am the only black face in that unique space), I do not know how I

got there but it has been an incredible journey. But I could not go to West

Ham. I could not go to Stratford, Canning Town. They would kill me. So we

seem to have progressed so much but regressed so much.

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