I KNOW WHAT I SAID YESTERDAY, but i need you all to educate yourselves on something that is going on at the moment.
if you’re in the uk, i am sure you have heard of what is called the WINDRUSH GENERATION, but for those abroad essentially it is this: a group of people from the british commonwealth who moved here legally have had their records lost / destroyed (to be determined) and a number of those people have been detained / not been able to be let back into the country after being abroad. there are threats of deportation flying, a man has his access to vital medicine on the NHS removed. like i said, these people are people who moved here when free immigration was legal, prior to 1971, and a lot of them LEGALLY on their parent’s passports (as was the system here) meaning a lot of them have no papers in their name. primarily, the people are black caribbean.
here’s the scary part, and why i am posting, my family are a part of this generation. my papi has lived her since he was 7 months old. while my mammy is jamaican born and bred, my papi never lived in his homeland, and he could lose his right to work, his right to the NHS, his right to live here, all because the home office lost papers, and his were in his parents name. now, yes, there have been A LOT of promises made in parliament, and i know theresa may is saying nothing will happen to these people and cases of discrimination against rightful british citizens will be negated by the government but 1) MAY HAS A TRACK RECORD OF BEING ANTI-IMMIGRATION and 2) because the government lost the only things proving when people like my papi moved here, we can’t prove they are rightful british citizens.
so what am i asking????
first, educate yourselves, please. you can read some more in depth pieces about this through these links: X, X, X, X– mentions of death in this one, VIDEO HERE.
second, if you are in the UK, please please please please LOBBY YOUR MP’S. you have a voice, we have a voice. send letters, call them, email them, tweet them, facebook them. create a stir. we are the people and we will not stand for some britons being treated better than others.
third, if you are not from the UK —– share our voices. seek us out, we are speaking, use your power to make us louder.
forth, PLEASE, if you read nothing else i link, read this. please, i beg you. listen to the stories of people like my father. listen to the windrush generation. hear their voices.
i know tumblr is america centric and i get it, honestly, i do. but i am british-carribean before i am here for any of you and i am begging you, don’t let us be silenced.
A good petition for people in the UK to sign is here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/216539
It’s set to be debated on the 30th of April, so this is the perfect time to lobby MPs.
There’s a lot to read on twitter under the tag #windrushjustice, and anyone anywhere can use that hashtag; if you’re overseas, the best person to tweet might be Theresa May –
@theresa_mayWe fucking invited them.
The Windrush generation came in response to the British government *asking* for immigrants from the Commonwealth because they wanted cheap labour.
Now they don’t want to hold up their end of the bargain, so they’ve decided to turn the people who answered their appeal, came and built lives here, contributed to our economy and culture, into criminals.
Fuck that. If you insist on pretending living here is some kind of privilege to be earned, these people deserve to be here more than most.