Kent children of the Windrush Generation speak about discrimination 75 years on

KentOnline / KMTV

They came to the UK from the Caribbean, with a promise to find work and rebuild Britain after the Second World War but some were met with a hostile reception.

Transcript

00:00 After the Second World War, hundreds embarked on the Empire Windrush to England from the

00:05 Caribbean to help rebuild a post-war Britain. And 75 years on, children of the Windrush

00:12 generation living in Kent are looking back at their troubled experiences of living here.

00:17 Claudette moved here at 13 with her brother and described it as a culture shock.

00:23 I was the only black child in my class at the time, so it was quite difficult. They'd

00:30 never seen black children, so they didn't know anything about the Caribbean. They just

00:35 assumed that I didn't speak English, but English was the only thing I spoke. The other children,

00:41 they weren't very welcoming, let's say that. You were teased all the time. No one wanted

00:47 to play with you during the break time. Lunch time in the dining room was quite difficult

00:56 because I didn't really like the food. The food was quite alien to me.

01:01 Nadia came to the UK with her mother when she was just a toddler. Even at a young age,

01:07 she remembered sleeping in a bunker on the ship here.

01:10 You know, people still don't quite accept that, you know, black people have been here

01:19 for generations. I know that I've experienced racism, yeah, in applying for jobs, in trying

01:30 to get promotion. I know. I might not be able to prove or describe it, yeah, but I know.

01:38 I know what I've experienced. I've had to work maybe three times as hard to be in a

01:47 position in my career.

01:50 Nadia and Claudette met through the North Kent Caribbean Network in Gravesend. It encourages

01:55 communities to meet up and is also a place to find support.

02:00 It's mainly about providing the information and actually highlighting just how crucial

02:04 that generation was to the development of the Britain that we know today. But what a

02:08 lot of people haven't managed to really realise in the past was that link towards the establishment

02:14 of the NHS, the transport services and links within the UK and the fact that it was that

02:19 generation that came here specifically to work in those industries that helped to rebuild

02:25 the country after the Second World War. So it's been really important that we showcase

02:29 that and we highlight those contributions.

02:31 In a response to the treatment that many faced when coming across on the Empire Windrush,

02:36 a Home Office spokesperson said, "The whole of government remain absolutely committed

02:41 to righting the wrongs of the Windrush scandal. Extensive support is in place to help people

02:46 access the Windrush compensation scheme. Already we have paid or offered more than £79m in

02:53 compensation to those affected and we continue to make improvements so people receive the

02:58 maximum award as quickly as possible."

03:01 75 years on, descendants of the Windrush generation say society has come a long way but they say

03:07 more needs to be done in achieving equality.

03:11 The change ought to be that people have a better understanding that the people who are

03:19 coming aren't all illegal immigrants because that's the attitude, that seems to be the

03:26 attitude.

03:27 Well, it's nice that we have a month that we can celebrate Black History Month in October

03:34 and also we should take away from that and continue to build on that because one day

03:41 we shouldn't, we might not have a Black History Month and it's not, you know, it won't be

03:46 needed, it won't be necessary and I look forward, I hope it's in my lifetime that one day we

03:51 will not need to have a Black History Month, that Black History will be part of everyday

03:58 history and not just a month in October.

04:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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