Saima Razzaq

SR: Yeah, you know, you just reminded me actually, the worst thing...and you just...I probably hadn't remembered it because I probably blocked it out. But it was the day after 9/11, we lived in Small Heath in a inner-city part of Birmingham. And me and my mum went to the local shop, like supermarket or something. And we were just walking there. And this had never happened to me before, and I'd never really experienced it so I didn't know what was going on, but a group of white men drove past us and made a point of stopping their car and pulling their windows down and started shouting abuse, saying awful things like the p-word. I'd never seen my mum so angry. And my mum like, you know, she’d get angry and just saying you're racist, you can't say this. And I used to hear the stories about when they came to the UK in the '70s that they experienced the racism, but you know, I was really young. I grew up in ’85, so a lot of the early racism I wouldn't have experienced. But I experienced that then, and it made me realize that actually things are no different to where they are. And if we think about now, especially with everything that happened with George Floyd, you know, things are where they are, and things need to change. Black people in particular have faced systematic oppression forever. You know, it's now, now is the time for us to start a revolution. And people of colour together need to unite, because our struggles are united. You know, and often you see people arguing and it's not oppression bingo. You know, a struggle is a struggle. And you...if you don't understand, you have to listen to people. So yeah, that actually is probably the most painful memory, which I'd forgotten about and you just remembered...triggered the reminder.

SR: When we were younger?

AM: Yeah.

SR: Well, I lived in Small Heath, and it was predominantly a South Asian area. But it was mixed, it was diverse. My...one neighbour was my nan, and on the left-hand side were our Jamaican neighbours who’d lived with us while...the whole time when we were in Small Heath. So, I think our community was a safe space. Even though, you know, we would get people from the outside, like I said, the experience with the guys in the car. But generally, our community was safe because everyone looked out for one another. I mean, in term of safe spaces, you know, I don't think there was any. So, you know, I wanted to play cricket growing up. So then I went and found cricket teams to play cricket in. They were all white spaces. I was always the only brown person. But I wanted to play cricket, so I'd do it. I'd catch trains for miles just to go to training, because my mum didn't have a car. But in terms of South Asian safe spaces, the only safe spaces we had were events and weddings, and weddings were the events in the community, you know, that everyone got together. Weddings, and of course funerals as well. But weddings are the things as a youngster that I remember, because, you know, they were entertaining, everyone came together. But those were our safe spaces, the spaces we created for ourselves. And the...now what's great is, so when I was younger, these places didn't exist, but what you've got now is young people of colour, and people of colour all across the UK creating things like galleries, art spaces, cafes. But all kind of not-for-profit social causes. Glad...there's a...62 Gladstone Gallery which is in Peterborough. I've never been, I hope to go. But this is...it's a fantastic story. The girl set up a gallery in her dad's old VHS shop. And actually, if I think about the old VHS shops in Birmingham, they were our safe spaces as well, because they were created by our community. But the only safe spaces that were created were, I guess, out of necessity. There was nothing for pleasure. You know, we were working class, so you worked. It wasn't no time to sit on the sofa, but...or like, you know, go to a gallery, because we don't have the privilege of not having to worry about the bills. We had to worry about those things, so we had to work. Work was always number one, everything else came second. So...but what's nice to see now, especially in Birmingham, we have places like Impact Hub, who are now at Civic Square. We've got Amahra Spence that does great things with the MAIA Group. So, yeah, there's lots of things that didn't exist then that exist now, which is great. But again, it's not the establishment, this is the people of colour self-organizing.

Entry credit

Anya Amlani