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| Undoing the silence |
Here, we look at some upcoming book length projects focusing on racism over the course of a lifetime and ‘undoing the silence’. It has been quite a journey bringing my racist experiences to the fore. It started with racism experienced at school being actively silenced by pupils walking away from conversations about racism; actively silenced by teachers squashing any complaints; and passively silenced by family who were going through their own strives with racism and me not wanting to pile onto them. The next stage was university studies and trying to bridge the knowledge gap of racism’s existence and execution brought over from my gagged childhood leaving many questions unanswered. However, though higher education would be enlightening in some areas, the experience evoked even more questions than it answered. In my working life, after hearing too many stories of racial bigotry that overlapped with my own, I decided to write a book exposing racism…but even in my gumption there was still self-censorship, tentatively putting all the ‘controversial’ truth in red font to be omitted later. Soon, half the manuscript was in red, the colour coding on my screen pandering to the same white fragility informing the colour coding of my speech from my school days. No, these stories encapsulating the plight of Black people should all be in black font, the controversy held within being the audacity of racism, not the audacity of me to voice it. Now what was one book has extended into a series of three, hoping to publish the first one soon.
Watch this space to hear me undo the silence…
**Publications**
Stained Glass Eyes
How much do you know about Scottish racism? As a Nigerian born in Scotland, this transformative memoir of growing up through unexpected adversity tells a universal albeit shocking story in a unique context across two generations in two Scottish cities.
The Book: UK multiculturalism was a central theme of the 2012 London Olympics’ opening ceremony. So why just months before was my usually sunny friend Esperanza suddenly on the phone to me breathless; exasperated by the racism her young mixed-raced Spanish and Angolan children were experiencing at their Edinburgh primary school? But then again, as a Nigerian who grew up in Glasgow, I already knew the intense racial bigotry people of colour experience in Scotland. So with many of Esperanza’s stories of prejudice, discrimination and xenophobia matching my own a generation before, a new question formed: why hadn’t I warned my friend of all this before her young family relocated up north? Listening to her harrowing accounts, many dormant reflections on how racism manifests itself in our everyday lives came to mind, drawing from knowledge of my personal encounters as well as university studies. This includes new sociological ideas derived from psychology professor Dr William Cross’ Nigrescence theory. There and then, I decided to finally delve into my own 1980s/1990s Scottish childhood stories of racism and multiculturalism. This resulting book is therefore what I wish my own parents had read before moving to Glasgow, and what I should have told my friends long before they moved to Edinburgh. It is also a wakeup call to Scots and beyond.
The book will speak to readers of award-winning autoethnographies/polemic-memoirs such as:
*Reni Eddo-Lodge’s ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’
*Afua Hirsch’s ‘Brit(ish): Race, Identity and Belonging’
*Akala’s ‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’
However, whilst those titles are London-centric and contain more sociology than anecdote, mine expands beyond London and contains more personal history than sociology/psychology.
Free Read: Is Stained Glass Eyes a book you’d be interested in? Why not decide by reading an extract for free? Use the contact form to send your email address and I’ll send you a free pdf of the first chapter. After reading, please write a review of what you thought of the story so far and share your thoughts on social media with the hashtag #SGEmemoir1. Also tag my handles on twitter (@abiodun_abdul01), instagram (@abiodunoa) and facebook (Abiódún Ọlátòkunbò Abdul). I’ll then send updates of the book's progression. When it’s complete, I’ll let you know it’s ready for pre-order.
After winning various poetry awards throughout childhood, I and still enjoy composing poetry focusing as ever on social justice and topics celebrating our common humanity, which have been included in various anthologies.
- Poetry Now young writers anthology ‘Squat Diddley’
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