Sam Ige: My experiences of racism

Sam Ige is a sprinter, chemical engineer, software developer and Belgrave Harrier. Photo: Ollie Trenchard

As I am sure that most of you guys are aware, during this pandemic the issue of racism in society has had arguably its biggest platform in history. More and more people are now finally seeing situations where it is apparent, and for the most part, many people who are not a person of colour have taken it upon themselves to educate themselves on the issue and have been standing by our side. I have been heartened by this solidarity, and I hope it could be the stimulus to make real change in society; to make it better for everyone.

What I’m writing here will not be the most eloquent, or the easiest to read, and in all honesty, I don’t want it to be, because society in its current formation is neither eloquent nor it is easy for all its members. I am here just to share a few of my stories and experience for anyone to read.

For me, racism is inbuilt in everything that we do as a society. I could go on, with history lessons about America essentially sectioning off areas of their country so black people would not be allowed access to the same level of wealth as white people, or talk about the concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in China right now, or even the fact that a recent study conducted by the Met police that showed that during lockdown, 80% of 22,000 stop and searches on black men were unnecessary. But I am not going to talk about those, because in my opinion we need to be focusing closer to home.

Education needs to be at the forefront of change. I was lucky enough to win a full bursary to a top UK boarding school called Oundle, which I really enjoyed for the four years I was there. However, being one of the only few black people in the school at the time, I did feel a little bit of an alien, and the actions of my fellow students only corroborated that. Things like touching my hair because it is different to theirs without my permission, or asking questions like ‘Do black people blush?’ are often pushed to saying that they are kids and they don’t know what they are talking about, but this is exactly the point of what I am saying.

I know of students at the school who resented the fact that I was there for ‘free’, and thought I was wasting the school’s money, as well as a few of the boys that I did live with in my boarding house for four years racially abusing me. Since the issue of racism has come back up, they have all apologised for their actions back then. They are all really good guys and I hold no grudges for them for that time in my life, mainly because they didn’t have the education about racism and the societal difference people have based on nothing more than the level of melanin they have in their skin. That is a fundamental issue that has to be resolved. When you have an education curriculum that focuses on making the UK seems great and essentially coating over everything the UK has ever done, you know that there are issues.

I hope this piece has hopefully given you a little insight into how racism is pretty much ingrained into all parts of society, and hopefully we get the big change that I can say all black people have been asking for.

Sam Ige, July 2020