On September 26, in a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman declared that diverse societies, such as in the United Kingdom (UK), are not as successful as made to be.

Braverman, whose parents are from India, said: “Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate. It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it…And, in extreme cases, they could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society.”

She added: “We are living with the consequence of that failure today. You can see it play out in the streets all over Europe, from Malmö to Paris, Brussels to Leicester.”

While not as controversial as parliamentarian Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968, Braverman’s utterance was rebuked by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, himself the child of Indian immigrants.

Braverman had made the speech three months after the UK celebrated the 75th anniversary of the arrival of more than 800 West Indian immigrants aboard HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury Dock in Essex. That marked the first wave of Caribbean people to help restore an economy devastated by World War II.

People who immigrated to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1971 are considered part of the Windrush Generation. Marcia Simpson moved there from Kingston with her father during the early 1960s.

A UK resident for more than 20 years, she spent most of them in Kilburn, in the north-west London borough of Brent, where many West Indians initially settled and still reside.

Simpson was involved in the black-conscious movement during the 1970s, and recalls the riots sparked by white racism against foreigners. Back in Jamaica since the early 1980s, she travels to the UK regularly to visit family, including grandchildren.

“Racism has not changed for the better, just covered up and festered. Not sure if it will ever get better. Progress, yes, but not necessarily in the direction of black people; other nationalities have come together to make better for themselves. The West Indian people, not much progress,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Today, the UK’s Asian population is so vast and influential, the British capital has been dubbed ‘Londonistan’. According to an August 2020 story on real estate website, black-brick.com, Chinese businessmen own almost 99,000 high-end properties in London.

Roy Francis, a descendant of the Windrush Generation, said that group does not have similar clout because they may be victims of the diversity British politicians love to tout. Writing in the Christian Keep The Faith magazine this year, he observed:

“There is an even bigger crisis facing the Caribbean community, however, and it may be an existential threat. Not too long ago, if you referred to a ‘person of Caribbean origin’, you’d be talking about a person with two black parents. Today, most Caribbean people either have a white parent or a white grandparent. The statistic is startling: 1.2 per cent (677,000) people in the UK already define themselves as mixed race. This is 14.6 per cent of the ethnic minority population, a larger group than Black Caribbean, Black African or Chinese and Bangladeshi. The projection is that in a few years the mixed race group will become the largest ethnic minority group in Britain, which is quite significant. Are we prepared for this? What are the implications for the Caribbean family, and where will it leave it as a distinct racial group?” Francis wrote.

Interestingly, it was Teresa May, one of Braverman’s predecessors, who helped trigger the 2018 Windrush scandal that saw many Britons of West Indian heritage either deported, their passports seized or denied access to health care. According to the British Home Office, that dilemma resulted from many of the Windrush Generation not having proper documentation despite living in the UK for decades.

While not as wealthy as other minorities, Marcia Simpson believes the Windrush Generation has made an even more meaningful contribution to the UK.

“They are only now being partially recognised, but the works are still in the background. Windrush thought England civilisation to this day,” she said.