At the time of David Hinds’s birth in June 1956, the first wave of what became Britain’s Windrush Generation had settled in the United Kingdom (UK).

Hinds was born to Jamaican parents in Handsworth, Birmingham, a community where many West Indians lived after moving to the UK. Some of them were pioneers who arrived on the HMT Windrush at Tilbury Docks in June 1948.

West Indians and their descendants born in the UK up to 1973 are considered part of the Windrush Generation. Hinds, best known as lead singer, chief songwriter and rhythm guitarist of Grammy-winning band Steel Pulse, has experienced the evolution of attitudes toward West Indians in his country.

“Being part of the Windrush Generation feels like having a landmark in British history as well as a milestone to the course the black Diaspora had to take in order to sustain our existence. In regards to respect, there has been levels of respect that were hard-earned over the years, right up to this present time,” Hinds told the Jamaica Observer recently. “For example, the world of sport played an integral part to earning that respect, whereas names like Linford Christie, Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis and Ian Wright, just to name a few, became key figures in Britain because of it. As the Caribbean culture grew, all the islanders interlocked with each other, with the Jamaican counterparts playing an integral role in terms of mental and physical resistance.”

The Windrush arrived from Kingston with more than 500 West Indians, most of them Jamaicans. They went to the UK, at the invitation of the British Government, to help restore an economy devastated by World War II, but found a society largely intolerant of non-whites.

That scorn persisted throughout the 1960s, with parliamentarian Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in Parliament; and 1970s when there were riots throughout black communities.

Hinds, whose parents are from St Ann, blames ignorance for much of that racial tension.

“On reflection, the racism that was spawned at that time had a lot to do with the Government not educating the white populace about slavery and the then current state of affairs which was colonialism. In other words, it was not emphasised to the British citizens that Britain in itself was solely responsible for our ‘all of a sudden’ presence. That presence was about rebuilding the country from top to bottom; the aftermath of World War II. And so the ignorance grew as a result, which snowballed into many derogatory slogans hurled at us during those days,” he reasoned.

“Over time, fashion did what fashion does. It helped to transform a nation. It became a trendy thing for the Skinheads (rebellious white youth), to bop to the blue beat and ska music that Jamaicans bought over during our pilgrimage. The Skinheads were the main ingredients of a youthful, racially-charged society at that,” Hinds related.

The dreadlocked artiste noted that: “Once the Jamaican music took over their hearts, the bigotry slowly subsided over time… today, the whites of Britain even dance like us and wear their clothes the way we do. Despite this gradual success towards racial harmony, it was by no means an easy ride. We had the police and the employment line to contend with too.”

But even optimists who point to strides made by West Indians in the UK were jolted by the Windrush Scandal that erupted in 2018. Thousands of them were either detained, deported or denied access to health care because their status as Commonwealth citizens was not properly documented by the British Government.

It was discovered that the scandal’s genesis was in 2012 when Theresa May (British prime minister in 2018) was home secretary. After international outrage, steps have been taken to resolve the contentious issue which has been an embarrassment for the British Government.

Despite that débâcle, Hinds believes his country has come a long way since the Windrush docked there 75 years ago.

“When it comes to race — and judging by the countries that I have travelled throughout the world, in particular the USA, France, Italy, Germany, etc — I would rate Britain to be, by far, the most cosmopolitan. Although Brexit came into existence along racial lines, it does not take away the privileges that have been attributed to the ethnic, multiracial communities that have sprung out of the middle of nowhere over the past seven decades,” he said.

“Racism is still there in the UK, but it does not compare, not even close to the magnitude of how it’s displayed in countries like France and the United States. And I do believe the catalyst to that cosmopolitan energy derives from children in British schools being taught about the religion of others,” Hinds argued.