Ripples Story: “Giving a Voice to Everyone”

In this article, Cynthia Nchang, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Integrate UK, shares her personal experiences and insights on how young people from minority backgrounds are finding strength and unity amid ongoing challenges around belonging and racial cohesion in the UK.

As a black Cameroonian woman in England, I feel like minorities have always found ways to bounce back from adversity. Despite the progress we’ve made, there are still occurrences when it feels like we’re taking significant steps backwards in achieving racial cohesion in our society. Displacement is an issue we all face.

During lockdown, I was privileged to facilitate a project with the young people of Integrate UK, which highlighted the feelings of not belonging in the UK and not having a connection to their home of origin. The Colston statue being toppled, during an anti-racism protest in Bristol in 2020, showed a sign of hope for the future. Still, on the other hand, they questioned why we had to take such drastic measures for changes to be made.

They spoke about how seeing racial struggles like the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death made them feel. They wrote a beautiful song, ‘Earned a Seat,’ expressing their views on the topic and the importance of ‘building their own table’ to get a seat.

During the summer of 2024, many cities in the UK saw weeks of far-right anti-immigration riots. It was disheartening to see people’s willingness to terrorise communities they had lived in and come to know. We went from being neighbours to fearing harm being brought upon ourselves by our neighbours, who go to school with our children and go to the same local shop. I wonder how you can go from living side by side to organising hatred towards your neighbour.

As someone living within a diverse community in Bristol, I noticed the fear forced into our communities. People called others, shared information, and warned each other about what days not to go out in case of harm. Everyone was constantly anxious; I remember looking at the news, hoping it wasn’t someone I knew being attacked this time. I was in disbelief that this was happening. Overall, the message was loud and clear: we were not welcome. Despite already feeling unwelcome – due to daily microaggressions such as supposedly harmless questions like, “Where are you really from?” after telling someone you are British – these riots emphasised that when it comes down to it, we will never be seen as British, despite some of us being born here or having lived here for years.

How did people bounce back?

We could argue that history keeps repeating itself, and we constantly take thousands of steps back and experience exclusion that builds a house of doubt in the minds of young immigrants and refugees. But the truth is throughout all these adversities we have always managed to find an army of people who band together and create a loud voice of social justice that drowns out that voice of doubt.

Young people who stand proud of who they are can show you ways to overcome adversity. Charities like Integrate give young people from minority backgrounds a space to come together, speak about what affects them in their community, and create opportunities to meet people from a range of backgrounds and learn from others about ethnicities, religions, and cultures. Their activism builds unity and cohesion.

It is important for people of all races, ages, and genders to stand with us, proving that no matter how loud the hate and exclusion can be, more people want to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself and we don’t stand alone.

Read the full latest issue of Rank Ripples magazine