Thread by @POC4INDY

#BritishEmpire is trending on twitter: and so is #BlackLivesMatter. We want to take this moment to raise awareness of the the nature Wales shares with the British Empire 1/

Both colonised and subject to colonisation, Wales has a radical potential for radical solidarity and decolonisation. We need decolonisation, desperately, and anti-colonisation, as colonialism in #Wales is not over, nor is colonialism undertaken by the #BritishEmpire 2/

Grassroots local change with the support of others can harness real tangible long-term change beyond tick-boxes, key performance indicators and unionist political parties (and non-unionist political parties who are complicit in institutional racism and anti-Blackness) 3/

For example...

1⃣ We're a "Nation of Sanctuary" where people are subject to deportation orders
2⃣ We have a prison epidemic
3⃣ More elected BAME representation in England and Scotland proportionally than in Wales
4⃣ Normalisation of lack of representation of Welsh communities 4/

We need Welsh people of colour and people of colour in Wales to break beyond the Equalities industry and tick boxes for our governments in England.

No amount of tokenistic lip service will make real change on reducing racial inequality in #Wales

undod.cymru/en/2020/06/17/… 5/

This radical potential has to be seized at the helm before the colonial patterns of governance and management spill out. It survives in spite of gentrification, not because of it and is the culmination of our struggles 6/

https://twitter.com/YesCymruPOC/status/1297916372450779141

We need real radical tangible change led by the grassroots groups and organisations in #Wales. We want to help build it. We want to help support it. #BritishEmpire has stunted #Wales, colonised #Wales and left us in an unequal relationship with #England 7/

It is in the union's best interests to pit Welsh people against each other. It's in the union's best interests for parties in Wales to continue cultures of institutional whiteness, lip service to diversity and meaningless statements on #BlackLivesMatter without real action 8/

When conversations on #WelshIndependence purposefully fail to explore how the union is overwhelmingly harming #Black, #Asian and #Minority #Ethnic communities in the exacerbation of racial inequality directly under #Devolution, these conversations become colonial in nature 9/

Not all skinfolk are kinfolk. Representation is meaningless without real action and impact: it's like changing the colour of the curtains to update the room. We're not even at a point in #Wales to have a conversation on the tokenism of representation in elective politics 10/

Unionism has sought to sow seeds of distrust for hundreds of years, and that unionism is bolstered every time BAME communities are sidelined. #IndependentWales has huge, huge implications for #BritishEmpire. 11/

https://twitter.com/YesCymruPOC/status/1297916370756292608

#BlackLivesMatter. #AllBlackLivesMatter. #AllBlackLivesAlwaysMatter. An #IndependentWales will seek to dismantle the structures- and people- that enable institutional racism: the same institutional racism that's woven and embedded in #Wales. 12/