Thread by @WritersofColour

Hey Everyone a huge apologies for the delay in starting this Twitter storm … I am embarrassed to say there were a few IT issues…So could not get in!!!! What a way to start the convo on border violence

This is @kguilaine I’ll be around until 20h30 ish on this account.

So we have an under hour or so…which means I need to be concise! If you have questions send my way. Let’s GO!

My name is Guilaine I am here to talk a little bit abt the article I wrote for MD you can still read & share it

mediadiversified.org/2021/12/13/the…

I write as a psychologist & scholar of race. I’m not a lawyer. I write from my liver experience as a black migrant body located in England 2

Liver experience = lived experience 😊 in case I got you like this already.

I make 3 main points in the article 1) the equality*, inclusion and diversity ‘agenda’ needs abolishing 2) the current #nationalityandborderbill finds its roots at the intersection of colonial logics & fascism 3) it’s used will curtail dissent/protest & the free speech of SOME.

I won’t repeat what you can read in the piece. I want to concentrate on impact which I touch upon in the article but mainly from a structural perspective, this eve maybe we can think a bit about the psychological impact of the #NationalityandBordersBill

mediadiversified.org/2021/12/13/the…

The petition to disrupt the adoption of clause 9 is here, as I say in the article this arguably insult rather than injury. But it matters a great psychologically & I shall explain in a few tweets.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/6015…

Trying to go really fast and making too many mistakes — let me slow down.

As I was saying. First the provision to strip citizens of citizenship is not new. It has since Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 existed, this allowed the state to strip someone of their citizenship as long as they had another nationality.

That is important context.

If you pay attention to the date…you will note, that this piece legislation was labour’s baby (I bet that will surprise a few of you - who like to locate all social ills particularly racism at the feet of the Tories).

Pro-tip as per article, I am never keen on locating social dysfunction or any disturbance in a single entity. This allows the kind of dynamics which stop self-interrogation on matters of complicity & feeds simplistic thinking.

HOWEVER that does not mean* the conservatives did not add their grain of (fascist) salt to an already appalling piece of legislation. So…with the Immigration Act 2014, the brainchild of Theresa May, went much further…

By deciding that this was not enough, she wanted the State to be allowed to strip so called naturalised British citizen (aka those who became Brits through migration) of their citizenship even if it made them stateless…if they could claim some other nationality, somewhere.

For additional context, remember in the background is so-called the war on terror. This +, concerns over national security + racialised terms such as ‘naturalised’, claim…tells exactly who the law targets. It is not white British-Australians.

So…back to the article, the current outrage about the #NationalityandBordersBill concerns clause 9, and current administration now saying, that too is not enough! Can we please be allowed to make people stateless and not tell them?

You can see within contemporary politics of the past two decades or so, successive administrations have become more & more draconian on migrants rights & emboldened in their racism. And closer & closer to fascist ideology. Aided by what I’ll only call for now collective apathy.

So I wanted to talk about impact. What do you think it does to people’s physical & mental health to live under such normalised state violence & precariousness? On a day to day. Think about it.

Someone asked me, are you going home for Christmas and I said jokingly, but what if I am not allowed back? I was being tongue in cheek, but the reality is that fear, really never leaves when one’s body is racialised as Other…

My experience as a migrant who is black & from France overlaps with the issues at hand BECAUSE black & brown bodies are subjected to everyday normalised border & frontier violence wether or not they have the passports that reportedly make them citizens.

I said in the piece, concerns related to prevent — another but deeply related shit show; means many silence themselves for fear of allegations of ‘extremism’. The strategy therefore functions socially as a silencing device.

The same effect you can be certain can be expected…with this bill.

I link these to attempt to curtail* protest, dissent & to keep undesirable bodies in check, policed & surveilled. What do you think that does to people? Final point on impact…

Imagine seeing people fighting day in and day out for basic human dignities. Your loved ones maybe. Or…Seeing people from your community deported to their death and/or people who look like you drowning en masse in the Mediterranean. What do you think that does to people?

The very fundamental problem we have is western individualism and ‘our’ incapacity to connect the dots. Our refusal to accept that violence we dish out anywhere in the world, or on any body, does not just disappear. It comes back at us often morphed but it comes back.

Violence against Others is actually a form of self-harm. Some of you will never understand, but that’s ok.

A huge thank you for bearing with me. I hope I illuminated my piece? And why we must all resist.

mediadiversified.org/2021/12/13/the…

Again, my name is Guilaine. And I tweet @KGuilaine.

Have a lovely eve. Peace.