Much focus (rightly) on how Rwanda deportation policy will work & need for challenge in the courts
But another – less reported – effect of the announcement is the DEVASTATION that it (& wider #AntiRefugeeBill) has caused among people who have sought refugee protection in UK
1/11 Rwanda policy sends out message that people seeking asylum aren’t welcome
Our Expert by Experience network @refugeeaction is deeply distressed by this, many already struggling with years of limbo in asylum system, many used similar routes to come to UK cos no safe routes
2/11

Thread on @PriyamvadaGopal excellent Insurgent Empire, covering key moments of rebellion in Brit Empire from 1957 uprising in India to Mau Mau in late 1950s.
TL;DR “the resistance of the periphery helped radicalise sections of the metropole” - it’s brilliant, read it! /1 Old theory of Britain benevolently granting freedom to its colonies is now widely accepted as wrong. Gopal’s point goes much further: it was the rebellions (& ideas behind them) vs Brit imperial rule that created & spread anticolonial thinking & activism in Britain itself /2

As white people supporting black people in the fight vs structural racism & all the systemic brutality that goes with it, we need to listen, learn and act; here’s a sample of brilliant books that have helped me learn, all so recommended, but I’ve got so much further to go... @thenewjimcrow After Civil Rights, US replaced Jim Crow with mass incarceration of black people, this amazing book shows how it was (is) done & power structure it rests on: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd = just 3 of most recent victims of this de-humanising machine