BRITAIN is a land made up of migrant communities who came here, contributed to society, to the economy, to popular culture, whose labour has contributed to its very survival, over centuries not just decades.

Without the contribution of the many and varied communities that have journeyed to Britain and made it their home we would be worse off — the labour, enterprise, skills, talent, community service, creativity and more that migrants to Britain have brought and contributed, make the country what it is today.

But alongside these contributions are the legacies of Britain’s past history of colonialism and inhumanity through the enslavement of African people during the transatlantic slave trade.

Those legacies have had an impact on multiple generations up until the present day, translating into systemic and institutional racism, fuelling everyday racism and the  scapegoating of migrant communities.

As a second-generation woman, daughter of a Windrush generation migrant mother, I still get asked frequently: “Where are you from?”  

How this is asked and my whom makes a difference to how I might respond but when the question comes from  someone who is essentially telling me that I do not belong here, that I am an outsider, assuming I am a stranger in the land of my birth, my answers will vary between, England, the UK, London, south London, Peckham and is inevitably followed by, “No, I mean where are you really from?”

One man even replied with, “Well I knew you were born here, but like foreign.”

Work that one out if you can. It is draining having this play out repeatedly.

I cannot underestimate the impact of being treated like you do not belong in the land of your birth, but if you were not born here, if you came here because you had no choice but to flee your homeland in order to save your life, embarking on perilous journeys, then trying to navigate a negative immigration system to seek asylum when you got here, while protests are held daily outside your insecure and sometimes inhumane temporary home by angry hostile racist people, who blame you for all the problems in their life, you are used as a scapegoat, demonised and criminalised, it is frightening and exhausting.

This is what we saw played out on our streets during 2025, people in their thousands, proudly waving and even wearing England and British flags, claiming them as symbols of racism and hostilities, blaming black and brown people and asylum-seekers for literally everything, fuelled by far-right politics and a shift once again to the right of all political parties, their protests were against the very existence of asylum-seekers, against Muslim people, against black and brown people.

Alongside these blatant displays of racism, systemic racism has affected the daily lives of black and brown people in employment, education, health, access to services and more. We do not have the luxury of attending a counter-demo against the far right and going home and putting our feet up.

Navigating both institutional and everyday racism is an art we must perfect in order to survive. But the impacts of the far right and racist harassment at work are interconnected — last month I gave comment on a report in the Morning Star about nurses and health workers facing a hostile environment caused by England flags on display in neighbourhoods they were required to carry out home visits, causing stress and affecting workers’ safety.

The mobilisation by the far right of those with racist views has empowered people to express those racist views in the workplace.

There ought to be zero tolerance of racism at work but despite hard-fought-for laws and workplace policies, the reality is very different, with those on the receiving end of racism having to raise long-drawn-out complaints and grievances with very little if any repercussions for perpetrators.

Beyond the workplace, over the past year we have seen more evidence of the institutional racism that exists in policing, not that we needed that evidence, because the lived experience we have is enough.

But recent developments expose how new technology is furthering this with facial recognition technology and AI disproportionately adversely affecting black people in policing but also used to harass and bully people at work and discriminate in recruitment.

Climate change continues to impact on the global South, the reason many are forced to flee their homes and seek asylum elsewhere, risking their lives on precarious journeys only to see flags representing St George brandished as symbols of fascism despite St George’s multicultural heritage and roots.

Close to home for many of us who are from the Caribbean community in Britain, were the recent devastating impacts of  Hurricane Melissa for Jamaica, a category 5 tropical cyclone, intensified by rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change, leaving many of our families and friends homeless without basic needs met.

Over 100 people died across the region, 530,000 people lost power, there was severe flooding including in higher land areas like Mandeville, where I stayed just a few months before and thousands of acres of farmland were destroyed with a huge financial impact on agriculture and livestock loss. More than half of the island’s forest land was damaged also.

The response from the British government has been to contribute just £2.5 million to Jamaica followed by a further £5m to the wider Caribbean region affected, which does not even begin to touch the surface of the damage done and funds needed to rebuild and recover.

When we speak of reparations and climate justice, this is an example of where Britain, which has profited from enslavement of African people transported to the Caribbean and from the contribution of Caribbean people during the first and second world wars and post-WWII, the Windrush generation which helped Britain recover after the war, contributing to public services, industry, nursing and more while facing blatant racism, could take some meaningful action. I urge readers to sign the related petition at tinyurl.com/JamaicaEmergencyAid.

Experiencing racism and responding to it is exhausting and painful, it cannot fall solely upon the shoulders of those on the receiving end to respond. It is good to see a mobilisation and organisation against the far right by the trade union movement in recent months, but crucial going forward that the response by the labour movement addresses the systemic and everyday racism that exists and organising and campaigning on the adverse disproportionate effects and racial disparities caused by government policies, new technologies, the cost-of-living crisis, anti-migrant laws etc.  

Standing up to racism is not just about counter-demos against the far right on our streets, it has to include tackling the root causes and symptoms too, it has to be about healing, repair, peace and justice.

Education is also essential, what we teach young people but also what we can learn from them. In my multi-disciplinary creative practice, I work with children and young people regularly, using creativity, be it visual art, poetry or writing as a process to explore, express and document our migration stories, the strength we gain from unity and realising our hopes for a future free of racism.  

Working in a primary school over the past month as an artist in residence, what I experienced was a multicultural, multi-religion, multi-ethnicity class of children, celebrating each other’s individual cultures, roots and identities and shared values based on respect, understanding and appreciation of each other. The project we worked on explored race and racism, the legacies of enslavement and colonialism, identity, climate change, solidarity, pride and intergenerational connections.

As equally important as the work I have done as a campaigner and activist, over the past year, is this work grounded in healing and nurturing the next generation, fostering community spirit and understanding, using creativity to teach history and connect us.

I hope that we can all take some time, for rest, reflection, self-care and healing to end the year, rest is resistance and in the words of Audre Lorde: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.”  

This is necessary if we are to tackle the roots of racism going into the new year.

Zita Holbourne FRSA is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, educator, trade union leader, community activist and equality / human rights campaigner. She is the co-founder and national chair of Barac UK and Joint National Chair of Artists’ Union England and listed on the Top 100 Influential People 2026.