RECENT incidents in football stadiums and the ridiculous furore over Stormzy’s comments about the prevalence of racism in Britain have once again shown that one can never take for granted that real progress has been made as perhaps many thought. 

Racist incidents are of course not new and are not confined to one part of the country.

Back in 1987 I was living in a northern city when a general election was called. I was already an activist and, by that time, one of the leaders in the Labour Party Black Sections movement. 

Any black person can tell you how we learn to spot the stares, or the body language quicker than I think many white folks understand. 

So I was already very uncomfortable in the virtually all-white area that my then meagre salary would allow. However, when the ’87 election was called I did what I always did and got myself out on the doorstep.

The area I lodged in was one where only Labour canvassed and only Labour got elected. So it wasn’t a surprise to get a Labour canvasser on the door at election time. 

It was obviously, however, a revelation for some of the locals to be visited by a black man. Some of them were not slow in making their distaste known. I remember doors slammed in my face — even from houses with Labour posters in the window — and some remarks that might have even made Boris Johnson apologise (OK, that may be going too far).

I’ve learned over the years to handle opposition to my political views either on the doorstep or within the movement. Sadly, far too often disagreement with someone on the doorstep and on occasion within the movement, gets translated into me being “uppity” and getting way too far above my station — my station often not being seen as an assistant general secretary of Unison, the largest trade union in the country.

I will never get used to that horrible gut-wrenching feeling I get knocking on the door of someone you’re told is hostile and the relief you get either when they don’t answer or if they do and they are halfway civil — only then to go to the door of someone you’re told is a supporter to be called a “black bastard red” as I was on general-election day. 

If that was the worst thing that had ever been said to me on the doorstep I wouldn’t really waste time writing this article. That particular dubious award could go to any number of very creative expletives that people have come up with from the safety of their own doorways.

When I’ve told fellow canvassers of these incidents I’ve heard “Oh no, are you OK? Racist bastards. Anyway here’s your next door.” 

I have also had white colleagues offering to go and defend this nearly six-foot black-belt martial artist from harm. I’m always grateful for the offer but I don’t need defending and I’m past the point of needing allies. What I need now are collaborators in the daily fight against racism and not just when the occasional incident takes place or there’s another major news story. 

During the recent general-election campaign I was on a train journey to Cornwall. I was about to get off when a young white man, obviously enjoying the bravery that came from a few drinks, came up to me and did the mock Jamaican accent that earned a so-called stand-up comedian a fortune. 

I had a not too unfamiliar choice of react or don’t react. The again not too unfamiliar calculation that I made was that I was hundreds of miles away from home and possibly the blackest person for miles. I chose not to react!

So how do I, or more precisely, we, deal with a worsening situation at general election time and beyond — including within our movement?

Black self-organisation grew me and many others. Many of the structures for black workers that sprang out of the 1980s have not had a burning sense of urgency or righteous rage for some time.

Many leaders have got away without having to talk about black representation any more and why it’s important not to just add some more diversity to the organisation through a conference or committee but because fundamental change is required to root out racism. 

This is not a question of how long I can resist the temptation of giving a racist a spinning side-kick to the head — even when they don’t think I can see what they are doing. 

It must be about what we black people, collectively, can do to deal with the situation that we face. It’s never just been about being more involved in black politics. It’s always been about changing the movement and then the world.

It’s time for a resurgence of black self-organisation in Britain, both within the existing institutions of the labour movement but also outside of it too. 

This must be part of building the movement for radical and fundamental change in society that the tragic general election defeat for the Labour Party only makes more necessary, not less. We really are, as they say, the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Roger McKenzie is an assistant general secretary of Unison and writes here in a personal capacity.