We Define Ourselves

Earlier this week at BTR HQ we were discussing the thorny topic of terminology. What term(s) should we use in our communications, and our allies use in theirs? It’s an area fraught with cultural danger. When we founded Black Trail Runners we made a conscious decision to use ‘Black’ as our predominant terminology. But we recognise that it is not appropriate in every context. Other options include ‘people of colour’, ‘BPOC’, ‘ethnic minorities’, ‘under-represented groups’ and the much-derided ‘BAME’.

The only meaningful conclusion we reached was that this is a changing linguistic landscape. Even if we could settle on a universally accepted term today, it will undoubtedly change in the not too distant future. I am old enough to remember being untroubled when referred to as ‘coloured’, and perversely pleased to be called ‘half-caste’ by my own grandmother.

We decided that such decisions were best left to diversity and inclusion experts, but then wondered idly what qualifies someone to be a diversity and inclusion expert. For some organisations, it seems it’s enough to be from an ethnic minority and to express some opinion on diversity issues. That was the impression given by the BBC this week, when its diversity ‘chief’ Miranda Wayland said that Idris Elba’s acclaimed Luther character was not black enough to be real because he doesn’t have any black friends and doesn’t eat black food.

Remember, this is the diversity chief of our country’s leading broadcaster saying this.

Now, I’ve never watched Luther, but I’m reliably informed it’s a great crime drama with a strong black lead character who is, shall we say, easy on the eye. Having never seen it, I’m not qualified to say whether the character is realistic. But I am qualified, as any person with a semblance of cultural awareness is, to know that his degree of realism has little to do with his friends and diet. The idea that he’s not realistically black because of these things is unhelpful in two ways.

First, her version of ‘real’ is categorically, factually wrong. Luther is a Detective Chief Inspector in the Metropolitan Police. According to government figures, there are a grand total of 12 black Chief Inspectors in England and Wales (out of more than 1700), a figure that has increased by two in 13 years. Black police officers make up 3.5% of the Met, despite black people being more than 13% of the London population. As with my childhood in 1970s Yorkshire, and for black people in many areas and workplaces of the UK, it’s entirely realistic that Luther will usually be the only black person in the room. This is our lived experience. If my childhood friends weren’t white, I wouldn’t have had any friends.

Second, her stereotypes are damaging. The idea that one has to eat ‘black’ food in order to be black, that it’s not possible to be an authentic black person and eat fish and chips, is the worst kind of reductivist stereotyping. Travelling further down that road leads us to the 1970s and the Black and White Minstrel show.

It is not for any diversity champion or any BBC executive to define what counts as black. Black people define themselves. We define ourselves. Black Trail Runners define themselves.

If you run, you’re a runner. If you run on trails, you’re a trail runner. If you’re black and you run on trails, you’re a Black Trail Runner. And here at BTR we are not only your friends; we’re your family.