As the term “People of Colour” has become more embedded in everyday vocabulary over the years, moments like now show us that there must be a distinction and accountability by People of Colour in recognising their own faults and ways in which People of Colour hold up oppressive structures and ideologies including racial hierarchies, racism, anti-blackness and colourism. Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, also known as The Brown Hijabi, also points to in particular South Asians and Arabs needing to take accountability of anti-blackness being the status quo.

“Whilst we all feel heartbroken let’s recognise that if we’re not black it’s our duty to implement real material changes to change the anti-black status quo. In the UK anti-blackness is upheld by non-black people of colour – south Asians and Arabs especially – in so many ways”

Suhaiymah’s resource list calls for South Asians and Non-Black POC to listen to Black people and Black Muslims and activists and to get educated through these resources.

Listen to Black ppl & Black Muslims & activists>>> but iv compiled a resource ill keep updating esp for south asians (but other non-black POC) to help with unlearning white supremacy & with also therefore disinvest from anti-blackness! hope its helpful: https://t.co/Wufpt68K1a

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) June 1, 2020

The resource list is categorised into 4 areas:

One of the most subtle of these is the internalised desire to be closer to whiteness. If we look at the likes of Patel & Javed we see how Asians are able to access power through performing proximity to whiteness THROUGH their internalised racism

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) May 28, 2020

Listen to Black ppl & Black Muslims & activists>>> but iv compiled a resource ill keep updating esp for south asians (but other non-black POC) to help with unlearning white supremacy & with also therefore disinvest from anti-blackness! hope its helpful: https://t.co/Wufpt68K1a

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) June 1, 2020

“I particularly recommend the video/film sections if you find reading hard, but most of the text sources are accessible and important to engage with. (also the histories of solidarities is my fave bit because there’s so much potential!)”

You can find the full resource list here

“Knowledge is power. Once we understand that things occur because of histories – we understand that they’re not natural, timeless or unchangeable. If that is so, it means they have a start; if that is so, that means they have an end. We have the power to change our world.”

We r all born into white supremacy if ur in the UK or USA (as well as globally tbh). We internalise racial hierarchy from the moment we r born & recognise very early on that being nearer to Whiteness brings benefits – safety, access to healthcare, education, better outcomes

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) June 1, 2020

Suhaiymah also says, for those that don’t know where to start “I super recommend Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? – to help us move away from seeing this as an issue of individual bad cops, racism is the history of the prison, and the prison doesn’t keep society safe.”

& we learn being nearer to Blackness brings lots of disadvantages – namely danger to your life, barriers accessing healthcare, education, secure income & it means constant punishment/suspicion from authority figures. Because of this we ALL internalise white supremacy.

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) June 1, 2020

This shapes our behaviours, ideas & thoughts. We want to be safe, want successful outcomes & to be "liked" – we see Whiteness gives people that so we internalise self-hatred. Hatred of our colour and of other people of colour.

— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) June 1, 2020