A Hackney writer insists society as we know it needs a dramatic overhaul to stamp out institutional racism and discrimination.

Robyn Travis – author of memoir Prisoner To The Streets, debut novel Mama Can’t Raise No Man and most recently Freedom from the Streets – told the Gazette power systems must change.

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“We need a revolution. Wipe out the police, start again; wipe out government, start again; wipe out the Houses of Parliament and start again,” he said. “We have to teach the youngsters, they have a lot to learn.”

This is because “ethnic minority people are finding space and being accepted by a majority of people, but not accepted by the system we are still in”, he added.

Growing up in the early 2000s amid inter-estate rivalries that still exist today, Robyn believes engaging with children from as young as primary school is important to change entrenched mindsets.

He added: “They will have grown up in a situation where you don’t care what colour you are, they don’t care about race.”

In his career, the author has previously spoken to sold-out audiences at the Hackney Empire and been invited to literary festivals such as Cheltenham, Harrogate and Bare Lit.

Robyn is critical of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which came to prominence this year when protests around the world followed the death of George Floyd, after a white police knelt on his neck in America.

He said the rhetoric is divisive because it focuses on race: “I am not interested in BLM, it’s destructive. It’s important for Black people to know their history, about slavery and Windrush, about being socially excluded.

“Why does my colour have to become a part of it? I have never seen a white or Black person in my life – if you are talking about colour, it’s a social construct.

“I have seen Dulux white on my wall but no one is that colour, we’re all different shades, and it’s divisive. I have learned that this is how they want us to stay in the system, by keeping us all divided.”

He continued: “How do you stop slavery? The solution is to stop taking about the past and stop talking about what slavery did.
“BLM was embarrassing for a number of reasons – anyone who oppresses me then says my life matters – it’s embarrassing.”