Politics of Black Entry into Britain: Reflections on Being a Black British Person Returning to the UK

Abstract

This paper seeks to address issues pertaining to the positionality of Black people in Britain vis-à-vis our arrival, interrogation and, on occasions, detention at airports. The author, who is a Black British theologian, utilizes his own experiences as an initial point of a departure in order to analyse the reasons for the disproportionate levels of suspicion, negative invective and, ultimately, the detention of Black bodies as they seek to gain entry into Britain. The author argues that an inherent dynamic of White normality and Black "othering"—a facet of British societal thinking that has existed for centuries—is the root cause of the often demonization and vituperative discourse that surrounds Black people as they seek to gain entry into Britain. The final part of the essay outlines some basic theological markers for contesting this basic fault-line in the broader consciousness of Britain in terms of her relationship to those who are often deemed as the "other."