Class and Race: An Intersection of Failings

By Dylan Asher

An example of punk counterculture from the museum of London

In the case of the Grenfell Tower fire, it is clear who had the power and the privilege here, and it wasn’t the tenants. Rather, what happened is a part of a larger, more structured system of classism and inequality in general—and in housing in particular. It highlights a system in which the poor who are often, not always, people of color are pushed out of quality housing in favor of gentrifying—or regenerating a city to give it brighter, whiter, and more fiscally appealing audience.

I wrote about the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower earlier on in a minor blog and how the tragedy consumed the entire neighborhood. That grief then outpoured into cities in greater U.K. where the burden of London’s failings weighed heavy on the hearts of many people. Districts like Barking, Dagenham, and Havering, however, feel experiences like these greater than districts like Westminster, for obvious reasons. Because, similar to the U.S. across all cultures and races, the underclass is treated the worst.

The flames of Grenfell Tower hadn’t even been extinguished, and all over Twitter and other media outlets, people were screaming that nobody should “politicize” these deaths. 
 “We are talking about some of the most marginalized, oppressed people in our society dying in a hellish inferno, so the very nature of the discourse around what happened at Grenfell Tower is innately political whether we like it or not.” “The fact is, Grenfell Tower- from the residents’ years of documented complaints, to the fact that it was an unspoken ‘blip’ in the richest borough of London- is a stark example of whose voices are listened to and taken seriously in modern Britain, and this dichotomy has become deadly.” Said Bella Catalano, a resident of North Kensington.

Abandoned houses in the lower income side of South Kensington

Though this event is labeled as one of the greatest tragedies in London’s history, people don’t wish to politicize it. Why? Because classism doesn’t exist for those in power. And those that do experience the brutal end of classism don’t have the education or opportunity to discuss it on a larger scale. In the great issue of classism in housing, British Parliament has done more than their fair share of silencing city inhabitants. I began discussing cross-cultural racism and classism in Hyde Park and, to my luck, was able to sit down with Leona Martin, a student at the University of Westminster. Leona gave me a brief history lesson on inequality as her dog, Kermit, melted my heart—but that’s beside the point.

“Earlier this year, the Tories voted down a bill that would have required landlords to provide livable housing. I read an article in the Guardian that said 39% Tory MPs were landlords, thus, there’s a very real reason for Tories to want to vote in favor of this. There is no interest from the upper class to preserve low income districts. Throughout Westminster to Walthamstow, poor people are being pushed to the fringes of Zone 8 and having their very valid concerns and quality ignored in favor of profit. The Tories want to see housing privatized.”

High income housing in South Kensington

 In the case of Grenfell Tower, the U.K. can’t ignore the presence of so many poor POC (people of color). We have to look at the systemic inequalities that allowed this to tragedy to occur. And, while there are loads of white poor people, too, studies have shown that while 20% of white people are low income, POC are three times as likely to be subjugated by affluent corporations and pushed into underclass homes.

However, I, as a middle class American, white man, can’t speak on behalf of the ingrained racial issues of Britain. However, Kanan Hatem, an Arabic resident of Ladbroke Grove, where Grenfell Tower is located, told me about his personal struggles.

“I can cross the street and see families who make almost ten times more than mine. Who never have to worry about a meal or their safety. We are lost right now. We can only grieve for those that we’ve lost and hope that this doesn’t happen again because local government and parliament don’t care about Black and Brown people.” Hatem said.

The tragedy of Grenfell Tower underlines the intersections between race and class and hopefully shows white Britain a few hard truths about systemic inequality.