CHALLENGING POWER & OPPRESSION IN BRITAIN TODAY
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| RRP: £14.99 |
1.
Alan Sharp please introduce yourself?
I
have been a community development worker in Tooting for 14 years.
Much of my recent work has been getting funding for Black and Asian
community groups to do projects to meet community needs. I facilitate
the working together of a number of churches of all ethnic
backgrounds to meet people's material and spiritual needs. I
represented 90 community groups of all faiths and one for three
years on the Faiths Sub-committee of Wandsworth Local Strategic
Partnership. I was on the steering group of Balham and Tooting Forum
for 18 months. I have facilitated youth leaders to run two performing
arts schools for youth during school holidays.
2.
So why did your write the book CHANGING GENERATIONS?
I
wrote the book because I felt that my skills could best be used to
challenge white people to work with Black and Asian people to achieve
their liberation. Writing a book can influence a wider range of
people than other actions.
3.So
what is your experience in these matters?
The
mass experience of the presence of Black and Asian people in UK has
only been 70 years, as opposed to several hundred years in US.
Enslavement was confined to the Western hemisphere, so British people
have not had to face the results of terror face to face in UK. UK
experience has been corrupted through a common belief in cultural
racism, seeing racism as non-existent apart from one-off racist
incidents.
4.
Who is the book for?
The
book is for anyone aged 18 and above.
5.
Where did you gain this information, would you call yourself an
expert in the subject?
I
am not an expert! I try to report what Black, Asian and Latin
American women and men say in critiquing white people. People need
someone of a different gender, ethnicity, class and culture/age to
critique them, in order to learn what needs to be changed. Postmodern
whites may be able to critique modern whites but struggle to critique
postmodernism.
6.
It's quite brave of you to criticize the powers that be, as a white
English man do you think you'll receive a negative backlash from
other white men [and even some black people] because of what you say
in the book?
Any
support may primarily be silent. I do expect a negative reaction,
although I hope we can engage through blogging. I would not expect to
get as bad a response as, say, a white woman or a Black or Asian
person might for saying these things.
7.How
long did CHANGING GENERATIONS take to write?
The
book took a year in 2007. I have tried to update it for subsequent
research and development in my thinking. I originally wrote two books
in one and might publish the other book at some point in the future.
8.What
do you think this book will achieve?
I
hope this book might provoke some conversation. I hope it will help
some people to get on journeys of engaging in action to help people
achieve their liberation. The aim is above all to see action to get
rid of institutional racism and sexism as well as to reduce
grass-roots racism and sexism.
9.How
and who published your book?
Actually
the book was Self-published, I attended the BIS Publishing courses,
then continued with their 1 to 1 coach, whilst they assisted me in the
self-publishing process. Big up to BIS Publications!
10.Where
can the book be bought?
www.bispublications.com and http://www.diversityunity.com
Friday, 25th July 2014
Time: 6.45-9.00 pm
Location: The Brockway Room, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL
Early Bird tickets just £5.
REGISTER here now https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bis-publications-summer-bookjam-2014-tickets-12245792495?mc_cid=8d6ab0f130&mc_eid=7ae3a38ab9 to avoid disappointment.
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