Walks and Worries
Last weekend was glorious in many households, and I don’t mean the weather. Children crisscrossed the country to see parents and grandparents for the first time in months, grandparents came on extended ‘sleep-overs’, friends met for dinner inside in restaurants, loved ones embraced, and we, as a community, finally got to meet up together, to sing, eat and enjoy being together for havdalah. We did get rained on, but it was worth a little dampness to spend Saturday evening together outside. It was wonderful.
Another event that we have not been able to do for a long time is to meet up with the other CUK community leaders in Haringey. We went for a walk together around Highgate School, who are doing an incredible amount of work to help young people in their partner school, London Academy of Excellence (LAET) in Tottenham, reach their academic potential. They have also been instrumental in gathering and storing the 40 used laptops and tablets that we have collected alongside them, re-purposing them and sending them to students in primary schools. Though 40 does not sound like a lot, it means that forty students and their families now have real access to the internet, the ability to write, research and learn in a way they couldn’t before.
And yet, the conversation that developed centred on the concept of privilege. The killing of George Floyd and the ensuing BLM protests impacted their students, and they began a serious conversation about privilege, and what it means for them as young people, in both schools, with their very different backgrounds and life experiences. And as the news broke about the amount of harassment and abuse young female students have experienced in secondary schools, this too has had a direct impact on the students, for privilege, they feel, is also at the core of this.
Over a packed lunch, at Lauderdale House, we then shared experiences. I was fortunate enough to speak to a young member of staff, who is also a former student, about his experiences as a young black man, and I shared my life as a Jewish woman. Though we didn’t come away with any solutions or answers, two things struck me from this encounter. The first one is the impact of just talking to someone else outside of our normal bubbles. Walking, talking, eating, and sharing a face to face unscripted conversation, with a goal of getting to know each other, is such a powerful experience, and one of the most important things we can do. There’s another walk in the pipeline in June, which is open to anyone from the community, and I encourage you to participate.
The other thing is realising the issues that we have in common. It is easy to get lulled into the idea that difficult issues happen somewhere else. We don’t have issues about equal pay, job losses, accessibility, immigrant status etc. That of course is a fallacy, and it was a real eye opener to be reminded about what issues affect us, in our lives, in our neighbourhoods. Feeling safe on the streets, whether as a young person, or while riding a bike, the impact of unequal pay and job opportunities for women, especially once we have children.
What are our worries, our issues that impact us in our everyday life? That is the conversation we are having at the moment, in Crouch End and in the other part of the Borough, and from those conversations we will be able to decide our priorities in the autumn.