Hollie McNish: Immigration master class

Politicians, mathematicians, bigots, the informed and the uninformed, it’s time to take a lesson from the street poet Hollie McNish.

In less than three minutes, the self-confessed maths junkie combines poetry with her numerical acumen to drive a stake into the heart of the bigoted immigration debate. Her YouTube poem 'Mathematics' has become a video sensation with well over 1 million hits. Her message about today’s vitriolic immigration debate is a simple yet powerful one: The sums simply don’t add up.

When confronted with the knee jerk remark, ‘They come here to take our jobs, she responds:

Your maths is still in primary, because some who come here spend and lend and buy stock, use accountants and builders."

She ends with the simple mathematical fact:

Most time immigrants bring more than minuses."

It’s a great piece of work/art on so many levels: its brevity, its ability to confront complex arguments with incredible simplicity. Above all it has an authentic voice, perhaps a white working class voice, a voice that we too often see on YouTube videos spewing  the most vile racism. McNish turns that working class voice into something altogether different.

I would imagine that many in the Black community and beyond would like to thank Hollie for her immigration master class.

Thank you, Hollie.

Watch Hollie McNish's YouTube video - Mathematics

Simon Woolley