Exhibit B protest: We fought for our dignity

The backlash against proud Black people demanding respect and dignity has been unleashed like the dogs of hell.

On Tuesday evening the Barbican decided to halt the show because of what they described as the ‘extreme nature of the protest’. Newpapers and other media outlets have shown outrage that the show was stopped by protesters.

A protest we should note, in which no person was arrested, cautioned or even warned by the police, but nevertheless, has been crudely characterised as an ‘angry mob’ in which people had to run for their lives’. The police themselves informed a Guardian journalist who inquired, that ‘we saw nothing that warranted public disorder’.

The ‘angry mob’ label serves a privileged narrative about how Black people, and how we behave. For example, an Evening Standard journalist bizarrely said that the protesters were ‘brandishing drums.’ Well, that must have been scary.

Furthermore, this ‘angry mob’ label easily deflects attention away from why we actually began the protest in the first place.

From the very beginning our motivation for contesting Brett Bailey Exhibit B was simply to defend and preserve the dignity for all Black people.

Our dignity not to be objectified, shackled and portrayed only in a state of powerlessness; our dignity to have our story told in the round which includes rebellion, resistance and great survival.

It's true Bailey’s shock methodology of forcing the looker to see the atrocities bestowed on Black people induces masses of white liberal guilt. No question about that, but in doing so he also perpetuates the myth that Black people are powerless to the whims of the oppressor. White guilt with no Black empowerment is worse than meaningless.

We need to look no further than the Barbican and their many media supporters who care more about the freedom to insult and offend rather than trouncing on Black peoples' dignity.

If Brett Bailey cared about the empowerment of Black people he should applaud the protesters for following in our ancestors footsteps by fighting for our rights, our self-respect and dignity.

I’m proud I took my nine-year old son on the march to the Barbican to fight for our dignity. The day we stop is frankly the day we become worthless human beings. The Black experience has taught you and me that you cannot kill our spirit whatever is thrown at us.

I’m deeply sorry that a man from Africa who purports to care for Black Africans cannot see that.

Simon Woolley