'...if an individual makes the choice to not let the gatekeepers stand in their way...'

This is the rediculous delusionary state that then leads to self blame and self hate ..... whereas in the time of open slavery and invasions, whips and guns and starvation were used as methods for control, now we are fed the myth of equality while in fact, day after day you receive decimating levels of invalidation, stealing of your ideas, your work being credited to White manager etc etc .... Black kids and adults could achieve much more if we were not being dragged down in all manner of ways, and on various fronts ... if you go along, you get along… those black staff who kept quiet, and looked the other way, or joined in with the White manager in undermining the person defending Black students who were being mistreated eg a White teacher wrote ‘stupid’, in the margin of an Afro-Carribean student’s essay. I then sought to address this and my White manager advised me not to. He said, “Students come and go, but the staff will be here next year”.

I could give so many more examples, small and major…

Great, if you have found more fair-minded White staff… I myself survived thanks to a handful of White allies but could I have achieved much more, such as completing my PHD and writing up ideas into books, if I was handling the harassment? I overheard how the first (And last) Black manager at Director level, had false complaints brought against her over a four year period and at heart, it was because the White staff /especially the middle managers, couldn’t stand having a Black woman as their boss.

I’d love to say things have shifted since the days of open racism, but my experiences in various educational institutions demonstrate that so long as a perosn of colour complies, she is acceptable, when she expects to have an equal say in then she is in trouble.