I HAVE lived with racism all my life and I have been a campaigner for racial equality and for human rights for decades. 

So watching the US election campaign and debates and seeing people buy into Donald Trump’s lies and hatred so easily was saddening, to say the least. 

It demonstrates just how far we have to go still to create a fair and equal world where it is safe for all of us.  

But I am under no illusion that Trump alone created a US of division and hatred and discrimination — he is a symptom of a culture that already existed. 

But given his position of power, not just in the US but globally, he was able to fuel those feelings and ideas, to encourage and empower those who hold them to express and act upon them. 

Black people in the US and here in Britain have been fighting racism for a very long time.

We live with the legacies of colonialism and enslavement of African people still — the election system in the US is one of those legacies. 

The dream that Martin Luther King Jnr had over half a century ago has not been realised and this summer we saw the horrific video of George Floyd being murdered by police played out before our eyes. 

Here in Britain the annual families and friends campaign march against deaths in custody, held at the end of October each year, reminds us that this is not just a US problem.

But I hold on to hope, because if I didn’t have hope I wouldn’t have spent my life campaigning for equality. 

That Joe Biden won and Trump only succeeded in serving a single term as president gives me hope; that Kamala Harris, the daughter of migrants, a woman of colour, Asian, African, Indian and Caribbean, will be the vice-president of the US gives me hope. 

The prejudice faced by racialised groups in the US is not going to go away overnight because there is a Democratic president, but I am glad that Trump was defeated. Another term would have been devastating.  

Over the four days as we waited for news of who would be the next president I was reminded of when I saw Bernie Sanders in person when he was speaking in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the American Federation of Trade Unions conference where I was one of the international guests. 

I felt so uplifted by his words and his politics, but then the same evening on a cab ride back to my hotel I was told by the driver that he loved Trump and thought he was wonderful. 

Although I already knew it was there, the great divide in the US really hit me. 

I got into an argument with the driver and started to break down Trump’s beliefs and hatred to driver, but he brushed those aside. In the end I asked him to let me out. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, came to mind. 

Some people voted for Trump on personality alone, irrespective of his beliefs and ideas, and others because of them.

He empowered those people to go out and act on their hatred and fuelled the hatred and division that were already there over his term in office. 

The effects were felt not just in the US, as what happens there has an impact globally and Britain’s “special relationship” with the US also affects black people here — the encouragement and support for the so called “hostile environment,” for example.

Here in Britain, we are surrounded by racism all the time — be it systemic or the everyday kind. 

During the summer there were global protests responding to George Floyd’s death but also to the racism we face every day in systems, policies, practices and attitudes and the legacies of enslavement and colonialism.

The British government has introduced laws and policies which cause racism, pain, indignity, hurt and distress — we just need to look at the Immigration Act and the Windrush scandal.

Take the case of Osime Brown, a young black man with autism who the Home Office want to deport; or the other young black people deported under Operation Nexus — their only “crime” was that they were the victims of police racial profiling — or the Warehouse K immigration enforcement centre that they want to place in one of Britain’s most multicultural boroughs, Newham. 

I urge readers to support the campaign and sign our petition against the plans for Warehouse K (mstar.link/WarehouseKPetition). 

The Home Office sought planning permission from Newham Council to move offices for staff to the borough, but didn’t mention that it also planned to establish an immigration reporting centre with 35 holding cells within it.  

The immigration enforcement centre would be a stone’s throw away from London City Airport and situated in a former tobacco warehouse with its roots in the enslavement of African people on a dock which has its roots in colonialism and the British empire. 

But we also face racism in the labour market, service provision, education and much more. 

Racism is the reason that black and brown people have contracted and died from coronavirus in disproportionate numbers.

Institutional racism combined with austerity has led to discrimination in access to jobs, housing and services. 

It was because of the ongoing impact of cuts on black workers, service users and communities that Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (Barac UK) was established, and in June this year we marked our 10-year anniversary. 

Ten years down the line we never expected still to be campaigning against racism and injustice faced by black, Asian and minority-ethnic communities. Racism has deepened in that time.

Racism is global, so we need a global response — and that is why Barac is involved in campaigning together with others around the world. We wait to see the impact that Trump’s defeat will have on British politics but we should not forget either Johnson’s racist “piccaninnies” and “watermelon smile” comments either.

But we cannot forget and it is important that those of us who stand for equality and justice engage with our counterparts in the US and beyond. 

We have seen countless reports in Britain to tell us that racism exists but those of us on the receiving end already know this — we don’t need more reports to confirm what we already know. 

What we need is action — changes in policies, in practices and in cultures. 

Politicians have a responsibility to take action to end racism, to prevent racism but also to create and equal, inclusive and fair society.  

Racism is not going to disappear overnight because Trump was defeated — it didn’t go away when a black man, Barack Obama, was the president.  

But in a year of so much sadness and trauma, Trump’s defeat is welcome news and sends out a powerful message that gives us hope and tells us that if we organise and work together we can have an impact, and that every vote counts. 

As both a trade unionist and community activist, I recognise the importance of all of us working together not just to challenge discrimination when it happens but to prevent it, to change policies, practices and cultures that allow it and to work for equality for all. 

Zita Holbourne is co-founder and national chair of Barac UK, and joint national chair of Artists Union England.