CASEY KEES LIVES IN RUTHIN. SHE HAS BEEN ATTENDING AND ORGANISING BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS ACROSS NORTH WALES. CASEY TALKED TO JANE PHILLIPS ABOUT WHY THIS MOVEMENT IS SO CRUCIAL, RACISM IN NORTH WALES, RESISTANCE TO THE MOVEMENT AND THEIR NEXT PLANNED PROTESTS IN COLWYN BAY, RHYL AND LLANDUDNO. 

By Jane Philips.

What’s it been like organising Black Lives Matter protests in North Wales?

At the one in Ruthin, I spoke for the first time. I was overwhelmed and nervous and my legs were shaking and I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I didn’t really manage to get as many words out as I could because I was crying in between. But I said what I needed to say and people heard and were clapping afterwards. I didn’t expect that reaction, I didn’t know what to expect. A lot of people still message me asking about it if they can sign up for petitions, if they can help with the next protest, where they can go and that really means a lot, that people are willing to step up and help and take care of the world a little bit more.

I helped organise the one in Colwyn Bay with a few other girls. We were stood in the rain for three hours, so to everyone that came I was saying thank you so much for coming, and you know, the Welsh rain is quite heavy as well! Everyone’s posters were half torn because of the rain.

In Rhyl, I was standing at the very front with my partner and I was really nervous. I didn’t know people would chant back, so my partner started to help me and then I said some things. So when we all started chanting, everyone would follow. It was really overwhelming.

Why is this movement so important?

I’m 21, I’m half Dutch and half Ugandan, I was born in Kenya and I was raised in five different countries, then I moved from Germany to Wales five years ago.

When I was younger, a few kids in my school, mainly the boys, would always say stuff about my skin colour that I didn’t understand, I would just laugh it off and go home and question it, like I’m not sure, I don’t really understand what that was. If you would tell the teacher, they would be like, oh it’s just kids ignore it, but if it’s a personal attack to your appearance like your colour, you can’t really ignore it. So as I got older and I started meeting people who looked more like me, they would explain it to me and they would tell me whatever these people say is not ok, you shouldn’t have to go on with people judging you. And then obviously when I moved to the UK, I had a few incidents like that when I was in college as well, people would say stuff on the bus. 

So why it’s really important for me now is because I want my children, I want other children the same colour as me, I want the next generation not to have to go through this, we’re in 2020 and this shouldn’t even be a problem you know. 

We need to change history, we need to make sure that our children, our uncles, our aunts, our grandchildren, all of them know that this world can be a better place and all work together, we can all be united.

What is your experience of racism in North Wales?

Where I live, it’s quite a small place, it’s very local, some of the kids are also not used to people of my colour being around. When I moved here, I had some kids saying stuff, or some elderly people, because they thought I was like a tourist, I often get quite a lot of people who want to touch my hair, who want to ask me questions about me and I know it’s not too much of a bad thing, but it’s happened so many times, it just makes me feel a little out of place, I just want to feel at home somewhere

And where I used to work, they would ask me a lot of very personal questions about my appearance, which would make me very uncomfortable, so I used to be on edge a lot. 

What are people’s reactions in North Wales to the protests in general?

People I know, like my friends, are very proud of me. Obviously, on the webpages (for the protests), there’s a lot of people putting negative comments, like ‘what does this have to do with us’, ‘this isn’t America, it’s nothing to do with Wales’, ‘it’s nothing like this in Wales’, but these are people who would have never experienced anything like this in their lives and would never come to a protest to support anything that isn’t to do with them personally… 

The only negative thing I have responded to was a woman, when we were planning the Ruthin one, who had messaged talking nonsense. I just responded saying a few things about it, you should inform yourself more, and I said if you were a person of colour, you would understand what I have to go through with people judging me like that. I respect everyone’s opinion but I would rather people inform themselves before they start jumping on people.

What’s your plans going forward? 

We’re going to slowly start planning hopefully in two week’s time (when lockdown is over) to try and plan either one in Llandudno and possibly one in Colwyn Bay again. I’d hope to make this one more informative. We would possibly make little leaflets, or more information with sites where they can sign up for whatever they want to and different charities that they could give money to and different black businesses that they could invest in. We’ll do maybe 5 minutes of chanting and then whoever wanted to speak and say their opinion, whether white or black, it wouldn’t matter, just anyone could speak up and say something and then afterwards we could have a little corner where if people personally wanted to ask questions or something about the protest, or anything we could help with. 

Last time at the Colwyn Bay protest, there was a woman that came with her children who were probably maybe almost 10 years old, and they both had posters and that really moved me because that’s the kind of thing that I want to see, because they’re seeing this when they’re really young and their mum’s explaining it to them so they can go on, pass it on in school, they can tell the person they’re with, or their children later and that’s really important to me. 

What kind of support would you like to see for the movement within North Wales, from local people and the community?

I’d like to see people stand up a little bit more and ask if they can help arrange it. Also make their own information about it that they can give to people. Like workshops maybe, so it’s not just like a thing that is happening for two months, it goes on for as long as it can, so people don’t just think, I’ve done this for two months, I’ve gone to protests, that’s all I need to do. That’s not what I’m trying to achieve with all of this, I’m trying to make it ongoing so next generations can feel safer in their skin, feel safer when they walk on the streets, feel safer going to school, that would be really important for me to achieve. 

There will be a Black Lives Matter protest in Rhyl on Sunday 19th July. For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/726672031432033/