Disrupting Narratives: Why Rosemary Campbell-Stephens MBE has no time for ignorance
In a farsighted interview, the veteran educator and anti-racist activist, discusses the significance of language, explains why she’s still hopeful, and talks candidly about racial literacy as a tool for empowerment.
Rosemary Campbell-Stephens MBE (Black of African Caribbean descent and heritage, specifically Jamaican parentage. British national. Identity does not exist in relation to whiteness, and transcends geographic place of birth: she/her) was explaining to me the view from her (?office) window at her home in Jamaica. “From the window behind my computer, about twenty yards from my house, is the huge gravestone of the plantation owner who owned the land on which my home stands. I know which plantation I inhabit,” she said. “If I ever need a reminder about the foundations of how our social system is structured, I just have to open my curtains and it’s right there in front of me. There’s no fooling myself about the reality”.
This was not meant to be a commentary on Black slavery – not directly at least. In any case, Campbell-Stephens is more concerned with the present. She raised the subject of her ‘room with a view’ to make a point: Time. “I’ve got fewer years ahead of me then I’ve got behind. So I’ve not got time to waste with ignorance, fooling ourselves about reality. I’ve got to be focused on what we really need to do. And my focus is paying forward, leaving the blueprint for those who are coming behind,” she said. “To encapsulate my professional life in educational leadership and social justice so it can be passed on.”.
We were sitting in our respective home offices, 4,705 miles away from each other, a jittery Zoom link altering our flow of conversation, connecting us in and out of each others words. The Jamaican sun shined through Campbell-Stephens feed, and I felt a sense of longing, wondering how this conversation would interweave if we were sitting there together, the slave owner’s (?)grave in listening distance.
Campbell-Stephens professional work spans 40 years. Though receiving her training in England, she works internationally. A highlights reel of her career includes: OFSTED inspector; Deputy Head of an Outstanding secondary school; and, Headteacher of one in challenging circumstances. She has operated an African Caribbean supplementary school for 200 students, worked as a Consultant Adviser to the Department of Education, a Lead Associate to the National College of Teaching and Leadership, and been a Local Authority Adviser (London). Between 2003-2011 she designed and led a ground-breaking and highly successful leadership preparation programme, Investing in Diversity, for the University College London (UCL) as part of the UK government’s London Challenge initiative that was extended across England, and in 2009, to the Institute of Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. As well as being an author, leadership coach and keynote speaker, she is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, UCL. In 2015, Campbell-Stephens was awarded an MBE for over 35 years’ service to education in England.
The Global Majority
We covered a lot of ground in our discussion. The broadest subject of our conversation concerned imbuing language with equity and fairness to enhance, rather than exploit or shame Black people. When Campbell-Stephens created the Investing for Diversity programme for the UCL eighteen years ago, she coined the phrase Global Majority. It refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, Indigenous to the global south, and/or have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’, BAME, ‘visible minorities’ or ‘people of color’: just some of the terms used to define all non-white people. Terms that normalise white and consider everyone else as ‘diverse’ and not normal. In creating terminology for empowerment and refusing the deficit narrative of Black people, Campbell-Stephens’ Investing for Diversity course became liberating in both content and language.
In this I noted to her the presence of exploitation and shame in the terms ‘ethnic minorities’ and ‘visible minorities’: phrases specifically communicating to people that they’re a minority, they’re insignificant and they can’t make a difference. This brought Campbell-Stephens to her main point: “ Globally, these groups currently represent c. 80% of the world’s population making them the global majority now. With current growth rates, notwithstanding Covid-19 and its emerging variants, the global majority are set to remain so for the foreseeable future. Understanding this may ‘shift the dial’. It certainly should permanently disrupt and relocate the conversation.”. With this comes the understanding that Global Majority is not a phrase intended as chastisement for white people, but one for Black people to recognise ourselves as part of the Global Majority, not in the margins, and no longer minoritising ourselves.
Understanding and rethinking the language we use is essential to advancing anti-racist conversations. Campbell-Stephens talked about this in relation to the categorisation within the BAME (Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic) acronym, “It’s an acronym that does not relate to country origin or affiliations,” she explained. “Part of the way in which people individually and collectively step into their power as authentic human beings is to be unambivalent about their identity, who they are and their connections to their roots. The BAME acronym undermines people’s ability to be themselves, as authentic human beings.”.
Think Like a Majority
We speak about a lot of things, but the arc of time is ever present. In discussing the need for Black people to take off their ‘minorities’ conditioning and come out of their enslaved mentality, Campbell-Stephens is brisk, “I’m 60 on my next birthday and I’m growing impatient. This is the time for real change, but it’s only the time if we make it the time, and keep on with these conversations, and hold people to account. This includes ourselves. We’ve got to get better at empowering ourselves. As part of the Global Majority, Black people need to learn more about themselves, start thinking like a majority and reframe conversations,” she said.
This is not all. “Because we can’t keep having surface level conversations and kidding ourselves. That because we see one more Black person on a board, a few more Black teachers, a few more Black people in a cooking advert or whatever equal’s ‘progress’. It is deeper than that. It’s more fundamental. It’s about who we are as human beings,” she noted. “It is understanding that the creation of a fairer world for Black people creates a fairer world full stop.”.
Campbell-Stephens’ narrative isn’t about bringing Black people into white spaces. It’s about changing those spaces so that they’re better for everyone, and with this comes the understanding that Black ways of being have a place. They have a place in business. In politics. In education. In health. “I was used to being in this these spaces where, unfortunately, so many of us seem to be ambivalent about our Blackness and not feeling that we could bring that into the professional space,” Campbell-Stephens recalls. “Now people are beginning to seek it. I have hope. There is a global awakening. But until we collectively address some of the real issues. Until we start talking about language and about whiteness being normal, then nothing will change.”.
No Time for Ignorance
As Campbell-Stephens shares her wisdom, I can’t help still wonder where this conversation would go if we were sat together on her veranda, both wearing our flip-flops, passing time enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun. The Jamaican soil beneath our feet once stripped by plantation, now fertile with anti-racist activism. Time is the overarching story here. Describing herself as a junior Elder looking ahead to Ancestorhood, Campbell-Stephens has none to waste. She contributes her knowledge and experience to our generation for generations yet to come. I observed her established in this role, grounded in her work, pleased about still having something of relevance to say, “But in equal measure perturbed and periodically angry about how so little has changed,” she added.
Until we catch up, Rosemary Campbell-Stephens remains ahead of the curve, patiently waiting for the baton to be taken and run off into the distance. Prior to that day she continues the hard work she started 40 years ago. Disrupting and bringing trouble, the good kind that has no time for ignorance.