Thatcher and Black Britain (A forgotten legacy)

As a black person my memory and experience of Margaret Thatcher will be quite different from a white person’s memory of her. Times like this serve to highlight just how important diversity in the media is.

Black people are not the only people who have their own unique perspective on Margaret Thatcher and her legacy.

Two nights ago BBC Scotland broadcast the film “Thatcher and The Scots” it was a repeat of a film I had first executive produced in 2009. The film examined Margaret Thatcher’s legacy in Scotland, how she had changed the country and how Scottish people now feel about her.

Scotland’s relationship to Thatcher is very different to the rest of the UK’s relationship with her. The majority of Scots never voted for her but in many ways her policies were thought by many Scots to disproportionately affect them negatively. (The demise of heavy industry, the weakening of the trade union movement and centralisation of power in the south east).

While Scottish viewers were obviously able to relate to the other films and news coverage which has been broadcast since her death I would like to think that “Thatcher & The Scots” was the only film that really spoke to their own personal experience and how it was different from the majority of the UK.

Margaret Thatcher’s death and the film “Thatcher & The Scots” points to a universal truth that we must never forget when we discuss diversity in the media; Large events effect everyone, but how you are effected differs depending on who you are. When making television programmes we must remember this truth when reporting on large events and issues such as Thatcher’s legacy.

Like Scottish people the majority of black people did not vote for Thatcher. During the her time as Prime Minster seminal events in the black British community occurred with many being either directly or indirectly caused by her policies (or more accurately – reactions to them) including the Brixton riots, Britain’s first black MP’s and the Right to Buy enabling large sections of the black community to become home owners, and some would argue have led to the gentrification of historically black communities including Brixton and Notting Hill.

Diversity in the media is about recognising the realities and experiences of as wide cross section of the population as possible and then reflecting that in our output. I feel that we succeeded in doing that in Scotland with films like “Thatcher & The Scots” but I’m still waiting to see the film “Thatcher & Black Britain”.