- So, I mean, when I was younger,
when I was 14 I think,
no black teachers in the whole school,
not one black teacher.
These teachers felt so awkward that they couldn't
communicate with the kids when they're grown up
and they had absolutely
no relationship with the kids
because they couldn't... culturally,
they just couldn't relate to them.
You know,
they had absolutely no experience of racism.
- When I was competing, you know,
there wasn't, there wasn't social media
and I'm sure people,
there were many people who didn't like
the way that I ran or, you know,
they liked somebody else better, but also,
you know, wouldn't like my politics
or like something that I posted
- Of course
- or something that I retweeted,
which happens now
when I retweet something or post something
in support of, you know,
an issue Black Lives Matter as an example, you know,
people will target me,
but that's something that athletes now, you know,
as an active athlete,
I didn't have to deal with that
because there was no social media,
but that's certainly something that you
and all active athletes now, when you, you know,
voice your opinion on things that affect you
or affect your community or affect society,
you know, you,
you are targeted, you know, I just,
what do you do about that?
How do you handle that?
How does an athlete handle that?
- You know,
this is a question that was sort of
a few of us in England environments
sit down and speak about.
I don't think it's
sort of on the curriculum in schools,
which is probably a problem to start with at a young age.
Obviously, you, you take in most of your information.
You're like a sponge.
And I think, like I said,
because it's difficult to have these conversations and
definitely in my experience, I mean, when I was younger,
when I was 14 I think,
my school changed from a college into a,
so college means something very different over here.
It was a city technology college
It was the only one in Bristol at the time,
brilliant school, sort of everyone was under this,
between the ages of 11 and 16,
no black teachers in the whole school,
not one black teacher.
When I was 13, it changed into an academy
And sports started become more prolific in the school,
we joined with three other schools,
which were all very black, heavy schools.
So a lot students were black in our schools.
And then some of the students came to our schools.
So now there's not just
five black people in the school,
there's there's lots.
And then these teachers felt so awkward
that they couldn't communicate with the kids
when they were growing up.
And they had absolutely no
relationship with the kids because they could
culturally, they just couldn't relate to them. You know,
they had absolutely no experience of racism.
So if I went to a teacher and said,
miss he's just called me a (beep)
She, she'd freeze, you know,
she'd be like what the (beep)
how do I respond to that?
How can I talk to Ellis about that because,
and I understand,
I understand the constraints that she has.
She doesn't want to say the word,
she doesn't want to ask me how I feel.
And I understand that.
So I'd never get angry at the teachers,
but then my teacher, my school brought
a black teacher, well,
a black support worker in called Lloyd. Lloyd Russell.
who does great community work in Bristol with the homeless
and in kids, in the black community,
a place called St. Paul's
and that changed the school around.
we, we stopped misbehaving, we stopped doing this.
We went to Lloyd when we had problems.
Something so small at such a young age,
literally changed the way we seen school. You know?
So I think little things like that probably helped
quite a lot.
- You mentioned that you're from Bristol,
which had,
had been home
to the statue of the slave trader
Edwin Colston and... Edward Colston.
What happened when your city
decided to... when people in your city
decided to pull that statue down?
- It was turmoil, man,
Bristol is sort over known for sort of flaring up
and rioting and taking a stand.
The city is, it's a tight,
it's a very tight knit city.
We've got a very big Afro-Caribbean culture
from the Windrush and things like that.
So obviously you can imagine
they were quite infuriated when
they actually found out
what the statue represented,
which in my eyes
at a time was ridiculous. You know,
that there was a slave trader
big statue of a slave trader
in the middle of a city that's so diverse
and obviously home of thousands of people from the Windrush.
And that was my point of view.
And then obviously you've got people,
even my old man, my dad's...
- Explain the Windrush real quick.
Cause I don't think everybody knows
what exactly that is, which is...
- Well, it goes back a long, long, long time.
And we actually didn't get taught
about history in school and I missed history,
but the
Windrush is obviously when the Jamaicans came over
on the, well,
a lot of them came to Bristol, a lot of them got
hired from Bristol
And basically, that's it, they got hires from Bristol
well from what I know in the city,
that's what the Windrush was for Bristol.
A lot of Jamaicans. And that's why we've got a big,
big Jamaican culture.
And obviously my granddad's side was a part of that.
So it's something I'm proud to represent.
But like I said, for a city, that's got so much sort of,
what's the words,
links to the Windrush and stuff.
It's crazy that it doesn't get,
it's not in our education system growing up in Bristol at
our schools.
Like I didn't find out about it until
the Edward Colston statue got ripped down.
That was when I was told about it.
So I think it was in the 1960s,
maybe the seventies,
again, like I some on my behalf, like,
I don't know anything about it
because I didn't get taught when I was younger.
But obviously all these people were infuriated.
And then there was a big statue of a slave trader middle of
the, in the city.
But then what people were saying at the same time is that
the city wouldn't have been able to survive
without Edward Colston
because he brought in tobacco,
he brought in sugar
and he brought in all the food and like
basically the slave ships when he came over
and brought all the food over
and then people were saying, yeah,
but the city was built on slavery
and there's there's roads.
And to this day in Bristol called Black Boy Hill
a shop called Black Boy Cycles
and ironically it's all on Whiteladies Road.
- (chuckles)
- So yeah, crazy, right?
And then there's the only private school
in the center of Bristol
It's called Colston's, which is named after Edward Colston,
which obviously you have to pay to go to
just stuff like that.
So I guess when that statue got ripped down
everyone sort of felt,
what's the word, everyone's sort of felt
like,
like it all went, I don't know,
like that the city was representing something bad
and it's all gone.
But obviously that history stays with the city forever.
So maybe, perhaps, people were suggesting
let's put it in a museum and
educate people about it,
as opposed to having it stand in the middle.
But like, there were people
who just didn't agree with it,
didn't agree with taking the statue down.
My dad being one of them
and my mom wanted the statute gone.
So there's some funny conversations
going on in our household.
- So your dad,
can you understand or do you,
did he ever explain why he didn't want it removed?
- Yeah, because like I said, he, he said,
look this guy built our city,
we should be, not that he didn't say proud,
but he was like, this guy made Bristol, what it is today
And all my family are from Bristol,
every single one of them.
So he's obviously very proud of... a proud Bristolian
But again,
failed to see the other side of the coin.
And my mum probably in the same breath
failed to see his point of view.
So yeah, it caused a lot of ruckus.
(chuckles)
- Hmm.