IS IT TIME TO REDEFINE THE TERM "BLACK PEOPLE TIME?"

By Coral Consciouslee

8th October 2015

On June 22^nd 1948, The Empire Windrush carrying 492 Jamaican immigrants finally docked down at Tilbury Docks.  Those on board had been told to come to “The Mother Land” for a better life. I remember my own mother telling me that she was told the streets were “paved with gold”.

As promised, our parents and grandparents did find jobs, although these jobs were far below their qualifications back in their homeland.  The accommodation offered was often cramped and small.  In addition to finding homes and jobs (not necessarily in that order), one of the extra-curricular activities of our forefathers was, of course, parties.  Having to adjust to a new lifestyle, the one thing that was not open to negotiation were the parties.

With the influx of people from the Caribbean during the 1940s and 50s, this meant there was an abundance of Ska, Jazz and Mento, - evolving primarily into Calypso and Reggae in the 60s - to listen and dance to. Often feeling excluded and alienated from the “British” way of life, parties were quickly established, taking place mainly in people’s houses.  How can we forget the dark chocolate shiny hue of the wooden gramophones on which records would be played into the early hours of the morning?  There is an article that relates how UK MC Tippa Irie recalls his parents renting out the basement of their family home as a venue for parties and band rehearsals. These “blues parties” were a focal point for the transmission of Jamaican working class culture, with food, dominoes and simply gathering together to gossip and reminisce. Or dance…  Anyone attending the blues parties, or dancehalls would expect to get home by daylight.

I should add that it wasn't just parties that were in abundance, but shows featuring very talented musicians and artists.  These shows continue until this very day.   

Which leads me to my original question: Is it now time for us - the children and grandchildren  of our parents - to continue to evolve and perhaps start to change how we do things, in particular our timekeeping? 

Our timekeeping can have a major impact on the opportunities and quality of events that exist for us. I have spoken to DJs, musicians and artists who have turned up for events, only to be told they cannot perform because the promoter waiting for patrons to attend, couldn't start the show until everyone arrived.  It is a double-edged sword; some would say that the show should start on time regardless. The whole point of parties and shows are for the us, the audience.
If we are content to spend our hard-earned money on a ticket and arrive at an event 12.30am onwards when most events now finish at 4am in the morning, what would we do if we had our own building? The promoters I have spoken to have an air of resignation, usually saying “That’s how black people are, we won’t change”.  Why can’t we change? What stops us from aiming to come to an event, say for 10pm? Not to mention how we are perceived when we approach the owners of certain venues.  Our timekeeping or lack thereof, represents a lack of discipline that one could argue, permeates our present day lifestyle and dare I say, sometimes prevents us from being taken seriously.  Curiously, this state seems prevalent amongst those of us on the reggae scene.

Pause and consider if you will, the owners of these venues.  They know more often than not, that if we as black people are hosting an event at their venue, they can expect not to see anyone from when the doors opens until at the earliest 11pm.  This means loss of revenue and generates a reluctance on their part to do business with us.  However we will complain that it's because we are black!  It IS because we are black, but not necessarily the way we portray it.

The sad thing is, no matter what time we attend events or what time we get home, we will make sure that we are at work on time the next day!  We show more respect to our employees, than we show to each other!

These are no longer the windrush years.  Indeed if our parents are now facing the twilight years of their lives, we are definitely looking at middle age.  We are now the “big people”.  We are no longer in our early 20s or even 30s. Do we need to perpetuate what our forefathers did? If we can do better, shouldn’t we practice better?

My dream is to attend an event which is well organised, starts on time and finishes at a decent hour.  Whilst there are events where I have experienced this, it is the exception rather than the rule, something that is within our power to change. As well as being able to set our watches by GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), wouldn’t be nice to be able to do this also by BPT (Black People Time)?  Think about it.....