My friend, Anthony Williams, died too soon. What trauma are other Windrush survivors still going through? | Ramya Jaidev
I thought I understood the scandal – the systematic deprivation of the rights of mainly Black people and their descendants who helped to rebuild Britain in the postwar years – better than most.
But by far the most poisonous effect of reliving your trauma in the public domain again and again is having to face the aftermath, if, as in the case of the Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS), nothing really changes.The brief flicker of hope that sparks when someone – a journalist, activist, or film-maker – seems to confirm that what happened to you is not OK, is rapidly superseded by the realisation that you may as well be screaming into the void.Thousands of applicants who have been denied compensation or have received unacceptably low offers have been caught up in a long arduous, time-consuming “appeal” process, riddled with the same inefficiencies.In January 2023, those last vestiges of lip service were dispensed, with Suella Braverman’s decision to nix several important pledges for reform of the dysfunctional scheme.Truth and reconciliation projects, where official bodies take detailed evidence from victims in public hearings, are a cornerstone of reparative justice.