Pressure (Horace Ove, 1976) : Windrush and the oppression
Pressure (Ove, 1976) was the first feature length film directed by a Trinidadian-born director, who exposed the harsh and evident truth of growing up and living in London during the 1970s. Through the eyes of Anthony Watson (Herbert Norville) we are transported to a London that I have not known. Growing up as a fourth generation West-Indian descent individual, I was born in the UK and in recent day face less discrimination and myth of progress than those born of the Windrush generation. The institutional failures of the government have seen the impact more so in recent news of Windrush deportation. A BBC article on the scandal of Windrush identifies the key issues and failure to be recognised as a British citizen by the government. Home Office secertary, Sajid Javid after reviewing 11,800 cases found that 18 were wrongfully deported. PM Theresa May expressed apologies and "reassurance" that this would be dealt with accordingly. But, what does Pressure (1976) tell us about the systematic oppression of the British Empire, of colonialism and how discrimination faced by the British-born chidren of the generation of migrants helps us understand our own history.
Anthony (Herbert Norville) is a young black man living in Labroke Grove in the late 1970s, after leaving school and gaining his O-levels he seeks employment but finds nothing but "we'll get back to you." It becomes clear to him early in the narrative that this is just another form of oppression restricting the merotocratic vision his mother has for him. Ove derived much of his work from his own personal experience as a Trinidadian (which is where Anthony's family came from).
The film opens with his mother, making eggs and bacon as she hums to "Amazing Grace", a song that holds a strong historical impact on Black people as it was a song sung by slaves during the transalantic slavery so this scene is vital in understanding how that level of oppression through religion still holds a strong impact. Anthony's father owns a local grocery store with the family home above the business. Keeping their heads down and working within the rules of "white man's land" as they protest is key to the survival of those who have come elsewhere. The racial tension within the UK after and during WWII was very apparent as many faced homelessness and poverty due to these ignorances and racial threats. "No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs." signs put up all over London and various areas of the UK where many mingrated to. So finding suitable accomodation and being able to hold long term employment was again vital for survival. We are then introduced to Anthony's father Lucas (Frank Singuineau) who is a hard-working and stern man. The store noticabley is filled with foods and beverages from "back home." Bringing that type of familiarity to create a stable mind whilst living in a toxic and troubling enviroment. London as we see it now in places like Brixton, Peckham with streets filled with caribbean food shops created a community. Those who wanted to assimilate and blend in did so by pressing their hair, taking on menial jobs such as bin collector or working in warehouses. Jobs such as working as an accountant or in a the real estate for example were seen as high-end jobs that were extremely hard to obtain and greater work had to be put in just to make it to the interview.
Colin (Oscar James) represents that resistance to oppression and the need to break away from the "master". The mention of the Black Power Movement that was taking a strong-hold over in the US, where racial oppression was being challenged through extreme pressure and knowledge of the law taking more intellectual and systematic tactics for shifts in racial tensions and bringing Black people to the forefront as leaders rather than properties of the state. The dinner table sequence is a powerful one as it clearly identifies the differences of generations and how one may assimilate without fight , where the other questions the need to. After seating himself to eat his eggs and bacon, Anthony is subjected to a harsh talk from Colin (Anthony's older brother). Colin watches in digust as his brother indulges in the British culture of eating "eggs and bacon" for breakfast whilst he begins peeling his "Zaboca" as he refers to it. Anthony begins questioning him on why he feels the need to be eating an "Avacado" to Colin's dismay he challenges this word as a "white man's word". Throughout the narrative even with interactions between his friends Anthony doesn't seem comfortable to indulge in his own culture referring in one scene to the pattie as "pate". He eats fish and chips and listens to "western music". Through no fault of his own he is assimilated into western culture but is constantly challenged by those at home. I myself share a strong affiliation with this scene as someone who is of West Indian decsent, but was born here in the UK, I too at one point or another found it hard to assimilate into the culture I was born into being told I was "behaving like the white man" or behaving "European" by my own father (who himself is a direct product of the Windrush generation.)
At one point , he may have been like Colin fighting so hard to break away from the western pressures to only fall deeper within them, battling with the mental implications of growing up in a strictly religious household. From what I know of my parents experiences, my father grew up in Balham in the collectives of sound systems and religious oppression of the methodist churches (which my grandparents are strongly and frequently attending). Whereas my mother, grew up in Germany briefly but was born and spent most of her life in Leicester (which has a high Antiguan and Barbudan population.) She left home when she was 17 and moved to London where she met my father and in 1997 here I came. It was a few years short of the Stephen Lawrene attack (who in 1993, in South East London was murdered in a racially charged attack.) This case holds a strong resignation within the Black community of London as his case wa not fully investigated and dealt with until much later. A report was released in 1999 by Sir William Macpherson who called the London Metropolitan Police as "Institutionally racist." It's this term that we see in the interview sequence between Anthony and Mr Crapson, who prior to Anthony's arrival in the office is sitting perversely reading an adult magazine. Anthony sits awkardly and nervously as he is expecting the worst. The general tone of this scene just amplifies the "instistutional racism" faced by young black men across the UK.
The harsh realities faced in the UK as a person of colour are direct and stern links to the British Empire and imperialism, colonialism. This is a fact that cannot and will not be denied. Post war Britain was in financial stress, moral was low and the rebuilding of communities opened doors for homelessness, disease and poverty. In areas within Liverpool or the East end docks of London, overcrowding and over-population became a growing problem. The welfare report of 1942 tried to create a "cradle to grave" mentality of looking after those from birth to death with support during umeployment, free healthcare etc. Many who came from elsewhere felt ashamed to take the help from government funding as most were forced to believe they didn't deserve it. This mentality is very apparent in a scene where Anthony heads to the local youth club and is approached by an old school mate who grills him for being "lucky" for not working to which Anthony begins pleading with him that he has been looking for work. This scene speaks to the white privelege of being able to gain employment straight after leaving school. Anthony had no longer had the protection of school to save him from the outside world he now must face that struggle.
He ends up going to the "Bird's Nest" with his white friends, prior to leaving bumps into Colin again who is on a constant mission throughout the narrative to wake the Black conscious within Anthony. This scene is strong as the juxtaposing shots of Anthony dancing with a white woman in a club and then to the meeting at the youth centre where a brother of the party is speaking on the oppressions of society from the eyes of the Black man. This scene is very important as it speaks on the unsafe world for Black men to be seen with a white woman and the mental and social implications of that. As he walks her home, he is greeted with an unwelcomed face and witnesses her lodger screaming at her for being seen with a Black man in the late hours of the night. The lodger refers to her as "easy" and "you're sort". This type of talk was not uncommon. The narrative to which this speaks to is very evident in films such as Birth Of A Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1914) where in the cliff sequence a white woman jumps from the cliff to save herself from being raped by a Black man (who is a white man who is in "blackface"). This ideology of eugenics and the academic and societal view of the Black man being a more inferior entity whereas the white man resembles purity and honesty. Reni Eddo-Lodge's book Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race (2017), speaks on the pure ignorance and denial of racial oppression by many white people and how the dialogue can become defeated very quickly with academics in Liverpool for example as Eddo-Lodge described in their book; white women who were known to affiliate themselves or even have relationships with black men, were seen as mentally unstable or promiscious and were often disowned by families. It's from here on in the narrative we see Anthony really start to have trouble within himself feeling lost and out of place and not knowing what to do. He decides to begin to listen to Colin and attends one of the meetings and he begins to finally look deep into his conscious of himself. This self realisation is something we all face as Black people. The true meaning of self-love and self-worth. Is my self-worth on the basis of my blackness or my ability to assimilate to the societal rules of "white man's land." The dualities and intersectionalities of self is what I identify with in this narrative. As someone who identifies as a fourth generation , Black Transgender male of West Indian descent I am usually excluded from these conversations as I was born in the UK and never set foot in Antigua and only been to Jamaica once when I was 13, I have a huge spice intolerance and found it hard to adapt to my culture because I was ashamed to be a part of it based on my exploration of my queerness. I didn't feel I was able to speak on much. Growing up with a sound system enthusiast as a father and a mother who was poetic in her blackness and womanhood I faced a challenge in finding my own in this world. 
There are Black queer stories within this struggle that become ignored or lost in the sauce as it were. Ivor Cummings was an unapologetically openly gay Black man who was born of a white English mother and a Sierra-Leonian father. He worked tiredlessly in the welfare departmenrt as a senior official of the colonial office. He was in charge of intergrating and helping the migrants to find appropriate housing, jobs and assimilate safely into this new space. Being that he was a homosexual male, the laws were still in favour of criminalising homosexuality which was punishable by chemical castration or imprisonment. His tireless work and dedication to the improvement of the black experience went unnoticed and was not recognised officially until 16 years after his loss to a battle of cancer. The black experience is something that has been throughout history reprogrammed and rewritten for the guilty conscious of those who oppress to seem less hateful and horrific but it cannot be like this no longer. No longer will the lives and stories of those be erased and washed away. The New Cross fire in 1981, when the racial tension between Black people and white skineheads reached it's heights killing 13 young people between the ages of 14-22. One surviror even killing themselves two years later. The trauma faced by us and those who have been oppressed by the system will be heard and dealt with. Anthony is the face of many young men and women at the time who felt that this complete and utter shame of being ignored and mistreated is felt through this narrative, we have one generation fighting to assimilate and another resisting assimilation and then you have the generation who are struggling with the intersectionalities of being Black and British. But let the case of Stephen Lawrence, the New Cross Fire and the institutional racism of police and the state be a lesson and testimony to the conitnuing fight we face.
As a Black and openly queer individual I face the fight of being seen as an individual to be seen as someone. I am also transgender and that alone is a struggle as the rate of hate crimes towards the LGBTQIA community are higher more than ever. For POC LGBTQIA we face the same strong minded igorance that Anthony faced all those years ago for his lack of identity and assimilation, we as QTIPOC fxlk have a fight to face and a need and urgency to use our platforms to be seen and heard because like Cummings we work tiredlessly in solidarity of one another and work towards a brighter future...
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