Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
First black principal of an Oxbridge college and co-founder of Operation Black Vote, known for conversation-based activism for race equality.
On the island
Eight records
This throws me back to being a very young kid. And as a young black kid on a council estate back in the 60s, we needed heroes. We had Muhammad Ali, he was the loudmouthed, brilliant boxer. We had Pele, the greatest footballer on the planet. And we had the Jackson 5, particularly Michael Jackson. He could dance, he could sing, he had the best afro, and we wanted to be like him. This track for me sums up a quintessential, iconic Jackson 5.
Well, my mum was born in the Rhonda Valley and of course the one of the world's heroes was Tom Jones. She would swear that she heard him sing on the valley tops or in in the local bars and stuff. And me and my brother would look at each other and say, Yeah … But this one was meant a particularly a special song for her and her roots.
I got into jazz very early on, particularly when I came to London. And I'd get these records that clearly were from another generation, but I felt an affinity to them, to the music, to the history, and the artistry. That's why I've chosen Manhattan by Ella Fitzgerald.
Now anyone that trains out there, whether they're on the bike or in the gym, need to listen to Titanium because you go faster, you go harder. But even more than that, the lyrics of this track, you knock me down but I get up, knock me down but I won't fall. I am titanium. I think that's my experience. I think it's the black experience in some ways. That resilience to keep getting back up.
Hagamos lo que diga el corazón
Well this is this actually symbolizes that moment in Cali, Colombia, where the ecosystem of daily life was life and death. The life was through the music and it's such joyous music that you cannot but dance.
Having got the job at Homerton, it's the first time in my life that I had a regular salary. So, I thought I'd treat myself to some very special speakers. I went out and bought these speakers. But the music that I was using was by this guy called Alexis French[sic]. Sometime later, he contacts me about my work at Homerton. He said, I'm a big fan. I said, You're a big fan of me. I'm a super fan of you. In fact, I bought my speakers based on your music. Fast-forward six months, he invites me to the Barbican. And then he he starts a a short uh monologue by saying, The last time I heard this track was at my friend's house. And Simon, if you are here, this is for you. Dreamland.
Yoko Kanno (credited as Naari in transcript)
This comes from a parent perspective. Part of our job is to give them values, to give them good manners. and resilience, and for them to like our music. … I'd introduce my son to Marvin Gaye, Ella Fitzgerald, some blues, you know, old school. And in fact, my son would say to me, Daddy, we've got old people's music again, old man's music, he would say. … And then he got into anime, the Japanese cartoons, and they would have this eclectic fantasy stories with equally eclectic music. … So, my next track, inspired by my son, Luca Santiago, is Cowboy Beep Tank by Nyari.
For Once in My LifeFavourite
This track symbolises who I am right now. My life is full of joy. I love my work. As you've heard, I love my son. I have wonderful friends. I have loving relationships right now. And this symbolises it. The essence of love in your life is everything. For Once in My Life by the great Stephen[sic] Wonder.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:53What do you mean by 'how you go' and why you feel it's so important?
Character and how you manage yourself in life, in your workplace, in your personal space for me is very important. And I think that once you have your values, they help you then make the decisions. Almost the decisions are made for you because that's your well that you turn to when things get tough. It's been my North Star.
Presenter asks
2:48How did you familiarize yourself with the workings of [Homerton College] when you first got the role?
I spent each day with the different moving parts of the college. First up, the cleaners. … got my overalls on and started scrubbing the floor and uh one of the cleaners said to me, I've been here for thirty years and none of the heads even know my name, much less have got on their hands and knees and scrubbed the floor with me and she started to cry. I mean for me it wasn't an extraordinary thing to do, it was just the right thing to do. … I chose to spend a day with the cooks. … And all the gardeners, I thought to myself, I need to know how this place works. And for me, you know, to be fist bumping students or playing table tennis in their common room and they're saying, you know, our principal's the coolest in Cambridge. I'm not sure about that, but I can give them a good run for their money at table tennis.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Eduardo Galeano
It talks about the beautiful game with a backdrop of politics.
The luxury
Well, my luxury item will be, if I can, take a razor blade. And whilst I'm shaving, I'm full of hope. I'm full of what am I going to do today? Whose life am I going to change? How can I make a difference? And so that simple ritual of thinking about hope and the promise of a new day that I want with me for the simple item of a razor blade.
What do you think about [interracial adoption] from a personal perspective?
When love conquers, love conquered. … But it wasn't without its challenges. I mean, that she didn't know how to do our hair. My brother had Afro-Hair, I had Afro-Air, and she didn't know. But one of her friends, Mary, Mary Conroy, had some black friends, and they said you need to go to Highfields. So me and my brother would go there on a Sunday, Sunday morning, and we'd go to this barber who became famous because he cut everybody's hair in Leicester. And we'd go there at 10 o'clock in his flat and sit on his bed and we'd have to wait till all the men got their hair cut, which was about five o'clock. … But it's there in the barbershop where I first was confronted with black politics. And I do remember these men saying that, you know, they're Jamaican or Bayesian and they say the white man owns our country. And even when we've got businesses, that it's on their terms. And I just listened to it and drink it in and I never knew how much it absorbed … until I was much older.
Presenter asks
13:49Tell me a little bit more about developing your own sense of identity because you're growing up with white parents in a predominantly white area. How did that play out at school?
There are big key moments. … that halt you. I mean one was we were in the playground and the skinheads come by and they say that send the wogs to Vietnam and they were chanting and then I'd go back to my mum and I'd say why do they want to send us to Vietnam? Why do they want to send me to Vietnam? … And she would hold me and she'd cry. And I you know, I realised afterwards Vietnam was a place that was at war. But me and my group on the estate, we were smarter than the average kids and we were we were good runners and good fighters and so we could hold our own.
Presenter asks
22:53During the Brexit referendum, Operation Black Vote was criticised for a Saatchi [& Saatchi] poster campaign … [with] an elderly Asian woman on one side of a seesaw and then an aggressive looking skinhead … How do you look back on that type of campaigning, that negative campaigning today?
Well, it was a toxic time and there was a strand of Brexit that was deeply xenophobic. And we tried to call it out and say, not all voters for Brexit are racist. But of course, once you lose the narrative, now you're the racist. … I had the pack dogs, the media outside my house, shock jock presenters screaming at me, now you're the racist.
Presenter asks
25:52You became a crossbench peer … so you're now part of the establishment, part of that hierarchy that you've continually challenged throughout your career. How do you feel about the conflict there, the tension?
There is a tension because the power … that has dominated and often not been fair. I'm now a part of. I'm a legislator. I sit in one of the oldest universities in the world that has spawned lots of people that have kept the system as it is and I'm part of both. But I just focus on the present about what is your role, what is your purpose. … To make it fairer, to make it more inclusive. … Sometimes I stand in that chamber and it is a gilded chamber. … It's just … Jaw dropping. And I try not to let it overwhelm me. You're here to speak truth to power. You're here to speak for those that can't be here. I have that great sense of duty when I speak.
“I choose to spend a day with the cooks. And all the gardeners, I thought to myself, I need to know how this place works. And for me, you know, to be fist bumping students or playing table tennis in their common room and they're saying, you know, our principal's the coolest in Cambridge. I'm not sure about that, but I can give them a good run for their money at table tennis.”
“But it's there in the barbershop where I first was confronted with black politics. And I do remember these men saying that, you know, they're Jamaican or Bayesian and they say the white man owns our country. And even when we've got businesses, that it's on their terms. And I just listened to it and drink it in and I never knew how much it absorbed until I was much older.”
“When she [Pippi] passed away. So the betrayal was even intense. So I never I wasn't reunited with my birth mother for another 20 years and I did feel like I'd betrayed my mum.”
“I got my company car keys out and threw him the keys and walked away from a well-paid job. And then I went to Epping College, it was near to me, and knocked on the door and said, can I take an O-level or an A-level, please? I want to be like them wearing those gowns. I want to read books.”
“I'd sit in our beautiful library, it's only for peers, and I'd be at my desk when I first started, and I'd get a tap on the shoulder by a fellow peer who'd say, Excuse me, can you help me with the photocopying? … Oh yes, yes. It happened three times. Yeah, and so the first time, you know what I did? I did it. Because rather than a confrontation. … The second time I showed my badge, we have a badge at the Lord's end, so the colour coding, the hierarchy, and so I showed my badge and the pier said, oh, oh, yes, yes, yes, thank you, sorry, sorry. And then the third time that it happened, I showed my badge, pushed it in his face and said, I'm one of you.”
“This track symbolises who I am right now. My life is full of joy. I love my work. As you've heard, I love my son. I have wonderful friends. I have loving relationships right now. And this symbolises it. The essence of love in your life is everything. For Once in My Life by the great Stephen Wonder.”