Diane Abbott’s reflections on the experiences of the Windrush generation are poignant, in that they testify to a sense of solidarity among immigrant populations that tends to receive too little consideration (The Windrush generations were proudly British. Yet immigrants are still fighting to be seen that way, 22 June).
The contribution of Caribbean nurses to the NHS is now, thankfully, acknowledged. My Jamaican mother was among that early cohort, but so too were a great many Irish nurses, whom she numbered among her close work colleagues and personal friends. Their shared acknowledgment of the petty prejudices of everyday racism that “othered” workers from the Caribbean and Ireland was mutually supportive both in and outside work, at a time when such things received no recognition more generally.
