Patrick Vernon

🎯 Core Message:

Migration is not a crisis—it’s a story of courage, contribution, and community. But across history and into the present day, displaced people have been met with exclusion, trauma, and systemic injustice. As the far right rises again and polarisation deepens, this generation must take up the baton of activism and solidarity to create a more just and inclusive society.

🧭 Key Themes and Messages:

1. History as Foundation

From the Empire Windrush in 1948 to Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” in 1968, our past is still shaping the present.

Jimmy Cliff’s song Many Rivers to Cross, inspired in part by his travels to the West Midlands, captured the hardship and hope of the Windrush generation.

My own family lineage—connected to St. James, Jamaica and even to Jimmy Cliff—reveals how stories of survival, slavery, and migration live on in us.

2. From Trauma to Resistance

Growing up in Wolverhampton under Powell’s shadow taught me that racism can be systemic—but resistance is generational.

The Windrush scandal is not just a bureaucratic failure; it represents “social death” and community-wide trauma, especially for elders stripped of their status.

3. Education and Activism Intertwined

My postgraduate LLM at Warwick on Law and Development helped me understand how colonial legal systems still shape inequality today—from the IMF to immigration courts.

This shaped my leadership journey, including my campaigns for Windrush Day, justice funds, and work through ARE and NHS equality programmes.

4. Justice Requires Systems Change

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep racial disparities, which I addressed through the Majonzi Fund.

Community leadership, mental health support, and reparative action are essential to healing and progress.

Migration myths are powerful—but we must counter them with facts, truth, and lived experience.

🕯️ Call to Action: Pick Up the Baton

You are not too young, too marginal, or too late to shape a better future. As students and future leaders, your voice and leadership are urgently needed.

✅ Stand for intersectional justice. This means not only fighting racism, but also standing in solidarity with:

LGBTQ+ people

Disabled people

Refugees and asylum seekers

Those with irregular immigration status

People across all ages, faiths, and backgrounds

✅ Build coalitions across movements. Racial justice, climate action, gender equity, refugee rights, and disability justice are all part of the same fabric of liberation.

✅ Learn from the past to build the future. Understanding colonialism, Windrush, and the Hostile Environment gives us the tools to be more informed, strategic, and compassionate leaders.

✅ Use your platforms. Whether through law, media, health, education or the arts—speak out, take action, and create space for marginalised voices.

✅ Reject fear, build hope. Don’t let misinformation or political scapegoating divide our communities. Be the counter-narrative. Be the truth-teller.

💥 The baton is now in your hands.

Run with it. Lead with it.

Pass it on—stronger, braver, and more united than it was given to you.