What does counterculture mean to me? Counterculture brief

What does counterculture mean to me?

I had never heard the word Counterculture before this brief, so I asked some friends and family if they knew what it was, and they all said no. After some research I now understand what counterculture means.

As a black woman, I sometimes feel pressured to do something about race. However, it is not a subject I wish to delve into. I tend to stay clear of politics but now doing the research I understand how connected they are. I see counterculture as a resistance. Creating a mind map helped me to look at all the subjects under the counterculture umbrella.

The first idea was to create something to do with a sensitive subject which is my uncle who was with my nan for forty years and came to this country in his early twenties. He has worked and paid his taxes and is now retired. When my nan passed away back in 2012 they tried to send him back to Liberia his birthplace which he had not been back to in over 40 years. This was a troubling time for my mum and me as he is my family. Fortunately, he wasn’t sent back as my mum was able to pay his stay costing 10s of thousands of pounds. There are many families torn apart because of this as they are unable to pay the money to keep their families together.

The popular culture, fed by the media is that all immigrants are coming to scrounge from the country and my uncle worked all his life here paying taxes and contributing to the community. I felt his story was counterculture as it goes against the popular culture presented at this time.

My second idea is due to a recent news story I read about the working class and individuals who, even though they are multi-millionaires still class themselves as working class. For example, Alan Sugar, he uses that status to honour his humble origins, even though his children because of their education are considered upper class.

Reading about Alan Sugar led me to another example of class relating to ownership of land and how there are restrictions in place to enable higher classes of society to purchase land at their disposal without any restrictions. For example, land within Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster and Mayfair cannot be bought by someone like me, even if I had the capital to do so.

My partner and his best friend after years of trying to get planning permission to build a block of flats on a piece of land has finally been accepted. They went through a lot of loopholes, jumping through hoops and knocking on a lot of doors to get approval. They worked extremely hard to achieve the final outcome. This journey may have been a lot simpler for someone of the upper class. They fought for what they wanted and didn’t believe that the colour of their skin and their class should hold them back from building on land.