Symbols are important. For some people, seeing Meghan Markle marry into the monarchy, while a Black preacher expounded the word and a Black Choir sang at the ceremony, was viewed as ushering in a new area of racialised harmony and black cultural acceptance at all levels of British society. If blackness is acceptable to the…
Seminal is a word frequently used to describe 'How Europe Under-developed Africa', Walter Rodney’s opus magnum that swiftly extended itself far beyond its academic crucible when published in 1972. Not since Frantz Fanon’s 'Wretched of the Earth' had a writer so widely transformed how Africa was seen and researched. Rodney’s gift was his ability to…
Suman Fernando is a gentle soft spoken consultant psychiatrist, lecturer and honorary professor at the London Metropolitan University. The 85 year old is not the sort of person at first sight to produce such a searing critique of racism in the UK and the US and the baleful role psychiatrists have had in treating…
Read our guest blog by David Hencke UPDATE: At a Press Gallery lunch in Parliament last week I raised the issue of the Supreme Court ruling and the potential case to be brought by three judges with David Lidington, the current Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary. He did not want to comment about the Supreme…
Read our blog by Hanna Stephens: ROTA Interviews Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Editor at Galdem.
Last week, the APPG on Social Integration led by Chukka Umunna MP, released its interim report, centred on 6 principles. Some of the recommendations are welcome, but it left us with more questions than answers. More clarity is needed on what the recommendations would look like in practice. Welcome news The inquiry suggested government create…
As a volunteer blogger for ROTA Hanna Stephens attended a Runnymede seminar shortly after the Casey Review was published. The seminar challenged many of the assumptions in the review. Here is Hanna's blog:" In December Dame Louise Casey released a report entitled, “The Casey Review: a review into opportunity and integration”. The report has been…
It has become a commonplace idea that the more ethnic diversity there is in a society the more conflict and ill-feeling there is. Difference and diversity are seen as negative and dangerous rather than as positive and engaging. Actually this assumption is highly questionable, but of course the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily…
A quick Google search defines mental illness broadly as, ‘a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking.’ When we live in a context where a “serious disorder” is often attached to acting and speaking out about racism rather than being racist, we must be critical about our own understandings of mental…
“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” – Audre Lorde In researching BAMER issues in the UK, it is important not to homogenise racial struggle and instead understand the diversity of identities that are present in different racial groups. For this, it is important that we view…
