Britain’s Missing Asian Footballers
As the Premier League starts up and players continue to take a knee against systemic racism, Callum Ferguson looks at enduring lack of British footballers from Asian backgrounds at all levels of the national game.
14 dead, nothing said – The New Cross Massacre 40 years on
If black lives didn’t seem to matter in 2020, they mattered even less four decades earlier. Forty years ago this weekend (Sunday 18 January 1981), a joyous 16th birthday party in a South London home, turned into a tragedy after 13 black youngsters were killed when the house became a deadly inferno. Friends Yvonne Ruddock…
Governmental Gaslighting from the Equalities Minister
Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss set out the Johnson administration’s overhaul the Government’s equalities work this week, but it turned out to be nothing more than gaslighting on a governmental scale. Truss declared the fight for equality should be led by ‘facts, not fashion’ and claimed notions of structural racism, protected characteristics and…
Does Black History Month still have a purpose?
Though first observed in the United States in the 1970s, Black History Month was first celebrated in the UK in October 1987. Taking place mainly in educational and local council institutions, the idea behind it was to give some exposure to Black historical figures who’s achievements had been previously overlooked by the existing school curriculum,…
Covid-19: is there an opportunity for a new approach to informal exclusions?
The Department for Education has produced a guidance document for schools when they re-open in September after the Covid-19 closures. ROTA has some thoughts. The period of lockdown has proved particularly challenging for some pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged communities. Refugees, asylum seekers, children from some BAME communities and from Gipsy, Roma and Traveller families have had difficulty accessing…
New evidence on informal exclusions
Since 2012 ROTA has been gathering evidence on informal school exclusions – and its various guises such ‘off rolling’ and ‘home schooling’ – to the detriment of pupils and their families who have experienced this. We also have evidence that young BAME pupils may be disproportionately affected. It comes as no surprise to ROTA that…
ROTA Interviews Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Editor at Galdem
Read our blog by Hanna Stephens: ROTA Interviews Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Editor at Galdem.
Social integration report: more questions than answers
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…
Researchers reveal that diversity is good for your health
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…
Mad World
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…
