What does a Q&A between a White Englishman and BAME immigrant woman reveal about differences in lived experience and privilege, even between two people in a committed relationship? I am an Asian woman and immigrated to England at a very early age, so, for all intents and purposes, I think of myself as English and …
Whether on a conscious or subconscious level, it’s exhausting and draining for women to constantly be on high alert. “Isn’t it funny how we laugh it off to hide our fear, when there’s nothing funny here?” – Dua Lipa Recently, I returned to London briefly for a few days. Like many people, I moved out …
Discomfort with confronting whiteness, and a fear of being labelled as ‘racist’, is preventing White people from engaging in important conversations about race. The last year has seen the explosion of a global conversation about race, with an increased focus on the importance of being anti-racist. However, conversations about racism can often find themselves shut …
Calculating just exactly how privileged I am is a complicated struggle — but that doesn’t make it any less important. I can guarantee that we’ve all heard the phrase “check your privilege” — many of us, I’m sure, in the context of rather chaotic social media debates. The idea of “checking your privilege — examining …
Low vaccine uptake in BAME communities is a cause for concern, especially as they have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. Here, we explore the reasons behind the vaccine hesitancy. We have previously written about how minority ethnic groups have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, both by dying and suffering from COVID-19 …
Historically, the education system in the U.K. was designed for and only benefitted White students. Today, although there have been great leaps made since the beginning of the educational systems in the U.K., large disparities still exist between White students and students of colour. In recent years, universities have been tracking the “disparity in the …
Whilst the British public wake up to the realities of racism, the government are reluctant to pursue real change. Over a year has passed since George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on the 25th of May 2020, sparking a summer of protests and a global conversation about anti-Black racism. Floyd’s death became a …
For lasting change to happen, working in the charity sector must be accompanied by a constant process of learning and self-reflection. Like most middle-class job sectors, the ethnic makeup of the charity sector is majority White. People of colour are underrepresented at all levels of leadership, and campaigns like #CharitySoWhite have drawn attention to …
Why freedom of expression has never been an unlimited right to be offensive. The phrase “political correctness gone mad” has become synonymous with “I’m no longer allowed to say what I want”, and is commonly used with some sort of reference to freedom of expression being violated. Applied to a variety of personal characteristics — …
All too often, people from minoritised ethnic communities or who have non-English accents are told they’re not from this country instead of being left free to choose their own identity. There is a bizarre double standard of anyone who is not from a White British family being expected to ‘integrate’ into British society by adopting …
