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What we're about

Meetup group for the Scottish BAME community for like minded professionals to network and share career growth, education, skills and job hunting advice for students, graduates and early career youth as well as people looking to continue climbing the ladder

Standard set up will be for professionals to host a talk about their career and progression in different industry sectors. Format can be lightening talk, workshops or structured discussion.

Always looking for speakers so if you'd like to do short talk them please get in touch. Especially looking to speak to people from the below list of industries/roles to share their experience. Nothing fancy, just a chat in a safe environment.

Sales, marketing, advertising, medicine, design, engineering, banking, business, event management, business owner, estate agents, hospitality, science, oil and gas, pharmacist, teacher, sports, architect, stick broker, tourism, media, journalist, logistics.

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Scottish BAME Career Progression (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

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Meetup group for the Scottish BAME community for like minded professionals to network and share career growth, education, skills and job hunting advice for students, graduates and early career youth as well as people looking to continue climbing the ladder Standard set up will be for professionals to host a talk about their career and progression in different industry sectors.

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University of Glasgow | Glasgow's Melanin Medics

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Glasgow's Melanin Medics is a society run by Medical, Dentistry, and Nursing students at the University of Glasgow. Our mission is to improve racial equality, welfare, and education to make our schools a better place for students of colour to thrive.

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Black History Month on Prime Music - Amazon Prime Insider

In honor of Black History Month, our music editors curated a selection of playlists and albums from legends like Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross, all free to stream with your Prime membership.

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Black History Month on Prime Music - Amazon Prime Insider In honor of Black History Month, our music editors curated a selection of playlists and albums from legends like Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross, all free to stream with your Prime membership.

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f a film about the American abolitionist Harriet Tubman is long overdue, Kasi Lemmons's remarkable biopic makes the wait worthwhile. In 1849, Araminta "Minty" Ross (Cynthia Erivo) flees the Maryland farm where she spent her life enslaved. Thrillingly, her escape is the film's first act - she journeys 100 miles on foot to the free state of Philadelphia and the Anti-Slavery Society, where she befriends black activists William Still (Leslie Odom Jr) and Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe) and takes the name Harriet Tubman. The remainder of the film sees her taking several perilous trips back to the south to free her family from slave catchers, both black and white.

Lemmons, who directed 1997's underseen (and underrated) Eve's Bayou, infuses Tubman's story with an imaginative southern gothic flair. Wide vistas celebrate the south's pastoral landscapes; golden sunsets, a blanket of stars and the river that flows north to Philadelphia are depicted as holy guidance. "The hole in my head just makes God's voice more clear," Tubman says of a head trauma suffered as a child. "Possible brain damage" writes Still, but Lemmons reimagines her religious devotion as its own gift and propulsive force, even utilising singer Erivo's soulful rumble to communicate its power. Tubman sings slave songs to communicate with plantation workers, invoking the gospel tradition of call and response.

Though the film is about the atrocity of slavery, Lemmons and co-writer Gregory Allen Howard ( Remember the Titans) focus on liberation and solidarity, rather than amplifying pain, trauma and humiliation. So often, historical films are stale and mired in misery, but Harriet has a rare buoyancy.

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Harriet review - thrilling drama about the abolitionist Harriet Tubman

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f a film about the American abolitionist Harriet Tubman is long overdue, Kasi Lemmons's remarkable biopic makes the wait worthwhile. In 1849, Araminta "Minty" Ross (Cynthia Erivo) flees the Maryland farm where she spent her life enslaved.

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BAFTA-winning documentary series that follows a British school as it helps its students uncover and eradicate hidden racial biases, exploring how this can affect us all and what we can do to tackle it

No episode available to watch on demand

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BAFTA-winning documentary series that follows a British school as it helps its students uncover and eradicate hidden racial biases, exploring how this can affect us all and what we can do to tackle it No episode available to watch on demand

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Lara Ratnaraja and Helga Henry on diversity in the cultural sector

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Lara Ratnaraja and Helga Henry on diversity in the cultural sector

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"Cultural identities come from somewhere. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation. Far from being eternally fixed in some essentialised past, they are subject to the continuous play of history, culture and power."*
The narrative on diversity in the cultural sector is a well heard one: under-representation, social mobility, exclusion, ethnicity, gender, disability, class, sexuality; all have come under the microscope recently in the laudable aim of a far more diverse arts workforce that represents and engages with a far more diverse audience that is representative of the world we live in. The subsidised arts sector is more aware than ever of the relationship between the public money it receives and the relatively narrow segment of the public who traditionally partake of their activities.

This means the cultural sector is led by cultural leaders who do not on the whole represent the audiences who wish to engage with culture. A lack of visible diverse leadership has a direct correlation with a lack of cultural participation by diverse communities. As the 2013 Consilium Report for Arts Council England states "It is also vital that the arts and cultural workforce becomes more representative of the society it serves. In particular, we need to do more to ensure that entry routes into employment, and opportunities for people to further their careers, are fairer and more accessible to all. This is as true for the leadership and governance of the sector as it is for those entering the workforce".

Recently, through our work on programmes such as RE:Present and ASTONish - both schemes aimed at transforming the diversity of cultural leadership in Birmingham (and Aston and Newtown respectively), we (Lara Ratnaraja and Birmingham Hippodrome) have been committed to developing and nurturing diverse cultural leaders. We have noticed while delivering these programmes that the barriers we and they face is a slow-moving sector that has yet to embrace diversity as a creative opportunity and move beyond the permissions culture that is endemic in the arts.

The use of language in culture continues to exclude and "tag": 'diverse', 'marginalised', 'disadvantaged' 'hard to reach' are words used to seek inclusion but also by default achieve exclusion. The language we have heard around programmes such as RE:Present and ASTONish has othered participants; the words "them" and "they" are used liberally, as is the implication that artists of colour are in some way "less," (less relevant, lower quality or amateur) only relevant for community engagement contexts whereby the quality of creative work is in some way of less of value than it would be in main stream programming.

But with workforce data showing little change, it is evident that whilst policies such as Arts Council's Creative Case, Race Equality Action plans and initiatives such as Changemakers and Evolve are making incremental changes, within the sector itself there is little change or perceived inclination to self-examine why the arts sector is so unrepresentative.

From data submitted by National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) and Major Partner Museums (MPM) in 2015/16, 17% of the NPO workforce is Black and minority ethnic and 7% of MPMs (against the working age population average of 15 %). However, at senior levels just 8% of Chief Executives, 10% of Artistic Directors and 9% of Chairs of Boards are BME (Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case 2015-2016, Arts Council England, 2016) Birmingham, is under-served in terms of support for next stage leadership development in an area where 42% of the population self-identifies as non-white. The leadership of cultural organisations doesn't reflect its audiences and this is reflected across the West Midlands.

As a result of this, in 2016, supported by Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England we ran RE:Present, a pilot initiative which was aimed at cultural leaders/producers and artist/leaders from diverse backgrounds who are currently under-represented in Birmingham and the wider Midlands region. This led to a network of over 40 artists, curators and producers who continue to reach new achievements, create new collaborations but also crucially are transforming the way cultural leadership is evolving in the city. From this we developed ASTONish. ASTONish is a programme of cultural leadership and creative entrepreneur training and development aimed at emergent and established artists, musicians and creative entrepreneurs in Aston and Newtown who have the ambition and potential to transform both themselves and the sector.

The regional art frameworks that seek to promote diversity are interventionist and generate from a cultural model of production that emanates from the centre. The arts in general uses distribution models that are based on an invitation "in"; a permission to view culture on their terms as regards location, timing and context. These frameworks don't allow for a reframing of cultural identities and willfully ignore the "continuous play of history, culture and power." In doing so they continue to disseminate a cultural picture that can be irrelevant or even hostile to diverse audiences.

The othering of artists of colour means their practice is labelled as marginalised. It is either ignored, or presented as coming from outside the frameworks of culture that stem from white, hetero-normative patriarchal constructs. It is exoticised, or used instrumentally to engage with audiences of colour, (Bhangra and samosa nights for Asian people and spoken word, Windrush reminiscences and Hip Hop for African-Caribbean people). The medium might change but the song remains the same.

Inclusion narratives on diversity allow artists of colour in, giving them permission to participate. As well as doing artists of colour a disservice, this only perpetuates a huge cultural divide which alienates and divorces the arts from the socio-political transformations that are affecting society at large. Equally it muffles instead of amplifing a plurality of artistic voices to wider audiences.

But ignoring these voices isn't silencing them. Artists of colour are creating new dialogues and communities and modes of practice. They are reframing their cultural identities on their terms and refusing to adhere to the colonial identities ascribed to them.

The time is now to co-create a new narrative on diversity and cultural creation and engagement. This narrative destroys the traditional permission and invitation-based inclusion model and provides a new cultural and creative dialogue which is based on collaboration, equality of discourse and equity of diverse cultural value to allow for a fluidity and intersectional cultural ecology.
"...identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past."*
Let's change the song: instead of singing it "at" people, "reaching out" and "doing" singing to people, let's listen for the songs we all carry with us, and figure out a way to make that music anew.

*HALL, STUART. (1990). Cultural Identity and Diaspora. Identity: Community, culture, difference. 2.
Lara Ratnaraja Cultural Consultant @lararatnaraja Helga Henry, Director of Organisational Development Birmingham Hippodrome @helgahenry Co-Producers ASTONish https://www.astonishleadership.com/

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Lara Ratnaraja and Helga Henry on diversity in the cultural sector

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"Cultural identities come from somewhere. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation.

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CBeebies | Let's talk about Black History

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Alain Sylvain: Understanding Power Languages

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Alain Sylvain: Understanding Power Languages

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As part of the Adobe 99U Conference. https://vimeo.com/427540304

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Why after so many years does racism still exist in Scotland? Was the slave trade not abolished because it was believed to be abusive and wrong on the basis that it wasn't right to consider people less just because of their colour?

The slave trade was based on the ideology that black people were subhuman. To be used and not to be valued as fellow human beings. Not as the same race but as less than white people.

This inhumane treatment of black people was subsequently followed with the 'saviour mentality' where instead of acknowledging the wrongs, white people saw themselves as performing heroic acts of saving black people from the racism they perpetuated.

Although the slave trade is no more, both attitudes towards black people continue to present themselves in the lack of value placed on black people and any contribution they make in Scotland.

READ MORE: Slavery isn't just Scotland's past... it is also our present

There remains a lack of appreciation of the skills, qualifications and talent of black communities and individuals. Black individuals still have to work 10 times harder to get anywhere. They will not be heard, appreciated or accepted fully even when they have proved themselves over and over. The expectation to deliver does not match the reward. Many who are qualified still remain unemployed or underemployed.

Children in school are neither heard nor valued, universities are rigged with racism leading to black students being undermarked and forced to fight to be fairly rewarded for their hard work.

This trend carries on into workplaces where black people have their work undermined by colleagues over and over, often working for years without promotion. For change to come, systematic racism must be acknowledged and changed.

However, Scotland will dismiss this by suggesting it is a very friendly nation, an image which is projected through strategies and policies which remain nothing but that. Communicating that migrants and refugees are welcome, yet the barriers to employment and opportunity remain.

Such policies and strategic papers send out a message that 'everything is alright' which is very damaging to those who are affected by racism when not acted upon. They lead to a false sense of hope, unhealthy tiring experiences of black people constantly trying to prove themselves.

Racism is not addressed because it is met with 'but we are friendly', maybe you need to communicate better, BAME communities are 'hard to reach', all of which serve to keep you trying. Trying to be part of the community, trying to be heard, trying to be understood, trying to join in, trying to get better, yet in truth you will never be valued.

The systems are designed to keep black people out, to keep them trying, in a system that has mastered the art of problematising those they consider less valuable. It is the norm for organisations and decision makers to claim they don't know how to address racism. To claim they want to recruit black people but don't know how to.

Sometimes companies will offer placement opportunities which remain just that, never materialising into meaningful employment for black people, offering a 'saviour mentality' to help the poor black people achieve because they are struggling. Saying they embrace diversity but in reality, they are numb to racism. They are numb because it doesn't affect them. Because the people racism affects don't matter.

READ MORE: If we Scots really knew our history, we would be even angrier

For things to change, systems need to be challenged and changed. However, the word 'system' needs to be used loosely. While it is true that systematic racism exists, we must not underestimate those who built and continue to develop these systems. If there is a desire to address racism, the solution lies with the people who work in these systems. Those who run, maintain and design the systems.

The responsibility to address racism lies not with a system which has no face but with people who hide behind the systems. The leaders, decision makers and those who benefit from systematic racism. Those who ignore the child in high school when they are experiencing racism, those who undermine the work of that young adult at university trying to get a good head start in life, those who ignore and uphold racism in the workplace to refuse entry of black people and protect their white colleagues. Those who remain silent.

People really are the system. A system of people who insist on fixing people who face racism instead of fixing their systems. A system created and maintained by the people it serves to keep 'others' out.

If Scotland was in fact against slave trade is it also against systematic racism? We can bury history, but we can't bury the consequences that come with it. As a friend put it, 'you can't go around in your youthful years being promiscuous, but you can't say in your senior years that those are not my children.

If Scotland is to truly continue and grow as a global player, systems need to change, people need to reflect and work towards change in this moment. As the African proverb says, rising early makes the road short.

Pheona Matovu and husband Micheal are co-founders of social enterprise Radiant and Brighter that aims to promote diversity in schools and the workplace and create better opportunities for BME communities.

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Pheona Matovu: To abolish racism in Scotland we need to address the structures that perpetuate it

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Why after so many years does racism still exist in Scotland? Was the slave trade not abolished because it was believed to be abusive and wrong on the basis that it wasn't right to consider people less just because of their colour? The slave trade was based on the ideology that black people were subhuman.

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VIDEO: Lenna Cumberbatch BA MBA FRSA is a Diversity & Inclusion Strategist. Early evidence of Lenna’s interest in equality saw her nine-year-old self running onto the boys football pitch to score a goal in protest that girls weren’t allowed to play football (evidenced by the lack of a girls football pitch). Her ongoing passion for equality, diversity & inclusion has led her into roles across the diversity spectrum in the USA and UK, across corporate, education and public sector environments. Her exploits have included the creation of King of the Castle, a drag king competition and invitations to speak including at the Women of the World (WOW) Festival at the London Southbank Centre and at the European Commission in Brussels. She is enrolled in a PhD, is a Patron of Switchboard and a volunteer for Diversity Role Model

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Lenna Cumberbatch BA MBA FRSA is a Diversity & Inclusion Strategist. Early evidence of Lenna's interest in equality saw her nine-year-old self running onto the boys football pitch to score a goal in protest that girls weren't allowed to play football (evidenced by the lack of a girls football pitch). Her ongoing passion for equality, diversity & inclusion has led her into roles across the diversity spectrum in the USA and UK, across corporate, education and public sector environments. Her exploits have included the creation of King of the Castle, a drag king competition and invitations to speak including at the Women of the World (WOW) Festival at the London Southbank Centre and at the European Commission in Brussels. She is enrolled in a PhD, is a Patron of Switchboard and a volunteer for Diversity Role Models

Related content

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Lenna Cumberbatch BA MBA FRSA is a Diversity & Inclusion Strategist. Early evidence of Lenna's interest in equality saw her nine-year-old self running onto the boys football pitch to score a goal in protest that girls weren't allowed to play football (evidenced by the lack of a girls football pitch).

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Radiant and Brighter Community was founded in 2012 and became a registered Community Interest Company in 2014. We aim to promote diversity through education, inspiration and changing perceptions, applying the insights gained by our founders on their own journey to deliver greater societal integration and economic participation.

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Marketing Director

Micheal Matovu

Unable to work for five years due to immigrations controls Pheona and Micheal had to depend on family, friends and the local community for basic daily support. They discovered at that time that there were very few organisations dedicated to offering practical help to immigrants arriving in Scotland that would make a lasting difference and help integrate them into the local community. They found that many people lose hope when circumstances are hard but knew that by reaching out they could help others rediscover their skills and talents and improve their situation.

We experienced many challenges when we re-located from Uganda to the UK. Unable to work for several years due to immigration controls, we were dependent on help from churches, family and friends for our daily needs. Through finding ourselves in this situation we discovered that many immigrants face similar and sometimes worse difficulties. We also realised that there were very few organisations dedicated to offering the kind of practical help that would make a lasting difference.

Our Experience

Many people lose hope when circumstances are hard but we knew that by reaching out we could help others rediscover their skills and talents and improve their situation. We set up a very successful initiative in Glasgow in 2008 which gave immigrants access to the resources and opportunities they needed. Day-to-day we provided practical support and assistance from personal coaching to advice on financial & legal matters, writing CV's and applying for jobs.

Why Radiant & Brighter?

Based on our experience and encouraged by our friends, we made a decision to do something. That something is what became Radiant and Brighter, acquiring it's Community Interest Company status in 2014. At Radiant and Brighter, we envision a community that is caring, a community that works together to bring about positive change. We believe everyone is uniquely gifted and has the ability to change their lived reality. Together, we can all make our communities Radiant and Brighter.

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Radiant and Brighter - Be the best you can!

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Marketing Director Unable to work for five years due to immigrations controls Pheona and Micheal had to depend on family, friends and the local community for basic daily support. They discovered at that time that there were very few organisations dedicated to offering practical help to immigrants arriving in Scotland that would make a lasting difference and help integrate them into the local community.

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Racism is not a case of white vs black. Seeing it as such guarantees its perpetuity. Racism is an offence against nature.

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Racism is not a case of white vs black. Seeing it as such guarantees it's perpetuity. Racism is an offence against nature.
The charge of Third Degree Murder requires proof that Chauvin committed a felony and, in so doing, was indifferent to the foreseeable risk of death of George Floyd. If I was his attorney I would have told him to plead guilty to that in the hope of some leniency at sentencing. The evidence, short of some bizarre left of field accident damns the officer completely & I am pretty sure it is conclusive against his co-accused who stood by throughout.

There is a different theory in which Chauvin heard him say "I can't breathe"and should have known from that that death was imminent unless he got off his neck. As a police officer trained in the use of restraint it can hardly be doubted that he knew what he was doing and the outcome. And therefore that he intended that outcome unless he can argue some compelling reason why he was forced to stay kneeling with his hands in his pockets on a handcuffed man who may or may not have committed a non-violent offence. This is how 2nd Degree murder will play out. I don't really want to hear it. George Zimmerman escaped a conviction for murdering Trayvon Martin by arguing some outrageous compulsion. The officers who lynched Rodney King escaped justice too. Jean Charles De Menezes killers were released from incredible culpable incompetence. It is possible that the officers in the Floyd case are being overcharged in order to extract a plea to a lower charge. I take a little comfort in the hefty bail demanded. If that tactic doesn't work, the prosecutors will find themselves the targets of rage.

Tragic that this sits in parallel with the debate it has ignited, mostly online. Question: Is Racism simply an attitude of indifference to endemic structural disadvantage for blacks (on every metric, worldwide, poorer opportunities and poorer outcomes) or does it require specific knowledge, specific intent to do harm, malice and an evil mind? Do we put racism into degrees, for arguments sake, or construct intersectional models to classify and identify and differentiate.

What made Chauvin, or any officer for that matter culpable is that they sit in a role in which indifference is in itself unlawful. They have to care. They have to serve, they have to protect. The same goes for doctors, teachers, lawyers, judges. Elected politicians. We sign up for it. This isn't really about that. This is about every person looking at the news, social media, their friends, their family.

One arm says that anyone in a position of privilege should be aware of it and act in an anti-racist manner consistent with it. It is controversial, when so many 'white' people are also systematically and institutionally disenfranchised. Another arm says you gain understanding through shared circumstances. A wonder therefore that so much hatred of blacks is found amongst the poorest whites in America and elsewhere. This is about identity and some very extreme circumstances that are evidently not shared. Institutional racism has pervaded the life of every black person. I don't know any that are not aware of it.

And all of society too. No-one is enriched by the multiple disadvantages faced by blacks. Sure, the odd person gets the promotion on a wink and a nudge but that is not a benefit to any society. The dishonesty of racism cannot ever deliver a net positive, even to white supremacists, who, if they succeeded in their goal, would be left faced with their own telling oxymoron. Racism is not a case of white vs black. Seeing it as such guarantees it's perpetuity. Racism is an offence against nature. It has been constructed, weaponised and fostered for the sake of maintaining power and wealth. It is as big a problem as climate change and requires the same solution. Everybody must know about it. Education needs to shift from systematically ignoring or hiding it in history to actively teaching it. And politicians must be held to account when they do not deliver against it. If you consider how we now treat leaders who are indifferent to the state of the planet, you may understand what I expect.

In our homes, work places and social spaces there should be enlightened and informed conversation. Not a debate about whether racism is wrong but rather what it is and how events and contexts are affecting people. I see numerous memes quoting Dr. King condemning silence as complicity and just as many insisting that the movement and it's artefacts are reserved exclusively for 'black people'. One cannot demand that people speak up and then prescribe exactly what, when, how and where they should say it. If anyone of any ethnicity wishes to support, engage and enable the end of racism let them speak in their own voice.

What of me then? I cannot say nothing when the voice of my brothers' blood cries out to me from the ground. That George Floyd is twinned in death with Eric Garner multiplies the tragedy. That there have been so many before and in-between makes me despair. Breonna Taylor brings to life the worst of nightmares. Those who die without justice do not rest in peace. Memorial day in the USA, when George was murdered coincided with Africa Day. I cannot divorce the endless cortege from the centuries old pillaging and looting of the Motherland. From Amadou Diallo to Tamir Rice to Breonna Taylor the trail of bodies continues relentlessly. I live in Glasgow, a city built through slavery with some of the worst poverty in Europe. In a nation of warrior poets, some of whose sons & daughters worked people to death in Jamaica & founded the KKK in the American south. Where Sheku Bayoh died inexplicably at the hands of the police. Britain, the country of empire, executing my ancestors, Boer concentration camps, xenophobic Brexit (Don't tell me racism is simple). We visit my brother, my sister, my niece in Maryland. I fear for them. I have friends across the states snd across the world of all complexions. I will answer to my children if I do nothing.

What of you? I don't care much for hashtags. Do what you would do if it was your children's lives at stake. When you vote, vote against the person who called immigrants swarms. When it is a privacy law, ask your MP if and how this affects anyone disproportionately. Ask them why families are not guaranteed legal aid for inquests. Ask them how Jerk Chicken can be the favourite dish in the Commons while the government of the day deports British Jamaicans to certain death, Don't buy from racists including the Daily Mail. Don't allow your government to create a hostile environment or deliver a racist message on vans without real consequence. Don't let this issue become suffocated by other current issues. Tell them that you expect better from Police Officers and that the law should reflect that. Demand real accountability. Demand it. Demand real participation. And when they fail you like they have failed black people, demand it again as if your lives depended upon it. Ours do.

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Racism is not a case of white vs black. Seeing it as such guarantees it's perpetuity. Racism is an offence against nature. The charge of Third Degree Murder requires proof that Chauvin committed a felony and, in so doing, was indifferent to the foreseeable risk of death of George Floyd.

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I know activists will say to me, but this was your chance. You could have raised awareness of our fight. Give examples!!  But it’s not ‘our’ fight!  Do I cut myself open, so people can understand?  Rip off the plaster to show you the damage?

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(5 min read)

The prettiest of rainbow spikes, fanned in a row of stiff and sky high triangles, in the middle of two shaven sides. Jewellery and buckles clanging together, metal on metal. As he picked me up, I remember being enchanted by the coolest hair I had ever set eyes on. In complete contrast to my two tightly braided plaits, his hair was standing in rigid spikes from the top of his forehead running down to the nape of his head. He pulled a coin from his pocket and placed it in my hand. I was thrilled. This cool man was giving me pennies, in the middle of my dad's shop. There was never a shortage of sweet old ladies, smiling endearingly and passing me coins, "for you lass, to buy a sweetie." (I must have been a cute kid).

I remember holding the grudge of all grudges when my dad came running over and grabbed me out the man's arms. He hurriedly ushered the group of men out the door, and on returning, gently took my 20p, put it in the charity box, and handed me a consolation Marathon bar.

You see that was my earliest and most vivid encounter with racism. At the tender age of 6 or 7, I had no idea what the National Front meant. I had no inkling of the discriminatory views they violently and vehemently upheld, but only weeks earlier, this 'kind' man and his group had come into the shop and used physical violence, intimidation and threats towards my father. Only as an adult did I piece together the memory of my father, bloodied, with a gash above his eye, sitting in our living room with police officers, somberly flicking through an album of headshots. Like an age old scar, a forever reminder of a painful wound, this was the experience that set me on a path of study and work within race equality and inequalities.

As I write in the comfort of home with a warm cup of tea and my family safely tucked in bed. I think about the world easing slowly out of lockdown, and how my experience could be polar opposite to someone living a few miles down the road. Because coronavirus thrives on inequality. Being in poverty lowers life expectancy, increases the chances of contracting the virus, and doubles the risk of not surviving it. If you're black Asian minority ethnic (BAME) in the UK, then you're disproportionally affected by the virus: you're twice as likely to get it, more likely to be in overcrowded accommodation, and may already have pre-existing health conditions, which in turn decreases your survival rate. Racial inequalities and disparities in health, education, housing and employment have blighted the lives of BAME communities, and have existed long before COVID-19.

STOP.

This is where this 2 week blog tepidly sitting in draft, halts. I've pondered over sending this in to Corra, my new workplace. In all the years I've worked tirelessly in race equality, I've never shared the above story. Why? Because it's an emotionally charged, overflowing, memory box. But two years ago, I tragically lost the very person who taught me how to work compassionately across all faiths and communities, who lovingly showed me how to build community spirit in places and neighbourhoods, and to embrace difference with kindness, despite what he went through his whole life. The community resilience we see now, with people reaching out to neighbours, reminds me of childhood memories of my parents. They would invite anyone in for a cuppa - the postie, neighbours, Jehovah's witnesses... you knocked, you entered, you left belly full. My mother cooked with all the windows and doors open. Neighbours arrived following the scent of freshly made pilau and slow cooked curries, and left with dinner packaged in tupperware boxes (I'm talking empty margarine and ice cream containers) - a tradition I have embraced proudly, Flora tubs and all.

Back to reality
As my Twitter feed rapidly unfolds with the stories from America, I find myself mentally exhausted at the thought of summarising my heartache in 280 characters and a multitude of hashtags. In the midst of a pandemic, the discourse continues in a flurry of messages, from global protests to riots, pent up anger to resistance, from activism to placards of hope. So, I shrug off the weariness and start to write again, but this time with new found clarity.

As a person of colour, I have countless examples of racism and discrimination that have happened to me and people around me. I know activists will say to me, but this was your chance. You could have raised awareness of our fight. Give examples!! But it's not 'our' fight! Do I cut myself open, so people can understand? Rip off the plaster to show you the damage?

That's part of the structural problem of racism. I shouldn't need to justify myself, or prove it. It's a societal issue; it's one for all of us. Now is the time to get together as change belongs to all of us.

At a time when things feel ever so dark, I look for that light as I always do. Like always, I eventually find it in the form of kind souls, friendships and my family. I think back to a few months ago, to why I was drawn to Corra, an organisation which works to strengthen and amplify people's voices and their power to make change. And, I don't need to look too far because, it's resonance. I've been that voice that wasn't heard, had a seat at the table and also been left out the room. This is why Corra's Community Stories campaign is super-important to me. It's a shout out to those unheard voices. A call to action to those who need to listen, and those who need to be heard.

To a hopeful future
As COVID-19 starts to loosen its grip, many people are seeing this as a real opportunity to make radical changes. Not to go back to how it was, but to do different. I'm hopeful for a future, where your income or lack thereof does not have an effect on your life expectancy, where kindness and compassion rise above any form of prejudice and injustice. I want to be part of creating the very positive change that I long for.

We all hold power in some way or form - some more than others and some in the form of prestige and privilege. But every single one of us owns OUR own story. This was my story, and I hesitantly tell it, but in doing so, I hope it encourages you to share yours.

I'm going to leave this blog with a conversation I recorded with some wee voices, because it's important that our chats about the future include our next generation.

https://www.corra.scot/wp-content/uploads/AUDIO-2020-05-19-13-25-58.m4a

Join me in the #SameStormDifferentBoat #BuildForwardBetter conversations. Have a look on the Corra website if you'd like to find out more, or drop me an email at shasta@corra.scot.

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Unheard voices, Race and COVID-19 - Corra

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(5 min read) The prettiest of rainbow spikes, fanned in a row of stiff and sky high triangles, in the middle of two shaven sides. Jewellery and buckles clanging together, metal on metal. As he picked me up, I remember being enchanted by the coolest hair I had ever set eyes on.

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Intercultural Youth Scotland instigated this study after receiving a stream of anecdotal reports related to young peopleís experiences of racism in Scottish secondary schools. Working with the research consultancy EDI Scotland, this study was initiated to explore this question.

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This report was conducted in partnership with EDI Scotland. EDI Scotland provides research and data consultancy on issues related to equality, diversity and inclusion in Scotland.

Data, research and evidence are powerful tools in the fight against injustice and inequality. EDI Scotland promotes robust research with a radical edge and works with organisations (big and small) to make Scotland a fairer place for everyone.

EDI Scotland is directed by Dr Kevin Guyan, a mixed methods researcher based in Edinburgh
with over nine years research experience across academia, higher education and the voluntary sector.

For further information, contact by email: EDIScotland@outlook.com, or Twitter @EDIScotland

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IN SIGHT REPORT - Intercultural Youth Scotland

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This report was conducted in partnership with EDI Scotland. EDI Scotland provides research and data consultancy on issues related to equality, diversity and inclusion in Scotland. Data, research and evidence are powerful tools in the fight against injustice and inequality.

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Your black & minority friends are asking two things from you

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Your black & minority friends are asking two things from you

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VIDEO: Listen to the end

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Growing Up Black In Scotland | Black History Month

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Growing Up Black In Scotland | Black History Month

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VIDEO: Tomiwa shares what it's like growing up black and Scottish.

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BBC - The Social, Scotland, Growing Up Black In Scotland | Black History Month

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Tomiwa shares what it's like growing up black and Scottish.

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Antiracism is about doing and not just knowing. I think that we have had a very long period of time — I would say from Trayvon Martin’s murder up until now — of a lot of white people getting very educated about white supremacy, about how systems function, but they have a position that knowledge is the end result, the goal. “Oh, I know about it, so I’m antiracist.”

But being an antiracist is an action, it’s a verb. It’s not something that you just learn and you stop, it’s about how you change your behavior every day, every week, every month, every year to move your community, your family, yourself toward a more just and equitable society.

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There are good ways - and there are less good ways - to be a white ally right now. Do take cues from black leaders and create space for their voices to be heard. Don't think a performative emotional post on Instagram about your knowledge of racism does the trick. Do not center your feelings during this time of social unrest - an uprising that's about racist violence against black Americans.

"Antiracism is about doing and not just knowing," said Leslie Mac, an activist and a community organizer.

In light of the widespread protests against police brutality in recent days, there has been much conversation about what it means for white Americans to enact antiracism in their everyday lives - not just when there is unrest across the country. Because while the protests are directly tied to the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis on May 25, they are also an expression of widespread anguish within the black community. Centuries of inequality and racism have brought to bear acutely horrific consequences for black Americans in 2020. The global pandemic has disproportionately sickened and killed black people, and the accompanying economic crisis has done outsized damage to people of color. In recent weeks, multiple stories of black people killed by white violence and police have hit the news.

In turn, allyship and antiracism have become popular terms among white Americans wanting to help out. But what do they mean, and how does one really undertake them?

"Allyship is language, and being a co-conspirator is about doing the work," said Ben O'Keefe, an activist and former senior aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "It's taking on the issue of racism and oppression as your own issue, even though you'll never truly understand the damage that it does."

I spoke with three activists about what it means to be an ally and what cues white Americans should be taking. Their thoughts, edited for length and clarity, are below:

Ben O'Keefe, former senior aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren

One thing that's really important here is that we define what we're talking about when we discuss being an ally, because it's a term that many supposedly woke white folks wear now like this badge of honor, but the term doesn't really hold its weight always. We need people to be co-conspirators, and when I say that, I say that because allyship has become this emotional performance - well-intended as it may be, it's still sort of a pontification of their allyship and their emotions and their sadness. It's become performative.

Allyship is language, and being a co-conspirator is about doing the work. It's taking on the issue of racism and oppression as your own issue, even though you'll never truly understand the damage that it does.

There are a few important things to think about as we're having that conversation. Don't put your burden of your sadness or your fear onto your black friends or onto black leaders that you follow, because the truth is it's not the job of black people to educate you or to make you comfortable. Antiracism isn't comfortable, just like racism isn't comfortable for black people and people of color.

Listen more than you speak. Do your research. Ignorance by very definition is a lack of knowledge, so the only way to break down ignorance and your ignorance and the ignorance of others is through education. It's really important to learn the history of the struggle you're putting yourself into, to learn about the systems of oppression that exist and how you're complicit in them, and then, again, remember that it's not our job to educate you. It's not hard to educate yourself. You can literally google it.

"Listen more than you speak. Do your research."

Around the protests, how you show up is incredibly important. When white people show up to protests for the Movement for Black Lives, they are our guests. They are new for this. This might be exciting to them now, but this has been something that we have been living for generations and fighting for generations. So, you are showing up, and we're happy to have you, you are our guests.

A white person's job at a protest isn't to spray paint "Black Lives Matter" on a building. It's not to destroy stuff. It's not to loot stores. Their job is not to mess with the cops and throw stuff. Their job at that protest, what they are there to do, is to do everything they can in their power to put their bodies between the bodies of black people and police. They should know if they're there that they have the privilege of at least knowing that there will be more action taken if they die than if a black person does. Because not only is it disrespectful to disrupt our protests, but it actually is also doing direct harm to the black lives that these folks are supposed to be there to try to protect.

When you turn on cable news right now, what you hear is that black folks are burning buildings down and looting stores, all these terrible things. And we're hearing the president say, if they loot, we shoot. And if you turn on Twitter for different stories, there's an entirely different reality in which countless times it's white people who are doing this provocation, who are escalating this, and it's not them who are suffering the consequences, both physically there in person and with tear gas and pepper spray thrown in our faces, but also they're not doing service to the narrative that we're trying to build. They're continuing to give fodder that will be used and is currently being used against black people.

If you show up to a protest, you're there to be an ally, you can say. You are there to listen and to learn and to follow the leadership of the black folks, to follow the leadership of the marginalized.

If you could only see my DMs right now, they're flooded with well-intended wishes of, "How are you doing?" But let me be clear, asking a black person how they're doing right now is bullshit, because you know how they're doing. We're doing terrible. We're struggling. If you're struggling, we're struggling more. And the performance of reaching out to show that you're there doesn't matter if the intention is the gratification that comes from it.

You can reach out and say, "Hey, I can't imagine what you're going through, I'm here if you need it." Because instead what often we get is this emotional outreach of, "I'm so sad, I've been crying all day, I'm really struggling." And it becomes this really selfish thing where it's like, wow, if you, a white person, are sad and scared, ask how a black person feels. They're going out knowing that they could die as they protest the death of another, and we've just seen that again, another black death, [David McAtee, a restaurant owner who was shot and killed in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday].

It's very crucial that people respect the black folks around them and not look to the black folks in your life for condolence, for support. You're not impressing us by doing the bare minimum. This is the way it should be. It's not impressive that you care. You can check in and that's fine, but there's a way to do it, but it's to acknowledge that you're there and take the lead of that person on how they want to reach out to you.

One thing that I'll add as we're talking about allyship is that part of being an ally is taking a deep breath and getting past the shame and the guilt that you're carrying, because white people who are alive today did not create racism. They didn't choose to live in a white supremacist country, and they didn't choose to exist in the world that we do today. But what they can do is choose to admit that they benefit from racism and acknowledge that they have the power to change the conditions, and that's crucial, because this isn't a blame game.

When we have frank conversations about black lives and the role that every white person plays in systemic oppression, it's not an insult, it's not an attack, it's a reality. And so we can ignore reality or we can face reality, because only when we face that - only when we give ourselves permission to forgive ourselves, to look forward from this day forward for permission to become better partners and co-conspirators in the movement, permission to educate yourself, permission to grow - that is being a good ally. We don't need you to carry the burden of your privilege. We need you acknowledge it and to use your privilege, promote good, and to fight oppression. And I feel like we're dealing with this space in which so many people are just finally starting to realize something that so many of us have known for so long. I appreciate that, and I understand the pain and fear because I've been living it every day of my life. But we don't have time for you to reconcile with your emotion.

This is time for you to forgive yourself, to acknowledge your complicity and to do something about it, to move on and to make good.

Leslie Mac, an activist and community organizer

Give your time, talent, and treasure to black-led organizations and black leaders that are doing front-line work in your area. I don't even think it's a matter of looking to other cities that might be more in the news - there are black people, black organizations, black organizers wherever you are that are doing the difficult work of fighting for black liberation and against state violence. You need to find out who's doing that work where you are and figure out what they need and do your best to meet those needs.

Another thing that I would want white people to be doing right now in this moment is to get clear on what being an antiracist means, which is very different than conversations around learning about racism or understanding privilege. This is very specific to action and what changes you make in your life that affect your community in positive ways.

"Another thing that I would want white people to be doing right now in this moment is to get clear on what being an antiracist means"

The biggest calls from organizers around the country right now is to defund the police, and so the things that white people can do with the powers that they hold - that their black counterparts do not - includes pressuring electeds around defunding the police. Get clear about where money is going in your community. Do you know how much money is going to police in your area? In the current budget? The one that is probably going to be passed very soon? And what cuts were made in order to make sure that that money wasn't touched? Arts programs, schools, health care, social services - these are all the areas that every city has taken from in order not to touch the money that goes to policing.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic that is hitting black and brown communities worse than any others. And we're watching tax dollars be used on the streets to brutalize people, money that was never employed to ensure the safety of people in the midst of this pandemic. I would challenge white people to lift that up - we just watched the government tell us they can't do anything for us about Covid. They can't help us economically in any significant ways, they can't help us for health care, they can't help us with our rent, mortgages, all of the things that people are struggling with right now. Unemployment is increasing. We have no personal protective equipment for our front-line health care workers and pretty much Avenger-level body armor for police officers to brutalize protesters.

Lastly, they should always center the voices and causes of black, indigenous, and people of color, both online and in their local communities, and amplify their stories and their demands to speak out. It's also important to be cognizant of how detrimental it is when they lead with how they're feeling in moments like this. It's an easy thing to get sucked into, because white supremacy culture teaches white people that their feelings are the most important thing.

So it's critical right now for them to rein themselves in. If they have feelings to share, they don't spew that on social media, they definitely do not empty that into the mentions or texts or messages with people of color and black people in their lives. If they need to, they should be creating spaces for themselves to do that that don't put that burden on those that are most directly affected by what's happening right now.

Antiracism is about doing and not just knowing. I think that we have had a very long period of time - I would say from Trayvon Martin's murder up until now - of a lot of white people getting very educated about white supremacy, about how systems function, but they have a position that knowledge is the end result, the goal. "Oh, I know about it, so I'm antiracist."

But being an antiracist is an action, it's a verb. It's not something that you just learn and you stop, it's about how you change your behavior every day, every week, every month, every year to move your community, your family, yourself toward a more just and equitable society.

Molly Sweeney, organizing director at 482 Forward, an education organizing network in Detroit

For me, being a white ally in this moment means a few things. I think No. 1, it means listening deeply to the needs and asks of leaders of color in your community. Two, it means committing yourself to this work and the work of undoing white supremacy within you and within the systems around you. And it means not dipping in and dipping out just because the moment feels urgent to you now. It means committing yourself to this work ongoing and showing up, not just in these moments that are on the news but day to day.

And I think the challenge for us white people right now is the constant challenge that we need to live with, which is reflection on how white supremacy is using us as tools in our family systems, in our communities, in our schools, in our police departments, and how we're constantly asking ourselves what we can do as white people to break those systems down and to evolve and learn, how to be different in our white skin.

"I've described my journey as an antiracist as I'm a poisonous snake - not inherently bad, but I carry a poison that can kill"

[As a white person,] I've described my journey as an antiracist as I'm a poisonous snake - not inherently bad, but I carry a poison that can kill, and I need to do everything in my power every day not to bite people of color, and I need to, just like a snake, shed my skin, not that I can get rid of my white skin but shed the embedded white supremacy that lives with me and in my community.

And that's not easy work. It means changing everything about what we've always known.

Join your local antiracist group, like SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice. Seek out places where white people are doing work to unpack the way they show up in movements for racial justice. And funding - put your money where your mouth is. Fund movements that are led by people of color that are fighting racism and all the ways that it shows up in our society, in our schools. If you're raising white kids, talk to them about race right now.

There are lots of small things people can do right now. But then there are bigger things. It's really taking a look at your entire life. Are you talking to your uncles, aunts, your family about race? Are you asking questions about police departments in your town? Have you pulled the racial data? Are police wearing body cameras? Are they disproportionately pulling over black people? Organize parents at your schools to look at the curriculum and what's being taught about the history of our country.
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How to be a good white ally, according to activists

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There are good ways - and there are less good ways - to be a white ally right now. Do take cues from black leaders and create space for their voices to be heard. Don't think a performative emotional post on Instagram about your knowledge of racism does the trick.

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You will stop using this phrase when you know where it comes from

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You will stop using this phrase when you know where it comes from

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast

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What happens when a perfectly innocuous phrase takes on a more sinister meaning over time?

Case in point, the expression "to call a spade a spade." For almost half a millennium, the phrase has served as a demand to "tell it like it is." It is only in the past century that the phrase began to acquire a negative, racial overtone.

Historians trace the origins of the expression to the Greek phrase "to call a fig a fig and a trough a trough." Exactly who was the first author of "to call a trough a trough" is lost to history. Some attribute it to Aristophanes, while others attribute it to the playwright Menander. The Greek historian Plutarch (who died in A.D. 120) used it in Moralia. The blogger Matt Colvin, who has a Ph.D. in Greek literature, recently pointed out that the original Greek expression was very likely vulgar in nature and that the "figs" and "troughs" in question were double entendres.

Erasmus, the renowned humanist and classical scholar, translated the phrase "to call a fig a fig and a trough a trough" from Greek to Latin. And in so doing he dramatically changed the phrase to "call a spade a spade." (This may have been an incorrect translation but seems more likely to have been a creative interpretation and a deliberate choice.) "Spade" stuck because of Erasmus' considerable influence in European intellectual circles, writes the University of Vermont's Wolfgang Mieder in his 2002 case study Call a Spade a Spade: From Classical Phrase to Racial Slur.

"To call a spade a spade" entered the English language when Nicholas Udall translated Erasmus in 1542. Famous authors who have used it in their works include Charles Dickens and W. Somerset Maugham, among others.

To be clear, the "spade" in the Erasmus translation has nothing to do with a deck of cards, but rather the gardening tool. In fact, one form of the expression that emerged later was "to call a spade a bloody shovel." The early usages of the word "spade" did not refer to either race or skin color.

One of the more famous mentions of the phrase came in Oscar Wilde's 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest:

CECILY:

"Do you suggest, Miss Fairfax, that I entrapped Ernest into an engagement? How dare you? This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade."

GWENDOLEN:

[Satirically.] "I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different."

Politicians and commentators have also frequently used the expression. After returning to the United States after World War I, the scholar and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in his famous 1919 editorial "Returning Soldiers" about the struggles of African-American men:

"We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land."

In the late 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, "spade" began to evolve into code for a black person, according to Patricia T. O'Connor and Stewart Kellerman's book Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language. The Oxford English Dictionary says the first appearance of the word spade as a reference to blackness was in Claude McKay's 1928 novel Home to Harlem, which was notable for its depictions of street life in Harlem in the 1920s. "Jake is such a fool spade," wrote McKay. "Don't know how to handle the womens." Fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Wallace Thurman then used the word in his novel The Blacker The Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, a widely read and notable work that explored prejudice within the African-American community. "Wonder where all the spades keep themselves?" one of Thurman's characters asks. It was also in the 1920s that the "spade" in question began to refer to the spade found on playing cards.

The word would change further in the years to come. Eventually, the phrase "black as the ace of spades" also became widely used, further strengthening the association between spades and playing cards.

Wolfgang Mieder notes that in the fourth edition of The American Language, H.L. Mencken's famous book about language in the United States, "spade" is listed as one of the "opprobrious" names for "Negroes" (along with "Zulu," "skunk" and many other words that I can't print here). Robert L. Chapman struck a similar note in his Thesaurus of American Slang (1989). "All these terms will give deep offense if used by nonblacks," warned Chapman, listing "spade" in a group that included words like blackbird, shade, shadow, skillet and smoke.

The British author Colin MacInnes, who was white, frequently used the term in novels like City of Spades (1957) and Absolute Beginners (1959) about the multiracial, multicultural London of the 1950s and '60s. MacInnes has been criticized for his exotification and sexualization of black culture in his books. MacInnes also coined the cringeworthy word "spadelet" to refer to black infants.

As with many other racialized terms, there were efforts to reclaim the word after it had become a slur. Four years after Malcolm X was killed in 1965, poet Ted Joans eulogized him in his poem " My Ace of Spades." The artist David Hammons also explored the negative connotations to the word in his 1973 sculpture " Spade With Chains." Hammons once told an interviewer that he began to incorporate spades into his work because "I was called a spade once, and I didn't know what it meant ... so I took the shape and started painting it." And a character in 2009's Black Dynamite (a spoof of the blaxploitation films of the 1970s) tells a rival that he's "blacker than the ace of spades and more militant than you."

So what does all of this mean for people who want to, well, "call a spade a spade"? I urge caution. Mieder concludes his case study with the argument that "to call a spade a spade" should be retired from modern usage: "Rather than taking the chance of unintentionally offending someone or of being misunderstood, it is best to relinquish the old innocuous proverbial expression all together."

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For almost half a millennium, the phrase "call a spade a spade" has served as a demand to "tell it like it is." It is only in the past century that the expression began to acquire a negative, racial overtone.

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Extract from "Why I'm no Longer talking to White People about Race"

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Extract from "Why I'm no Longer talking to White People about Race"

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This is what structural racism looks like. It is not just about personal prejudice, but the collective effects of bias. It is the kind of racism that has the power to drastically affect people’s life chances"

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Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

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The long read: For years, racism has been defined by the violence of far-right extremists, but a more insidious kind of prejudice can be found where many least expect it – at the heart of respectable society

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Clips from This Morning via @SholaMos1Lawyer, Political & Women's Rights Activist, Founder

@WILPublication

, Author, Wife & Mum to 3 girls. Lover of life, food, travel & dancing!

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd https://t.co/jnUXB01bOc

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/jnUXB01bOc
— Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (@SholaMos1) June 1, 2020

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd https://t.co/jnUXB01bOc

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd https://t.co/jnUXB01bOc

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"When will White people progress? Racism is a power construct to deny an equal value of life to black people. For 'Some' this truth is a wake up call to do more but 'Others' will whitewash our oppression & call us anti-white"

Me on systemic UK/US racism #ThisMorning #GeorgeFloyd

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VIDEO: What does “inclusion” mean? What do underrepresented groups expect when they hear it? How do tech companies can create an environment in which “inclusion” isn’t just a buzzword, but a day-to-day reality for all their teams?

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VIDEO: What does it mean to be black and Scottish? Director Stewart Kyasimire seeks out a range of black Scots of different ages and from diverse backgrounds to hear some compelling answers.

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Stewart Kyasimire seeks out stories of what it means to be black and Scottish.

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VIDEO:
"When you walk around, whether it's to go to dinner, go to work or go shopping, you see street names and statues but what you don't realise is that they are named after the men who owned plantations in Jamaica and America."

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As a mixed-race Scot, whose grandparents were from Jamaica, Laura Cripps thinks it is time for Glasgow to own up to its "dark secret".

"Nobody tends to talk about it," Laura says.

"When you walk around, whether it's to go to dinner, go to work or go shopping, you see street names and statues but what you don't realise is that they are named after the men who owned plantations in Jamaica and America."

Many of the most prominent street names in Glasgow's city centre are named after 18th Century slave owners who made their fortunes on tobacco plantations.

Laura says there is no acknowledgement of where their fortunes came from and the exploitation that went with it.

Starting in the Merchant City, Laura took a short tour for BBC Scotland's The Social that went past streets named after four plantation owners.

The 26-year-old entrepreneur starts on Glassford Street which is named after John Glassford, a wealthy tobacco baron who owned plantations in Virginia and Maryland.

His family's portrait, painted by artist Archibald McLauchlan in 1767, is exhibited in the People's Palace.

"If you look close enough you can see what they've tried to paint out," Laura says.

"What they've tried to paint out is a black slave."

The employment of black servants was very fashionable among rich Glaswegians, who brought them over from the slave-worked plantations of the American colonies and the West Indies.

However, the servant was later painted out, perhaps due to anti-slavery sentiment in 19th Century.

Glassford is buried in Ramshorn Cemetery on Ingram Street, which is named after his brother-in-law Archibald Ingram.

Ingram also made his fortune with slave-owning tobacco plantations in the east coast of America.

At the bottom of Ingram Street, but actually on Queen Street, is Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art.

It was formerly the home of William Cunninghame, who paid £10,000 for the mansion off the back of the plantations he owned in Jamaica.

He reportedly owned 300 slaves.

Cunninghame made a fortune stockpiling cheap tobacco shortly before the American Revolution in the 1770s and later selling at high prices.

Close to the gallery is Glasgow's main shopping street, Buchanan Street.

Andrew Buchanan was one of the first Scots to have tobacco plantations in the New World, with major holdings in Virginia.

It was Buchanan that created Virginia Street, one of the city centre streets named after slave-owning areas where the 18th century merchants made their fortune.

Jamaica and Tobago streets are also close by.

The final stop of Laura's short tour of Glasgow city centre is Dunlop Street, named after another family of tobacco barons.

"I've walked less than a mile and I've had to walk past street names and buildings that are named after five plantation owners," Laura says.

"Some may argue it was different time, and yes it was, but should they have their names immortalised in the street names and the places that they built with slave money?"

Laura says the past can't be changed but Glasgow should own up to its slave trade links like many other cities around the world have.

"Even one plaque on one street acknowledging this is where all the money came from," Laura says.

"It does not have to be on every street.

"I'm not saying take down street names. I'm not saying tear down the buildings. I'm just saying the slaves' names should be up there with them."

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'Glasgow should own up to its dark secret'

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As a mixed-race Scot, whose grandparents were from Jamaica, Laura Cripps thinks it is time for Glasgow to own up to its "dark secret". "Nobody tends to talk about it," Laura says.

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CRER co-ordinates Black History Month- Below is a map detailing sites of importance to Black history in Scotland.

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Below is a map detailing sites of importance to Black history in Scotland. Simply click on a red marker to learn more.

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What it's like to Be Young and Black in Scotland

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What it's like to Be Young and Black in Scotland

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Via Young Scot

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Young Scot spoke with Intercultural Youth Scotland's Anti-Racist Ambassadors Themba and Ciara about how other young people in Scotland can be allies for the Black community, learn about the Black Lives Matter movement and why it's so important, and how to practice Anti-Racist activism sensitively and safely.

As a young, Black Scot, what do you want white people to know right now?

Ciara: I want them to know that the most they could do right now is just support us, instead of turning it into a trend of some sort just to boost their own ego or to boost their following.

I think they should be taking it a lot more seriously than just tagging a few friends or posting something about it. What they could be doing to help is phoning numbers, they could be linking petitions to sign and they could be joining things like Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) as well to help create more, what's the word, to bring more light on charities and stuff like that that want to be heard.

Themba: Of course Ciara has highlighted most of the main parts I'm kind of agreeing with her. I also want them as well as, of course all the stuff with social media, I want them to also know that they should actually feel okay to want to help us as well because I know a lot of people, a lot of white people are posting and stuff, but there's also a lot of white people who are kind of scared and not confident to come out because they also feel like this isn't their business.

When, if we really deep it and think about it, it's not just a Black issue, this is a world issue because at the end of the day, we're all human and it's humans that are being treated like non-humans at the end of the day.

So I want white people to, as well as to join us and help us kind of, I don't want to say rebel, but get our voices heard also to just not to be scared in letting their thoughts out and letting people know how they're feeling that no one will really judge. But I'm also with Ciara, the part of, I don't want white people just to do it because it's kind of like a trend now on social media, just to be tagging people and stuff without a meaning, without knowing anything, without doing research.

Cause I see a lot of people, kind of doing it just because it's kind of trendy right now on Instagram and stuff but they don't actually mean what they're saying.

What would you like to say to people of colour right now?

Themba: I would like to say this is our time. This is our time to stand up and get our voices heard. While we've got all this big kind of platform, of course this has been happening for decades and decades, I feel like this is probably the best time.

Now is the best time to get your voices heard while we have the press and all the news covering situations like this, like as I said, this has been happening for decades and decades, but it's not been getting the right attention.

But finally, we're getting, of course, there's still more, a lot more to be done. We're finally getting international attention for it so I would like to, if I had a message to all the people of colour, I would definitely be saying, this is our time lets stand up.

Let's get our voices heard. Let's post this on the internet. Let's go out and spread messages. Let's do as much as we can.

Ciara: A message I would say would be, it's obviously not our job to educate people that don't, that are not willing to listen or try to understand what's going on.

But if you could just keep trying to give people knowledge, keep trying to make them aware of what's going on and remind your loved ones and remind other Black people and other people of colour that, that we are with you.

And if there's any times that you feel that you can't take it anymore and stuff like that, then we can all come together, and we can all talk about it and we can keep fighting.

How can white people be better allies to the Black community?

Themba: As I was saying before, that of course this is an issue happening to Black people, but at the end of the day, we're all the same, as kind of like, as humans. This is something that we definitely need more than just Black people to get a message across to the government, to the system and stuff like that.

So, as I said before, as much help as possible, I know in America, obviously a lot of white people and other races actually helping in the protest, which I like to see.

I like to see the support, but then there's also the side of it where it's like, of course, I don't know the real intentions of them, but I can only pray and hope that it's for the right intention that they actually care and want to help with the situation.

Ciara: I think first of all, they should acknowledge that it shouldn't be as hard as some people are making it to just speak up about it or just talk to a family member or a friend about it, it shouldn't be that hard to just know in your head that this is what we should be talking about, this is what's going on right now, I can't just keep ignoring it.

So, I think first of all, what people could do is acknowledge what's going on and look into it and just try to not just keep pushing past that and keep ignoring it.

When a Black person tells them this is what's happening and this is how I feel, they should listen instead of trying to challenge it with, stuff like 'all lives matter' and stuff like that. So, first of all, if they could acknowledge it, then that'd be really good I think.

How are you looking after yourself right now?

Ciara: Well first of all it's quite disheartening to see it still because me, myself, I wanted to be in the police force and obviously this has just pretty much changed my mind in a way or made me think about it again because it's really disgusting what's going on and I can't, well actually I can believe it's still happening because no one's really been doing anything. Not as much as they could be doing to help it or change it.

What I'm doing to look after myself, I'm not really thinking about myself right now. I'm mostly just trying to get it out to other people and keep spreading knowledge and understanding.

Obviously my mental health as everyone else should be feeling, is not good right now and it hasn't been for a long time cause there's always, this is not the first time this has happened and it's kind of annoying that people are only thinking about it now.

Like, for people to actually talk about it now there's been fires set, there's been rioting and I think that they shouldn't just be thinking about now, they should be thinking about all the times it's happened before and all the times that it's going to happen again.

Themba: I had a conversation with some of the people at IYS about this the other day and previously.

It's kind of like, because it's so big right now, it's kind of changed the way I've been thinking about how things will happen after lockdown happens because I've had this kind of vision, like after lockdown finishes, everything will go back to normal, I'm gonna go out, blah, blah, blah.

But now that this has happened, for instance, of course this isn't new as Ciara was saying this has been happening for decades and we need people to acknowledge that, for instance, going out isn't... sometimes isn't... I don't know how to say it.

Basically, like when, say for instance, I go to a shop, I'm just going normal like everyone else in the shop, but I feel like I'm not wanted in the shop because, for instance, I'm a Black Scottish person with dreadlocks. I walk into a shop with other Scottish people, but I feel like I've got more eyes on me. Say I go into a different aisle and I see the security guard or someone working in the shop specifically keeping an eye on me. It kind of makes me feel like, 'oh, is this how things are going to be?'

And now that things have really became, especially the past few days with what's happening in America, I feel like it's going to be more kind of like, I don't wanna say awkward, but it's definitely going to be, definitely something that a lot of people would be thinking in their heads like when they go out to different places, not just for white people of course, but for Black people.

For Black people going out, especially seeing police driving by, I know it's probably, I don't know if it's just me, but I know it's going to be kind of nerve wracking because these are the people that we've grown up to see, believing that these are the people that are supposed to be keeping us safe but in this case we're more kind of scared and just wondering, 'oh, is something going to happen to me or my friends? Is something going to happen to me or my family as we're walking on the street?'

So that's stuff that's definitely been in my head.

But, some things that I've been using to kind of help me with that is, I'll be honest, the group that we're with, the IYS programme. I'm kind of happy I came across this now, cause I didn't think there was a programme like it, but it's somewhere I can, if I need people to talk to about a situation cause it's not always easy to talk to my friends or my family, especially my family, it's not an easy topic to just bring up.

So I've got the people in the IYS in the group chats, the calls we have to kind of help me mentally get through this challenging time with advice, and just kind of like a place to ease my mind. Of course family as well and different things just to kind of help me in the mental side of things as this thing is happening.

What would you like to see change for young Black people here in Scotland, and across the world?

Ciara: I think that what would have really helped me a lot would have been support in school, especially in schools that are more like deprived areas I feel like they don't have any understanding or basic knowledge almost of how to deal with things such as racism in schools because I know for a fact that my school has never done anything to deal with it.

And no one's ever spoke to me about anything like that or when something's happened, never came and went, 'how do you feel? What should we do? What can we do to help you?'

They've always chose the side of the person that's done it, which is quite worrying especially seeing as they're obviously in charge of our education and other things as well.

So, I think that there should be counselling maybe specifically for people of colour in mostly white populated schools and I think that before teachers are allowed to become teachers that they should at least get a pack of information that's like how to deal with a situation like that which is also quite worrying as well because I feel like if that's a job that you want to take on, then I feel that you should already know how to deal with that or at least, I don't know how to say it, but at least just talk to the person about it and make sure that the people that are doing things wrong face consequences. And I know that that's not been happening in my life.

So, I think that what could be changed is definitely someone that could help and also as well I think that there should be more diversity in the teaching staff as well because I know if there was a person of colour that was a teacher, then I know that they would most likely understand more and that if something was to happen to me that I would definitely be able to go to them and talk to them because I feel they would understand as a person of colour and in my life, I've not had that at all during my school years.

My school hasn't even ever done anything for Black History Month. Not a single acknowledgement of it or anything. And what we learn about in history in Germany and the Holocaust, but these kind of things have happened to Black people. The only Black history is the civil rights movements and slavery but it's just so biased the way it's taught. People need to learn about white privilege, especially the teachers. If we had more honest and comprehensive history in schools then it would an education for everyone.

Themba: Obviously there's so much, there's definitely so much change I'd love to see but the main changes, I like what Ciara said about the education system, especially here in Glasgow.

I went to a school in quite a deprived area and we always got, you know when you get assemblies you get talks about I don't know, health, you get talks about charities, all sorts of fundraising stuff but never once did I have any talks about racism and racism is definitely a big thing in Glasgow.

I feel like I'd like to see more, especially because as we've gone on in the years and with all these kind of racial incidents happening, the older generations have tried things and things aren't really changing. I feel like it's up to the youth because we are the future and the younger people are the future and I feel like that's a big part of the change.

I feel like, school's definitely getting more talks in schools, kind of educating the kids and stuff like that would definitely be a big, big push, a big step. And definitely I believe, I believe strongly that it will change things in the future. I'd like to see a lot more of that. A lot more talks for that and as well as for the, the system itself in terms of justice.

I'd love to see more justice within courts, within, of course the police and stuff like that. Of course, I've got nothing against white people themselves but I tend to see a lot of, when I see stuff about court and stuff on lawyers and just jury in general when it's a Black person being set up on trial, whether they did something wrong or not, it tends to be a lot of just mainly white people, and I'm not saying that that's a necessarily a bad thing, but it kind of goes to show there's no kind of balance in terms of like deciding the future of who's going to be in prison or get in that system of course.

So, I'd like to see more changes definitely in the education system and the law side of things.

Is there anything else you'd like to add to the conversation that you feel is important?

Ciara: Another thing I was going to say about the education system. I heard Themba talk about teaching. I feel like they should be teaching more things that like for example, Black History Month, that's never been a thing at my school and I feel like if it was, then people would probably think about it and consider it more maybe. Instead of just being uneducated.

And, as well, people just, if you're Black, they'll see you as either Black, like African, they'll be like, 'go back to Africa' or they'll just think you're Pakistani or something, there's no in-between to these people.

So, I feel like in school, if they could at least have talks. I've never, ever been in my school and heard someone talk about it like a member of staff, it's just never been important to them which is really disappointing because it really should be. Especially in a school where there's so many people that are racist and they know that and they're just ignoring it.

Themba: I like what Ciara said about in schools, just kind of more educating the youth, especially in Scotland and UK in general because I feel what I've noticed and seen on social media and stuff is a lot of people think this is just an issue happening in America, which is sad to see.

People just think it's an American issue. They'll be like, I seen a few comments like, 'why are we protesting? This happened in America.' Stuff like that, which really upset me just to show there is kind of a lack of education of things that are also happening in the UK. So, I would definitely like to see a change in that in the next few years.

I'd like to see more people know, knowing what they're talking about instead of just seeing it on social media and definitely like Ciara said, I'd like them to come out of school with knowledge and a background of why Black people are protesting, not just because a murder happened in America. I want them to understand that this has been happening for years.

Please don't just teach about slavery, we are much more than that.

I want them to know the full story of things rather than just finding out on social media. On social media you could literally read anything, a lot of stuff is also made up as well, whereas I feel like in school you get more factual things, you get more time to study on things. So, I definitely in the education system I feel like that's the main, main thing for me I'd like to see change.

Intercultural Youth Scotland

Intercultural Youth Scotland is a grass roots, youth-led charity in Scotland.

They provide evidence of meaningful and genuine engagement and impact for for Young Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in Scotland and are leading in youth anti-racist activism and anti-racist education in Scotland and across Scottish services.

They deliver crucial, effective and culturally appropriate youth services for young people aged between 13 and 25 years old, making an impact on fairness in employment, positive destinations and the inclusion of young people of colour in performing arts and events.

Find out more

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What It's Like to Be Young and Black in Scotland

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Young Scot spoke with Themba and Ciara, two young Black Scots who volunteer with Intercultural Youth Scotland, about how other young people in Scotland can be allies for the Black community, learn about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and why it's so important, and how to practice anti-racist activism safely.

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VIDEO: Sekai Machache is a visual artist based in Dundee. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. Having been born in Zimbabwe and raised in Scotland, she has a particular interest in W.E.B Dubois’ notion of Double Consciousness, which expresses the psychological challenge of having African heritage whilst living in the West.

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Sekai Machache is a visual artist based in Dundee. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. Having been born in Zimbabwe and raised in Scotland, she has a particular interest in W.E.B Dubois' notion of Double Consciousness, which expresses the psychological challenge of having African heritage whilst living in the West. Sekai works with a wide range of media including but not exclusive to photography. Her photographic practice is mostly formulated through digital studio based compositions utilising body paint and muted lighting conditions to create images that appear to emerge from darkness. Sekai is an artist in residence and associate staff member of Duncan of Jordanstone college of art and Design at the University of Dundee. She is also currently working on a cross-cultural exchange project titled 'Body of Land' which is produced and facilitated by Focas Scotland. Body of Land is a new Art new Audiences (nAnA) grantee, funded through the British Council's East Africa Programme. Sekai is an organising member of the Yon Afro Collective (YAC) in Scotland and also produces a collaborative podcast project titled FFN podcast UK. @sekaimachache

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Sekai Machache is a visual artist based in Dundee. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. Having been born in Zimbabwe and raised in Scotland, she has a particular interest in W.E.B Dubois' notion of Double Consciousness, which expresses the psychological challenge of having African heritage whilst living in the West.

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The map, which was created by a trio of Edinburgh architects, reveals the addresses of capital residents who applied for compensation following the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

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Edinburgh slavery map offers glimpse into city's dark past

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Slaves working on an American plantation. Picture. Wikimedia/CC The map, which was created by a trio of Edinburgh architects, reveals the addresses of capital residents who applied for compensation following the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

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The Colour of Madness is a seminal anthology, comprised of poetry, fiction, essays, memoirs and art submitted by Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) writers, academics, mental health workers, artists and those who are still navigating life with mental health problems.

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Prefaced by a foreword by scholar, psychologist and therapist Guilaine Kinouani, contributors' writings and artwork have been beautifully curated into seven colour-themed sections complete with colour plates.

'The Mental Health System is not Designed With Us in Mind.' Media Diversified.

gal-dem .

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'Six New Anthologies To Make You Smarter This Winter.' Dazed .

'5 Books About Mental Health That Will Make you Feel Less Alone.' Bustle.

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is available in bookshops and libraries in both paperback and hardback. If you don't have a stockist near you, you can grab a copy from Waterstones or order a physical copy or the ebook from Amazon.

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Skiddaw Books

The Colour of Madness

Edited by Samara Linton and Rianna Walcott

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Stirling Publishing | The Colour of Madness

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The Colour of Madness is a seminal anthology, comprised of poetry, fiction, essays, memoirs and art submitted by Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) writers, academics, mental health workers, artists and those who are still navigating life with mental health problems.

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The aim of this project is to provide information about Scotland's involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and to encourage fellow Scots to talk about the subject. Angus is our home and it has been home to generations of family and friends so it felt only right to begin on our doorstep. What came as a shock was how close to home the connections are.

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Welcome to Undiscovered Angus Thanks for visiting the Undiscovered Angus site. The aim of this project is to provide informat...

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From the Collective Impact Forum

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To our community members, Now is not the time to look away. Especially for those of us who can so easily turn our face from seeing/hearing/feeling the injustice that continues to spread in our communities. We cannot - should not - look away from the harm and trauma that is wreaked upon our Black communities.

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A Twitter thread of UK-based, Black-owned/run businesses and organisations doing the important work of dismantling racism

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This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators."

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This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators." https://t.co/Hnvbf7GRij

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This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators." pic.twitter.com/Hnvbf7GRij
— The Scottish BPOC Writers Network (@ScotBPOCwriters) June 1, 2020

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This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators." https://t.co/Hnvbf7GRij

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators." https://t.co/Hnvbf7GRij

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
This week, we will be highlighting Black-owned and run businesses/organisations doing important work in the UK and beyond.

First off @BooksRound - a magical bookshop in Brixton Village who "exists to celebrate underrepresented children’s books, writers and illustrators."

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A look at how to be a non-optical ally to the black community at this time

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread.

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread. https://t.co/kTvDgXXO5L

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread. pic.twitter.com/kTvDgXXO5L
— Mireille Harper (mee-ray) (@mireillecharper) May 29, 2020

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread. https://t.co/kTvDgXXO5L

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread. https://t.co/kTvDgXXO5L

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For people who actively want to be support and be an ally right now, I have written a thread.

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A safe space for black and ethnic minority creatives in Scotland to share their stories of personal and professional development. Instagram:
weareherescotland

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Tweets by weareherescot

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Our work with Scottish, UK and local government is guided by our principles of a fair and human refugee protection system. We are committed to challenging inequalities in the asylum system and in wider society, to ensure that everyone in need of refugee protection has fair and equal access to protection and is able to rebuild their lives with dignity.

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From today
I will no longer be using the phrase
'nitty gritty'

Translation
Nitty gritty is thought to have originated in a term used by slave traders to refer either to the women or to the remains at the bottom of the transport ships that were covered in lice and grit.