Hello, Carmen here.
Firstly, Thank you so much to everyone who came online last Sunday and read my first ever blog. The reception was amazing and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. All successes considered, I’m back with blog number two!
As a woman of colour, I only feel it’s right to use my platform for good and to touch upon important topics as and when they arrive. Everywhere across the globe has been touched by the murder of Geroge Floyd and I’m not sure anyone thought that the Black Lives Matter movement would turn into what it has become.
Racism has been around since what feels like the beginning of time for POC and police brutality against black males especially in America, feels as though it’s been around for the same amount of time, However, there seems to be a shift in the air.
Black Lives Matter has become a global movement generating days like #blackouttuesday and peaceful protests all across the globe. I’ve seen friends and family become in embroiled by the news and rightly so and I’ve also found myself wondering why our Prime Minister has stayed so quiet and not spoken out about racism and taken more of a stance. In my opinion, the longer, he does not address the BLM and racism issue in our country, the worse it will get.
My dad was part of the Windrush generation, who came to the UK to help rebuild the infrastructure after the war and in turn the economy. I’ve really struggled with the concept of telling and sending citizens back “to where they came from” when they’ve contributed so much to the way we live our lives now.
I understand lots of people are taking this time to reflect on previous behaviour, educate themselves and make change, so I’ve decided to put together a reading list, in case you’d like to join in on the education.
Reading List
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India by Shashi Tharoor
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Good Immigrant: 21 Writers Explore What It Means To Be Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic In Britain Today edited by Nikesh Shukla
Barracoon: The Story Of The Last Slave by Zora Neale Hurston
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
If you have any suggestions for books, please leave them below with any topic suggestions you may have more next weeks blog!
Stay safe,
Carmen
Comments