The Vanishing Half: Love, Identity & Empathy
Synopsis “The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation,…
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Happy Birthday to Me: A Love Letter to Myself
WARNING: omphaloskepsis I’ll be 32 years old tomorrow. If you had asked me ten years ago what I envisioned my life to be now, I’m not entirely sure what I would have told you, but I don’t think I would have envisioned what my life actually is. I wouldn’t have seen myself as a 32-year-old career changer. I would have seen myself as established in my career (at the time I wanted to be a barrister); I wouldn’t have seen myself as a former teacher/Subject Leader – I wouldn’t have seen myself in education at all. I wouldn’t have seen myself transitioning towards a career in commercial law; in fact,…
On ‘Diversifying’ Your Bookshelf
Over the summer, as the Black Lives Matter protests took hold across the globe and non-Black people began to realise that our lives actually do matter, there was a surge in buying books about race and racism. In June Reni Eddo-Lodge became the first Black British author to top the UK’s official book charts with her fantastic book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Newspapers and magazines started publishing anti-racist reading lists for those who wanted to “learn more.” And of course, people posted their black squares (that’s not book related, but I just had to throw it in there because I found it so hilarious…
The Myths of British Progressiveness
About a week ago, a video of a BBC journalist interviewing the Prime Minister of Barbados made the rounds on Twitter. If you didn’t know already, as well as the removal of the Queen as Head of State, Barbados has announced plans to hold a referendum on gay marriage. The BBC journalist questioned Mia Mottley on this, asking her if, in Barbados, “people should be allowed to be gay.” Mottley, quite rightly, found the question offensive and asked the journalist if that was a question he would ask the UK, to which he sanctimoniously responded “well we have laws on gay marriage, you’re having a referendum on gay marriage so…
Black Death and Why I Am Finding My Faith Again
Sigh. I feel like I’ve said this a million times in my last few posts, but 2020 has been an exceptionally trying year, especially for Black people. I feel, in the last few months particularly, like every day that I wake up I have a new reason to be angry, to be frustrated, or to grieve. As Black people we have lost so many as a result of institutional racism and injustice and we continue to do so. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Christopher Kapessa. Belly Mujinga. Mercy Baguma. We have had to watch while white supremacy works at its most effective: Jacob Blake being shot in the back…
The Bluest Eye and the Pervasiveness of White Supremacy
Note: This post is written as if you have already read the book, but does not contain major spoilers that will prevent you from reading it if you haven’t. In fact, I hope that after reading this you order yourself a copy – it will be worth the read, trust me. Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, was first published 50 years ago. Set in Ohio during the Great Depression, the novel tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a dark-skinned Black girl who is made to believe that she is so ugly that she wishes for her eyes to be blue. Of course, that is a very simplistic summary.…
Why Black Excellence Will Not Defeat Racism
The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has sparked an international conversation about racism, specifically anti-Blackness. It is a conversation that has drawn in people from across countries and generations, and within the Black community we’ve been looking to our elders for history, guidance and comfort during this time when our pain is amplified and visceral. Many Black people, myself included, have expressed that we don’t want our children to grow up experiencing the same struggles that we, our parents, and our grandparents have experienced. Understandably, young Black people don’t want that to be their experience either. On 9 July Shaun Bailey, the Conservative London mayoral candidate, tweeted that a…
Why I’m Saying Bye to ‘BAME’
It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a god-awful year for this world. Without a shadow of doubt, it has been particularly awful for Black people. The never-ending fight against institutional racism has intensified in the past three months, with Covid-19 ravaging our community and the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd generating global protests against police brutality against Black people. The Black community has had to fight a pandemic and institutional racism at the same time, and it has been traumatising and draining in every way possible. The recent Black Lives Matter protests have led many non-Black people to consider the disease of anti-Blackness, some…
Purple Book Club: 5 Books that Have Shaped Me & Why
We’ve all read books that have impacted us, that have stayed with us and helped shape our understanding of the world. Last year, I was invited to give a talk at an independent girls’ school about literature that has done so for me. I’ve read so many books that at first I thought it would be an almost impossible task, but when I thought about it, I realised that at each stage of my life and education I’ve come across a book that has introduced me to or educated me on significant socio-political issues that have shaped my beliefs and influenced who I am today. These books have, in some…
Labour Leaks: 3 Reasons Why I, as a Black Woman, Can No Longer Support the Labour Party
WARNING: This is a very emotionally charged post. I am incensed about this particular topic and I am using this post as a form of catharsis. It is explicit. It is vitriolic. It is how I choose to express myself right now. If that’s not for you, look away. I won’t hold it against you, I promise. There have been four General Elections since I’ve been old enough to vote. I’ve never been wedded to one political party; I’ve always looked at what each party was promising at the time and decided based on that. Apart from my rule that I will never, EVER, vote Conservative (I would rather fuck…
