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…
Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Author: Colson Whitehead Published by: Fleet, 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 💜💜💜💜 Synopsis “Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no…
The Jamaica Deportation Charter Flights: The Fallacies
Another month, another truckload of Tory oppression. As you will all know by now, the deportation charter flight that lawyers, campaigners and even some MPs were trying to stop took off nonetheless on February 11. I think we all knew it was going to, because this government is wedded to racism and oppression tighter than [insert your own analogy here]. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The tireless work of organisations like Detention Action and Movement for Justice meant that the Court of Appeal granted an application to have the detainees from Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres with O2 SIM cards removed from the flight because of concerns over…
Windrush: An Update
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Windrush Scandal is STILL a scandal. It is a scandal that has destroyed families: impoverishing them, separating them, causing them both mental and physical distress. It is a scandal that has claimed lives. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about you can read my posts about the scandal here, here and here. Given that such an egregious scandal is still ongoing, you would think it would be dominating the national conversation but oh no. You would think that it would at least be a feature during a General Election campaign, but there was barely even a whisper. You would…
Meghan: A Story of British Racism
For a long time, I was one of those Brits who didn’t really care too much about the monarchy. I didn’t have much interest in their lives, or their weddings – when Wills and Kate got married I took advantage of the extra bank holiday to go on a city break to Copenhagen. The way I saw it was: they’re there, there’s little I can do about it, but if we were to ever have a referendum on their abolishment I would 100% vote yes. As I’ve gotten older, my feelings about their abolishment have gotten stronger and I am now of the opinion that the entire institution should be…
Purple Book Club: My 2020 Reading Pledges
Every year, without fail, I pledge to read more books. I reminisce about the days when I was much younger and I used to polish off books quicker than I’d polish off any chocolate dessert I was given (ok, that’s hyperbole). I remember my mum buying me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the summer before I started Year 7. The book didn’t last me the summer as I read all 600+ pages in a day. But alas! I’m all grown up now and life routinely gets in the way of how much and how quickly I read. I don’t have time to sit and read all day without…
#GE2019: Anti-Semitism and the Erasure of Minority Voices
The General Election is this week. Despite the fact that there are plenty of candidates standing for other parties, the reality facing us is that the real competition is between Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the Conservatives, ‘led’ by Boris Johnson. This has been, in my opinion, one of the nastiest election campaigns in recent history, and as such I have actively tried to stay away from it as I knew where my vote was going the minute the election was called. But among the many, many aspects of this election campaign that have seriously disturbed me, there is one issue that has really done so more than others, and…
Giving Blood: Why More Black People Ought to Do It
A few months ago, I received a letter from the NHS informing me that I have the sickle cell trait. For those of you who are unfamiliar, sickle cell disease is a group of red blood cell disorders. Red blood cells contain haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body, and people who suffer from sickle cell produce abnormally shaped red blood cells. These ‘sickle’ shaped cells die prematurely or can get stuck in small blood vessels, blocking them and causing serious medical problems. Sickle cell anaemia is the most serious type of sickle cell disease, and those who have it are susceptible to life-threatening infections, loss of vision or stroke and…
Self-Doubt and the Importance of Remembering Your ‘Why’
WARNING: There’s going to be a lot of omphaloskepsis in this post. If you think you’re going to struggle with that, I suggest you look away now. For those of you who are staying with me, I also want to say I am no self-help guru or life expert. But life in recent months has had me mulling this over a lot, and I thought I’d share a bit of myself and one of my coping mechanisms with you. This will probably come as a surprise to those who know me personally or who have worked with me in the past, but I promise every word of what I’m about…
