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…
National Windrush Day has passed. Where do we go from here?
Saturday 22 June saw the arrival of the UK’s first official Windrush Day, a day commemorating the arrival of British citizens from the Caribbean on the Empire Windrush in 1948, and celebrating the immense contribution the Windrush generation has made to British society and economy for the last 70+ years. Windrush Day also brought with it the announcement of a memorial dedicated to the Windrush generation in Waterloo station, where many members of the Windrush generation first arrived in London. The announcement was met with a mixed reception, with members of the community questioning the choice of location, criticizing the lack of consultation and, quite rightly, wondering where was…
The Windrush Scandal Isn’t Over: CALL TO ACTION
Last year, the news of the Windrush scandal shot into mainstream political discourse and, rightfully, became a subject of national outrage. Members of the Windrush generation – Caribbean people and their children who were invited here as British citizens to help rebuild Britain and fill labour shortages after World War II – suddenly found themselves being deported, fired, losing access to their benefits or pensions, losing their homes, access to healthcare and even access to their bank accounts. Some, who had travelled abroad to see friends or family, found themselves unable to return to the UK, stranded in the countries they’d gone to visit. Why? Because Theresa May, our soon-to-be former Prime…
Rules of Engagement: Why We Need to Be Respectful of Minorities’ Time and Space
I had (what I’m now going to call) a rather insightful week last week, and I learned some valuable lessons. Lessons that I think life has been trying to teach me for some time now that I haven’t really been listening to, thinking that things are and will be fine and I can just keep going as I am because that’s just how I do things. Well it seems 2019 is here to tell me that’s not true, and it is doing so by slapping me in the face with what is true: I am only human, and every human being has their limits. 2019 has started really well…
