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Purple Hued Views

– a womanist blog

  • Home
  • About
  • Purple Book Club
    • Book Reviews
    • Bookish Articles
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie policy (UK)
  • Home
  • About
  • Purple Book Club
    • Book Reviews
    • Bookish Articles
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie policy (UK)

Recent Posts

  • 2022: New Year, New Thing?
  • Me and My ‘Mental Ruts’
  • Windrush: The Ongoing Battle for Justice
  • Putting Up Resistance: How to Get Involved
  • Windrush: A Further Update
Uncategorized

2022: New Year, New Thing?

It’s the start of a new year. A time for us to reflect on what has been and set resolutions for what will (hopefully) be. I know I’m not alone…

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January 1, 2022
The Personal

Me and My ‘Mental Ruts’

So, it’s been quite some time since I last wrote a blog post. It’s been a funny few months for me, as I can imagine it has been for many…

read more
August 1, 2021
Windrush

Windrush: The Ongoing Battle for Justice

Three years after the scandal broke in the media, the battle for justice for the Windrush Generation continues. The news of the Windrush Scandal caused huge outrage from people on…

read more
May 3, 2021
  • The Personal

    Happy Birthday to Me: A Love Letter to Myself

    November 9, 2020 / 1 Comment

    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,…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Adoption: why is it seen as the lesser option?

    September 16, 2018

    Rules of Engagement: Why We Need to Be Respectful of Minorities’ Time and Space

    February 12, 2019

    Black Death and Why I Am Finding My Faith Again

    August 31, 2020
  • Bookish Articles,  Purple Book Club

    On ‘Diversifying’ Your Bookshelf

    October 12, 2020 / 1 Comment

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

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    How to Get Your Reading Mojo Back

    January 12, 2021

    The Bluest Eye and the Pervasiveness of White Supremacy

    August 17, 2020

    Purple Book Club: 5 Books that Have Shaped Me & Why

    May 11, 2020
  • Race

    The Myths of British Progressiveness

    September 27, 2020 / No Comments

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Giving Blood: Why More Black People Ought to Do It

    August 28, 2019

    Why Telling Black People They Are Aggressive IS Aggressive In Itself

    November 4, 2018

    Why Black Excellence Will Not Defeat Racism

    July 26, 2020
  • The Personal

    Black Death and Why I Am Finding My Faith Again

    August 31, 2020 / 1 Comment

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Rules of Engagement: Why We Need to Be Respectful of Minorities’ Time and Space

    February 12, 2019

    Happy Birthday to Me: A Love Letter to Myself

    November 9, 2020

    Adoption: why is it seen as the lesser option?

    September 16, 2018
  • Bookish Articles,  Purple Book Club,  Race

    The Bluest Eye and the Pervasiveness of White Supremacy

    August 17, 2020 / No Comments

    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.…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    How to Get Your Reading Mojo Back

    January 12, 2021

    2021: My Bookish Goals

    January 4, 2021

    Purple Book Club: 5 Books that Have Shaped Me & Why

    May 11, 2020
  • Race

    Why Black Excellence Will Not Defeat Racism

    July 26, 2020 / No Comments

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Why I’m Saying Bye to ‘BAME’

    June 15, 2020
    Duke and Duchess of Sussex

    Meghan: A Story of British Racism

    January 12, 2020

    Giving Blood: Why More Black People Ought to Do It

    August 28, 2019
  • Race

    Why I’m Saying Bye to ‘BAME’

    June 15, 2020 / 2 Comments

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    To All the Friends Who Say ‘I Don’t See Race’

    September 25, 2018

    The Myths of British Progressiveness

    September 27, 2020

    Why Telling Black People They Are Aggressive IS Aggressive In Itself

    November 4, 2018
  • Bookish Articles,  Purple Book Club

    Purple Book Club: 5 Books that Have Shaped Me & Why

    May 11, 2020 / No Comments

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    How to Get Your Reading Mojo Back

    January 12, 2021

    The Bluest Eye and the Pervasiveness of White Supremacy

    August 17, 2020

    On ‘Diversifying’ Your Bookshelf

    October 12, 2020
  • Race and Politics

    Labour Leaks: 3 Reasons Why I, as a Black Woman, Can No Longer Support the Labour Party

    May 6, 2020 / 1 Comment

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Putting Up Resistance: How to Get Involved

    March 28, 2021

    Priti Patel and the Dangers of the Home Office

    December 6, 2020

    Windrush Scandal: Why the Personal is Political

    August 22, 2018
  • Book Reviews,  Purple Book Club

    Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

    April 30, 2020 / No Comments

    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…

    Read More
    Sara B.

    You May Also Like

    Fruit of the Lemon and the Stories of Our Elders

    February 14, 2021

    The Vanishing Half: Love, Identity & Empathy

    November 22, 2020
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About PHV

Hi and welcome to Purple Hued Views! This blog and online bookclub brings together a womanism-influenced view of life and a love of literature. I’m all about having genuine conversations about issues of race, gender (and so much more) and how people like me are affected by them in everyday life. I’m also a massive bibliophile and I love talking about books! So if that floats your boat then join me in looking at life through this lens.

Love, Sara B. xx

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