Dear Darren / Sir Nicholas, Arts Council England (ACE) has tried everything it can think of to improve diversity. The effort has been immense (this should be acknowledged) but the results, in your own words, have been ‘disappointing’. Your recent calls for the Arts Council to do better on racial inequality going forward are welcome. …
I’m walking down a busy west end street. In front of me a few yards ahead is a man, crouched on his feet, almost in a fetal position on the steps of a church. His right hand is rubbing his head. I intend to walk past, making the conscious decision not to look again, in …
Through social media, people often ask me what they can do about racism. There is no simple answer but certainly, it requires a deeper commitment than spending half an hour scrolling through your timeline on instagram. Racism is centuries old and so ingrained in society that many of us don’t know we are being racist …
To future-proof the creative sector we must root out systemic funding bias against BAME organisations starting with an equitable sharing of the £1.57 billion bailout package.
There will be no social media storms about miseducation perpetrated by some teachers on black children and yet these acts have ripple effects on our community over many generations. Equal – and I’d say related– to the brutal violence perpetrated by our criminal justice system.
To some extent, teachers inevitably reflect the breadth of attitudes in society, including those on race. Twenty-five per cent of the general public admit to having racist attitudes. Whilst this will likely be less amongst teachers, it is certain that some will also hold such views. But how many? And what exposure do black children …
Growing up in the seventies there was no such thing as a middle-class black man. The type of person I am now simply didn’t exist then. I was very aware of my working-class status and like many black children, then and now, I felt less than someone who was white. The older I got, the …