Time for Change: Action and powerful Words

Time for Change: Action and powerful Words

The HDN October Conference is almost upon us and when we meet in Birmingham next Monday we’ll shout our mantra ‘Walk your Talk’ as we aim to turn our well meaning words into meaningful action.

And so it is with Black History Month 2022. October’s theme is ‘Time for Change: Action not Words.’ We’re singing from the same hymn sheet at a time when Black History Month brings more possibilities than simply celebrating the achievements of Black people from history and the present.

It’s time to renew our focus on the future and shift the emphasis away from past struggles and achievements. Yes, let’s remember the pioneers of the past but action, or walking the talk, is about what is happening in the world right now and how we can effect positive change for all.

We need to move beyond making gestures to taking action, to fight racism in the workplace, in society and in our world, the housing sector. The UK is a more tolerant country than most, but we can get better… as many recent reports have highlighted. Racism has been found to be endemic across a range of sectors, including education, the NHS and policing.

Words have a part to play too, but not in isolation. In October the Poets Corner in London features four weeks of performances from writers and speakers including the Young People’s Poet Laureate Theresa Lola and British-Trinidadian dub poet Roger Robinson. The initiative is part of a collaboration with Canary Wharf and creative collective SXWKS – set up to highlight the importance of honouring Black culture in Britain.

Sport is so powerful

Just as the arts can paint a vivid picture, sport stars can bring to life how we can come together to celebrate different cultures and tackle racism. In the cricket world Yorkshire CCC were engulfed by a racism scandal in 2021 and the sport is working hard to pout its house in order. And, last month we spoke to Roland Butcher, the first black cricketer to represent England, in our podcast series and at our London Network event.

Roland runs sporting academies in Barbados to help young people integrate and he is in the UK during Black History Month with speaking engagements up and down the country.

And Formula 1 hero Lewis Hamilton continues to campaign for racial equality, and he wants Black History Month to be a catalyst for stories of black history to be more heavily integrated into school curriculums. Hamilton is a big friend to minorities and has previously supported LGBT rights by wearing a flag on his helmet.     

Mirror Mirror get it right!

The UK press, for all its faults, is often lauded overseas for its determination to promote freedom of speech, though certain news outlets seem to use that as a shield for some pretty non inclusive campaigns.

And editors and sub-editors have often been caught out for making embarrassing gaffes which, with care and some level of respect, could easily be avoided. This time it was the turn of the Daily Mirror which, at the start of Black History Month, used a picture of the wrong person in an article about Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. Instead of using a pic of the beleaguered Tory the Mirror somehow managed to print a photo of Bernard Mensah, the president of international for the Bank of America.       

Kwarteng is having a bad enough week as it is without the Mirror failing to recognize him!

https://hdnstage.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/young-african-woman-group-demonstrators-city-streets-multiracial-people-protesting-equality-empowerment-feminism-protest-300×200.jpg