Fireworks night – a guide for the uninitiated
The fifth of November is remembered every year in England as Fireworks Night, the anniversary of the foiled Gunpowder plot to blow up King James I at the opening of Parliament.
Category: Thing of the Day
A round-up of the bizarre and brilliant of the web corralled by the University of Portsmouth Library.
Saluting our sisters: moving towards the present day
Looking back over the Black History Month blog posts from last year, you will find descriptions of the many powerful Black women who successfully overcame the frightening violence and persecution that followed the uptick in racism and fearmongering in the 1950s following the post-war economic collapse. Figures such as Mavis Best who changed the law from a tool of persecution to a standard for equality that gave police sweeping powers of arrest without cause and allowed them to intimidate Black people with the threat of arbitrary arrest and instigated the Race Relations Act of 1965 that replaced colonial laws and established equal rights in law for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. These figures are so important that I wanted to revisit them again briefly here.
Black women making waves since Roman times
Contrary to the prevailing myth that Black people arrived to an entirely white population mid-20th century on the Windrush, archaeological evidence suggests Britain was ethnically diverse from at least the time the Roman Empire arrived in Britain, facilitating international trade and mobility and have answered the call to aid Britain from every corner of her empire ever since.
Black History Month in the Library 2023
Saluting sisters: celebrating the impact of Black British women This Black History Month, we are focusing on the history, legacies and lasting impact of Black women. With so much online content focused on Afro-Americans, I have tried to centre Black …
In a world determined to run mad, there’s still “The Onion”
Whatever befalls you in life, you may rely on The Onion for biting, on-point satire. Even with the grim spectre of right-wing extremism on the rise in America, we may rely on The Onion to bring us happy parody and lighten the mood.
Moral panics and media terrorism
There seems to be a lot of moral panics at the moment. Unhappily, they are largely engineered by fearful people determined to indulge their prejudices by undermining the safety and security of society.
Engage your brain better and faster with sketchnoting
You think you can’t draw? You feel embarrassed to show anything in public? How about just sketching for yourself? Read on.
Bringing the change: four steps towards racial equality
All that is necessary for racism to continue to flourish is for people like you to do nothing, but what can just one person achieve? From the examples of Black activists, we can see that under the right circumstances and with sufficient ability and will, we can see individuals can achieve quite a lot but that there are limits to what can be achieved by isolated individuals fighting institutionalised oppression. This post suggests four steps you can take to become actively antiracist and challenge the endemic racism in our society and institutions.
A country where it is unsafe to be Black?
From Steven Lawrence to Chris Kaba, it is evident that Britain is not a safe place to be Black, while a quick look at the death rates in healthcare suggests these headlines only highlight the tip of a lethal inequality iceberg. It is imperative that everyone take notice and act to end the endemic inequalities in our society and institutions.
Heroes of British Black History – Kath Locke
Educational campaigner, opponent of divisive methods of taxation, and co-founder of the Abasindi Co-operative – a Black women’s self-help cooperative in Manchester responsible for a variety for community outreach projects.
