"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, whilst loving someone deeply gives you courage"  Lao Tzu  As February is often referred to as the month of love (as in the middle of it falls Valentine’s Day) I thought I would explore ‘black love’. When deciding to write about this topic it had me thinking; what exactly does black love mean?   I googled it and not much came to surface however, it is a very large topic with many aspects and layers associated to it. Since there was not much to go on, I had no definite idea or clear concept about this particular subject.   I initially wrote a blog about black love; however, when I finished it I wasn’t sure whether I was doing this topic any justice.   This first draft (which ended up in the dustbin) tried to cover so much. It touched on slavery, interracial relationships, the degradation of black women and so forth. All these areas are extremely relevant but after writing my blog and reading it several times I came

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.  Love leaves a memory no one can steal" Unknown It’s an old age tradition that before we embark on a new year we set out goals and aspirations that we wish to strive for during the year ahead.  Unfortunately, statistics show that a high percentage of us abandon our resolutions by the end of February.  As the year commences I wanted to bring to your attention (in particularly the black community) the importance of buying and ensuring that you and those close to you have life insurance and make sure that your affairs are in order as part of your resolution going forwards.   In recent years, it seems that we the black community have had a high rate of deaths and over the past 10 years I personally have attended more funerals than I have birthday parties, weddings or christenings. It appears that funerals and nine nights (Caribbean wake) have become a ‘social event’ where the community now comes together (and very frequentl

"The best gift around the Christmas Tree is the presence of Family wrapped in love" Anon It literally feels as if I have blinked and we are back in December, we have nearly completed 365 days, 52 weeks or a whole year. I am sure this year has had both blessings and challenges for us all. I have decided to keep my December blog light hearted but hopefully meaningful and reflective at the same time. I don’t think the new millennial’s will ever experience Christmas the way most of us did growing up…. Yes, I am referring to those of us who grew up in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and some 90s children. For me, Christmas was pure excitement in the house; I came from a large family and a very large extended family, friends and friends who became family. I remember from mid-November my mum, dad, siblings and I (as I was the ‘wash belly’, the Jamaican terminology for last child, I never had my elder sibling’s pressures) would start wiping down the house, cleaning the windows, changing t

"The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness" Marcus Garvey With Remembrance Day (or Poppy Day as it is commonly known) approaching on 11th November; this year it is celebrating 100 years of World War l. I thought it would be beneficial to establish the involvement BAME people from the Commonwealth (Africa, Caribbean and India) contributed during this "Great" war. As a black British woman growing up in the UK, I was led to believe that the heroes that made a pivotal difference during the war were predominately white American’s, British and Europeans. During the Remembrance Sunday ceremony I would watch these servicemen marching with pride as they take part in the national ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall annually. As a child I wore a poppy on my coat, for me I did not understand the significance and I also think that it was the same for my mum who would buy it for me without hesitation.  

"The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are" (Maya Angelou) Back in my childhood days (the late 1980s) I remember discovering black history at around the age of 11 years old when my mother, older sisters and I went to watch a play at our local theatre called ‘ Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame ’.  I wasn’t even sure what we were going to watch and at the time I had no clue what black history was.  The closest recognition of black history was when the family gathered around to watch the TV series ‘ Roots ’, where we were told the unforgettable story of a West African boy named Kunta Kinte who was stolen from his village during his tribal manhood initiation and sold into the transatlantic American slave trade.  I recall it being ‘great’ TV and my older siblings and their friends having discussions about ‘our history’ and their vexation about how black people were ill treated. Throughout my primary education (and secondary to some degree) I was ta

The Metropolitan Police announced that they had given Police Officers the powers to stop and search individuals under section 60 during the 2018  Notting Hill Carnival  they say that they based the enhanced powers on the recent spate of violence in the capital and intelligence that they had received.   Stop and search is extremely controversial, in particularly within various BAME communities because of the disproportionate number of black and Asian people stopped.  I attended the carnival and could not believe the number of black men and boys that were stopped and searched by the police.  It was frustrating and heart breaking to say the least because many of the young boys did not have anything illegal on them but felt humiliated because they were cornered, draped up by the police and treated like thugs. I was told by a reveller that it was probably because they were in groups however, they were not the only ethnicity in groups at the carnival and everyone else seemed to be able