This blog post was written by Megan Henderson, our Senior Communications & Events Officer.
As Five Talents continues to look inward and recognise where the power and privilege lie within our organisation, our UK staff team has spent a lot of time reading, watching and listening. We realise that this is a long road and we are only at the start of our journey, but we want to share this process with you, our supporters, wherever we can. We know, much like our Savings Groups, that we are stronger together. We hope by sharing our journey with you, we can help each other recognise the power, privilege and biases in our lives. Poverty is an injustice - one that we have been fighting against for twenty years - but we know it is inextricably linked with other injustices too.
Many of you may already know this, but actually: I’m not British! I’m an American expat who relocated to London in 2018 and began working for Five Talents shortly afterwards. When George Floyd’s death shook the world, I watched my American friends and family at a distance - I was unsure how to respond or act; unsure how I could show support and solidarity in strange mid-pandemic times a world away. While London and the UK were feeling more and more like home, my first home was recognising issues long overdue, and it made me think: what do I know about race in the UK? What issues are here just under the surface that I’m completely unaware of? My American genes made me feel like a foreigner here, but in reality my whiteness was still a privilege. I’m not truly seen as an immigrant in the UK until I speak!
Although there were some #BlackLivesMatter events within London and the UK, I didn’t feel safe going in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, but I did feel this was the right time to think, listen and learn. US history and culture framed my mindset and my knowledge of racial injustice, but it was time to learn a bit more. So, I started to Google: what was it like to be Black and British?
I quickly realised, I wasn’t the only one searching! Black British history still isn’t widely taught in schools (Black history gets missed in many US schools too!), but David Olusoga wants to change that. He’s the writer and presenter of Black and British: A Forgotten History on BBC, which I highly recommend you give a watch. He’s written a book which provides even more detail than the BBC series and gives comprehensive context to the UK’s relationship with Africa and the Caribbean. But most importantly -- David has adapted his work for children too. As we begin to understand our own relationship to racial injustice, it’s important we look at what the next generation hears and sees so we can learn from our Black and British history rather than repeat our white and privileged past.