antiracistNHS

  With YouTube in the background I became aware of a cheery ‘style coach’ onscreen with a TED talk about how dressing ‘for confidence’ would make one confident. As someone with no eye for clothing, I was struck that what was transfixing was the potential to use the analogy of changing attitudes rather than outfits – if we are not prepared to change our mind, what is the point of having one. Conversation is a way of getting to know other people and for them to get to know us. In this way it has the potential to be enormously rewarding when positive and mutual. But, there are also conversations that will have a confrontational tone – and discussions about race are the epitome of such potentially difficult topics. A key aim here is to preserve a constructive attitude and to avoid losing control and creating a negative interaction. Body language, facial appearance, vocal tone are as important as the actual words said . Even the position in a sentence of certain ‘negative’ words (su...

  When you’re happy you enjoy the music, when you’re sad, you understand the lyrics – the duality of supporting the England football team The decisive penalty in the Euro 2020 final had no sooner been saved than the overwhelming majority of black and ethnic minority people knew what was to come. The subsequent waves of racism and hate were neither surprising in tone nor in the fact that much of it originated from apparently ‘decent’ people who would conceive of themselves as ‘not having a single racist bone in their body’. This latent, but frequently palpable, xenophobia is something ethnic minority people are very attuned to, and familiar with. It is what makes many uncomfortable about waving flags of St George or unconditionally cheering the team: the transition from ‘English star’ to ‘winger of Nigerian parents’ is quickly made in the media. What made ethnic minority people more openly supporting of the national team this time was the inclusive and brave leadership of Gareth S...

‘ ‘Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others’ – Booker T Washington The National Health Service is famously the largest employer in Europe. Equally importantly, it relies on a wide range of occupations, an estimated 350 , from over 200 nationalities , to keep the system functioning. Approximately 170,000 of NHS staff report non-British nationality , over 100,000 of whom are from non-EU countries. This represents approximately 1 in 7 of all NHS employees, with a large proportion working in London and the Midlands. The roots of this critical component of the NHS workforce grow in the soil of the establishment of the NHS. Understanding the origin story helps explain the demographics, and the challenges, of the current workforce. There were less than two weeks between the docking of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury on 22 nd June 1948 and the launch of the NHS on 5 th July that same year. The British Nationality Act of 1948   created the status of "citizen of th...