Editor’s Letter Volume 6: Community

This year’s traumatic events have reminded us how important it is to be part of a community. As the coronavirus spread across the world, Black and ethnic minorities were found to be disproportionately affected. In addition to underlying medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure that already affect minorities the most, the pandemic magnified systemic inequalities because many of us work in essential, frontline services.

The May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement at a time when Britain was still reeling from the initial impact of the virus crisis. The BLM demonstrations quickly spread from America across the world as other marginalised communities took inspiration from the BLM cause to launch their own protests, although many of these failed to grab the headlines. We take a look at such events on page 36 in Asian Storms.

Corporations are increasingly “woke“ to the power of the Black pound. More and more Black people are prioritising purchasing Black-owned goods and services. From cosmetics to fashion and from job recruitment to mechanics, you can support the small businesses listed in our KOL Social Directory on page 78.

Black and Brown people are still victims of unacceptable levels of discrimination. These concerns are illustrated in Britain’s first ever charity magazine to be aimed at people of colour, which is being launched by Voice4Change England as our free supplement for this and upcoming issues of the KOL Social. V4CE kicks off with the theme of immigration on page 44. As Clear As Black And White examines how previously classified UK government documents expose how Britain’s immigration policies explicitly tried to prevent the entry of ethnic minorities. On page 48 we hear about the devastating, decades-long experiences of victims of the Windrush scandal.

It doesn’t matter what part of the globe we are from, Black and ethnic minorities are certainly all in it together. It’s good to be back in the heart of the KOL Social community.