Where do we start? These past few weeks have been such an eye-opener to us. As avid quote collectors and book-keepers, we were horrified to look through our shop and realise that all our many authors and poets (both male and female) were largely white. This was not in any way deliberate but it completely highlighted the huge multi-layered issue of white privilege and ignorance. On our journey to educate ourselves, we turned to the internet to find a variety of black authors, poets, and creatives. However, on Pinterest particularly, we found early on that incredible poets such as Lewis Grandison and Samuel Alfred Beadle were not to be found on a single pin. Again, another blow. But this is one that we could help to rectify. Such magical and heartfelt prose should not be hard to find, it should be broadcast to the masses. And now that we know the scarcity of these authors, we will be adding their portraits and words online and we will be proudly adding them to our clothes - where they ALWAYS should have been.
Diversity shouldn’t be an afterthought or only looked at when your hand is forced to. And this is us putting our hands up and admitting that we need to do better and we will. We all need to be willing to admit our past mistakes, learn from those who know better than us, and never stop educating ourselves. The work is never done. We need to start by learning about the very long history of systemic racism all over the world. Yes, even the United Kingdom, especially in the UK. To start, here are some petitions that only take a few minutes to make a difference, for free:
https://www.change.org/p/suspend-uk-export-of-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-and-riot-shields-to-usa
https://www.change.org/p/department-of-education-battle-racism-by-updating-reading-lists-at-gcse
There are also many books that are readily available, there really is no excuse to be ignorant of these issues:
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Freedom Is A Costant Struggle
Beloved by Toni Morrison
These are but a few of the many resources that we can turn to for education. We just need to make the effort to learn.
Here's to real and long lasting change.
Emily and Tracey at Enough Already.
'Words - a beaming lamp to idea's feet' -Samuel Alfred Beadle