no fairytale ending?

Now that’s macabrely poetic.

The day dedicated to spooky stories and scary truths is also the day that brings the curtain down on Black History Month in the UK. 

Perhaps it’s fitting, Black history is, on one level, a handbook for horror stories and bone-chilling truths.

A bone-chilling truth known to all of us who identify with any one of the annual days, weeks or months marked in the calendar to shine a light on part of their identity that is routinely marginalised is that the day after ‘the event’, we're still that person… Black, Gay, Woman, Disabled… Other. As normal service resumes, our reality continues, squeezed into the narrow and restricting frame constructed for us by a society that centres identity traits other than ours and designs its systems around them. All while struggling with the belief that the frame can be widened to make space for all of us!

So perhaps the most powerful reframe we can all do after a Black History Month dedicated to Reframing Narratives is to make tomorrow, and every day after, one where Black stories, Black colleagues, Black excellence, Black joy, and the truth of being Black in a world simmering with anti-Blackness are sought out, listened to, valued, loved and supported. And all the knowledge and understanding gained is used to influence our actions and set the tone for the spaces we have the privilege to create and shape. 

If you’re unsure what this might look and feel like, or where to start, start by talking with, and listening to, your Black colleagues and friends, and connect with any one of the Black inclusion experts you’ll find on here doing the work to help organisations transform their culture to one where everyone can thrive.

Then repeat this work for the many other communities sidelined with us.

Because one narrative that should always be centred is that we RISE together!

✨ To everyone celebrating … love, light and joy this Diwali ✨