Category Archives: Race

Bernardine Evaristo fears publishers may lose interest in black authors

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Diversity in book industry must be sustained, and start at the top, Booker prize-winning author tells Hay festival

The Booker prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo says she fears that publishers’ interest in black authors may be only a “trend or fashion” that could wane unless the business becomes more diverse.

Evaristo, who was the first black woman to win the literary prize for her novel Girl, Woman, Other in 2019, said that the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd in 2020 “really did shake the industry to the core” and had marked a turning point in previously “excluded” authors getting book deals.

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Buffalo shooting suspect charged with domestic terrorism and murder

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Grand jury’s 25-count indictment includes attempted murder as a hate crime and weapons possession

A grand jury on Wednesday charged the white 18-year-old accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder.

The suspect, who has been in custody since the 14 May shooting, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Erie county court.

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Outrage in Brazil as mentally ill Black man dies in police car ‘gas chamber’

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Genivaldo de Jesus Santos dies of asphyxiation as video shows officers forcing him into vehicle then releasing gas grenade

Brazilians have responded with outrage to the death of a mentally ill Black man who was bundled into the back of a police car by officers who then released a gas grenade inside the vehicle.

Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, was stopped by the federal highway police in the city of Umbaúba on Wednesday. Video footage of the incident shows two officers in helmets holding the car boot closed on his thrashing legs, as clouds of gas billow out of the vehicle.

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Birmingham communities feel ‘ignored’ by Commonwealth Games bosses

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Exclusive: panel says organisers have failed to engage city’s diverse groups in a meaningful way

Organisers of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham have left diverse communities feeling “largely ignored” and have failed to engage them in a meaningful way, according to a report.

The Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) commissioned a panel of race equality practitioners and consultants to assess the Games in a number of areas including legacy, community engagement and procurement.

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AstraZeneca reviews diversity in trials to ensure drugs work for all

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Firm aims to apply ‘equity lens’ across clinical tests to ensure diverse population groups take part

The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is conducting a major review of diversity across its trials in an attempt to ensure its medicines work for all population groups, although it has admitted that including pregnant women is a particular challenge.

The head of oncology at Britain’s biggest drugmaker, David Fredrickson told the Guardian that the firm was among those leading efforts to improve participation of people of colour and other under-represented groups in clinical trials.

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Racism in UK maternity care risks safety of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women – study

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Participants in charity’s year-long inquiry describe being ignored and feeling patronised and dehumanised

Systemic racism within UK maternity care is risking the safety of people from Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds, often with devastating consequences, according to a report by the childbirth charity Birthrights.

More than 300 people with lived and professional experience of racial injustice in a maternity setting gave evidence to an expert panel chaired by Shaheen Rahman QC, a barrister who specialises in clinical negligence, as part of the charity’s year-long inquiry into the issue.

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Sport stars support Welsh boy, 11, who lost finger escaping from bullies

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Boxer Anthony Joshua among those to contact Raheem Bailey, who suffered racial and physical abuse from fellow pupils

Sport stars including boxer Anthony Joshua have sent messages of support to an 11-year-old boy who lost a finger while trying to escape from school bullies.

Raheem Bailey, from Abertillery in south Wales, was attacked by a group of children on Tuesday, according to his mother, Shantal.

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UK’s ‘strictest headmistress’ fears schools will stop teaching Shakespeare

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Katharine Birbalsingh says move to decolonise English curriculum could mean Shakespeare replaced with black and female authors

The headteacher of a school described as the strictest in Britain has warned that William Shakespeare will disappear from classrooms as schools in England come under pressure to decolonise and diversify the curriculum.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the controversial headteacher at Michaela community school in north London, said Shakespeare had already been “lost” in many places in the US and cautioned: “We are following America in this way.”

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‘I’m not afraid’: after Buffalo racist attack, Black residents remain unbowed by terror

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If the alleged mass murderer’s goal was to inflict terror, then the man responsible for this trauma failed miserably

Less than an hour after the city of Buffalo, New York, took a 123-second pause on Saturday to memorialize the victims of the terrorist attack that shook the city a week ago, June Bloomfield held her own moment of silence.

Standing outside the Tops Market, the only grocery store in the area, where white supremacy stole the lives of 10 people, Bloomfield’s tears were obscured by sunglasses, a mask and her quiet resolve. “It’s not fear”, she said, trying to summon the words that described her feelings. “It’s … All I can say is, I’m not afraid.”

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‘In no city have I felt as unsafe as Berlin’: opera singer sues metro over racism claims

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The German capital’s liberal reputation has been derailed by clashes between subcontracted ticket inspectors and black people

A Berlin metro ticket controller squeezes through a throng of old-school punks, mariachi band members and burly men in leather chaps, all while jauntily humming Is’ mir egal, “It’s all the same to me”.

The 2015 viral ad, featuring Turkish-German Neukölln rapper Kazim Akboga, was a great marketing success for the German capital’s public transport company, BVG: if you ride on our metros, trams and buses, it said, you can be whoever you want to be – as long as you remember to buy a ticket.

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Black social worker Tasered by City of London police treated like ‘wild animal’

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Edwin Afriyie, 36, is suing the force after suffering a head injury and suicidal thoughts following the incident

A black social worker who was Tasered and knocked unconscious during a roadside stop says police treated him like a “wild animal.”

Edwin Afriyie, 36, is suing City of London police after suffering a head injury and suicidal thoughts following the incident.

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‘His heart is broken’: Buffalo mourns shooting victims as first funeral held

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Civil rights and community leaders gathered the night before to plead with the nation to confront and stop racist violence

The first of 10 funerals for the 10 Black people killed in a Buffalo supermarket was held on Friday following an impassioned gathering of Black civil rights and community leaders at a church the night before where speakers pleaded with the nation to confront and stop racist violence.

Set against accused shooter Peyton Gendron’s silence in court earlier on Thursday, the community and relatives of Andre Mackneil, Geraldine Talley and Ruth Whitfield gave voice to the grief and anger coursing through East Buffalo.

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US gun violence over weekend puts focus on easy access to weapons

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Violence includes Buffalo shooting that left 10 people dead, as well as two dead in Houston, one in Los Angeles and five in Chicago

America on Monday was picking up the pieces from a weekend of gun violence that – outside the cost of lives – has refocused the country’s leadership on the toxic interplay of political ideology and easy access to handguns and battlefield weapons.

In the most recent case, two people were killed Sunday and at least three others hospitalized after a shooting at a large Houston, Texas, flea market. In California, also on Sunday, at least one person died and five were wounded – including four listed in critical condition – after a shooting at a church with a predominantly Taiwanese congregation in Orange county, south of Los Angeles.

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Buffalo shooting: Biden says racist killing of 10 people ‘abhorrent to fabric of nation’

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Gunman shot 11 Black and two white victims at a supermarket that he broadcast on streaming platform Twitch before surrendering

After a white 18-year-old wearing military gear and live-streaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10 people and wounding three others, US president Joe Biden said racially motivated hate crime was “abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation”.

Police said the attacker shot 11 Black and two white victims before surrendering to authorities in an assault he broadcast on the streaming platform Twitch. Later, he appeared before a judge in a paper medical gown and was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge. He pleaded not guilty.

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‘A history maker’: Karine Jean-Pierre set for White House press secretary role

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She will be the first Black openly gay woman to step into the role, a symbol of change after the Donald Trump era

This week the blue door will slide back, a Black woman will walk to the lectern and a piece of White House history will be made.

Karine Jean-Pierre, facing rows of reporters and cameras, will be making her briefing room debut as the first Black woman and first openly gay person in the role of press secretary. Not that there will be much time to stand on ceremony.

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Sheku Bayoh inquiry must be ‘watershed moment’, say campaigners

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Hearings to examine 2015 death in custody in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, come after intense pressure from family

The public inquiry into the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh, which starts taking evidence this week, must be a “watershed moment” with the potential to prompt a wider dialogue about racism in Scotland, campaigners have said.

The hearings begin almost exactly seven years since the father-of-two died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015, and marks the first major public examination of institutional racism in Scotland since the Black Lives Matter movement galvanised around the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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Dominoes cannot be played quietly, as any child of Caribbean origin knows

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West Indian men gathering to play dominoes in north London have become the centre of a noise complaints row

It’s as West Indian as rice and peas and the barber shop: the slamming down of dominoes – hard – on a table as a group of elderly black men go head to head in a heated game.

“If you are West Indian you just can’t play dominoes without making a bit of noise,” says Ernest Theophile, 73, who has been playing dominoes, cards and backgammon with his friends in Maida Hill market square in north London for 12 years.

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New York teacher under investigation for cotton-picking lesson

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Teacher put on leave after allegedly telling class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton during lessons on slavery

School officials in Rochester, New York are investigating allegations that a white teacher told his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery in a seventh-grade social studies class.

“It made me feel bad to be a Black person,” one School of the Arts student, Jahmiere O’Neal, told reporters.

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David Oluwale: blue plaque for victim of police racism stolen hours after unveiling

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Theft from Leeds Bridge of memorial to British-Nigerian man who drowned in river in 1969 treated as hate crime

Detectives have launched a hate crime investigation after a blue plaque commemorating David Oluwale, a British-Nigerian man who died in 1969 after being harassed by police, was stolen within hours after being unveiled on Leeds Bridge.

An event to mark the installation of the plaque, attended by the leader of Leeds city council, was held between 5pm and 7pm on Monday and by 10pm it had been taken. The theft followed racist graffiti being daubed on the office of Leeds Civic Trust – which installs blue plaques in the city – on Sunday night.

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Florida rejects 54 math textbooks over ‘prohibited topics’ including critical race theory

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Move follows a series of hardline measures by Republicans in the state to alter teaching in schools as governor welcomes news

Florida’s education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks from next year’s school curriculum, citing alleged references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections, officials announced.

The department said in a news release Friday that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking [Best], but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”.

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