Diane Julie Abbott is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020. She is both the first black woman elected to parliament and the longest-serving black MP. Though she is a member of the Labour Party, she sits in the House of Commons as an independent, having had the whip suspended in April 2023.
The Runnymede Trust is a British race equality and civil rights think tank. It was founded by Jim Rose and Anthony Lester as an independent source for generating intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, leading debate and policy engagement.
Universities UK (UUK) is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. It began life in the early 20th century through informal meetings of vice-chancellors of a number of universities and principals of university colleges and was previously known as the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom (CVCP). As of August 2023, UUK is led by President Sally Mapstone – Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of St Andrews – and Chief Executive Vivienne Stern. UUK is registered charity with an annual income of £13.7 million, which is largely raised from its member institutions.
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British citizens of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent. The term Black British developed in the 1950s, referring to the Black British West Indian people from the former Caribbean British colonies in the West Indies sometimes referred to as the Windrush Generation and people from Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and are British citizens.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body in Great Britain, established by the Equality Act 2006 with effect from 1 October 2007. The Commission has responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of equality and non-discrimination laws in England, Scotland and Wales. It took over the responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. The EHRC also has responsibility for other aspects of equality law: age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. A national human rights institution, it seeks to promote and protect human rights throughout Great Britain.
Hakim Adi is a British historian and scholar who specializes in African affairs. He is the first African-British historian to become a professor of history in the UK. He has written widely on Pan-Africanism and the modern political history of Africa and the African diaspora, including the 2018 book Pan-Africanism: A History. Currently a professor at the University of Chichester, Adi is an advocate of the education curriculum including the history of Africa and its diaspora.
Turning Point is a health and social care service provider that utilizes a person-centered care approach to support individuals with complex needs, which include drug and alcohol-related issues, mental health, learning, and employment-related issues. In 2017, Turning Point secured the contract to provide sexual health services in three London boroughs [1], and Autism Plus became part of the Turning Point group [2]. Many of Turning Point's services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission [3].
Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE) is an anti-racist organisation founded by the Committee for a Workers' International it campaigns among young people in 16 countries in Europe. YRE was launched by an international demonstration of 40,000 people against racism, in Brussels in October 1992.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson is a Trinidadian-Canadian human rights advocate and union leader known for organizing the landmark $2.5 billion Black Class Action lawsuit against the federal Government of Canada for systemic discrimination against Black workers. He is the Executive Director of the Black Class Action Secretariat, a national non-profit organization that works to dismantling systemic discrimination in all sectors of Canadian life. Thompson is also the host of the Union Matters show, where he advocates for the elimination of racial discrimination in Canada's public service and labor unions.
Eunice Olumide MBE is a Scottish fashion model and actress.
Racism in the United Kingdom refers to negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity within the viewpoints of groups or individuals or existing systemically in the United Kingdom. The extent and the targets of racist attitudes in the United Kingdom have varied over time. It has resulted in cases of discrimination, riots and racially motivated murders. Racism was uncommon in the attitudes and norms of the British class system during the 19th century, in which race mattered less than social distinction: an African tribal chief was unquestionably superior to an English costermonger. Use of the word "racism" became more widespread after 1936, although the term "race hatred" was used in the late 1920s by sociologist Frederick Hertz. Laws were passed in the 1960s that specifically prohibited racial segregation.
David Adetayo Olusoga is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and filmmaker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian.
The UK Home Office hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may "voluntarily leave". The Home Office policy was first announced in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. The policy was widely seen as being part of a strategy of reducing UK immigration figures to the levels promised in the 2010 Conservative Party Election Manifesto.
The Windrush scandal was a British political scandal that began in 2018 concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries, as members of the "Windrush generation".
Guy Arlington Kenneth Hewitt is a Barbadian British Anglican priest, racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion advocate, and specialist in social policy and development. He held the ambassadorial appointment of High Commissioner of Barbados in London from 2014 to 2018. He previously worked with the University of the West Indies, Caribbean Policy Development Centre, Commonwealth of Nations, Caribbean Community, and the City and Guilds of London Institute.
Cleveland Anthony Sewell, Baron Sewell of Sanderstead,, is a British educational consultant and founder and chair of the educational charity Generating Genius. In July 2020, Sewell was appointed chair of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities tasked with looking into race disparity in the UK. Sewell sits as a life peer in the House of Lords. He has been described as an admirer of the Black conservative scholar Thomas Sowell.
Jacqueline "Jacqui" McKenzie is a British human rights lawyer specialising in migration, asylum and refugee law. Her legal career encompasses practice in the areas of civil liberties, crime and immigration with solicitors Birnberg Peirce and Partners, and since 2010 running her own immigration consultancy, McKenzie Beute and Pope (MBP), having previously spent more than a decade in senior local government roles with responsibility for equalities, community development, communications and urban development. She joined human rights law firm Leigh Day as a partner in 2021. She is the founder of the Organisation of Migration Advice and Research, which works pro bono with refugees and women who have been trafficked to the UK. McKenzie has won recognition for her work seeking justice for victims of the Windrush scandal that initially gained notoriety in 2018. She was named one of the top 10 most influential black Britons in the Powerlist 2022.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson Et Al V. His Majesty The King (T-1458-20) is a landmark case known as the Black Class Action filed with the Federal Court of Canada on December 2, 2020. The $2.5-billion claim filed by both current and former Black public servants seeks damages for "the unjust practice of Black employee exclusion due to systemic discrimination" dating back to the 1970s. The Black Class Action is a registered non-for-profit organization that is coordinating the legal action.
The LGB Alliance is a British nonprofit advocacy group founded in 2019, in opposition to the policies of LGBT rights charity Stonewall on transgender issues. Its founders are Bev Jackson, Kate Harris, Allison Bailey, Malcolm Clark and Ann Sinnott. The organization has said that lesbians are facing "extinction" because of the "disproportionate" focus on transgender identities in schools.
The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) was a UK Government commission supported by the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office. It was established in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. Boris Johnson gave it the brief of investigating race and ethnic disparities in the UK. Johnson argued that the UK needed to consider important questions about race relations and disparities and that a thorough examination of why so many disparities persist and what needed to be done to work out to eliminate or mitigate them.
