Not in the family portrait: BME voters and Brexit – Part II

By Brian Alleyne Brexit, social class and ethnicity According to research done by Lord Ashcroft, people in England and Wales who were older, lived outside major cities, had lower levels of education and a lower social class position tended to vote Leave. Conversely, people in London and the larger English cities, with higher levels of… Read More

Anti-racism work that doesn’t battle misogyny, and specifically misogynoir is not doing its job

by Folarin Akinmade I’m middle class. As in going-to-private-school-and-being-part-of-a-chapel-choir middle class. I sang for the Queen once. She was nice, I guess. I’m also British-Nigerian, the child of Nigerian immigrants. My middle class-ness is not necessarily performed in the same way as it might be by a white English middle class person. If we think… Read More

Even with “inclusive” Shakespeare, whiteness takes priority

by Kelly Kanayama  Gregory Doran, the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, came under fire recently for a Times article entitled “Lack of diversity not a problem, says RSC boss”. The article stated that Doran “did not want the middle classes sidelined” and wanted to maintain “equal rights” for “those of us who are white… Read More

Is David Cameron Right? Or Has The British Middle Class Lost Its Mind?

by Ahmed Olayinka Sule On 17 May 2004, American comedian Bill Cosby delivered his famous “Pound Cake Speech” in which he castigated the “lower economic people” of the black race for their criminal behaviour, their clothes, their names, their poor parenting skills and their tattoos. Each acerbic attack by Cosby on poor African Americans was… Read More

A Cut Above the Rest: Class and race elitism and the Fifa World Cup in Brazil

by Angelo Martins Jr Caught in the grip of World Cup fever, it’s a strange feeling to see the colours and flag of my home country Brazil everywhere on the streets of London. Despite our love of football, the 2014 FIFA World Cup has been a controversial issue in Brazil. The anti-world cup protests, which… Read More

“Black people don’t go to galleries” – The reproduction of taste and cultural value

by David Osa Amadasun Since childhood I have always been curious as to why rich people were rich and the poor were poor. Fast-forward two decades and that same curiosity has evolved into a call for action to do something about the insidious ways in which inequalities infect our daily lives. It was during the… Read More