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What It Means To Be Black In A BAME-Majority City

Often people in the British cultural and political elite talk about black people as though we are  homogenous. Or worse, they push us into the acronym BAME – ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic’ – and act like everyone who is non-white in this country must be the same. That’s how you get Health Minister Matt Hancock, in response to a question about why there are no black people in our current government cabinet, answering assuredly that Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak have provided the representation that we need.

However, there are several differences between and within the ‘B’, the ‘A’, and the ‘ME’. There are many different types of groups within the ‘B’ because black people in Britain are a diverse array of West Indians, West Africans, East Africans, Central Africans and Southern Africans, as well as other minority black groups.

Moreover, despite the fact that, as Black Ballad have recently acknowledged, “it is the Black London voice that is the loudest” in our media, in reality there are numerous people of colour north of the M25.