There will be no newsletter next week, as I will be on holiday. I will be somewhere in Italy drinking wine and eating delicious food that probably won't be pasta, as shockingly, I don’t like pasta. Yet, one of the best parts of getting away is that I will miss the majority of the new King’s Coronation.
I have tried my best to actively avoid any news coverage of an event that all of us taxpayers will foot the bill for while making cuts due to the living crisis. I mean, watching one of the richest families in the world wear crowns and diamonds that were stolen from our ancestors doesn’t constitute my idea of great TV or a good use of my time.
I never want this newsletter or Black Ballad to be a place where we drag black women down, but I do think as a responsible media outlet, we have the right to critique and should provide room to disagree. So with that in mind, I am so perplexed with Baroness Floella Benjamin’s comments. The TV presenter and author will carry part of the ceremonial regalia in the Coronation procession and has claimed that due to her involvement it sends a ‘clear message that diversity and inclusion are being embraced.” If I’m honest, I don’t disagree. Stay with me. Of course, when the entire world is tuning in, the Royals, this King will embrace diversity as his family needs to establish a global brand of inclusion and tolerance, and what easier way to do so than taking a respected black figure and using her as a PR prop to do so. I want better for Floella, and I want better for us.