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How The Activate Collective Are Changing The Face Of British Politics

2020 was a year of reckoning for us all. But many of us across the world let out a collective sigh of relief when, on the 7th of November, Joe Biden was the projected winner of the US Presidential election. Black women and non-Black allies the world over celebrated as a historical milestone was reached; Kamala Harris would be the first Black/Bi-racial woman to take office as a Vice-President. We felt collective pride and collective hope. Many in the UK asked, ‘Where are the Kamala Harrises of the UK?’

This question irked me for many reasons, but mostly because Black women like this already exist in the UK. They may not have the same political leanings, but Black women in UK politics are paving the way for others who look just like them.

Approximately 20 years after Enoch Powell’s racist and divisive ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, the RT Hon Diane Abbott MP – a Black woman, a child of parents from the Windrush Generation – walked through the doors of the House of Commons as the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She was the first ever Black woman to be elected into Parliament.