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Race Relations In The Black Country, Where Three-Quarters Of People Are White

You grab your facemask and clutch the placard that reads, 'Enough is Enough'. You walk down the familiar roads of your hometown, heading towards the Black Lives Matter protest. Upon arrival you casually recognise the turn out of the demonstration to be reflective of the town you've known your whole life: a handful of black and brown people amongst a sea of white faces. But when the white faces are standing up against systemic racism too, does that mean a town that could once be so culturally alienating now has the potential to be progressive?

The Black Country is made up of Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton and my hometown of Dudley. According to a 2016 report by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, just under a quarter of the residents aren’t white. As someone who has lived in the Black Country for more than two decades, that surprising statistic seems inaccurate.