Black women are making American election history again. But behind every celebrated “first” sits another question. Why did the door remain closed for so long? This week, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in United States history. Melat Kiros became the first Black woman Colorado elected to Congress. These victories deserveContinue reading “58 years after Shirley Chisholm, what should Black political power deliver?”
Author Archives: blam UK
BRITAIN IS ABOUT TO SCAN YOUR FACE. YOU PROBABLY HEARD IT FROM LAGOS, NOT THE BBC.
Written by Grace A.L. Davis 6/11/2026 The Home Office is moving live facial recognition into general immigration enforcement. We went looking for who was reporting it. What we found says almost as much as the policy does. WHO IS TELLING YOU, AND WHO IS NOT On 4 November 2026, Liberty Investigates uncovered Home Office policyContinue reading “BRITAIN IS ABOUT TO SCAN YOUR FACE. YOU PROBABLY HEARD IT FROM LAGOS, NOT THE BBC.”
CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR GCSEs IN AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN LANGUAGES THIS BLACK HISTORY MONTH
LONDON, UK — A community-led campaign launched during Black History Month by barrister, linguistic justice advocate, and Founder of BLAM UK and Afro-Creole Languages Week, Ife Thompson, is calling on UK exam boards to end the structural exclusion of African language families and Afro-descendant Creoles and Pidgins from the GCSE Modern Foreign Languages MFL curriculum. The campaign, backed byContinue reading “CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR GCSEs IN AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN LANGUAGES THIS BLACK HISTORY MONTH”
Black History Is British History. So Why Do We Keep Stopping at England?
From Cardiff classrooms to Scottish poetry and eighteenth century Belfast, discover five Black figures whose stories challenge narrow ideas about history and belonging.
From the African Association to Reparations 129 Years of Global Black Resistance
On 24 September 1897, Black organisers in London founded the African Association as European empire was violently remaking Africa. Henry Sylvester Williams understood a truth that still matters. Racism and colonial domination crossed borders, so Black resistance had to cross borders too. The Association helped build an early infrastructure for modern Pan African politics. Today thatContinue reading “From the African Association to Reparations 129 Years of Global Black Resistance”
This Sickle Cell Awareness Month We Need to Talk About the 3%
September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month. But for people whose health depends on regular transfusions, awareness is not enough. There must be blood available when they need it. Around 10,000 people living with sickle cell are based in London, out of approximately 19,000 across the UK. Yet just 3% of blood donors nationally are fromContinue reading “This Sickle Cell Awareness Month We Need to Talk About the 3%”
A Public Media Lynching? Jason Arday and the Cost to Black Mental Health
Firstly, BLAM UK want to say that we are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic death of Professor Jason Arday, the youngest Black person ever appointed to a professorship at the University of Cambridge. We send our deepest love and solidarity to his family, friends and everyone grieving this devastating loss. Professor Arday wasContinue reading “A Public Media Lynching? Jason Arday and the Cost to Black Mental Health”
When Black Childhood Is Criminalised: How Daryl McLune’s Case Exposes Adultification, Anti-Black Racism and Human Rights Failures
In a landmark case, 20 year old Daryl McLune has won a race discrimination claim against the Metropolitan Police. McLune was only 16 when he returned home after his mother’s suicide attempt in July 2021 and was immediately treated as a suspect rather than a terrified son. A jury concluded the Met had “discriminated against Daryl McLune…Continue reading “When Black Childhood Is Criminalised: How Daryl McLune’s Case Exposes Adultification, Anti-Black Racism and Human Rights Failures”
Know Your Rights: What Laws & Regulations Protect Us from AI in Policing?
With the recent judgement which finds the Metropolitan Police’s expansive use of live facial recognition to be in accordance with the law, it is essential that Black and other racialised communities remain informed on the laws governing this use, and how this can be used for our protection when errors occur. The police are unableContinue reading “Know Your Rights: What Laws & Regulations Protect Us from AI in Policing?”
Why Black-led spaces make healing safer
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, led by the Mental Health Foundation, and the 2026 theme is Action. That matters. Awareness can name a problem, but action changes conditions. For Black British communities, action cannot stop at telling people to breathe more, journal more, or simply “reach out”. Action has to mean building and protectingContinue reading “Why Black-led spaces make healing safer”
