Role models other than those in sport or entertainment

[speedymama]

Most of the successful non-whites that one sees in the media tend to be from the world of sport or entertainment. I'm keen to ensure that my DTS have visibility of successful non-whites from the world of academia or business.

Most of you probably know about MPs such as Oona King, Dianne Abott and Keith Vaz.

I thought you might be interested to read about Dr Beverley Malone here , General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing and Mr Bernard Riberio here , who is originally from Ghana picture here , President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Please feel free to add to more if you wish.

I greatly admire Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan.Not academics or business people but still good role models.

Alice Walker
Maya Angelou
Malorie Blackman

Dr Mae C Jemison, here , the first black female astronaut. First came across her when I was at university and found her a real inspiration.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first female head of state in Africa when she was elected Presdient of Liberia last year here

Kenyan Environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004 here

Portia Simpson Miller who became Jamaica's first female Prime Minister earlier this year here

Baroness Valerie Amos
Baroness Patricia Scotland (first black female QC)

David Lammy MP

Tim Campbell (winner of the Apprentice in 2005 - not strictly entertainment)

I'll keep wracking my brain.

How could I forget the following

Condoleeza Rice (ignore politics!)
Colin Powell
Jesse Jackson
Rosa Parks
Coretta Scott King
Indira Ghandi
Ghandi
Winnie Mandela (she lost her way towards the end but she was a powerful icon to black South Africans during the struggle against apartheid)

Steven Beko

Benjamin Zephaniah
Doreen Lawrence

Indria Ghandi???!!..can u pls pls explain to me why, oh why she is a role model?

Although she is long dead, Mary Seacole is still a powerful role model.

has anyone mentioned Toni Morrisson (writer).

Actually, there are loads of writers from non-white backgrounds.

Moira Stuart
Bill Morris
Trevor Phillips
Rageh Omar
Clive Myrie
Paul Boateng
Zadie Smith
Bernie Grant
Willard White
Salman Rushdie
Lee Jasper
?? Mittal
Tariq Ali

That's just off the top of my head!

Indira Ghandi, politics aside, she became Prime Minister of a country that was at best patriarchal and at worst, mysogenistic.

In that repects, Benazir Bhutto is another one.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, the Iranian born founder of the charity Kids Company. The work she does is selfless.

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, scourge of the right wing press

Other writers

Zadie Smith (White Teeth etc)
Monica Ali (Brick Lane)
Seera Syal (OK, she is an actress also)
Ben Okri (Famish Road)
Vikram Seth (A Suitable Boy)
Andrea Levy (Small Island)
Walter Mosely (Denzil Washington looks mighty fine in the film adaption of his first book, Devil in a Blue Dress)
Bonnie Greer (playright and critic)
Kwame Kwei Armah (as a playright - Elmina's Kitchen is superb)

Oops, Mercy already mentioned Zadie Smith.

Perween Warsi, founder and managing director of S&A Foods.

Oh of course Shami Chakrabarti, I was trying to remember her name, wonderful woman.

Few more

Stuart Hall
Aung San Suu Kyi
Michael Nazir Ali (Bishop of Rochester)
Gulam Noon (founder of Noon Foods)
Kiri Te Kanawa (ok, strictly speaking an entertainer, as is Willard White, but not mainstream)

I know these next 2 don't fit the criteria but I think Madhur Jaffrey and Ken Hom deserve a mention.

Dr John Sentamu, Ugandan born Archibishop of York,here

The inventor of traffic lights.

Baronness Lola Young - professor, academic and author of a huge Arts Council Report 'Whose thetare...?'

Gary Younge - yes media, but serious,
Ditto Yasmin Alibhai Brown

Chris Offili - has his own installation room in Tate Britain
Also Sonia Boyce, and the other famous artist whose name I can't place..Turner Prize moninee, Julian..? all with works in tate britain.

The top notch architect designing the new destination-building INIVA gallery.

Tanika Gupta, playwirght, her new play will open at the Royal Court soon.

The woman who directed Bend It Like Beckham

And David Lammy is a MINISTER now!

Bruce Oldfield, clothes designer
Yana Johnson, founder and CEO of Yana Cosmetics
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, known as the first Black Farmer (he was on TV recently). Previously owned his own food and drink company

Darren Jordan
George Alagiah
Ozwald Boateng
Romero Bryan (up and coming fashion designer)

Message withdrawn

Garrett Morgan invented the traffic lights. He also invented a gas mask that was adopted by US fire departments and later refined by the US army for World War 1. Considering how white Americans treated black Americans in the early 1900s, his achievements are astounding. You can read more about him here

Madam CJ Walker became the first American black female millionaire through her business selling black hair care products. Her achievements are astonishing because she was the first of her family to be born free (ie not a slave), she was born into extreme poverty, she was a black woman in a country that treated black people as sub-human, particualarly in the deep south and she had very little education. You can read more about her here

Can't believe I forgot

Kazuo Ishiguro
Timothy Mo

I love listening to Jeremy Vine on R2 when he has Shami Chakrabhati on. She really winds up the right wing, xenophobic, mysogenistic, misanthropic Little Englanders

Just remembered

Jung Chang who wrote Wild Swans. I could not put it down when I first read it about 10 years ago (it charts her grandmother, mother and her life in 19th centuary China)

Must go and do some work now!