Am the only black woman and mom living in an upmarket neighborhood in the north of England.I have lived here for the last six years and l have been in England for the last ten years.l was born in africa and came to England when l was 22yrs old.When l was growing up l grew up with emages of black woman around me on tv, magazine covers, billboards, commercials and in in every proffession imaginable.My mother was one of the most succesful business woman in the 90's in my country, and l felt that l could be anything l wanted to be when l grew up, that all doors were open.
Since l have been in the Uk l have been bombaded with images that are rarely include a dark skinned black woman like me, infact it appears that the darker you are in the Uk the more invisable you are.
For instance- Tv and magazines rarely feature a black woman as the main focus if there is a black woman in a commercial she is always on the fringes and for the shortest possible time and you never see her whole face and most of the time she is of a light/medium complexion and fine featured.
-When you go to buy magazines in WHS those magazines that are targeted at black woman are at lowest or lower shelves tucked away behind other 'Black' magazines.
-Upmarket catalogues like Boden never ever feature a black model on their covers or prominently within.They nearly always have a black woman on one page and mixed race man in the background and one page with a mixed race child with culy blond hair with a blond 'mom'. This image is repeated in magazine after magazine. Mixed race chidren are rarely featured with a black 'mom'.
Media plays an importnant role in all our lives the messages that are imprinted on our minds have a lot to do with how we perceive our ourselves as part society.
Since coming to the Uk l have learned that no one wants black people to talk about racial issues the minute you do you are shot down and accussed of having a chip on your shoulder and everyone around you gets defensive.Black woman in this country do not have a voice not politically or socially and yet they are the most influential members of their social groups.
It is disturbing that when a lot young black children when asked what they want to be when they grown up they nearly always say they want to be white with blond hair.
You just have to look at the number of successful black man in this country, a mojority of them marry white woman.
A black woman married to a white man with mixed race children is the fastest growing family set up but it's an image that you will not see anywhere.You will never see a black family potrayed as middle class or promoting high end goods and yet everyone wonders why black woman in this country are angry.
The issue of race never comes up in a constructive way during elections no-one ever asks black woman like myself about the changes we would like to see in govement. How long can the politicians in this country afford to ignore the black vote? A token black person carefully placed here and there is not going to make me vote for anyone. We are the group that the three main parties have to address and we are the exact percentage that they all need to close the gap.