Covid-19 has made us ask questions about how we are living now and the assumptions we make about day-to-day life.
Why do Black children and young people grow up without identifying themselves with other Black people that shaped the history? After all, these key figures were part of building this country through science, literature, and engineering. As a human race, why are we having to wait for a month of the year to celebrate their achievements?
Other things that guide us and shape our minds are timetabled as lessons. We can have sexual education, religion education, PE, but no Black history in the national curriculum. Will I live to see it in my lifetime?
Thank you to the person(s) who nominated me. My name is Gleicijane aka Jane and I work in the Catering Department, currently at the Fawcett Café. If you experienced to get a cup of coffee/tea with me you got a smile and a genuine curiosity in knowing how your day has been and wishing you a continuous good and/or better day.
I love my job as I get to see the diversity of London and exchange ideas with all sorts of people: the man that works in the international relations, the woman that teaches feminism and gender, the men and women from the estate department, and more. All in an average day of the week.
And I will forever greet you in this way, because as a Black Brazilian woman, I know what it is like to experience being ignored, made to wait, being refused a service because of the colour of one’s skin, gender and/or sexuality, so to notice and acknowledge is to be human.
In my role, I have a chance to show that we can come at this topic with different points of view. Whilst you might not take my perspective that the world is beautiful because of our differences….. but I hope that through our differences, we can still RESPECT each other, for through the diversity and multitude of different shapes, forms, and ways of thinking, we can still treat each other with respect and recognise that we are different but equal, and the variety of perspectives is one part of being human.