Black History Month: One month isn't enough
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Our values: we are Caring | Ambitious | Inclusive 💙
I celebrate every single minute of Blackness and spend a lot of time trying to promote and champion Black people, and acknowledge white people who want to be allies.
Black History Month is my chance to shout about Black history and get more interaction and engagement from people. I chair the dental directorate’s equality, diversity and inclusion group. We have been doing quite a few things throughout October, including taking an educational trolley around the department.
I’m glad Black history is being highlighted but one month just isn’t enough. I would like to see no Black History Month so when we’re looking back at success we’re looking at everyone’s success.
We were completely ignored, eliminated and overlooked for so long – it saddens me that people are still surprised when they find out that a Black person helped invent GPS, refrigeration, air conditioning, an element for the light bulb and traffic lights.
My mum inspired me to become a nurse.
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She came to the UK from Barbados in 1962 when she was 22. She was told the streets were paved with gold but the reality was very different.
She got knocked back time and time again during her nursing training, she had patients spit on her and visitors were racist towards her – this was never challenged by her managers but she continued to care for them regardless.
She didn’t want any of her four children to become a nurse based on her experiences, so I became a dental nurse which was the best compromise at the time.
I have still experienced racism and been treated differently throughout my career. The Kofoworola Abeni Pratt Fellowship has given us the ability to share our lived experiences and will resonate with lots of other nurses.
This platform is starting to make a change and I’m grateful for the supportive and genuine allies I’ve met along the way.
If I had to pick one more inspirational person it would be Maya Angelou, a poet and civil rights activist. She’s the author of Still I Rise – her words are wisdom to me.