I am mixed I am a 19 year old woman of colour, who helped organise the first ever black lives matter protest in the south west. I was born and raised in Coventry, a very multi cultural city, and moved to North Devon at the age of 14. The transition between moving from a cultured city to rural Devon was shocking and heartbreaking. North Devon had always been my favourite holiday destination but living here, I experienced copious amounts of racism.
My younger sister endured horrible counts of racism and reported it to the schools and police multiple times, with no outcome. Racism is not dealt with seriously and it is not seen as a local issue however is very much so. I am aiming to move out of Devon by the end of the year so needed to do something in aid of black lives matter before leaving. I am half Jamaican and have had to listen to my parents, grandparents and great grandparents experiences on racism and it seems like very little change has happened. I feel like our generation has hope to be able to speak out on racial discrimination and expose all the racism… not just nationally but globally.
This story is from a series of interviews by Kadeem Yarde, who spoke to people at a Black Lives Matter protest in North Devon. To see the original blog post use this URL: https://www.kadeemyarde.com/post/racism-in-north-devon