That Time I Was On BBC News

I’ve officially come to the end of my first year as a junior doctor (more on this to come in a separate post), and I was given the opportunity to be interviewed by BBC Look North last week, for a piece on racism in the NHS.

Ever since I did a presentation to junior doctors at my hospital on micro-aggressions I’ve personally experienced, the last two weeks have been a whirlwind of meetings with my hospital’s Medical Education team, the BAME Leadership Network, the Trust Organisational Development team, and the CHIEF EXECUTIVE.

It’s all been a bit overwhelming to be honest, but the long story short is that my hospital is now trying to raise more awareness of micro-aggressions and more subtle manifestations of racism, as part of new diversity and inclusion initiatives, as these are all too commonly experienced by ethnic minorities.

I’ve been so honoured to be asked to be part of a steering group and the committee driving this, as it is an issue I feel very strongly about, and I’m feeling super positive about the potential this has to make a difference.

So it was great to be able to talk about all this on the news, as part of the ongoing discourse. Still very strongly believe that the onus shouldn’t always be on the people on the receiving end of offensive comments to keep calling them out though, so to all new doctors, make sure you speak up on the wards if colleagues/patients say problematic things.

(And as they’ve always done, black lives STILL matter by the way, even if your newsfeeds have gone silent.)

Something Not Related To Medicine For Once

So, Noughts and Crosses has FINALLY been adapted for TV.

I read the books when I was about 10 and had just moved to the UK from Nigeria, and they played a huge role in my understanding of racism and discrimination because of skin colour. For anyone who has never heard of Noughts and Crosses, the books are written by Malorie Blackman, and set in a world similar to today, but Africa colonised Europe instead of the other way round, so black people have higher status in society, which is structured in a way that disadvantages lighter skinned people.

The books are brilliant and so thought provoking – 10 year old me got so upset and angry about the inequality the white people faced in the books, and that was when the penny dropped about you know, racism, because growing up in Nigeria it wasn’t really something I had come across or experienced.

Ofcourse, I bingewatched all 6 episodes of the BBC adaptation as soon as they dropped last week, and it was AMAAAZING. Everything I thought it would be, and more! I was actually surprised by how emotional it made me – seeing so many black faces on a PRIMETIME BBC SHOW, as well as the African print clothing, and black hairstyles and Yoruba (my native language) being spoken casually with English, just like how we mix both languages at home??? I was living for it all.

Tweeted how I felt about the show, and it was a wonderful surprise to find that my tweet had been liked by Malorie Blackman herself, as well as stars of the show. So surreal!

Anyway, long story short: READ AND WATCH NOUGHTS AND CROSSES. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk x