Right now, in America for the first time in history, miss America, Miss USA and miss Teen USA are all black women. (Vanessa Williams became the first black woman to win the Miss America title in 1984. Carole Gist won Miss USA in 1990. Janel Bishop won Miss Teen USA in 1991. The New York Times).
This is a good change even the Miss America winner knew this as she said “Miss America does not represent us because there has never been a black girl in the pageant,” she said. “With my title, I can show black women that they too are beautiful.”Nia Franklin
In the movie world, Jordan Peele’s Us has smashed the box office in its first weekend, setting a US record for the biggest opening of an original horror movie ever. Us is the second film that is centred around black people by Jordan Peele. His first movie Get Out, which launched with $33 million back in 2017 and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Us which stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke already made over $86.7 million.
Through Jordan’s movies Get Out and Us, he is making a personally making it his goal to do what he can to address that imbalance, of racial diversity on screen. The fact all his movies have done amazing and set records at the box office just goes to show and prove how much of an importance and need there is for more racial diversity on-screen.
Regarding schools and black teachers only 13% of state-funded schools’ teachers are currently from a BME background, compared to 27% of pupils. ‘Teaching union, the NASUWT says ethnic minority teachers “face discrimination and prejudice when applying for jobs”.’-BBC
“A lack of BME teachers meant I had no role models so I never envisaged becoming a teacher. I remember seeing people from my community who’d become successful doctors or engineers but I never saw someone who was a teacher and that is a barrier we need to break down.”-Tayyab Ditta. I found this to deeply resonate with me as I never had a teacher of colour growing up until moved to secondary school and one of the science teachers was a Nigerian man which I was totally blown away by and it made me have such a respect for him. If I have kids one of the main things I want to make sure when I’m looking for schools I want to make sure that the school I am sending them to has at least one black teacher.
“Schools and pupils are losing out on the talents and skills of BME teachers who are unable to advance their careers or who opt for a different profession due to the barriers being placed in their way. We cannot afford to continue to let this happen.”
Analysing the government’s data, BBC News found that only one local authority area in England has proportionally more teachers than pupils from an ethnic minority background.
In 2016, 4.7% of teachers in Halton, Cheshire, were BME compared to 4.5% of pupils.
The London borough of Westminster had the greatest imbalance with 37.9% of teachers being from an ethnic minority compared to 85% of pupils. -BBC
Imbalances in BME pupils and teachers
Source:Local authorities in England 2016
Purple: % of BME pupils Orange: % of BME teachers
Percentage of BME teachers in England’s schools
Source:Department for Education
Some Black Food For Thought To Educate You For When Addressing THOSE Conversations Right now, in America for the first time in history, miss America, Miss USA and miss Teen USA are all black women.
