Main content

Speaking up about racial injustice

Two women from Lebanon and the Netherlands talk to Kim Chakanetsa about their campaigns against racism and the emotional toll of speaking out.

Two women talk to Kim Chakanetsa about their anti-racism campaigns in Lebanon and Netherlands and the emotional toll of speaking out.

Jessica de Abreu is an activist and co-founder of The Black Archives in Amsterdam. As part of the Kick Out Zwarte Piet group she protests against the annual tradition in the Netherlands where children and adults alike dress up with black face to celebrate Santa’s helper ‘Black Pete’. In the past protesters have been attacked and ignored by a country that has long seen this as harmless fun. Massive turnouts at recent BLM inspired protests could suggest a turning of the tide.

Ubah Ali is from Somaliland and currently studying at the American University of Beirut. She talks about Lebanon's ‘kafala’ system, which excludes the predominantly Black migrant workforce from labour laws. She says she’s regularly mistaken for a domestic worker and fights to challenge preconceptions about Black women.

IMAGE DETAILS
L: Ubah Ali (credit - Ubah Ali)
R: Jessica de Abreu (credit - Marcel Wogram)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 11 Oct 2020 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 5 Oct 2020 10:32GMT
  • Mon 5 Oct 2020 15:32GMT
  • Mon 5 Oct 2020 21:32GMT
  • Mon 5 Oct 2020 22:32GMT
  • Sun 11 Oct 2020 18:32GMT

The best of The Conversation

Enlightening, inspiring, revealing: Some of our favourite Conversations so far

100 Women

Global experience on image, work, relationships, equality, migration and working lives

Podcast