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The Italian politician Cécile Kyenge MEP has been subject to some high levels of racial abuse, some of it perpetrated by the Northern League (Lega Nord). For example, Roberto Calderoli, a senate vice-president of the Northern League, likened her to an orangutan, and further suggested that she doesn’t belong in Italian politics and should do politics in ‘her own country’.

Kate Hopkins made her name and living by spewing hatred of others particularly those who she perceived had less power than herself including African migrants who she likened to cockroaches, and demanded that instead of rescuing them crossing the Mediterranean, she’d deploy gun boats to do what we can only imagine.

After the terrorist attack on Manchester she called used the holocaust rhetoric of a ‘Final Solution,’ and was scathing about poor people who through no fault of their own find themselves in debt.

When a young woman is so passionate about both understanding the complex work we live in , but also wanting to play a role in making it a better place, it’s difficult not to want to support and encourage her journey. Sinead Campbell told me;  We talk a lot about politics in my house. My dad’s got very strong opinions, but so do I’.

I don’t care if people call the Nike ad with the football star Colin Kaepernick a cynical ploy of commercialism. I just don’t care. I love it on so many levels; I’m not sure where to begin. First and foremost the protagonist Colin Kaepernick whose stance against American racial brutalism -Kneelling during the national anthem- caused the American President Donald Trump to label him a unpatriotic and traitor.

If you are a British citizen then you are a British Citizen, end of story. That must include people such as the 58 year old David Jameson who is now homeless on the streets of Kingston Jamaica, after being deported for a minor offence during the London 2012 riots.

After a long six-month battle Frank Wang, the Bethnal Green station coffee vendor, has been granted the right to stay on his pitch and continue to serve his coffees and snacks.

Frank faced closure in the face of the new bar/restaurant Chiringuito and new regulations. But after an exhaustive consultation Transport for London decided that with Frank’s new plans to have a slim line coffee set up, he would be allowed to stay.

For nearly two decades, Black, Asian and Jewish activists, intellectuals, and faith leaders used to meet at the recently passed away June Jacob’s home in North London. There was no formal membership  and often no agenda,  but we all just instinctively knew that we needed a safe place to support each other, share ideas,  and talk through some of the difficult issues of our time that affected our minority communities.

As a young black man growing up in Newcastle in the 1960’s the idea of racism and colonialism was not new but it was difficult to hear about the black struggle for justice save through a US prism of the civil rights movement and the apartheid regime in South Africa. The history of what was occurring in the United Kingdom was easy to understand and to visualise form the inner cities but harder to appreciate from rural England.

Two months ago, I began my internship at Operation Black vote - an organization and a team that I learned so much from! It is now time to say goodbye to the people that enriched my understanding of what it really means to be an advocate for social change! I can not explain how much I learned during my work with them, but I would like to recall a few things which made my summer so productive and inspirational!