News

The OBV and Lewisham Council’s Civic Leadership Programme ended last night with a graduation ceremony at the Civic Suite in Lewisham. Programme Members, Councillors and other invited guests came together to celebrate the end of the programme with many looking forward to taking up public and civic posts.

A Dutch women's magazine has been forced to issue an apology to pop star Rihanna after using a racial term to describe her.

Eva Hoeke, editor of Jackie magazine, had to issue a statement to apologise to the singer for referring to her as a "De N*ggabitch".

The Football Association have been praised for taking a strong stance and handing Liverpool striker Luis Suarez a multi-game ban after being found guilty of misconduct by "using insulting words towards" Patrice Evra of Manchester United.

Suarez, who has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000, was accused of racially abusing Evra at least 10 times during a game at Anfield on October 15.

The top agencies and individuals who have made contributions in the area of mental health and ethnicity this year are profiled in the latest edition of The Solution magazine.

Black Mental Health UK’s official online magazine has released their inaugural Top 30 list which acknowledges the many unsung heroes working in the sector and support one of society's most excluded groups.

A number of campaigners joined American civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson at Operation Black Vote's headquarters last Thursday to call for an independent judicial review into the current handling of Black deaths in police custody.

Reverend Jackson spoke said he shared the pain of the families who have lost loved one in custody and said now was the time for a collective movement to call for change.

Despite this being an Olympic year in which all our citizens have been encouraged to undertake sport and a valiant campaign by the Manningham Pool Action Committee, the Victorian Society, Manningham residents and JUST West Yorkshire to keep Bradford's unique, historic Edwardian swimming pool open to the public, Bradford Council went ahead and the closed the baths on 8th July 2011 due to a decision to cut costs. Two months later the water from the pool was drained and the building has since been broken into three times.

With the new figures coming out from two of the most prestigious universities in the world, Black British students are once again being squeezed out of the elite establishments. Less than one in 100 students beginning courses at Oxbridge in 2010 were Black, including just 20 of the 2,617 British students accepted to Oxford, a fall from 27 in 2009. The number of new Black students at Cambridge dropped to 16 among an intake of 2,624, compared with 25 the previous year, admissions data show.

The son of Mohammad Sarwar, Britain's first Muslim MP has become the newly elected deputy leader of Scottish Labour.

Anas Sarwar, MP for Glasgow Central, beat MPs Iain Davidson and Lewis MacDonald to serve as deputy to Johann Lamont, who was elected as the new leader of the Scottish Labour party at the weekend.

Sarwar was elected into Parliament at the 2010 General Election, taking over from his father in the Glasgow Central seat.

At Operation Black Vote's headquarters, American civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson gave his full support to a group of campaigners calling for an independent judicial review into the current handling of Black deaths in police custody.

Reverend Jackson joined a number of agencies including Operation Hope and Recovery, The United Friends and Families Campaign, Inquest, Black Mental Health UK, Operation Black Vote and the Campaign 4 Justice have come together to stand with the families who have been affected by these tragedies.

Seema Malhotra has become the sixth Asian female Member of Parliament after winning the Feltham and Heston by-election last night.

Malhotra, who is only the 28th MP from the Black and Minority Ethnic community, increased Labour's majority from 4,658 to 6,203, a net swing of 8.6 percent from the Conservatives.

The 39-year-old local resident pulled in 12,639 votes while Conservative candidate Mark Bowen came second with 6,436 votes. Liberal Democrats candidate Roger Crouch held on to third place with 1,364 votes.