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70% of the population has taken illegal drugs. Because of its high price and status of glamour, the class A drug, cocaine is mainly taken by the upper echelon of our society. Many tens thousands of young people, mainly white, take ‘clubbing’ drugs on a weekly basis when going clubs and or music festivals. Those dealing drugs come from all walks of life.

As we approach the end of 2016, recent events prompt one to ask what 2017 will have in store for us ?

Not many would have predicted back in 2015 that Donald Trump would be the President of the United States and that Brexit would be upon us, yet here we are.

More than ever before, we believe it is critical that we define our collective reality and carve out our place in which are we can thrive and be fully respected. We cannot look to anyone else to do it for us.

To jazz lovers, the death of American bass player Bob Cranshaw earlier this month deserves to be mentioned for two reasons.

The first is that he was a phenomenally good double bass player, backing many of the greats including Sonny Rollins, with whom he played for five decades, Lee Morgan – he played on Morgan’s classic Blue Note albumSidewinder, Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson and Eddie Harris.

The case against 10 Asian men in Rotherham who, if found guilty could have easily faced 10 years in prison for violent conduct, is like one of those profoundly racist stories from Alabama, USA in the 1960’s, not the UK in 2016.

On Sept 2015 the men joined an anti-fascist march to protest against the racist murder of an elderly Muslim man. They were also protesting against yet another Far Right  facist Groups demonstration that was planned in town on the same day.

Unions representing staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission have argued that Black staff could be disproportionately affected by planned budget cuts and compulsory redundancies.

During an initial assessment of who might go and who might stay two thirds of Black staff failed the restructuring selection process, according to the PCS union. Many of these staff would be the Commission’s lower paid staff.

Even with its interim findings, David Lammy’s ground breaking review into racism within the Criminal Justice System has exposed levels of racial bias throughout the system that leave many shocked but not all together surprised. Above all Black men and women continue to be sentenced much higher than white men and women for exactly the  same crime.

The Hollywood star, David Harewood set out on a personal journey to see whether or not, in his life time we would witness a Black person walking through the door of No. 10 Downing St as leader of the United Kingdom.

To find that answer Harewood sought to unpick the pathway that is the most likely route to No.10, and then to see how Black individuals might fair within it.

The achievements of African American inventor Elijah McCoy should be more widely known, not least because his name is the origin of the saying, 'The real McCoy'.

The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy.