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When a black man walks in the suburbs he is questioned and looked at as if he doesn’t belong.  When a black woman is wearing expensive clothing it is assumed she got it all by drugs or sexual favours.  When a Muslim tries to go through security he is judged, scrutinised and glared at.  For decades, minorities have been victims of ethnic profiling.  This form of racial discrimination has been used by the police for quite some time now and labelling and basing judgments off one’s race reflects the inequities of a judicial system.

In response to the rising Islamophobia, the by-product of increasing extremism and the recent Brussels attacks, Prime Minister David Cameron speaking at an Easter reception at Downing Street said:

“This is the great fight that we have to join. Our brothers and sisters who are Muslims, they want our assistance. We should be reaching out and wanting to help them battle against extremism.”

Early this year Labour MP David Lammy was appointed by PM David Cameron to lead a government review of the UK’s criminal justice system and its discrimination of BAME people. This week he announced an open call for evidence from anyone who wants to contribute their own experiences.

Lammy penned an article for the Guardian discussing the current troubling statistics about Black people behind bars in the UK and the direction his review of the discrimination will take. He wrote:

In the wake of the Brussels attacks yesterday, instead of spreading peace and solidarity with the people in Brussels after their day of tragedy, some people used the event to foster hatred, fear and push political agendas.

Allison Pearson, a Telegraph columnist, tweeted:

Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we're safer in the EU! #Brexit”

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) launched a ground-breaking Shadow Report on Afrophobia in Europe on Monday, March 21st, explaining what Afrophobia is and why it is an urgent problem in all European countries despite the EU Racial Equality Directive and other legislation to prevent discrimination.

Last week I left 35 colleagues from around the world to continue their leadership training in the capital of Belgium, Brussels. These colleagues who would become friends such was their warmth, their generosity of spirit and their mutual desire to change our world.

Today, for about three hours organisers and participants of that leadership programme –The Transatlantic International Leaders Network- were frantically phoning around to see if everyone was safe after the inhumanity of terror struck the streets of Brussels.

Nearly 200 hospital service workers went on strike this morning at 6:00 for a 24 hour period protesting low-wages and lack of sufficient sick pay, according to the Guardian. The strike was organised by the GMB trade union after negotiations with the US outsourcing company Aramark could not be resolved.

The Hollyoaks star Duayne Boachie who plays Zack Loveday will today be seen in a new TV ad encouraging young people to register to vote before the elections in May.

President Barack Obama landed in Cuba this week for the first visit by a US president to the nation in over 80 years. Along with first lady Michelle Obama and his two daughters the president’s trip is set to be “history-making” and “is just the latest example of why he will be such a tough act to follow and sorely missed by the country and the world,” according to a statement released by Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.