32 minutes | Monday, 9 January 2023
In 2020, during peak COVID lockdown, 18 months after Steven had moved from London to Liverpool to live with fiancé Graeme, an event happened thousands of miles away that shook the world and their relationship. It didn't just shake the social foundations of our society, it called on couples in mixed ethnicity relationships to confront the elephant in the room head on - STRUCTURAL RACISM.
Within a week of the brutal public murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in the United States. Rates of depression and anxiety among African- Americans shot to higher rates than any other ethnic group, with 41 percent screening positive for at least one of those symptoms, data from the US Census Bureau showed. Whilst rates of anxiety and depression remained relatively flat among white people, black people everywhere have been effected mentally by what this period brought up for them, did their white friends get it? Accounts differ, but LGBTQ+ mixed ethnicity relationships are a good place to gauge the social change and learning that's been happening in our community.
Steven John is DEI lead for a Manchester based tech business, he has hosted a series of talks and seminars for tech industry conferences in the UK around how DEI can be used to improve organisations.