Siana Bangura is a writer, producer, performer and poet, and is the author of the poetry collection, ‘Elephant’. In her third TEDx talk, Siana places the current COVID-19 crisis within the wider context of systemic racism and white privilege — the pandemic of racism. She explains how a system wherein white people and non-Black people of colour consume Black culture and yet fail to speak up against racism and be anti-racist is a system where racism will persist. She underlines that in this moment of Black Lives Matter that gained momentum following the brutal murder of George Floyd and so many more individuals, the burden of ending racist systems should be on white people to educate themselves. Siana offers guidance for anti-racist activists in her TEDxNCHLondon talk, and encourages the audience to seek and imagine new alternatives for living in an anti-racist world. Siana Bangura is a writer, producer, performer and community organiser hailing from South East London, now living, working, and creating between London and the West Midlands. Siana is the founder and former editor of Black British Feminist platform, No Fly on the WALL; she is the author of poetry collection, ‘Elephant’; and the producer of ‘1500 & Counting’, a documentary film investigating deaths in custody and police brutality in the UK. Siana works and campaigns on issues of race, class, and gender and their intersections and is currently working on projects focusing on climate change, the arms trade, and state violence. Siana is an international public speaker, performing and presenting papers and presentations across the world, including in Germany, Portugal, Finland and Brazil and has delivered two TEDx talks. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
‘Pull Up for our Rhythm and our Blues’: Black Lives Matter | Siana Bangura | TEDxNCHLondon