Equal Britain? a 30 part series for talkRADIO investigating equality in the UK.
Ten years after the Equality Act became law, people tell their stories in thirty features and a series of in depth interviews. The series is supported by the Audio Content Fund.

Equal Britain week on talkRADIO

Lost Voice Guy on why disability representation is a bad joke.

Transcript:
Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Lee  0:07  
Hello, I'm LeeRidley, also known as the lost voice guy. And I'm a stand up comedian. I think representation of disabled people in the media, is pretty much a joke. And I think that is partly why many people are so weird around disabled people. I think it comes down to education. People just aren't used to interacting with someone with a disability on a regular basis. I think attitudes towards disabled people in society have definitely got better. I've certainly seen a big improvement since I was younger. But I also think that there's still a long way to go as well. And that's why I would like to see more disabled comedians booked by comedy clubs, appearing at festivals and being shown on television. Basically, more disabled people being portrayed in a positive light. I don't think it's my job to make the audience feel comfortable at all. The reaction always varies really, a bit like it does in real life. Sometimes you can hear the gasp come from the audience when I walk onto the stage. So when I hopefully make them laugh, I think they enjoy it more. I honestly believe that some people think that disabled people aren't allowed a sense of humor. Obviously, I don't really care what they think. But if it helps change someone's view, then it must be a good thing. 

Winning Britain's Got Talent has changed my life in so many ways. I'm busier than I ever was before as a comedian. One of the best things to happen since I won, is that people are engaging with me a lot more than they would have in the past. For the first time, they seem comfortable talking to a disabled person. I'm used to being stared at for negative reasons. So it's nice to be stared out for positive reasons for a change.

Unknown Speaker  2:24  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Lee's Story Pt2 - Lost Voice Guy on why disability representation is a bad joke.

Lost Voice Guy on Covid , anger and inequality.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Lee 0:07  
Hello, I'm Lee Ridley, also known as the lost voice guy, and I'm a stand up comedian. I have lived in Newcastle all my life, but for some reason, I still haven't picked up the accent. If you are trying to place my accent, it's from PC World. I think true equality means the right to be treated just like everyone else. And at the moment, I don't feel that that applies to many disabled people. We're either seen as a burden on society or as some kind of superhuman performing at the Paralympics. There's just no middle ground at all. And I'm sick of being called an inspiration just because of my job. As far as I am concerned, I am just a bloke who gets up on stage and messes about for a living. I don't think I deserve any special praise just for living my life. I don't think that the UK is an equal place for people with disabilities at all, which makes me very angry. And I think that the Coronavirus crisis has done nothing but highlight how bad the situation is. After months of being stuck inside and only being allowed to see a few people. I admit that I'm suffering from loneliness and anxiety. I'm sure a lot of other disabled people are as well. One in five of us are disabled, months of feeling forgotten is taking its toll. So now I'm forced to make a judgment call. Do I risk going out? Or is it still safer to stay indoors? I'm still yet to hear any clear guidance on this in regards to disabled people. We need to be able to make informed choices and be fully included in government plans. we're more concerned about pub closing times than we are about trying to help the vulnerable people in society. How on earth is any of this acceptable?

Unknown Speaker  2:24  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Lee's Story Pt1 - Lost Voice Guy on Covid , anger and inequality.

A parent told me they don’t want me teaching their child because I’m black.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 
This feature contains some racist language. 

Kenny:
My name is Karima Moustafa. I'm 21, and I'm the founder of Bracknell against racism. I'm currently studying sociology at the University of Southampton. And I come from Egyptian Ethiopian heritage, I think my first experience of racism was when I went into primary school, and I was the only non-white person at the time. And I have different textured hair, curly hair, bigger lips, different features. And I never really considered that that would make me lesser than anybody else, I just thought we're different, that doesn't affect our personalities. But I got bullied a lot in primary school because of the way I looked. And because of my heritage, my culture, the language I speak. So my first language was Arabic. And so I got bullied a lot for that. Now I'm 21 years old, and I'm still experiencing racism on a daily basis, whether it's more subtle, shrouded in microaggressions, or it's very obvious. So an example is, I'm an online tutor, and I have a session with the parent before I start lessons with the child and I opened a session. And the parent looked at me and said that they didn't want a Blackie teaching their kid. And so this just made me feel really angry because I was losing out on work opportunities, which is definitely more wounding when you're a student. And I was inspired to then go and educate at a school level. Because I feel like once you're older, it's much harder to be able to stamp out those attitudes. I get a lot of questions like, 'why do we not say all lives matter instead of black lives matter?' But I think what's most interesting is they're very keen to delve into more subtle instances of racism. So for example, in terms of microaggressions, assuming black people, like chicken or watermelon are really good at basketball. Making these assumptions based on stereotypes makes no sense. I mean, you could be black and be a vegan. You don't know somebody's life story just by looking at them. And I think this is why it's very important that I come in and speak to them because they want help to understand why making assumptions and stereotypes based on one skin color is something that's wrong. 

Unkown Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Karima's Story(racist language warning) - they don’t want a black tutor.

The importance of friends and family in success.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Jamil 0:10  
So this is where I grew up. This is Bordesley village in Small Heath in Birmingham. It's a typical working class area. My name is Jamil Tuki. I am 25 years old. And I currently work as a commercial graduate trainee at AB Agri, the agriculture division of associated British foods PLC. 10 years time, I would hope to have my first director level position in a large company. It's quite an ambitious goal. But I think I've beaten the odds pretty much all of my life, So I don't see why that would be an issue. You could see on the right hand side there, you put like a chicken factory, and then a wooden pallet factory. And then alongside down the dead end road, there's other factories, which used to be there a long time ago. So this was an industrial estate and to some extent, it still is, but a lot of those companies have gone or moved away from the decline. Typically people who will work is for example, a taxi driver. So you can see a taxi working in the restaurant industry, like my dad who works as a chef. When it comes to aspiring for a particular career choice. When I think about the steelworks that you can hear there. It was never something that I aspired to. And I think that was purely down to the ambitions that my parents had for me and my two sisters as well. It was always understood that we would aim for professional careers, or at least careers that we enjoyed that, you know, paid well and things like that. Being completely honest, the expectations at my state secondary school, were actually quite low. When teachers teach in the city state school, I think they deliberately have low expectations of their students. I was privileged in the sense that I tried to surround myself with friends who did aspire for more and didn't let their background hold them back. 

When I was at university, you do sometimes notice those who might come from a private school background or more wealthy backgrounds, and you look at the people who have already had job offers, you know, from, for example, the big law firms, etc. and kind of look at what experience they have on their CV, for example, and it's nowhere near as much as you might have. But yet you still can't seem to even manage to get past the first application stage. And that's when you really start thinking about whether we truly live in a meritocratic society. And what's really important.

Unkown Speaker:
The equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Jamil's Story - The importance of friends and family in success.

Sara Canning - girlfriend of murdered journalist and gay rights campaigner Lyra McKee - talks to Darryl Morris  on TalkRADIO about love, loss and equality in Northern Ireland. The interview starts with the extraordinary moment at Lyra’s funeral that made her an icon.

Full transcript avaible here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0wmqu7ttn6au25a/AAAy9lRy--CzQz48d1cBETZva?dl=0

INTERVIEW Sara Canning on Lyra McKee, love, and loss in Northern Ireland

Cherie Blair talks to Darryl Morris of talkRADIO about her work promoting global women’s rights, and reveals how her working class background in Liverpool motivated her.

Full transcript avaible here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0wmqu7ttn6au25a/AAAy9lRy--CzQz48d1cBETZva?dl=0

INTERVIEW Cherie Blair with Darryl Morris of talkRADIO

How hard can it be to buy a toaster? What retailers don’t get about disability.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Unknown Speaker  0:12  
Hi, my name is Gem aka wheels, no heels. I'm a disability lifestyle blogger and campaigner. Believe it or not, this toaster breaking led me to talking on national television about the difficulties disabled people have been facing post lockdown. So to some people, an everyday toaster might not seem like a big deal. But for disabled people who find it hard to cook and prepare meals, it's actually quite a lifeline. 

So the first shop that we went to, we got to the car park, only to discover that all of the disabled bays were blocked off. When we asked the staff if they could help us, they couldn't offer us any alternative. And they didn't even seem to care. That made me feel very angry and very upset. So I still needed to get my toaster that meant another trip to a different store. 

When I went to this particular store, I had a raging urine infection. And when we got to the store, there was a queue. So I waited for about 20 minutes. By this point, I really, really needed to use the bathroom. When I spoke to the manager, I explained please may I skip the line? And he said no, you'll probably end up upsetting the other people in the queue. Would you be upset to see a disabled person jumping the queue? Or would you be more upset to see a grown woman wet herself? Well, he probably didn't realise is that people with spinal cord injuries do tend to suffer with urine infections. Hopefully third time lucky, next door and what is right in front of the door making it almost impossible for me to get past, a big sanitizing station where I was trying to navigate my way around it with just staff watching me struggle. I don't think that retailers truly understand the spending power of disabled people, which is 270 billion pounds per year. So I did finally get my new toaster but it shouldn't have been that hard should it.

Mmm you can't beat a bit of Marmite on toast. 

Unknown Speaker  2:21  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Gem's Story - What retailers don’t get about disability.

“My white colleagues said nothing” - an NHS doctor on racism

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

David 0:07  
Hello, I'm Devesh Singha. I'm a senior doctor in East London. I work with a stroke patient at Queen's hospital and King George hospital. Our service has gone from being one of the worst in London to one of the best. I could talk loads about what we do to save lives and improve lives. But there's something as I really need to talk to you about it's hard, it's ugly. Some of it's too ugly to share on the radio. I only recently spoken out about it. I'm a Doctor of colour, who is a victim of racism. There are so many examples too many examples. One morning, I remember it was a beautiful day. I was with my multicultural team by a patient's bedside. Suddenly we hear someone say, 'Now Brexit is happening, these people will go home'. What made it worse was my white colleagues said nothing. They stayed silent and smiled nervously. On other occasions, someone I was treating asked me 'Can I speak to a proper Doctor Who is local?' What they were really demanding was a white doctor. The nearest white doctor was 20 miles away and for a stroke every minute matters. Beside I'm a proper doctor. But I'm not alone. This is happening to medical staff across the NHS. People like me worked on the front line throughout the first day of COVID-19. People who look like me die from COVID-19 while caring for patients. When people are racist to me, I challenge them. I point out that I'm hurt. If things don't change, there's a risk people like me will question the value of working for the NHS. I dream big. I aspire for the best. I don't want to be judged anymore. By my colour or my tone of voice. In this day, I want to be judged for my skills, my talent and Mike humans.

Unknown Speaker  2:08  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Devesh's Story - “My white colleagues said nothing” - an NHS doctor on racism.

Cherie Blair on why she thinks we still don’t have sex equality.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 

Cherie 0:05
Hello, I'm Cherie Blair. I'm the founder of the Cherie Blair foundation for women. And I believe that every woman should have the chance to decide her own future. When I started as a young barrister, the Labour government brought in the Sex Discrimination Act, and we had the Equal Pay Act. And I was working on those cases, when we had the domestic violence act, you know, I thought, we'll, we'll fix this, we fix the law, we'll fix this. And now we're still living in a world where it's, you know, it won't be in my lifetime. They won't even be in my granddaughter's lifetime that we see that and it's just not good enough. And we have to do something to change that. Because it's only right, that everybody, man, woman, boy, girl, have that inherent dignity of choice about how you want to live your life. 

Our problem is that you need the laws to change. But it's not enough just to change the laws, you've also got to change the way people behave to each other. I think it's one thing I would love to change is this mantra that oh, this is just political correctness. This is not just political correctness, this is basic fairness, to ensure that everyone, whatever their background, whatever their color, whatever their sex, have an equal chance to control and decide what's best for them in their lives. And we still don't have that here. And so if I was going to do anything really practical, I would look so much more on what more we can do to provide affordable childcare for the early years in particular, and I say that for two reasons. One is that it does enable women then to be able to work and not be worried their children are safe and secondly, early years childcare absolutely helps particularly working class children you know, all the research shows that by the age of two children like my grandchildren have a huge vocabulary. Children who are living on benefits don't have that large vocabulary and that inbuilt disadvantage carries on with them throughout their life. And proper, affordable childcare in our country would really make a difference to them. 

Unknown Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Cherie Blair: why sex and class still hold us back in 2020

I’m an actor who just happens to be trans but I’m happy to be a role model.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 

Ash:
I realised pretty early on that I was a little bit different from everyone else. And it wasn't till I got a lot older, I started seeing the odd thing in the press and I started doing my research I realised that you know, I think I might be transgender. My name's Ash Palmisciano. I'm currently playing Matty Barton in ITV's, Emmerdale, the first ever transgender character in the soap. 
Like all kids, I mean, I loved being outside and one of my passions was playing football. And, you know, as a little kid, I was just automatically wanting to play with the rest of the guys and had a couple of mates, we used to have a kickabout and got invited to a summer football camp, it was all great, I was lining up with all the lads. And you know, I was really excited. And just as we're all stepping into the changing rooms, I got a tap on the shoulder from the coach and he said, hey, you're not in there with them, In that changing room, you're in the girls one. And all of a sudden, I sort of realised that I wasn't one of them. And it was kind of a defining moment, the first moment, I really realised that this is going to be a problem for me. And I was sat there on my own in the changing room, because I was the only girl there. And all the lads were sort of having fun and laughing in the other room. And I think I felt extremely lonely in that moment. Because I thought to myself, what has gone on here, this is like a really crazy thing. I just don't know how to explain this. But I feel like I should be in that room with them. I want to be one of those guys. And it was a little bit more than just wanting to be friends with them. It was like I wanted to get changed in there. I want it to look the same as them. I always think about that moment. I think that's when I started to realise, okay, things are going to be a bit complicated for me. 

When I was growing up, as I said, there was in terms of transgender representation, absolutely non if I was a kid growing up in today's society, my life would have been really different because I'd have the character that I'm playing, and I've sort of become the person that I need to see when I was younger, mainstream soap, having a guy that happens to be trans but that's not his storyline all the time. Having adverts on TV, having characters in things like first dates, to having people that just so happened to be trans but that isn't their focus. Just seeing it is amazing. Just seeing that there is something else is just fantastic. And we're moving towards that. 

Unknonw Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Ash's Story - I’m an actor who just happens to be trans.

Rugby and race - when Wales had a problem.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio, this feature contain some bad language.

Larry  0:10  
Right, my name’s he's Larry Ford. I've been involved with CIAC over 40 odd years. I've done most things. I've coached the club. I've been on committee, fundraising. Most things I can do for the CIAC’s. So I've been involved in, I got a big passion for the club as well. I've been told by one of our older members that it was called coloured internationals because there was so many West Indians, all different nationalities, we call we call it kayaks (CIACS) - Cardiff International rugby club. They had a football side, they had a cricket side that used the club, but it's mainly the rugby. I can honestly look at the bay and look at life in general and I think I come from a very close community. Colour was never a thing at the docks. People would never look at the colour of people's skin. I never went to town until I was, I don't know, I must have been 14 wherever. And then I realized what colour I was. I was called a name and I didn't know what they meant. So it was a bit of a shock to my system because I thought I had never ever heard of this name said before. 
I remember I played for Penang in the 70s in Shroud. And I scored a try and one of the guys, I think we was in Shroud. He called me a black bastard, because we won it. It always hurts because if he’d have called you a name like a bastard, okay, but the black had to come into it. I just look at people and say I'll put it down to the ignorance. We won a lot. It show's almost talent there was in the docks. We had Glenn Webb went to Bridge End, Billy, Colin Dixon. There was quite a few. They would never had a look in, in Cardiff or Wales. Will you tell me why Billy Boston didn't get a look in anywhere else? Tell me why. You've had one of the greatest rugby league players in the world couldn’t get in look in, in Wales, because of his coloured skin. I just think its colour. It's prejudice I know, they were prejudiced and that’s it. And I definitely believe that. Thank God It’s changing, but it’s not changing fast enough. But there's lots of people out there, which, there’s lots of white kids mixing with black kids and their friends. And it's no problem and it's not heard so much. And which pleases me because it's about the ability and the person not the colour, the person.

Unknown Speaker  2:22  
The equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Larry's Story - Rugby and race(bad language warning)

How Covid silenced our male voice choir.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

John  0:12  
My name is john Morgan. I'm chairman of Caerphilly male voice choir. And I've been with the choir since I was 50. We had practice one week, and things were semi normal. And then the following week, he was sorry, guys, we just got to stop this, because it's dangerous. Everybody was was stunned because the choir has been going since 1906. And it's never stopped. And it was, it was, it was quite shocking. I can't, we got to stop. We just got to stop doing what we're doing. We're more senior in our years, the impact was quite big. The choir is a lifeline for some people. The choir has been there for me when I've needed it. Change in practice, something that you go to regularly every week, changes everything. Because that gives comfort, and it does throw you out. It's something that eats you inside I think. It's been difficult to get everybody to do the zoom thing and to do this social thing. That's not who we are, you know, we'd rather come to practice. Back in August, we buried one of our own. When one of the choruses passes away, we make a point of going to the funeral, the family normally asks us to sing. But with Russell's funeral, we couldn't be there. And, like I say, stuck in my throat and stuck in everyone's throat, that we couldn't sing for him. Because that is, it's just the the last thing you can do for that person. And for their family. It's the last thing you can do. You do it because it's one of your mates. And it was cruel, it was really cruel. And on the coffin, in pride and place was his life membership certificate. And that's quite poignant. And that, that just says it all. 

The last six months. I think we've got so much we can learn. When you've got kids. That's all they want is a bit of time. And as we get older, that's the same. It's all it is, is a little bit of time. And what does it cost? phone call? A few words? But a little bit of time means everything. It couldn't be more important than at the moment.

Unknown Speaker  2:22  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

John's Story - How Covid silenced our male voice choir.

Lee Ridley - aka Lost Voice Guy - on why he thinks people are uncomfortable with disability , how comedy can change that and why he thinks society isn’t truly equal.

Full Trancript here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0wmqu7ttn6au25a/AAAy9lRy--CzQz48d1cBETZva?dl=0

INTERVIEW Scope ambassador and comic Lost Voice Guy on talkRADIO.

Trans actor, Ash Palmisiciano, who plays trans character Matty Barton in ‘Emmerdale’ talks to Darryl Morris about this life.

Full Transcript available here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0wmqu7ttn6au25a/AAAy9lRy--CzQz48d1cBETZva?dl=0

INTERVIEW Ash Palmisciano: Emmerdale actor on his trans story

Coming out as gay to my traditional, religious family.

Transcript:
Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio,

Unknown Speaker  0:06  
My dad was a very angry man. He wasn't the kind of man who you questioned. He was never wrong. I had a phone call, and was told my father died. I think I felt relief. I went around to the family house, all the relatives were there. And some of my uncles and that are deeply religious people. Now, after all the prayers, we sat down, and these are people that I dreaded telling.
And I faced my fear. I said, I am gay. It was just silence. It must have been seconds, but it seemed like ages. And I said, it's not something that I'm asking for your approval about. But it's something I think you need to know, and I don't want to lie about anymore. And then the uncle who's like the unofficial head, started talking. You need to start praying and you need to let Allah into your life. And I said to them, I said, You believe in the Quran, and Allah and they said, yeah. I said, How would you feel if somebody told you that, that was wrong? 'But it's not wrong. It's the way we live.' So that's part of who you are? 'Oh, yes.' This is part of who I am. And I'm asking you to give me the same respect that you want me to give you.

Clip playing: 
'Please give a big round of applause.' *crowd cheers*

G 1:49  
The highlight was being asked to do a speech at the Gay Pride rally. That was amazing.

Audio from clip:
As I stand here, I feel proud to be here. proud to stand in front of all of you proud to say that on black, i'm gay, but more importanlty im ahuman being. I'm a man.

Unknown Speaker  2:19  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

G's Story Pt2 - Coming out as gay to my traditional, religious family.

Britain’s first black and openly gay police officer on coming out.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

G 0:07  
I'm G. I was a police officer. That's my occupation. And I am, I'm gay. Well, I was born in London. My father was Nigerian Muslim. My mother was Jamaican. They're very, very traditional Muslims and very strict Muslims. I remember, we were going to the mosque. It was the Eid festival. And it was crowds everywhere as usual. And the police was sort of directing traffic around it. And I stopped and I saw a black police officer. And I had never ever seen a black police officer before. And it was like, wow. And I remember I turned to my dad, and I said, that's what I want to do. And I grew up, my father terani slapped me and he said over my dead body. 

I remember one time, one experience we had, we're all sitting down in the living room. And we're watching Larry Grayson on the generation game. And I must admit about 14 or 15, something like that at the time. And my sister, I turned to my mum and said, What would you do if you found out G was gay? And my mum said, I would shove a red hot poker right up his ass. And so the message I got loud and clear was, this is not going to happen. Nobody's going to accept you. 

I started to tell people at work. I told one of my sergeants at work, and then she told the whole office inadvertently. She went round to the office saying, am I the last person to know that G's, gay? Then everyone else was going What do you mean, G's gay? It was almost like the floodgates. I just went round telling everybody. And the fascinating thing I think the amazing thing was, and I still look back on it and laugh is that to you, the person coming out, It's a huge deal. You know, it's a massive deal. It's a life changing decision. To everyone else is just another day at the office. And I was sort of expecting oh well done come up, give me hugs and let's go away. Let's have a party to drink. So I remember one guy I went into his office and I said that. I just want to tell you I'm gay and he goes oh alright, do you want a cup of tea?

Unknown Speaker  2:24  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

G's Story Pt1 - Britain’s first black and openly gay police officer on coming out.

The right to a college education when you have Down’s Syndrome

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Beth  0:07  
Dear Beth. I hope you have a lovely time at you new College...

Beth's Mum 0:13  
This is Beth. She is 19. She's my daughter. She's also got down syndrome. And we're very excited because she's off to college and just had a letter from her best friend Joe, wishing her luck.

Beth:
I will always miss you. I will see youwhen he get home. 

He is my best friend. Because he loves me. The reason why we're friends because we're best friends from school. 

Beth's Mum:
She's going to learn how to cook and clean and keep her bedroom nice and tidy. But it's basically working in the hospitality industry, but with also a very big chunk of life skills added in.

Beth:
I'm studying catering. I'll be learning about meeting new friends, I'm looking forward to it. We might go out to the pub, that kind of thing. 

Beth;s Mum:
Equality for us for Beth, means that she has the same sort of experiences as her sisters. So they've all been to university and she wants to go to university, she wants to go away and she wants to have the opportunity to live independently. 

Beth:
Mum's going to be like, very nice room because I chose, my dad was helping me choose a room, and it's got a sofa in it, so I can just chill. For social stuff, I can actually talk to my real friends that kind of thing. We're gonna just have fun, talking to them. 

Beth's Mum:
Do you remeber what they had? 

Beth:
karaoke. 

Beth's Mum:
Yes. Wow. 

Beth:
I'll give you a tune actually. *Starts singing*

Beth's Mum  2:01  
Now Beth's at college, it all feels quite strange. We're really missing her. Her brother cried. Her sister's been very upset. I've missed her physical presence because she's very, very affectionate. So being without that kind of affection feels quite odd. And I'm missing it.

Unknown Speaker  2:19  
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Beth's Story - The right to a college education when you have Down’s Syndrome.

I’m Scottish, I’m Sikh, I’m a lassie driving a cab - so what?

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio. 

Balwinder:
My name is Balwinder, and I'm from Glasgow. I'm the first female Asian taxi driver in Glasgow. The people that come into my taxi, as soon as they come in first thing their like, Oh, hi, mate, and then they see me and they're like, gobsmacked, and I'm like, Hi, how are you today? And they're like, Oh my god, you're Scottish. That's amazing. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I'm born and bred here. And they're like, yeah I can tell hun. Oh, my God, if I wasn't looking at you, I would just think it's any lassie he told him. I was like, I mean, I am any lassie. 

I've been in the taxi for five years. My husband, he's a taxi driver. As he was working, he had a wee minor heart attack. So he was in hospital unwell. So we were having problems with bills and stuff. So he said, Why don't you just try it? And I was like, No, we're asian, we shouldn't be doing things like that. He was like, you can, you're a good driver. You know how to talk. You're Scottish. And I was like, No, I don't know.  

I was actually really scared. is I've just stepped out the normal. I've just done something Mum and Dad didn't do. Dad was out but not mum. Dad's sister, did have a go at me. She goes, we are ashamed of you being out there. And I said why are you ashamed? What am I doing wrong? Can you tell me? Are you paying my bills? 

It has been positive. But there are a few incidents that did happen when somebody was racist. And but then I set them straight. There was a lady, a mature lady who you would think you know, it's okay. You're actually happy to see a woman driver but No, she had to have a say. So did you not get a job in your own country? And I was shocked. And I just looked at her and I said, You sound very English to me. I don't think you belong here. If you actually hear me talking, you should be able to tell i'm Scottish. And it sid you know what I could do? I could actually report you for saying that to me. I think the Scotts and Sikhs we relate a lot. We're very outspoken. And we say what we want to say.

Unknown Speaker:
The Equal Britain series, supported by the audio content fund.

Balwinder's Story - I’m Scottish, I’m Sikh, I’m a lassie driving a cab - so what?

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Ami  0:07  
First time I got stopped. I was 13 it was outside my house, like, in the alleyway outside my house. Um, I was I think I was wearing a black jacket in my school uniform. So my shoes were black and so were my trousers, but my shirt was open and you can see my school tie and whatnot. But, um, it was basically three, it was three white men. And there was a car parked in the carpark like a police van. And as I was walking, they came out and they came up to me a put me up against the fence and just told me some B.S. about how they're invoking the certain stop Rights Act or some crap like that. And that because I look suspicious, so they searched me on and whatnot, and I just felt like a, like a, like a criminal. They didn't ask me how old I was. If I was going to school. You know, if I live there. They just told me I look suspicious and now they're gonna search me. You know, they just.. I felt like violated.

Unknown Speaker  1:44  
The Equal Britain series supported by the audio content fund.

Ami's Story - stopped and searched at 13 in my school uniform.

“Black people can float!” fighting racist myths in swimming.

Transcript:

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
How equal is Britain? Your stories on talk radio.

Unknown Speaker  0:07  
Hi, my name is Alice Dearing and I'm a British swimmer. And I'm currently training to be the first black woman to swim for Britain at the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year. 

I have sadly had one instance of blatant racism done towards me. And it really had the potential to knock my confidence from the sport. If I'm being honest, like in hindsight, I could see how that would really affect the way I view swimming and what I think of the sport and the community. However, I didn't look towards that path thankfully, I didn't want anything to get in the way of what I wanted to achieve. And me being the swimmer I wanted to be. 

I want to see more black men, black women, every race, every color, get involved in the sport because it really is something special. There are many barriers stopping people of color getting into swimming. The stereotype such as black people don't swim, our bones are too dense, we sink when we get in the water. Swimming is just not a sport for us, which a lot of black people have either heard throughout their life or have been explicitly told by somebody. And this stereotype and stigma needs to go because it's damaging to a community, like race doesn't stop you from being able to float. The water doesn't think of there's a black man getting in the water. I'm going to not help keep him afloat. 

I'm one of the four co-founders of the black swimming Association set up by other black people who are involved in swimming in some capacity. And we really want to change this idea and challenge the narrative, which tells black people that they can't swim or that it's not a sport for them. This isn't just an issue of learning to swim. It's an all encompassing life factor, which we really hope to be able to change.

Unknown Speaker  2:14  
The Equal Britain series supported by the audio content fund.

Equal Britain week on talkRADIO

LoftusMedia