We are moving in the right direction when it comes to racism – but painfully slowly

Displays of renewed solidarity are wonderful, and this harmony should not fade away, writes Kuba Shand-Baptiste

Demonstrations in Denver, Colorado, on Sunday (AFP)

There’s never been an easy time to be a black journalist. Not in a trade where the overwhelming majority (94 per cent in 2016) is white, and a mere handful of black people are in senior editorial positions.

But over the past few months in particular, under a barrage of information about our vulnerability to the pandemic that has so far claimed hundreds of thousands of lives; against the backdrop of growing protests against police brutality and racial profiling towards black people around the world, it does feel harder than usual to have to be so tapped into every ugly detail of what’s unfolding before us.

We have, however, reached a point in the conversation that many of us have been waiting for all our lives: moving beyond convincing white people and non-black people of colour that racism and anti-blackness exist. We must incentivise our allies to not only speak out but also to fight alongside or even in front of us, as some protest tactics have shown. And this has been reflected in our coverage.