The Windrush is why we fight for media diversity

 

The Windrush is one of the most important events in modern British history, nearly everyone agrees on that. 

But here is the point that few people realise. One of the reasons its importance has been passed down from generation to generation is because a nameless TV news editor decided to send a camera crew down to the docks and film it.

Imagine if it hadn’t been filmed, photographed or written about by journalists at the time. In all likelihood its significance would have been lost forever.

We would be poorer as a nation - not just black people but everyone.

That in a nutshell sums up why I fight for media diversity.

Without media diversity who knows what important stories we are missing? 

Who knows what future historical events are being lost forever?

The fact is less than 5% of people who work in the British film industry are people of colour and only 1% of TV directors making prime-time programmes ( the very type of people who would have filmed the Windrush arrival) are black.

The stories we tell each other and about each other define who we are. Who tells those stories shape our narratives and our shared identity.

I also wonder how different the iconic archive, interviews and and photographs would be if there had been black people behind the cameras and microphones.

We owe it to the Windrush generation that their stories are not lost and the history made by their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is recorded. It is important to remember the Windrush and for me one of the best ways to honour the people who arrived on 22nd June 1948 is to fight for as many of their descendants as possible to tell their stories in their own voices.

I will also be raising a glass today to the nameless news editor who made sure the moment was captured forever.