Shaun Pascal on the importance of Black voices.
Shaun Pascal is the founder of Black Wall St Media, an organisation and online newspaper platforming stories by and for Black people across the globe. They work with writers, creatives, change-makers, and thinkers to change the narrative and create a movement that defies stereotypes.
See Me Be Me is a podcast that spotlights diverse talent across any and every career path.
When Black Wall St Media started, I don’t believe that the mainstream had the appetite for those stories. I remember my uncle, when he started his show on the BBC, the guy who ran the BBC at that time said, are you gonna have enough material to cover half an hour of topics to do with black people? And, you know, they didn’t even know where the Caribbean was, and you had to take a map and put it up. So we needed that education. And, you know, I find that you can talk, but unless you actually show people, they won’t listen.
There’s a lot of unsung heroes out there doing great work in our community, that deserve their flowers and deserve their recognition. And if it wasn’t for platforms like Black Wall St Media, people wouldn’t know about them, and their work wouldn’t get highlighted, and it probably wouldn’t get funded.
I do a lot of articles about people of colour in history, because a lot of the answers we’re looking for are in history. And there are a lot of inspiring people that have come before us that have faced these challenges, overcome, and have been pioneers. And when you learn about these people, it really gives yourself a sense of identity of who you are, and what you can achieve.
It certainly fills me with a lot of pride, and to be able to walk tall, and I want our young people, especially our young black men and women to see that we are not what the papers portray us to be. We are being creative. We are about being doctors, lawyers and politicians, and this is nothing new to us. This is always who we’ve been, you’ve just not heard about it.
