Brixton

Hi there!

My name is Quinn Smith. I am a psychology major and I am going to be a senior in the fall (I still cannot believe that). I have been to London before but we did not stay for very long so I wanted to come on this trip to be able to see more of the city as well as evaluate it on a psychological level. London is so diverse and cultures are able to be authentic and I wanted to see this first hand.

Today we visited the Black Cultural Archives and the market in Brixton. Brixton is a historically Afro-Caribbean neighborhood. When arriving to Brixton we first went to the Black Cultural Archives. This was a museum that highlighted two major things. One room highlighted black history in London and England. Something that stood out to me when reading the history was that they have had similar problems and incidents that we have had in the United States. The event that specifically stood out to me was that there was a shooting of an unarmed black man. This shows that it is not necessarily just a United States thing but a world wide occurrence for black people. Regardless of black person's nationality, there are institutions that are inherently racist and unfortunately you are not always safe from these institutions and the people that occupy them. In the second room they had the voices of strong powerful black women who were speaking their truths. This was humbling and hopeful because they were modern women who had powerful voices. It shows that people have a lot of influence because of the things that they say.

The next thing we did was go to the market. What took me back when it came to the market was how these people were able to outwardly express their cultures. They were speaking their native languages and cooking their native foods. This was very exciting to see because in lots of places especially in the US, cultures are often suppressed unless it benefits the American agenda. The market was very large with stands selling fruit and clothes as well as food trucks for different types of ethnic food.

Overall we had a great day and really enjoyed learning and comparing what life has been and is like for black people in the greater London area.

Here are some photos from our awesome day!