This ambitious first-in-kind research project is designed to investigate a significantly neglected area of contemporary British society, namely the shifting valences of Black British identities.
At a time when what it means to be either Black or British are both undergoing critical transitions, the complex relationship between these categories offers a unique opportunity for impactful and transformative research. The Black British Voices Project (BBVP) brings together a committed team from the media, consultancy and the private sector who are working alongside leading researchers from the University of Cambridge to deliver a richly detailed and up-to-date portrait of Black Britishness, and British Blackness, today. A key outcome of the project will be a flagship report and an accompanying toolkit that can be used across a wide range of sectors to drive change, increase prosperity, improve policy, overcome obstacles and maximise participation in key institutions and professions.
Terms like BAME are too shorthand , too easy and makes us even more invisible.
Focus group participant
According to the lead researcher, Dr Kenny Monrose, an ethnographer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, the Black British Voices Project is‘the first comprehensive enquiry of blacks in Britain ever to be carried out and provides black people with an opportunity to define themselves for themselves in an autonomous and unedited way’. He adds that: "Black Britons are still largely misunderstood and misrepresented in many facets of life - this research should make clear what is important to us and how we can address certain issues. We must manage and communicate our own narrative on how it feels to be Black and British."
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