Black Lives mattered in the 1960s when the sign my parents came up against when apartment hunting in London said ‘No Coloured. No Irish. No Dogs’.

They mattered in the 1970s when a member of the public could say they wanted to speak to a White member of staff, rather than my Dad (and have that ‘reasonable’ request honoured by management) .

They mattered in the 1980s when on a degree course someone could refer to a third party as a Black C*nt (and then add, ‘no offence mate’ when he saw I had heard what he said).

They mattered when George Floyd said to police officers, ‘I can’t breathe’ and called out for his mother.

These are different sized examples, some big some smaller in scale. They take place at different times, but all contain the same message: being from an ethnic minority means being less than equal, in some people’s eyes.

So here we are in 2020, still needing to take substantial steps to level society up. All because those steps were not taken 60, 50 or 40 years ago.

Here are some steps we can take to embed improvements in this generation:

• Accept the principle that Black Lives Matter does not mean other lives don’t.

• Agree there is enough equality to go around and that the inter section between ethnicity and any other personal characteristic matters too.

• Act today to take personal responsibility for making one change in the world around us, which makes things better for everyone tomorrow.

What goal will you set yourself to make a difference? How will your actions show you are a leader when it comes to making change happen? You can comment below or Tweet @RogerD_Said if you prefer.