Thread by @POC4INDY

#DidYouKnow that #Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 is 6% #Black, #Asian and #Minority #Ethnic? In 2011, this was 4%, and has grown by 2% over the past 9 years.

Over 50% of #Wales lives in or around Cardiff, Newport or Swansea...

#Cardiff is 20.6% #BAME
#Swansea is 10.8% #BAME
#Newport is 13.1% #BAME

We are a Welsh language speaking team of #PeopleofColour who have seen how conversations on race, ethnicity, and diversity are minimised because #Wales is "Only 4% #Black, #Asian and #Minority #Ethnic".

We would never hear people minimise the role of #Welsh language in the same way that the role and contributions of people of colour in #Wales are minimised. It would be absolutely foul...

Imagine if we were told that the Senedd had to, proportionally, represent the proportion of #Welsh language speaking people in #Wales based on 9 year old census data, or that #Welsh didn't have a role in #Cardiff because nearly 90% of the city doesn't speak the language.

Imagine if we spoke of "representative diversity" of the #Welsh language. It would be grossly offensive and, consciously and subconsciously, a form of anti-Welsh language bias. We all know the English-based census data collection methods on #Welsh are insufficient

In the same way that English-based census data collection on ethnicity for tens of years disallowed Welsh BAME communities to self-identify as both Welsh and BAME. Only for the next census will communities be able to self identify as e.g. Black Welsh

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

We're concerned at how quickly discussions on equality become a numbers game, and the lack of interrogation on how these numbers are compiled for and by Empire. We need #independence: an #independence movement that's inclusive for all of us, not just some of us.

That begins with:

📌Visible representation of Black communities in Yes Cymru movement
📌Visible representation of BAME communities in wider independence movement
📌Leadership led by #women
📌Greater interrogation of the relationship #Independence shares with topics effecting POC

📌Visible representation of Black people in Yes Cymru leadership
📌Visible representation of people of colour in Yes Cymru leadership
📌Discussions on the prison industrial complex, Westminster sanctioned institutional racism+institutional racism in Wales so that we are able

to hold real and radical conversations to broaden the movement, to make it even more relevant than it currently is and systematically break down the barriers that hold us down.