Thread by @marcusryder

Yesterday we had a birthday for our son with a pirate theme. I wouldn't normally post about my 3-year-old's party but as I post so much about diversity I think this is important. Pirates are possibility the best example of diversity in practice... (thread)

A large proportion of pirates were African. This is because they'd often capture slave ships and take the captured Africans make them crew. A third of Black Beard's ship was thought to be African. For more info on African pirates this blog post is great thepirateempire.blogspot.com/2016/01/black-…

As we live in China it is important to recognise the most powerful pirate ever was not a man but a Chinese woman. Her name was Ching Shih, she had a fleet of over 300 ships. She enacted progressive anti-rape laws, read more about her here en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Pirates are possibly the best images of disability. The classic image of a pirate is visually impaired with a "peg leg" and missing a hand. Where else are disabled people the heroes? They also had injury compensation schemes listverse.com/2014/02/01/10-…

Finally as pirates operated on the margins of society they embraced LGBTQ crew. Read point 9 of this great article. listverse.com/2014/02/01/10-…

So if you are gay, black, a woman, or disabled claim your pirate heritage with pride.

Plus it is a lot of fun!!!