Black History Month - Local champions - sonia cohen

In honor of Black History Month, we're celebrating local Black leaders whose work in Bristol is driving inclusion and making a real impact.

Our final champion this month is Sonia Cohen, People Advisor at Graphcore. Sonia works hard in her day job and still finds time in the evening to be our Operations Manager at Bristol Women in Business Charter she also plays lots of netball! 
 She is a champion of equity and you will see her at our events taking notes, managing speakers and hosting panels
She manages all our signatories and our peer to peer programme, we'd be lost without her!

We asked her to tell us a bit about herself

• OOh this question always throws me. I am a reflective individual who enjoys taking in the amazing qualities of humans. Our behaviour, feelings and communication styles. 
• Monday to Friday,  I work as a People Advisor for a tech organisation, by night (!) Operations Manager for Bristol Women in Business Charter. I like Batman movies! In my spare time, I train and play netball in a local league. I love reading books and journal writing. Both tap into possibilities and reflections. As well as calming for different reasons. I love the idea of storytelling, my own thoughts and reading the insights and imaginations of other peoples.

What does good allyship look or sound like for you?

• For me, good allyship looks like asking questions "why do you think that" "how did you get to that". Calling out the uncomfortable. Allyship is about support.  Challenging thoughts and trying to get people to consider that we are individuals and one doesn't represent all. Even that one person situation will be made of many pieces because that is life. To agree isn't An ally will aim to support and this isn't always even about agreeing. 

How can the men and women around you be better allies in Black History Month?

• In Black History Month and outside of it, make an effort to self reflect. Utilise access additional resources that are available under the Black History Month banner.
  
• Attend an event, join a webinar. 
  
• If hiring, consider the employee base. Are minority groups being discriminated against at points during the recruitment process? Are the panel of "experts" diverse in your latest company event. 

What does the Black History Month theme 'reclaiming narratives' mean to you? 

• For me reclaiming narratives means acknowledging and sharing the black history as we know it from the lives of black people, as well those who have recorded and shared their stories. As I feel as black people sometimes things are "obvious", yet whilst we should all make an effort to learn. If we don't share what we know, we don't move any quicker. 
• Black people were enslaved. Yet black people were and are also creators, business owners, inventors scientists & change makers. Slaves, musicians and sports stars are not the only story for us. For me, reclaiming the narrative means being represented. Like all humans, we have triumphs too. Changing the narrative for me is having channels and shops promote movies and books where black people are shown as heros, lovers, front covers and leads. The media hardly show World war images that include  black and asian soldiers who were active and present. The Windrush is a boat, not just a scandal. The scandal is the thing that happened to black people, not by black people. 
• Black culture is widely adopted, yet the narratives are often challenging partially due to lack of representation and allyship in the decision making spaces. 

This Black History Month, is there a person or community group you'd like us to celebrate?

• Black Mothers Matters, a group that has quickly been established  they are doing great work in Bristol to support and bring together black mothers both pre and post pregnancy.  Black South West Network  also a great organisation for commiting to bringing people together to influence decision making and share learning practices.

Thank you Sonia for taking the time to share your thought with us!