Brothas we need to talk. Not next week. Not "when I get round to it." Now.
In the UK, a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer every 8 minutes. That is over 68,000 new diagnoses a year and the number of men living with the disease has jumped by 100,000 since 2020, now sitting at around 600,000. Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer diagnosed in the UK, full stop.
The US Navy is ending permanent medical shaving waivers for razor bumps (pseudofolliculitis barbae or PFB).
Dr Tanisha Spratt and Dr Nkasi Stoll are inviting Black British men to participate in a focus group exploring how joy supports health and wellbeing in everyday life.
The discussion forms part of the Black Joy as Anti-Racist Praxis Study, based at King's College London and funded by Wellcome Trust.
Date: 29 July, 2:00–3:30PM
Location: In person, in London
There is a question we rarely ask when a child dies “who is looking after the father?”
When a family experiences the unimaginable loss of a child, our attention naturally turns towards mothers. We ask how they are coping, surround them with practical support and recognise the visible impact of their grief. Fathers, by contrast, often become the people expected to hold everything together. They comfort their partners, make funeral arrangements, return to work and quietly absorb the expectations placed upon them.
Yet perhaps the most important conversation we need to have is not about mental health it is about inheritance. Not the inheritance measured in money, property or possessions. The inheritance measured in beliefs, behaviours, coping mechanisms and emotional habits passed from one generation to the next.
Look closely at the image above and you begin to see a story that stretches far beyond one individual. What appears to be a campaign about wellbeing is actually a reflection on culture, identity and the invisible burdens many men carry throughout their lives. Behind every statistic sits a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a husband, a colleague or a friend who has learned, often from an early age, that strength means carrying the weight alone.
For many…
Most men say they need more motivation.
Wrong focus.
🛑In last night’s session we discussed how strict, ruthless and playful I was when working with the group members?
🛑 How do you manage your thoughts and feelings (and not get overwhelmed and stressed) and stay focused and calm when things around you get chaotic? What’s a stake during this process?
🛑 How does one take care of oneself and ensure that collaboration and support is the goal rather than only focusing on self?
🛑 How might an activity like this help to improve your mental health and wellbeing?
Some conversations save lives.
Prostate cancer affects thousands of men across the United Kingdom every year and Black men are statistically at significantly higher risk. Yet too many suffer in silence, unsure where to ask questions, process emotions or simply speak openly with others who understand.
The Birmingham Prostate Cancer Support Group is launching a new monthly space dedicated to men diagnosed with prostate cancer and their families. Partners and wives are welcome. Healthcare professionals and guest speakers will join sessions to provide information, reassurance, and clarity.
The first meeting takes place on 11th March 2026 at the Legacy Centre of Excellence, Birmingham.
A recent advert from Transport for London was banned after the Advertising Standards Authourity ruled that its shortened social media version reinforced harmful racial stereotypes about Black men.
In the isolated clip, a Black teenage boy was shown as the sole aggressor in a public safety scenario. The broader two-minute context was absent. What remained was a familiar visual script. The Black male as threat.
There is a certain kind of advice that circulates quietly among men. It is rarely framed as morality. It is framed as consequence. The image you have just seen belongs to that category. Not because it is polite or complete, but because it gestures toward a deeper truth. Intimate decisions are not isolated acts. They are structural choices. Structures, as we know, shape outcomes.
Here is the uncomfortable part. Most life-altering setbacks men report in midlife are not caused by lack of intelligence or opportunity. They are caused by relational decisions made under emotional pressure, ego, loneliness or misplaced confidence. This is not opinion. It is pattern.
In the United Kingdom, relationship breakdown remains one of the leading triggers for housing instability and financial decline among men aged forty to fifty-nine, according to data analysed by the Office for…
Right now, a powerful cluster of policy shifts and market changes is hitting UK households and, most critically, small businesses. Many BrothaTalk members are founders, side‑hustlers, sole traders or running community‑anchored ventures.
Even if you are hustling hard, moving fast and doing everything “right,” you could still miss a regulatory or financial change that drains your cashflow, raises your costs or hits you with penalties.
This is not theory. The changes are already happening. Together they are tightening disposable incomes, raising operating costs and increasing administrative exposure at a time when BAME men, especially Black and South Asian entrepreneurs, already operate with thinner buffers, higher borrowing costs and fewer safety nets.
If merit alone determined success, the data would look very different. Talent would be evenly rewarded. Hard work would reliably compound. But the numbers tell another story, one shaped less by effort and more by access, proximity and trust.
UK and US research consistently shows that Black professionals are over-represented in effort and under-represented in influence.
Follow-up analysis to the McGregor-Smith Review makes clear that the issue is not only one of fairness but of national economic consequence. Government estimates show that if Black and minority ethnic professionals were able to participate and progress in the labour market at the same rate as their white counterparts, the UK economy could gain up to £24 billion a year, roughly 1.3% of GDP.
Here is the truth most business panels never say out loud. Talent does not build companies access does and in Britain, access is still quietly rationed.
There is a quiet truth about business in Britain that rarely makes it into the glossy entrepreneurship stories we like to tell. Black man, you can have a solid business model, strong traction and real demand and still fail if you cannot reach the invisible infrastructure that turns ideas into scale. Grants,
philanthropic capital and corporate supply chains. These are not neutral systems. They are relational systems. For Black men in Britain, those relationships are often out of reach.
Prostate cancer is not a distant issue. It is not someone else’s story. It is your reality and for Black men, the risk is higher, earlier and deadlier.
If talent determined success in the workplace, Black men would not be earning less, progressing slower and leaving leadership in record numbers.
Across the UK and the United States, the data confirms what many Black men already live. Despite qualifications, experience and performance, Black men face persistent barriers in pay, promotion and opportunity.
Even when education and occupation are equal, Black men are still paid less, promoted more slowly and concentrated in lower-paying roles. Highly qualified Black graduates remain significantly less likely to receive job offers than their White peers, creating a career bottleneck from the very start.
Over the past few months, headlines and policy debates have zeroed in on the challenges and opportunities facing Black men.
From health disparities to economic inclusion, these conversations are shaping legislation, community programmes and cultural narratives.
Here is what’s trending and what we can do about it.
There is a quiet crisis unfolding in the health of Black men. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black men in America have the lowest life expectancy of any demographic group, nearly five years shorter than white men.
Sometimes the most powerful affirmations are the simplest. “Just because” strips away the need for explanation or defence. It is recognition in its purest form of all the things men go through.
So today, I want to give ten shout outs to Black men, not tied to achievement or headlines, but to the quiet and profound ways they shape our lives, communities and futures.
Shout out to the Black men who show up, not perfectly, but consistently, in a world that often tells them their presence is optional.
Shout out to the fathers and father-figures who steady hands that once trembled, offering love that builds resilience across generations.
Created by Aswad Aarif, this workbook is designed for brothers who are ready to start the work of healing, growing and learning to show themselves the same love they give others.
The Black Men’s Self-Love Workbook is a guide to help brothers heal, reflect and build a healthier relationship with themselves. Inside are tools for managing stress, navigating trauma and cultivating inner peace.
Self-love is not an indulgence, it is the foundation for your wellness.
This book is an invitation to slow down, care for yourself, and connect with what matters most to you.
Every great story has a turning point. For Black men in the UK, that turning point might be a simple blood test. Yet too many never reach it. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and while it often grows silently, it kills loudly, claiming Black men’s lives at twice the rate of their white peers.
Neuroscience shows that we humans underestimate hidden risks. When there are no symptoms, the brain’s “optimism bias” whispers that everything is fine. But biology does not wait for awareness.
Early testing is the only way to catch this disease before it spreads and every year of delay means more fathers, sons and brothers lost.
How many of us, just this year, have known someone who has taken their own life or felt the tremor when a friend of a friend suddenly is not here anymore?
Proud Sista!
Proud Sista!
Proud Sista!
Proud Sista!
