When I, and my mental health charity PoetsIN, was asked to be part of the Black History Month I found myself feeling a range of emotions.

Pride, fear, doubt. A little imposter syndrome. However, I was determined to do it, as the last few years have taught me much and each day teaches me more.

Firstly, let's address the elephant in the room: I'm white, middle aged, and, as recent times would suggest, a prime candidate for being casually racist.

In my recent experience, it's people around my age that seem to find it difficult to either change their ways or even comprehend that what they previously thought was acceptable, is, in fact, very much not.

It's mostly friends my age I've found myself blocking over the last couple of years after being horrified at their increasingly divisive posts.

I consider myself very liberal, despite being exposed from a very young age to the casual (and not so casual) racism of the 70s, 80s and 90s and beyond.

As a child I was treated to horrors such as the Black and White Minstrel Show, Rising Damp, The National Front in my school, and ''comedy' from people like Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning.

I grew up hearing the same language being used to describe black people (often to their face) and encountering the same changes in that language.

Even with that constant onslaught, I have never been racist. I count myself lucky enough to have lived in multicultural areas with diverse friend groups incorporating people of all creeds and colours.

I was, in fact happy with just being 'not racist'. Being colour blind, I thought, was enough. It was not.

I've discovered much about myself since the death of George Floyd sparked events resulting in worldwide recognition of the BLM movement.

The coverage it has received has continued to shine a bright and very stark light on police brutality, injustice, and media bias; and closer to home, has prompted initially very awkward and clunky conversations I've needed to have with people of colour in my half a century on the planet.

I always thought I was morally sound when it came to being against racism. I would always stand up for people in reactive ways. However, I have realised that I was clearly muted in proactive ways and therefore, to a degree, complicit.

The last few months have also taught me much about centuries of disparity, and so, as a white man with white privilege, being involved with Black History Month means a hell of a lot to me.

If I, a man who doesn't exactly fit the criteria or image of someone who would actively become part of the movement to speak up against racism or help spread the word, it might make others like me think twice.

And that's why I am honoured that I and my charity are involved with the workshops we are delivering throughout October.

We, as a charity that actively strives to be inclusive, vowed to try to harder – and this is the start.

It's a drop in the ocean to what I should have been doing, but it is a start. I'm educating myself and endeavouring to be the change I would like to see.

We should always be open to learning, even when the facts and statistics counteract what we thought we knew.

This is how we, as human beings evolve; and Black History Month is part of that process.

Please open your minds, people, try some new things out, read some books you normally wouldn't and watch films with open minds.

PoetsIN have teamed up with legendary MC Mr Malise to deliver Civil Writes - creative writing workshops for mental health and expressing oneself; throughout October via Zoom alongside virtual talks from prominent people within black history, including Stuart Lawrence, who's brother Stephen was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Eltham in 1993.

Paul Chambers who is a co-founder of a mental health Charity called PoetsIN.