I’m cautious to cancel people when they’re problematic.
Read MoreCardi B & Performative Cancellations
Lady Gaga & The Dishonesty of #ThisIsNotUs
Saturday morning, I woke up to a timeline full of pictures of angry white people misappropriating Tiki torches during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Organised by white nationalist Jason Kessler, who according to the Sothern Poverty Law Centre “relies on familiar tropes of “white genocide” and “demographic displacement””, the Unite The Right march brought together white men and white women so comfortable with their right to be hateful, they didn’t even don the hoods of their Klu Kulx Klan forefathers. I mean, even tight face skin owner and former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke arrived at the rally and was thankful to you lot’s president as the event fulfilled his election campaign promises. The rally was organised to protest the removal of a statue of confederate civil war leader Robert E Lee. Cos God forbid one of the one thousand confederate monuments, honouring those who fought for the preservation of slavery, in thirty-one states in the United States is torn down.
Violence erupted at regular intervals throughout the two-day rally between anti-fascist protestors and those decrying imagined oppression and escalated until James Fields rammed his car into peaceful protestors, killing an, as of writing, unidentified 32 year-old woman and injuring nineteen others. News organisations floundered, failing to call the atrocity what it is, an act of white, Christian terrorism and somehow documented simpleton Melania Trump was quicker off the mark to denounce the violence than the meat filled balloon she married who has clearly forgotten the divisive campaign he ran to get elected calling for everyone to be united.
Right on time like her collaboration with R Kelly no one asked for and was taken to task for, here comes Lady Gaga claiming what’s happening in Charlottesville is “Anti-American” , encouraging her followers to use the hashtag #ThisIsNotUs. Lady Gaga is not uneducated about the mechanisms of racism and how it manifests as her fans remind those critiquing her about the star’s relationship with Black Lives Matter and the song she wrote for Trayvon Martin so I’m going to address this with unfettered passion- you’re wrong, sis and your hashtag is the very reason white supremacy is able to live and breathe out in the open.
#ThisIsNotUs is a lie. It is the same as the lie Toupee Fiasco told in his press conference when he claimed there was “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” Akwugo Emejulu’s side by side of the pictures of Elizabth Eckford walking into the first desegregated high school in 1957 pursued by a hateful mob and Charlottesville’s white supremacists proves this is you, everything that happened in Virginia is a representation of who American has is established itself as in the world. And let’s stretch imagination to its outer limits and pretend it isn’t you, who is it then?
According to senior fuck-head Julian Assange James Fields “is a suspected white supremacist picking up terrorism tips from ISIS (crowd ramming).” To claim #ThisIsNotUs is to co-sign the deception that white supremacy, white nationalism and neo-nazis are a fringe element of American life and not occupying key positions in the current White House administration. To entertain #ThisIsNotUs works to deflect accountability for the fact the people participating freely in that rally are everyday people, with families, neighbours and co-workers, who have been radicalised into believing the lies of white supremacy, that America belongs to white people and white people alone. #ThisIsNotUs stops white people doing the work of dismantling white supremacy in their homes, in their schools and allows white people fearful of the prospect of the labour and heavy lifting necessary to engage with the people they love and know who harbour hatefulness, expecting to leave this very real, very hard work to black and brown people.
You lot’s favourite trope in times of violence Dr Martin Luther King Jnr warned against lukewarm responses in times of racial crisis. In ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ on April 16th 1963, Dr King wrote “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"…” I propose, along with many others on Twitter, white people finally reconcile with the reality every single act of violence that took place in Charlottesville is American. Denial will only allow the hatefulness to thrive. To continue to ease your collective consciousness with empty hashtags instead of actively combatting white supremacist beliefs your loved ones hold dear will see California’s food crops rot in perpetuity because your president’s hate speech and immigration policies alienate the migrant workers you need to farm your land. Be honest about the history of racialised violence in America; it’s as old as the birth of your nation.
Why am I so passionate about #ThisIsNotUs when I live in Britain? As Kelechi said on Twitter early Saturday morning “to all the white Brits watching what's happening in Charlottesville and saying "at least we're not that bad!" Spoiler alert: you are.” Fifty-two percent of Britain voted to leave the European Union after a campaign based on fear, racism and xenophobia. According to the Independent “The number of hate crimes recorded by regional police forces rose by up to 100 per cent in the months following the Brexit vote…” And guess who the victims were? That’s right folks, brown and black people. So, excuse me Lady Gaga I cannot afford to be complacent, blindly retweeting #ThisIsNotUs. And I get it, I really do, Holy books speak of covering hatred with love but in this instance, you are inadvertently disallowing your nation room to dig up the this rotting tree, investigate the roots in order to locate the issue and genuinely pursue the effective combination of solutions you so desperately seek. There is hope for the rehabilitation of those with these racist mind-sets. Shazia Awan of the BBC interviewed Arno Michaelis, a former white supremacist who now works to change those who, like him, bought into the lie. Do not stand in the way of the de-radicalisation and re-education work that needs to take place in order for this cycle to end.
Own it. Then pass the mic and use your platform to boost the voices of those equipped with the solutions.
Click here to shower me in cash (thanks in advance).
Click the heart below.
Girls Trip & Celebrating Black Women's Joy
Black women have long deserved a celebration as bold, colourful and debauched as Girls Trip since John was a boy. Girls Trip, written by Tracy Oliver and Malcolm D Lee, serves to upend the cinematic status quo that sees black women ignored, abused or absorbing the ills of society by ensuring friendship, love, joy and sexual desire are our focus in the comedy hit of the summer. Hollywood royalty Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Regina Hall and silver screen newcomer (my new personal obsession) Tiffany Haddish take us on the craziest journey as their friendships are tested and romances blossom. It’s well measured medicine for the battered psyche, taught for decades black women are beasts of burden, gifted at shouldering the pain inflicted upon us.
Read MoreBeyoncé & How Stylist Magazine Failed
Since the release of Beyoncé’s only photo of her children, one she released on her Instagram account and didn’t sell to People like a myriad of stars before her, white women across the Twittersphere have made wild claims about the mother of three. Danielle Ryan, a journalist with a slew of credits, asserted “Beyoncé is literally a female version of Kanye West. Full blown narcissist. I can't understand the insane reverence around her.” Twitter verified white supremacy account, Wife With A Purpose tweeted a photo of the Madonna & Child next to a photo of Beyoncé with the caption “Tubillardine Whiskey (1952) vs Kool-Aid” . These women (tbh the gender of the latter is suspect) and their tweets are easy to dismiss as twitter fodder, coded racist dog whistles written for attention at a time when it was wholly fixed on a black woman and the bold, beautiful display of her motherhood. What I will not ignore is Stylist Magazine’s institutionalisation of the coded language surrounding Beyoncé’s photo. The women behind the popular magazine thought it wise to commission one Lucy Paget to write an ill-conceived, poorly executed ‘think’ piece entitled “The problem with Beyonce’s impossibly perfect baby announcement.” “Oh Bey. We expected nothing less, but we deserved so much more…” starts the article.
Read MoreStormzy & The Individuality of Black Identity
The driving rain of racism was inescapable on July 10th 2017, from unseasoned Anne Marie Morris’ “the real nigger in the woodpile” comment (that slithered of her tongue too expertly to be any kind of mistake) to top dry head Emmanuel Macron declaring Africa’s problems are “civilisational” as if France didn’t played a direct role in the destabilisation of the continent and her hands aren’t awash with the blood of those they violently colonised. These are both explicit examples of racism and someone more well versed in politics can unpick the wider socio-political implications of these politicians’ comments; I’m here to talk about Stormzy.
Read MoreDiane Abbott & Unrelenting Misogynoir
Diane Abbot was the first black woman elected to the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament in 1987. Bridget Minamore’s article on The Pool outlines clearly and succinctly “racism and misogyny explains why there are so few black women in politics.” Minamore details Abbott’s experiences of misogynoir (the intersection of racism and sexism) as an example of the challenges all black women politicians face “all Members of Parliament (especially the female ones) get online abuse. But still, I’ve never seen a white female MP get abuse at the scale Abbott does.” The online abuse Minamore’s article focuses on isn’t from your average, backwater troll. It is public figures “journalists who write about her and her parliamentary peers” and so confident are they in the acceptance of misogynoir by the British public, they do not even seek the protection of anonymity online trolls enjoy.
Read MoreMo'Nique & The Policing of Black Women's Anger
For Tobi, whose tweet inspired this post and whose tireless work championing black, British women has directly, positively influenced my writing career.
My mum curated my experience of blackness on television and in film by directing me to the channels on Sky that represented me when I was younger. My mum, in her infinite wisdom, also collected a vast array of videos and DVDs starring black actors but had a penchant for comedy specials. We had the whole Def Comedy Jam collection and all of Walter Latham’s titles including The Queens of Comedy. It was in that special, showcasing the talents of Adele Givens, Sommore and Laura Hayes, that I was first introduced to Mo’Nique’s no holds barred brand. Unshackled from her TV-safe turn as Nikki Parker in Moesha and The Parkers, I was shocked, delighted and in awe by her, and her colleagues; their ability to be just as raw, equally as funny- if not more hilarious than The Original Kings of Comedy.
Read MoreRiz Ahmed & The Political Blackness Myth
On April 18th Tresemmé, you lot’s Prime Minister, called a snap General Election to strengthen the Conservative Party’s grasp on power during the country’s impending exit from the European Union (and off a cliff to a Thatcher like doom.) At the time, the opposition Labour party, who swing to the left of the Conservative’s right wing political stance, was in disarray and many assumed Labour would be easily defeated. However, in the last month campaigns like #GrimeforCorbyn have helped galvanise previously disillusioned young voters. Grime artists Stormzy and most prominently JME have come out publicly in favour of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party Leader. The BBC reported of the 100,000 people who’ve registered to vote in the last seven days, 40% are under 25 years old and warn of a spike in numbers as the deadline to register to vote grows closer.
Read MoreJamelia & The Fallacy of Reverse Racism
“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” -Zora Neale Hurston.
I was ten years old when I first saw a fresh faced Jamelia dressed in a mantua literally waltzed across MTV Base declaring she was no prima donna while Beenie Man zaga zow, ziggy zowed his way through his feature. She was a vision I would often don my mother’s net curtains trying to recreate. Jamelia’s visibility in the early noughties was important to me as a dark skinned black girl because I was able to see myself in popular culture and her existence validated mine. During the early noughties, the trifecta of women who I could look to as representations that reflected how I saw myself in popular music were Jamelia, Kelly Rowland and Sabrina Washington in British girl group Misteeq.
Read MoreSerena Williams & Black Pregnancy
Serena Jameka Williams, First of Her Name and Queen of the Grass Court announced her pregnancy on Wednesday 12th April and exultations erupted across the Twittersphere. Sports pundits quickly pointed out Williams was with child when she held the winner’s trophy aloft at the Australian Open and very quickly Very Smart Brothas prophesied that in 16 years time Williams’ progeny would also beat Maria Sharapova.
Read MorePepsi, Kendall & Black Women's Erasure
Three years after Alecia Moore, better known as P!NK, made it clear she wasn’t a racially ambiguous woman of colour (because come on, Can’t Take Me Home bamboozled me), she, Beyoncé and Britney Jean Spears formed the trifecta, the Trinity if you will, of Pop to star in Pepsi’s 2004 iconic “We Will Rock You” commercial. Ridley Scott’s 2000 triumph Gladiator heavily influenced the ad and saw the musical juggernauts combine forces to defeat Emperor Enrique Igeslias with the power of Queen. Vibe.com chronicling Beyoncé’s relationship with Pepsi quote her as her saying “I remember Michael Jackson’s commercial …and to think that I’m getting a chance to do this. I know that it’s gonna be perfect.” For the last decade and a half Beyoncé’s Pepsi ads have been just that, evolving in style as she evolved musically. Starting with a spot to accompany her role in MTV’s Carmen: A Hip Hopera, and most recently her 2013 retrospective “Grown Woman”, her “unconventional” $50million deal renewing her relationship with Pepsi in 2012 included the stipulation they “fund to support the singer’s chosen creative projects.” The superstar ensured that not only would they pay her to use her likeness but also financially support her future endeavours. The deal was a stroke of genius.
Read MoreNewsnight, Rachel Dolezal & The Centring of Imagined Blackness
For John, Tanya and Ronke who first paid me to write.
I made sure I was home, front and centre to witness first hand and in real time Rachel Dolezal’s interview with Emily Maitlis on BBC Two’s Newsnight. Astounded, I watched mouth agape as Dolezal spoke about her horrific, violent childhood and unapologetically continued to claim she was, despite the naysayers and indisputable facts, a black woman. Dolezal lamented her inability to gain employment since the revelation she was a white woman darkening her skin and wearing curly hair lost her job as the president of Spokane, Washington’s NAACP chapter. After the interview, Maitlis was joined in the studio by Guilane Kinouani to discuss Dolezal’s claims “race is a lie. How can you lie about a lie?” Kinouani spoke with truth and power clearly articulating “I remain sceptical in her inability to recognise her privilege as a white woman being able to occupy or inhabit the lived experience of a black woman.”
Read MoreKatie Hopkins, Tomi Lahren & The Commodification of Prejudice
Before the bodies of those killed in the attack in London this week were cold, Katie Hopkins sporting her “can I speak to the manager” haircut found her way onto Fox News to share her hot take “People are cowed by one particular religion, which is promoted by the Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, son of the bus driver.” Her divisive rhetoric works as a dog whistle to the far right and neo-Nazi movements both here in the UK and in the United States and it’s nothing new. Hate brands like Nigel Farage and Ann Coulter have long cultivated their message choosing to speak for and to those unable to abide by the slowly changing power structure. The difference between Ann Coulter and Hopkins is Coulter believes every word she writes and says- Farage is moulded and motivated by white supremacy; Hopkins is not.
Read MoreAnthea Efunshile CBE, George Osborne & Two Britains
Twitter was alight this morning after news broke of the appointment of former Chancellor of the Exchequer and full time dry head George Gideon Oliver Osborne as Editor of the Evening Standard newspaper. Immediately people began questioning exactly what experience Osborne has to qualify him as the right person to edit the Evening Standard; London’s free evening paper. Jim Waterson, Political Editor at Buzzfeed reported “every Oxford library copy of George Osborne’s student journalism has gone missing. And only for his year.” Not surprising when you realise this nincompoop couldn’t even secure a place on a Times Newspaper training scheme in 1993 and later applied for a position at The Economist but was “turned down at interview” as Simon Kuper happily reported with named references for the Financial Times. Of course Osborne’s writing samples are “missing.” Who would want the general public assessing the calibre of his work or knowing their employment process is based purely on nepotism? Jeremy Corbyn goes a step further and suggests Osborne’s appointment is an attempt to subvert media neutrality, further highlighting the problem with journalism in the UK; those writing our daily news are rarely there based on merit.
Read MoreCosmo & The Weaponisation of Racist Science
For Des’ree & her platform Latifya Health
It’s a smooth 2017, the year of the Prophet Micheal “Stormzy” Omari, and still the big publications are getting it dangerously wrong. Yesterday, Cosmopolitan Magazine removed an article from their site entitled “The 10 Most Beautiful Women In The World, According To Science.” Luckily for me, my sister Bolu, grabbed a screenshot before the tweet disappeared and I can continue with today’s lesson; Why Are You Lot Still Doing This?
Read MoreSamuel L Jackson & African American Solipsism
I learned to centre the African American experience growing up as a Black British child. Growing up black in South London, my experience was so rarely represented in British television film and music. Last year, I explained how I exclusively looked to the Americans for affirmation that my blackness was beautiful and mattered when I was younger. I understood, at least on a purely aesthetic level, the nature of the African American experience because I consumed their varied representations while the UK was still floundering to fully articulate the similar but ultimately different Black British experience on the small and silver screens. Grime artist Stormzy’s number one album and Michaela Coel’s BAFTA Award winning turn creating Chewing Gum herald a new age for the Black British community where we are finally cementing our autonomy as worthy participants in the global creative community. This visibility of British Blackness, on our terms, has never before been seen in the multifaceted way it is today.
Read MoreBy Moonlight, Hidden Figures Built Fences
This winter I dove off a cliff, headfirst; cinematic black excellence rushing towards. The onslaught against my senses; visually, sonically was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Often throughout the multiple screenings of Fences, Hidden Figures and Moonlight I’ve attended, I found my face wet, tears having slid down my cheeks and puddled on my chest, for no other reason than I had never before witnessed all these three films were offering. The lazy, sumptuous indulgence with which Denzel Washington allows August Wilson’s words to live eternally through Viola Davis and his stellar cast. The three black women in segregated Virginia working at NASA Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson and Janelle Monae brought to life after being hidden for so long. Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s play ‘In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue’ translated to celluloid with Barry Jenkins’ masterful vulnerability. When I came up for air, having immersed myself fully in the waters of these three films, one thing was clear; Hollywood’s antiquated notions of blackness had been shaken to its very core, not yet dismantled but on its way to ruin.
Read MoreSerena Williams & Unfettered White Fragility
Dr Robin DiAngelo’s article explains “White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviours such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviours, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.” Buckle your seat belts for this flight through white fragility of the highest order.
Read MoreBeyonce, Black Joy & White Women
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter announced her pregnancy and the impending arrival of her twins on Instagram this past Wednesday 1st February 2017, the first day of America’s Black History Month. Happiness, joy and glee instantly burst forth from every corner of the internet, it’s light shining bright in the political darkness that has shrouded the world recently. The much-needed reprieve from the turmoil felt from seashore to seashore revealed itself in lapping waves as more photos from Beyoncé’s maternity shoot were released on her website accompanied by a poem, “I Have Three Hearts” written by Warsan Shire, the poet responsible for the words in the 2016 film Lemonade. The race was on to come up with the wittiest tweet or the most creative meme celebrating the joyous occasion. The beautiful photograph, shot by celebrated, Ethiopian photographer Awol Erizku, quickly became the most liked photograph in Instagram history and as of the writing of this post has more than 9 million and counting.
Read MoreClara Amfo & Defeating Cultural Appropriation
Clara Amfo has risen, step by well-timed step, to become a staple on British radio. Originally on Kiss FM, now as the host of BBC Radio One’s morning show, she’s interviewed the world’s biggest stars and has done so without having to assimilate her image to fall in line with the industry standard for black women; I’m talking about her hair. Years before she started wearing it in an afro, she wore her hair in big Ghana twists; a bold move considering the insidious, prevailing, pervasive notion that black women’s hair in its natural state is “unprofessional” and “unacceptable” for the corporate environment. There is quantifiable evidence of the policing of the way black women present themselves and their hair. The backlash black women (and girls) have faced for daring to wear their hair naturally grows as opposed to perming, straightening it or wearing a wig to keep a job or stay in a classroom is chronicled in the stories of Malaika Maos Eyoh and her South African school's aggressive ban on natural hair, Simone Powderly's ultimatum to lose her braids or lose her job and countless others. Despite Clara’s decision not to conform in styles that help keep her hair healthy, to wear her hair how she is comfortable and happy instead acquiescing to society’s pressures her career progression hasn’t been hindered as she continues her climb to the height of British media.
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