Who am I? part 1

                                                                 Who am I?

The following statements are from different sources, speaking out about things they have done, things they are doing, and things they will continue to do. Or it could be things that are being done unto them. It is up to you the readers, to guess who or what said these statements or what is behind these statements. In other words these people may not have said these statements directly but they were most likely thinking like this.

Every single day men come to rape me. I am very rich in terms of my bodily possessions. I have gold all over me, diamonds all over my feet and oil which I use to make my body smooth, but yet I continue to get raped by these men who come from their shores and take my belongings. They take my gold, diamonds and oil, and enrich themselves at my expense. Just to make matters worse, these men then try and sell me my gold that they stole from me . All I want is to have my belongings back, is that too much to ask? I just want to live in peace. To top it all up, no men are here to defend me, it is just me on my own, and I can see more rapists coming from the distance from other shores. Only if my people will wake up from their slumber and stop these insane acts from continuing. I pray that one day I shall regain my gold, diamonds and oil back, and I shall be as rich as I was thousands of years ago, but that can only happen when my people rise from their slumber. Who am I?




Written By Aaron                                                                   

Race & Riots

Recently I watched an interview on BBC Newsnight with David Starkey, he was discussing the UK riots and the things he was saying had shocked and offended me greatly. If you have not seen the interview you can watch it here. What surprised me is the fact that he is a historian saying all these ignorant things, you would think that someone as educated as him would have more sense. He was blaming the UK riots on black culture. He stated that it was black people who started rioting in Tottenham due to the shooting of a black man. However he failed to note that it was a white man that shot Mark Duggan which caused the protests in the first place which then escalated into the riots. It is a shame how these riots have become racialized even though people of every race was involved. Here's a quote from the interview

"The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion,"

Here Starkey is associating gangsterism and violence with black culture and saying that white people have adopted this so called black behaviour. As a historian he should know that gangster culture exists in all racial groups. Take the Maffia as an example one of the most known notorious gangs and they are Italians and last time I checked Italians were not Black. Even the show 'Ross Kemp on Gangs' is proof that there are gangs everywhere; it is not something which occurs in only one racial group. Anyways back to the riots, yes there were many black people who did partake in the riots but it should also be noted that riots had also occurred in areas that have an extremely low black population. There were many white people who took part in the riots and there is proof of this in the numerous video footage there are of the riots.

Another quote David Starkey said in reference to the MP David Lammy:

"If you turn the screen off, so you were listening to him on radio, you would think he was white."

From this statement Starkey is implying that speaking proper English is a 'white' characteristic. It is a shame that in society there are people who associate everything positive with being white' and everything negative with being black. This reinforces the whole "white is right" ideology. Can't a black person be educated and speak proper English without it being said that they are acting white? Actually what is acting white and what is acting black? Yes culture influences our behaviours but just because you are a particular race it does not mean you have to act a certain way. For example I despise the terms 'coconut' and 'wigger'. If you get a white child and black child and they are brought up in the same way I guarantee they will act the same. The way you behave is due to environmental factors, culture and most importantly the way you have been socialised. Being a particular skin tone does not mean you automatically adopt characteristics associated with a certain race, it is something that is learned. For example just because you are black it does not mean that you will automatically like chicken. Whether you like it or not depends on your experiences with food growing up.

Here is a video I saw of Nabil Abdul Rashid rebutting David Starkey's point. It is a great video and I advise you to watch it, this guy makes a great argument and he is very knowledgeable in the points he makes.

Written By Dinah

UK Riots 2011

The UK is recovering from one of the most serious riots ever seen in British history. But  what caused this? How did it all start?

Well on Thursday 4th August a 29 year old man known as Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police during a police operation in Tottenham. He was a passenger in a cab at the time and it was said that he fired shots at police but later reports confirmed that Mark had not fired any shots. He was a father of four and was also known within his local community as "Starrish Mark". His girlfriend had said that Mark has been in trouble with the law in the past but never imprisoned. The media have portrayed Mark as a gangster, some reports say he's a drug dealer and has gang affiliations whereas his relatives say he is a loving father.

Mark Duggan

As a result of his death a peaceful demonstration occurred in Tottenham on 6th August which then led to a few becoming violent since they had not received the answers they wanted pertaining to Mark's death. This caused riots in Tottenham where an array of vandalism, property damage, theft and arson had occurred.The next day the riots had spread to nearby Woodgreen and other parts of London such as Enfield and Brixton. Over the next couple of days the riots has spread to the majority of London where a great amount of damage was caused. Many shops and businesses were looted as people stole and damaged shops. This had spread to  areas outside of London including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham.

Police resources were stretched and could not cope with the level of violence and disorder occurring, hence many people rioting and looting for hours without any police presence. Thousands of people from all ages and races had taken part in the riots not just "black youths" as some aspects of the media are trying to portray. This is NOT a race issue but one of class where majority of those looting are from working class backgrounds regardless of their race. My sympathy lies with those who have lost their homes in the process and those whose businesses have been attacked. God knows how much money they have lost after all their blood sweat and tears they had put into establishing their businesses for someone to then destroy it for no valid reason.

I  think those who took part did not do so due to the death of Mark Duggan but they were just opportunists who wanted free items and to cause havoc and destruction. They know what they are doing but instead of taking responsibility for their own actions they want to blame everyone but themselves and make excuses. If I had my way I would want the police to have used more force (not excessive) to have controlled the looters but hey its not up to me. I hope all the looters get caught and punished for their selfish and violent actions.

On a lighter note here are a few pics of people who looted some very cheap items which I found quite amusing

Written By Dinah

How far can black people progress as a race?

A couple of months back I watched a video called 'Stan the white Man' on the internet. The video struck a chord with me, it came out with various points about black people which I thought was very true but painful to accept. It talked about how black people as a race hinder themselves from progressing.

The first thing it mentioned was the disunity amongst black people. It seems as if black people are generally divided and we are always using our differences as a reason to be against each other. For example Africans v Caribbeans, light skin v dark skin, black on black violence, tribalism etc. It is non stop. I always ask myself why this is, why can't we just accept the fact that we are all black and unite with one another? why do we always see each other as enemies? Why do we always look for differences instead of similarities? This reminds me of the quote "united we stand and divided we fall". It seems as if as a race we have fallen since we are always divided. Sometimes I look at the Asian community and envy them, they are much more united than we are.

This reminded me of the famous 'Willie Lynch Speech' which was a speech given by William Lynch a slave owner in 1712 in the USA who was addressing other slave owners about how to control their slaves. Here is an extract:
"The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.

Don't forget you must pitch the old black VS. the young black males, and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves VS. the light skin slaves. You must use the female VS the male, and the male VS, the female. You must always have your servants and OVERSEERS distrust all blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us.

Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control, use them. Never miss an opportunity. 

My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing about this plan is that if used intensely for one year the slave will remain perpetually distrustful."

This speech breaks my heart every time I read it. It is so sad to see something derogatory that was said about black people a couple of hundred years ago to still be very evident today. To think that there was a time in history where Africa was very rich and powerful with strong empires. Then Africans became enslaved, colonized, oppressed and degraded. However there are many black people who fought for the freedom of our people and the future generations of black people. Sometimes the behaviour of some negative black people makes me think that those freedom fighters had died in vain.

There are now more opportunities for black people compared to say 50 years ago, but instead of making the most of them (don't get me wrong there are many blacks that do) some decide to waste their lives. I am sick of seeing people who have potential but choose not to fulfil it and say "It's because I'm black". So what? Are there not plenty of successful blacks out there? So what if racism is a barrier it does not mean you should stop trying to be successful. You are the author of your life.

Another point made in the video is that black people are being financially exploited. This is true, if you look at the Jewish and Asian communities they tend to understand the nature of business. This is something more black people need to learn. For example black people are large consumers of hair products and the majority of these hair shops are run by Asians who are making  a lot of money from our community. Though there are black owned businesses there are not many. There is also this whole show off/stunting culture (especially in hip hop) where  people feel the need to show off their expensive cars, designer labels, and how much money (or stacks) they have. This is detrimental and encourages non wealthy people to buy designer items so they can show it off to their peers. These labels they mainly buy i.e Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel etc are by European designers who are becoming even richer. We consume a lot but most of the money does not even go back to our own communities (whereas it does in the Asian & Jewish community).

We need to learn from our Jewish and Asian counterparts and have more of our own businesses and sell our own products. We should learn more about the creation of wealth, investing and supporting each other more. We should celebrate the success of others instead of trying to pull them down. We need to stop dividing ourselves and most of all we need to WAKE UP! All those black people doing positive things in their life continue what you are doing. I hope one day as a race we will be more united and not continue to allow ourselves to be exploited.

Written by Dinah