news, UK

Michael Holding and Ebony Rainford-Brent – our latest BLM stars

Michael Holding and Ebony Rainford-Brent’s hard-hitting and moving speech on the striving for racial justice stirred sports fan and others. Thank you.

Michael Holding in his prime was a magnificent fast bowler in the all-conquering West Indies cricket teams sides of the 1970s.

Both the England and West Indies team and all the officials took part in the Take The Knee event at the beginning of the first test match of the series.

Holding on white power…

“Everybody has heard about this lady in a park in America who was asked by a black man to put her dog on a leash, which is the law,” Holding said.

“She threatened this black man with her whiteness, saying that she was going to call the police and tell them there was a black man threatening her.

“If the society in which she was living did not empower her or get her to think that she had that power of being white and being able to call the police on a black man, she would not have done it.

“It was an automatic reaction because of the society in which she lives. If you don’t educate people they will keep growing up in that sort of society and you will not get meaningful change.”

Ebony Rainford-Brent

One-time international cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent said her piece, and she didn’t hold back either.

“I’ve been in team environments, dealing constantly with people referring to ‘your lot,’” she said with tears in her eyes.

“I questioned myself why I stayed sometimes so long, I love the game, I think it has so much more to offer.

Former English cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent broke down when speaking about the impact racism had on her during her time playing cricket. (Image: Sky Sports)
Former English cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent broke down talking about the impact of racism

“But it can be really difficult dealing with that day in day out.”

Ebony said education needs to change:

“It can’t be a ‘black person’s problem’, it has got to be everyone’s problem. We have got to want a society that is representative and supports people from different backgrounds,” she said.

“That’s what it is for me. We need honest conversations, opportunities and people in positions of power. And then we can change the landscape.”

Invention of the filament light bulb

Say his name: Lewis Howard Latimer – inventor of the light bulb, as we were reminded in the history lesson from Michael Holding. Thank you again.

Lewis Howard Latimer – inventor of the light bulb
Lewis Howard Latimer – inventor of the light bulb
news, UK

Covid victim George Ziwa needs your support for African funeral

My name is Stephen Smith and sadly we lost our best friend Mr George Ziwa who was found totally decomposed in his flat in March.

Because of the Covid restrictions his body has only just been released by the coroner in High Wycombe, so we have only just set up his GoFundMe page so that his family in Uganda can give him the traditional African burial they have requested.

George Ziwa was a well known member of the Buckingham and Aylesbury community, he lived on the streets from 2012 until January 2019 when he moved into his flat.

Although George was responsible for the renovation of the local Red Cross Centre’s garden during 2017-2018 his lifestyle led to serious health complications.

George died on the 1 March 2020 and he was found at his home some weeks later.

I am appealing to everybody to help send George’s body home so his 80 year old mother can put him to rest under traditional African ceremony. 

Please donate generously to the repatriation fund. Thank you:

Go fund Me

More about George

George Ziwa was born on 28th June 1973 in Kampala, Uganda to Mrs Emma Namuli and the late George William Ziwa. He enjoyed a very close and dear relationship with his mother especially as he was her last born child. George went to school in Uganda and Kenya. He studied from S1 to S6 at Namilyango College, Uganda and he was a very active member of the Ngonian and the Namilyango College Old Boys Association (NACOBA). He later went to England where he studied Nursing at Luton and Dunstable Hospital with a specialisation in mental health. Upon qualifying, George worked at the Whiteleaf Mental Health Centre in Aylesbury as a State Registered Nurse. George lived in Buckinghamshire, England until his death.

George was a loving, caring and generous person and he was always eager to help. Whenever he went to Uganda on vacation, he often met the young homeless street-children to whom he bought food and drinks. George always carried his pink Bible which his sister Linda had offered to him and he fondly referred to himself as a soldier of Christ. He was part of the congregation at Buckingham Evangelical Church. In his youth, George had joined the Boys Scouts and he took great joy in all their activities while also treasuring the strong friendships that he built with his fellow scouts.

George passed away suddenly at the beginning of March 2020. He is survived by his two children, his mother and his siblings and he will be sadly missed by his family and numerous friends.

May his soul rest in peace.

news, UK

Roberts brothers Darren and Darrell and Osime Brown – 3 steps for justice

Table of contents
Roberts brothers and Brown casesStop these deportations
Step 1: Read more about itStep 1: links to background
Step 2: Find your MPStep 2: MP lookup
Step 3: Write a letter templateStep 3: letter template
The Windrush BetrayalGet the book, watch video

The Home Office plan to deport UK-born Darrell and Darren Roberts to countries they have NEVER been to. Due to failures of social services they have never received UK citizenship. Despite serving their time, they face deportation due to short prison sentences.

Darrell and Darren “were taken into the care of social services when they were 13 after the deaths from cancer in quick succession of their mother and later of the uncle who looked after them when she died. Their father had moved abroad before their mother’s death and they have had no contact with him for decades.” (The Guardian) 

The Home Office similarly plans to deport Osime Brown, a 21 year old autistic man, to Jamaica (a country he left when he was 4 and has no current family connections with). He has been in the UK for 17 years. He was wrongfully incarcerated and has been sent a deportation notice.

These injustices demonstrate failures of social services and the Home Office, underscoring the evident systemic racism that lies within.

The following link is a call to action, urging people to educate themselves on these stories and write to their MP (including an email template). Unfortunately, the official UK parliament petition website does not allow petitions about individuals, and Parliament does not acknowledge or recognise petitions from other websites.

 shorturl.at/fsFJ9 

Download resource (also reproduced below): Download

Step 1: Read more about it

Darrell and Darren Roberts’ case

Osime Brown’s case

The National Autistic Society’s response to Osime Brown’s case 

Background on deportation and Windrush Scandal 

Step 2: Find your MP’s contact details

Click here!

Step 3: Write to your MP

Feel free to write your own words or use the following template:

Dear _____________ MP,

My name is ______, I am ______ years old and have been constituent of ______ for _____ years. I am writing as I’ve recently read of a few similar stories that have completely angered me (though not completely shocked). 

Today I read the news that London-born twins Darrell Roberts and Darren Roberts are facing deportation to countries they have never been to. Due to indisputable failures of Ealing social services, these London-born young adults, never received UK citizenship. 

Similarly, an autistic 21-year old man named Osime Brown faces deportation to Jamaica, which he left when he was 4 years old – he has no family connections there. He too was terribly failed by the social care and education system. Here is a link to the National Autistic Society’s response to this injustice, as well as their letter to the Home Secretary.

As your constituent, I am urging you to take action, revoke these deportation notices and stop these deportations. These stories demonstrate failures of social services and the Home Office, underscoring the evident system racism that lies within. 

Please use your position of power and influence to stop these deportations, along with the many others I have not mentioned today, and push conversation and action in parliament to address the Home Office’s horrible history of deportation of Black UK-born or raised residents. 

I look forward to hearing back.

The Windrush betrayal

The Roberts brothers and Osime Brown are just the latest victims of the WIndrush scandal.

When former prime minister Theresa May introduced her infamous ‘hostile environment’ regime it led to many people from the Windrush generation and their descendants being caught in the Home Office’s unfair and draconian measures to hunt down ‘illegal immigrants’, even though these people were originally invited to the UK by the British government.

Many who came to the ‘Mother Country’ did not regularise their status by seeking British citizenship or a passport.

Then when they accessed public services under the new regime, they were unable to produce documents proving citizenship and one thing led to another.

People lost their jobs, were billed massive amounts for health care services, were deported and some went on holiday and were then refused re-entry to the country.

Tragically others committed suicide or were drive to despair and mental illness by the constant worry of the knock on the door from immigration authorities.

Journalist Amelia Gentleman has written the definitive investigation of this continuing scandal and you can order your copy here:

The Windrush Betrayal by Amelia Gentleman

Watch her recent talk at the Bookmarks bookshop:

news, US

Don Lemon fights back, Terry Crews blames the victim

America’s Got Talent host, actor Terry Crews, has been taken down by CNN anchor Don Lemon for his politically naive and dangerous attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Crews in a series of tweets implied that the movement was taken over by “militant-type forces” , which he seemed to infer was about promoting anti-white sentiment.

But Crew gave no concrete example to illustrate his worries on that score.

The BLM protests have been notable for their huge involvement of white people, so the charge is way off mark, to put it mildly.

Crews went on to talk about “dangerous self-righteousness” , concluding that some people “really viewed themselves as better.”

BLM “supremist”?

He even likened the supposed presence of anti-white attitudes to white supremacy.

“It was almost a supremist move … where their (sic) Black lives mattered a lot more than mine,” he claimed.

“Militant-types”: Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi

To be fair to Crews he did say he was talking more about the leaders than he was the movement.

“Black lives do matter. But when you’re talking about an organization, you’re talking about the leaders.”

In Crews tweet on 4 July he points out that there’s good and bad in all races, which is of course true. But who was disagreeing with him?

The founders of BLM in the US are all women – Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi  – and the organisation does take on the concerns of women and makes reference to the role of the family in perpetuating women’s oppression, which is a fair point.

From the US BLM website “what we believe” page:

We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.

We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

Not done with comparing BLM to white supremacy, Crews then went on to say BLM was in danger of becoming the new oppressor. We knew there were some problems with the Black upper middle class but Crews has certainly put it all out there.

“I don’t want to move from one oppressor to the next,” he railed.

To Don Lemon’s credit he didn’t give Crews a pass on his dangerous nonsense.

They called MLK Jr a commie too

“Terry, you realize that even during the civil rights movement, that Dr. [Martin Luther] King was seen as extreme,” the anchor said. “That movement was seen as extreme. To people who don’t want to make change, movements are seen as an extreme. You can paint them easily as an extreme when they are not.”

And again…

As Don Lemon asked him quickly, “Who’s the next oppressor?,” Crews moved on to talk about gun violence within the Black community in Chicago, the number of young victims it has claimed, and BLM’s silence on the matter.

“But what does that have to do with equality, though, Terry?,” Lemon asked. “I don’t understand what that has to do with equality. Listen, there’s crime. There are people in those communities, those people aren’t just being nonchalant about gun violence.” The anchor then detailed what he had seen from gun-violence activists when he worked at a local Chicago TV station from 2003 to 2006.

more

Crews should stick to talent shows. He should get some education. Or maybe he was getting BLM mixed up with these guys – NFAC?

Here’s the Don Lemon interview in all its gory detail.

Terry Crews is misguided. Worse, he echoes criticisms from those who are no friends of Black people

You can find the BLMM statement of what we believe here, but it is not a definitive statement and applies to no one but ourselves.

news, UK

Bianca Williams police say sorry but accused of lying to excuse racial profiling

London police have finally apologised to British sprint star Bianca Williams after the racial profiling outrage perpetrated on her and her husband Ricardo dos Santos – and their baby three-month old baby – at the weekend.

The pair were stopped and handcuffed for the ‘crime’ of being black while driving a luxury vehicle – a Mercedes.

Sorry is definitely the hardest word for the Metropolitan Police Service. Getting the apology out of them was like pulling teeth.

The cops apologised yesterday – apparently after pressure form the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

And their boss, Commissioner Dame Cressida,  apologised again today in parliament before the Home Affairs Select Committee.

But the apologies are hardly just recompense for the vicious racial profiling, which is why the Met is facing the prospect of being sued by Williams.

Police accused of lying to excuse actions against Bianca Williams

In an attempt to defend their actions, the police appear to have made up a story about Bianca Williams driving at speed on the wrong side of the road. Here’s what they said, in part, in their statement:

Officers witnessed a vehicle that was being driven in a manner that raised suspicion, heavily braking and accelerating which included driving on the wrong side of the road. They indicated for it to stop but it failed to do so and accelerated off. The officers caught up with the vehicle when it stopped on Lanhill Road. The driver initially refused to get out of the car.

“That is false, we were never on the wrong side of the road. We were driving down through single-width roads,” insists Williams.

“We only found out about us driving on the wrong side of the road once they tweeted.

“This isn’t the first or fourth or fifth time, it must be about the 10th. It’s getting ridiculous.

“We are planning on taking it down the legal route. I feel very hurt by their actions, and to witness my partner being taken away and for me to be taken away from my son, my heart hurts .”

Police racial profiling on the rise?

This is just the latest in an avalanche of such encounters. Whether it is the heightened awareness following the BLM protests or the police actually becoming more racist in their practice is hard to say, but either way it is pouring fuel on the fire.

The police have now also been forced to refer themselves to the Independent Office for Policing Conduct. (IOPC)

The IOPC was set up to replace the discredited Independent Police Complaints Commission. However, nothing has changed at the new rebranded institution apart from the name.

The IOPC is still very much a case of the police investigating the police, so don’t expect any relief to come via that route.

Ban Section 60 stop and searches

Bianca Williams’s trauma resulted from a police search in Maida Vale west London that seems to have been carried out under Section 60.

This law, in which the stop and search powers were reinstated in August last year, now allows police, from the rank of inspector upwards, to put in place powers over large areas to stop and search without providing a reason.

Section 60 powers can be enforced borough-wide, and even on a number of adjacent boroughs, on the flimsiest of pretexts, such as the suspicion that a knife was about to be used to commit a crime or such a weapon was seen in the hands of someone on the streets.

Campaigners are gearing up to ban the use of Section 60 searches.

The prevalence of stop and search has no proven effect on either deterring the commission of a crime or detection.

BLM protests continue to take place around the country, with two planned for London this weekend – on Saturday and Sunday.

events

London BLM protest weekender, Saturday 11th US embassy 2pm, Sunday 12th Marble Arch 2pm

Protest called by All Black Lives UK

As per last week, start 2pm Marble Arch and marches to Parliament Square (not Downing Street).

BLM protest on Saturday 11th Assemble US embassy 11th July

Part of a nationwide turnout for Breonna Taylor and all innocent black people in the UK and US.

We are marching against institutional racism!

#LDNBLM

action, news

BLM: Wales First Minister announces audit into landmarks with slavery links

From the South Wales Argus:

STREET names, statues, and building names across Wales are to be reviewed as part of plans to “challenge” controversial aspects of the nation’s history, including connections with the slave trade.

First minister Mark Drakeford has ordered an urgent “audit” of public landmarks, which will all be reviewed by a group with expert knowledge of the slave trade, the British Empire, and the history of black communities in Wales, a Welsh Government spokesperson said.

“This is not about rewriting the past – it is about reflecting it with the justice it deserves,” Mr Drakeford said in a statement.

The audit has been commissioned following the recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, which have brought together activists and members of the public calling for an end to racial injustice and inequality. more

https://www.facebook.com/CardiffLocalTV/videos/548543736050699/
cardiff blm protest
Around 100 people in a sleepy village near Cardiff on Saturday, where artwork was defaced that showed solidarity with the black lives matter movement. First protest in this area I think in its history. Organised by SUTR and local BLM group – report by Hussein
art and culture

Statues and history done right in an era of BLM: Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus

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Following the controversy surrounding the long overdue toppling of Confederate statues in the US and those of slave traders here in the UK, the Black Lives Matter movement is charged with wanting to erase history.

No, we want to tell the true story of what happened in history and its legacy today.

What follows is an excerpt from the Tate Modern celebrating American sculptor Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus –

Delve deeper into 2019’s Hyundai Commission by Kara Walker

TRANSCRIPT

Photograph of Kara Walker's 'Fons Americanus' at Tate Modern
Kara Walker Fons Americanus Tate Modern 2019 (detail). Photo: © Tate​ (Matt Greenwood)

INTRODUCTION

ART TERM

Allegory

Allegory in art is when the subject of the artwork, or the various elements that form the composition, is used …

‘My work has always been a time machine looking backwards across decades and centuries to arrive at some understanding of my “place” in the contemporary moment.’ – Kara Walker

Kara Walker is an artist whose work explores ideas around identity, race, sexuality and violence. She works in a variety of mediums, including painting, print-making and installation. For Tate Modern’s 2019 Hyundai commission, Walker has created a large-scale public sculpture in the form of a four-tiered fountain. Fons Americanus questions how we remember history in our public monuments. At the same time, the work presents a narrative on the origins of the African diaspora.

Fons Americanus is inspired by the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. The memorial was designed in 1901 and unveiled in 1911 to honour the achievements of Queen Victoria who was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901), as well as the Empress of India. Rather than a celebration of the British Empire, Walker’s fountain inverts the usual function of a memorial and questions narratives of power. Walker explores the interconnected histories of Africa, America and Europe. She uses water as a key theme, referring to the transatlantic slave trade and the ambitions, fates and tragedies of people from these three continents. Bringing together fact, fantasy and fiction, Fons Americanus stands as a representation of this narrative in the form of an allegory or fable.

Photograph of Kara Walker's 'Fons Americanus' at Tate Modern. Detail shows captions on the wall
Kara Walker Fons Americanus Tate Modern 2019 (detail). Photo: © Tate​ (Matt Greenwood)

The full title of the work is painted on the wall of the Turbine Hall. Written in Walker’s own words, the text encourages us to confront a history often misremembered in the UK. She presents the artwork as a ‘gift … to the heart of an Empire that redirected the fates of the world’. Walker has signed the work ‘Kara Walker, NTY’, or ‘Not Titled Yet’, in a play on British honours awards such as ‘OBE’ (Order of the British Empire).

WHY A MONUMENT?

The Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, London being unveiled for the first time in 1911
The Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, London being unveiled for the first time in 1911

Walker’s choice to create Fons Americanus in the form of a public fountain is significant in the wake of recent student demonstrations to take down monuments that celebrate colonial histories in both the US and UK. Fons Americanus turns the celebration and honouring of monuments inside out. The monument asks uncomfortable questions by exploring a history of violence against Black people of Africa and its diaspora that is often unacknowledged.

As you enter the Turbine Hall, you first encounter a smaller monument of Shell Grotto. Taking the form of scalloped shells from art historical depictions of the Roman goddess Venus, Walker’s shell encases a weeping boy inside a well, almost completely submerged in water. His head floats just above the surface as if drowning or emerging from the depths, with pools of water running from his eyes.

Walker’s Shell Grotto connects to the ruins of a colonial fortress on Bunce Island in Sierra Leone. Bunce Island was one of many commercial forts where European slave traders and African merchants traded and captured men, women and children ready for them to be sold on the plantations of the New World or America.

Walker’s weeping boy and well question how these traumatic histories are now celebrated. The weeping boy bounces back from the depths of waters to interrogate what we choose to remember and what we forget. How can we see the monuments in our public spaces in a new light?

More at Tate Modern by following the links below:

events, news, UK

Hands off Sistah Space – defend services for women survivors of abuse

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Protest to support black women’s organisation in Hackney at 5pm on Friday 10 July.

Sistah Space is threatened with closure by Hackney Council.

Violence against women has increased markedly during the pandemic.

This is already a vastly under resourced sector, so it is outrageous that the local government cannot at the least dip into its reserves to keep Sistah Space operating.

Please give your support to the black survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.

Donate to the gofundme and join the protest.

@sistahspace_ 

action, events, news, UK

Picket Labour Party NEC over anti-black racism and in solidarity with BLM – Tuesday 7th July

*Reminder: Raise *your* voices*!

Labour Black Socialist & Allies

‘Black Members Matter!’
In Solidarity & Unity with BLM

Come and join our Labour NEC Picket against Institutional & Systematic Racism in the Labour Party

ARE YOU:
ANGRY about the Lack of Opposition to Anti Black Racism (BAME) in Labour Party & Treatment of Black Members?
FRUSTRATED about the Labour Party’s SILENCE on All forms of Racism including Afriphobia, Islamaphobia?
OUTRAGED about Racism in the leaked Labour Report?
WORRIED about a Whitewash Leaked Report Inquiry?
FURIOUS at Starmer’s Dismissal of the BLM Uprising, their demands and Global Historical Importance.

Root out anti-Black racism in Labour

This is OUR MOMENT to Make Our Voices Heard

AT: LABOUR PARTY NEC EQUALITIES MEETING
Labour HQ 105 Victoria St, Westminster, London SW1E 6QT
ON: Tuesday 7th July 2020
AT: 10 am

#BlackLabourMatterMatter #BlackLivesMatter #RootOutRacismInLabour

In Solidarity & Unity with BLM,
Sophia, Liz and Joyce.

If you are interested:

  • Join our Socially Distanced Picket
  • Wear Masks
  • Bring Banners, Flags.

For more info contact Joyce Reid: [email protected]