Black people continue to fight for so much everyday that it is mind boggling. We continue to fight for respect, equality, respectful acknowledgement of our history which includes our presence in ancient times across nations even when it is indigenous to our own people and territory hence EGYPT. Funnily enough, I have seen three documentaries made this month by different people discussing the same subject of their shocking revelation to discover that these Africans were Black (the Kushites, the darker people in the hieroglyphics that overthrow the brown people who were BLACK to begin with). Having to write that sentence is so embarrassing. Today we still have to fight discrimination and disenfranchisement against the law, systematic imprisonment, being murdered by police regularly, the education system, employment exclusion, housing whether it's for home ownership or the economic infrastructure of social housing. The ongoing history of these problems speaks for themselves.
Now among all the above we are fighting for the promotion and general enjoyment of celebrating Black History Month, REALLY! Last year when I found out that Hillingdon and Wandsworth Borough Council among others, are putting an end to Black History Month with their funding and promotion within their boroughs to replace it with 'Diversity Month,' if not just get rid of it all together I was livid. Livid, shocked but cynically unsurprised because again it presents a new fight for us to face with the battle of not having our four week limited duration over-shadowed with Halloween and now numerous awareness campaigns.
What about children who are going to grow up with no reflections of themselves as an example of history makers and will not know better because society has failed them? Do you know how insulting it is to go to libraries or even book stores and see not one small display or poster about a government initiated month dedicated to your people that has contributed so much to the country and has been both robbed of so much? Even more so, by that same country who are now seemingly refusing you?
For example there was undeniable excessive marketing of LBGT Month that actually went on for months before and after, between train stations, banks, supermarkets, general merchandise as well as general advertising and social media, yet no such effort or consideration put into Black History Month. I understand that it was the 50th anniversary of The Stonewall Uprising however, the increasing annual lack of nationwide marketing for BHM in comparison to LGBT Month is disconcerting. Our local councils highly promote Diwali with signage, newsletters, local newspaper headlines that they set aside a budget for and yet WE get slowly erased and replaced as if it is not important. It is insulting, infuriating and highly disrespectful. This is a fine example of why many of us 'woke' folk have to say and demonstrate that "Black Lives Matter."
In 2017 when I found out about the Black British play Black Heroes Musical that took place throughout the 90's, which apparently was a ground-breaking production both audience and impact-wise, I was mainly shocked to learn of its impact on adult Black Britons who were completely unaware of certain Black historic figures until having seen the play, as opposed to me being surprised of its overall success. Hearing some say "Many of us didn't know about all that" was very sad to me. I think that because many people depend on schools to be educated and informed, when they are not informed with something formally they disregard the possibility of it unless having come across it via the news, film or television if not word of mouth.
If BHM is going to be diminished and ignored by the British powers that be who refuse to pay us our dues. Then I will do what I can to balance out that non-sense. My people's accomplishments, battles, genocide, defeats, contributions to the world and what have you shall not be silenced! I have gathered up some key people representing Black excellence and key moments in Black history, for you to acknowledge and admire. Much of the following content is from a poem of mine that is too long to perform, I was even booked for two appearances at the same show last year to spread the poem across my performances, therefore I thought it best to write all this wonderful info in a blog for you all to research further at your own discretion.
Oswald Dixon- Jamaican born RAF serviceman who served in WWII. Dixon became a centenarian earlier this year but passed away last month. His passing led to an online campaign from someone that knew of him who reached out to the public on social media to attend his funeral, considering that he had no known living relatives. The care home that Dixon was staying at prior to his death posted the details of his funeral on Facebook, word of mouth gained momentum and the Manchester based funeral had an overwhelming turn out of around 300 people who came to pay their respects! I have never seen anything like this, my heart was so warmed. It was stunning to see him receive a proper formal army funeral with soldiers on standby, soldiers carrying his coffin and all choreographically aligned. All I saw was uniforms, badges, flags and honour. None of it looked spontaneous, I've no idea where they got the time and money to prepare. Jamaicans were certainly there to represent and the young cadets looked so cute. It got plenty of media coverage thus his legacy was well highlighted and shall now live on.
Dr. Rose Hudson-Wilkin moved to the UK from Jamaica as a child, became a Reverend and this year I read about her becoming the first Black woman appointed as Bishop by the Church of England. Like I said in my tweet at the time; it is hard enough for women to climb the ranks in the clergy let alone a Black woman among White men, along with her being foreign to the country in question. From seeing the not-so-old news clip of the Pope being asked about gay rights during his world tour, where he responded swiftly by saying that one day there may be a gay Pope but not a woman- and we are talking about the Catholic church here. I was left gobsmacked as were the Reporters present. I thought that his influence as well as other similar minds in the clergy would have made it impossible for women to climb the ranks. This is just an unexpected pleasant surprise with all that was against her but then again most of our accomplishments are, good for her.
I have read some pretty inspiring stories in my day but the ones that come from young people, as in under 16yrs old are very inspiring to me such as the 14yr old I read in either Essence or Ebony magazine in the early 2000's, who was making and selling burgers that got so popular that a big company bought his business from him making him a child millionaire. It was from that child entrepreneur turned Public Speaker, who I learned the mindset of not dismissing possibilities of achieving big goals despite age and economic demographic with the motto "Why not me?" If I remembered his name I'll send him a Thank-you tweet for that. Anyway, the young person who has inspired me of late is
William Kamkwamba,
who wanted to learn how to provide renewable energy and at age 14 through reading library books he taught himself how to build a windmill. That windmill powered his house and since then he has built at least two more to power his village in Malawi, Africa. The film based on his diligence
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor is a fine example of what should be in the national TV guide this month.
Gladys West-
Learning about this woman this year elated me a great deal. Similar to the female Mathematicians and Engineers featured in the hit film
Hidden Figures, West has finally been acknowledged as one of the key inventors of the GPS system. Too many decades later by December 2018 was she inducted into the Air Force Space and Missiles Hall of Fame! I am pretty sure that the inexcusable delay to her recognition, wide exposure, praise and accolade is being corrected mainly due to the success of that 2016 film and all the enquiries of the women's input that followed after. I found out that it was through West studying for her PhD in her later age where attention of her career to the press initially peaked. The GPS much like the internet is a part of our everyday technology driven lives. This is huge news!
Dr. Patricia Bath is an Optometrist who became the first Black female in America to secure a medical patent. Bath developed the Laserphaco Probe in 1986 as a tool to treat Cataracts and restore sight with less pain. That is the year that I was born as I will continue to boast, as it is the year that many other significant things happened however, that invention is highly impressive and indeed miraculous to people who have lost their sight.
Phillis Wheatley- An African slave kidnapped and brought to America and Europe who became educated to read and write English. Wheatley became one of the first Black women to publish a book of poetry by 1773. A plaque of her and her literary achievements has been unveiled by Black History Walks earlier this year in London. As a Poet myself, you can imagine my sense of pride when I first learned of her.
When you hear the of The Civil Rights Movement, the masses immediately think of the American South in the 1950's and the march on Washington, as if that is the root of Civil Rights protests for the liberation of Black people but this is not the case. It got the most media attention and may have had the biggest impact but was certainly not the beginning. Civil Rights Activists across the world existed beforehand such as
Dr. Harold Moody,
who came to England from
Jamaica in 1904 to study medicine. Despite the racism he experienced he became a qualified Physician and British Civil Rights Activist who founded The League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 at the YMCA. In honour of this leader of the British Civil Rights Movement, a special ceremony for the unveiling of his plaque at that very same YMCA in Central London, took place earlier this year in association with
Black History Walks. There was actually a plaque made in his honour in 1995 however, I cannot find any further details to confirm where although I have seen images to prove that it exists.
Diahann Carroll- The first African American Actress to play the lead in a prime time television series
Julia, that did not portray a negative stereotype. In 1997 Carroll also became the first Black celebrity to launch a signature fashion line. With that said she kind of reminds me of when Josephine Baker launched her hair gel and tanning cream (for White women who idolized her) in France in the 1920's. Carroll was long recognised as a Hollywood icon praised for her work between the stage, film and TV, perhaps her most familiar role was playing a villain in the glamorous 80's soap
Dynasty. Sadly, she died from Cancer this month.
John Singleton was a film student from Los Angeles, turned youngest Oscar 'Best Director' nominee in the history of the awards at only 23yrs old. Singleton is known for his classic Black 90's films including his Oscar nominated and Un Certain Regard nominated film
Boyz N the Hood that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. Singleton passed away in April this year. Singleton was one of my idols who I even listed as such in my university application for the Film and TV course, it went against me at the time but I don't regret my honesty. My favourite film of his was
Higher Learning as I thought it was wonderfully written and my ratings shot up for him when I discovered that it was him who directed one of my favourite music videos of all time
Remember The Time by Michael Jackson. As an aspiring Filmmaker who really looked up to his early work, I was devastated by his loss.
Simone Biles- Since the last Olympics I recall hearing this girl's name replace Gabby Douglas's at being the new Gymnast 'it girl' to look out for as she had just beaten a record at that time. I recall years ago her being described as "the most decorated female Gymnast" to date, therefore I have no idea why the news has been claiming it as such in recent months as if it is sudden news!? However, I will say that her name has been as dominating as Serena Williams (in any year especially since 2013) along with Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff who have been making regular recent headlines in women's sports this year. The now 6 time title holder is making history not only for all of her gold medals for team USA but for new moves and sequences that have been named after her at her tender age! At least 2 moves are now called 'The Simone Biles' and she apparently is the first female to achieve a 'triple double.'
Continuing on with athletes,
Dina Asher-Smith (pictured left),
Katarina Johnson-Thompson and
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (pictured centre)
really made me their cheerleader this year. As a matter of fact you may have noticed that my list is full of Black Girl Magic and this is because of current media attention grabbing events the past year and the 'sheroes' that are responsible for it. It's glorious. These three Athletes are representing my countries of Team GB and JA wonderfully. Bias aside, they are good at what they do and I would not praise them otherwise.
Asher-Smith has been in sports news throughout the year for becoming the fastest woman in Britain or other but it was actually from her surprising front cover on Elle magazine that caught my attention. All three Athletes caused a great stir at the World Championships in Doha last month where they all won big. Fraser-Pryce stood out for not only winning gold to become the world's fastest woman but apparently being the oldest woman and first mother to do so at the time. There was in fact at least four other female Athletes who were returning to the track after maternity leave, times are changing people! And BIG UP to the double-barrel name crew including myself who often gets difficulty with it whenever I have to make a booking.
Nester Earnest Green aka Uncle Nearest, is the slave who has only till now been fully recognised as the slave who helped teach Jack Daniels how to make his famous whiskey. Uncle Nearest is also known as the 'Godfather of Tennessee Whiskey.' As overdue as it is, the good thing about the timing is what is being made of this relatively new information today. A lady named
Fawn Weaver is extending his legacy by creating a whiskey in his honour called
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey and opening a distillery of where she is the CEO and Master Distiller. More admirably, Weaver took the initiative to interview over 100 of his relatives to keep her venture true to its name and founded the non-for-profit organisation Nearest Green Foundation. The foundation provides full tuition scholarships and books for the descendants of his family.
I learned of many fascinating, pioneering people this year that have accomplished fantastic things and I was happy to learn of two Afro-Latinos from similar locations who broke ground in two completely different fields.
Noëlle Santos launched the only independent bookshop in the Bronx, New York (The Lit. Bar) since the last bookshop (a famous chain) closed down in 2016. If it wasn't for Twitter I would not have caught any of the Emmy Awards this year but I am glad I did as I watched the beautiful clip of when
Jharrell Jerome won Outstanding Lead Actor for his role in the emotive Netflix drama
When They See Us. Jerome became the first Afro-Latino nominated let alone to win, in this category at The Emmy's.
I still have yet to watch that series much like when I took forever to finally watch all of
Roots, as I do not need to be reminded of the mistreatment and harsh realities for many of my people. It is a reoccurring story, therefore nothing new and incredibly sad. I don't need that. A simple news story of the facts will do and I actually read all the news articles about the infamous court case of which the series was based on and oh my..... so sad. I am very surprised that it was recognised by The Emmy's and nominated especially for an online streaming limited series, Netflix broke that barrier a while ago but it is still rare. Seeing this new young Actor be overwhelmed with shock, gratitude and graciousness knowing that he did his role justice in respect of the living man who he was playing, and to see all of the factual figures in the audience stand up with their fists held high.....oh my.....I was flooded with butterflies, tears and empathy.
Black women never get enough love when it comes to mainstream media, general ideals and judgement of beauty. Recent times have been particularly embarrassing as exposed on social media, YouTube and blogs when it comes to the ever-growing bizarre rejection from our own men- I don't even want to go there right now. One of the few things that I appreciated in the early 2000's when adults, politicians and parents were understandably complaining about the 'sexploitation' of women in Hip Hop videos, was that at least it praised the beauty of Black women in all our tones, natural curves, dress sense and hair styles- SWAG. Now you can't even find Black women in Hip Hop OR R'n'B videos!
Today's Black models have to have predecessor Black models campaign for them to be booked on catwalks of fashion shows because they are even rarer to find now than ten years prior. However I will say that Victoria's Secret fashion show pleasantly surprised me when I saw about 5-6 Black models last year despite E! Entertainment cutting them out of their video footage. To see these three beautiful unpredictable young women all be crowned as Beauty Queens the same year of the same country was astounding. Watching the videos of when they won, screamed and cried, made me cry with them just like the men at The Emmy's or like
Jesse Jackson when
Obama won the presidency. Needless to say Beauty Pageants are not of the same level of importance in my world but beauty standards unfortunately matter a great deal in our everyday lives, it effects how we are treated as people and as individuals. This historic event means the world to many of us. Representation and the respect given with it, is important, period. These Queens are history in the making.
Tyler Perry is
a
Playwright, Actor, Producer and Director. This month he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame although he has fought the Hollywood system over the course of his string of hits. Years ago Perry became the first Black Filmmaker to own his own studio Tyler Perry Studios (under his production company TPS) however, in 2019 Perry purchased 330 acres of land to build a brand new prolific studio that rivals to stature of Paramount and Warner Bros. The epic grand opening gained headlines left, right and centre for its history making of being solely owned by a Black man as well as its magnitude. The studios include sound stages named after Black Hollywood icons, a theatre for his plays as at his previous studios, a backlot of international destinations, replica of The White House and a location for displaced trafficked females, victims of domestic abuse and LGBTQ youth. Kudos.
Ursula Burns first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Burn's career is one I would recommend looking up as her ascension is amazing. Since she stepped down from Xerox in 2017, although she is still on a few other corporate executive boards including Obama's STEM programme, her 'successor' Mary Winston became the second Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In May 2019 Winston became the Interium CEO of Bed, Bath and Beyond.
As it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month I am pleased to include these ladies;
Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green (pictured) discovered a ground-breaking laser treatment for Breast Cancer (and for Naval Cancer by the way) that causes virtually no pain. Sierra Leone born medical student studying in Nigeria,
Sandra Musujusu, also developed a new alternative treatment for Breast Cancer. The student's research has developed bio-degradable polymer material to fight Triple-negative Breast Cancer which as I learned when I was fundraising in 2011, is an aggressive form that typically affects Black women and does not respond well to traditional Cancer treatment.
During my research of general breast health I was overjoyed to come across a company called
Cherry Blossom Intimates. This health and inclusion conscious company was founded by two women;
Dr. Regina Hampton the Founder of The Breast Center at The Doctors Community Hospital and
Jasmine Jones former Miss District of Columbia USA and Vice President of the Young Professional Council of Breast Care for Washington. These two women have had their own experiences of loved ones with the disease, who consequently had difficulty with the aftermath of the dramatic changes of their bodies and the need for certain underwear (to feel womanly). The business serves a great service of building esteem for women who have survived Breast Cancer or had mastectomies. Cherry Blossom Intimates is very impressive as is the actual boutique that I saw from their
website. Brilliant minds doing brilliant things where it is much needed.
The sight of Black female Judges or any Black person in a position of power and high professional role is of no shock to me, depending on the hierarchy of the role among their counterparts that is. Although the matter of where, does also make all the difference. In saying that, coming across the random Twitter news of
19 Black female Judges that were all elected into judgeship last year in the state of TEXAS, blew me away. The South will always have the stigma of its Jim Crow existence and events so to see or even hear of this was like, wow! A woman of any colour reaching any position of power is hard, so I can only imagine their struggle and strength to maintain it being women of colour, in an industry that often works against them and as residents of their controversial state...wow. I am proud, impressed and gobsmacked that so many of them made it and at the same time. THIS IS HISTORY PEOPLE.
Being a foodie by education, career, hobby and habit, I was keen to learn of these Black Inventors who created very useful kitchen utensils that we use in everyday life and certainly revolutionised the cooking industry as we know it today.
Frederick M. Jones (pictured)
is known for his development of refrigeration equipment, most of which was used in trucks to transport food and blood during WWII. In 1944 he was the first African America to be elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. In 1991 he also became the first to be awarded the National Medal of Technology. A self-taught Engineer with over 60 patents to his name!
J.W Reed, was the inventor of the rolling pin made with handles and a metal rod inside by 1864.
Alexander P. Ashbourne invented the biscuit cutter in 1875.
George W. Carver created peanut butter in
1896.
John Thomas White invented the lemon squeezer in 1893. Ice Cream makers can thank
Alfred L. Cralle for inventing the convenient scoop in 1897.
Toni Morrison- A fellow Writer and Author, who like some of the icons already mentioned also passed away this year. I had not heard her name in a while other than being mixed in with the news of Maya Angelou's death a couple of years ago but Morrison's name was highly praised during her own death of course. Cheltenham Literary Festival, which supposedly is the first literary festival in the world, had a nice segment dedicated to her in the programme of their recorded events this month.
When I was about 7yrs old I wanted to be an Architect but with Maths and DT not being my strengths at school, I knew that I was not going to persevere with that goal so my creativity took on new ambitions. However, that childhood desire still resonates every time I watch a property show and it really reignited when I found out about the
Black Females in Architecture (BFA). It left me enthusiastic for other little girls and university students who carry that ambition but may feel daunted with the 'deceleration' of not being a White male. BFA was recently founded by four Black British women;
Selasi Setyfe,
Akua Danso,
Alisha Fisher and
Neba Sere. They were frustrated at the disenfranchisement of the professionals in their industry that marginalised Black female talent, they started this network that offers mentorship and events throughout the year that connect Black women across disciplines of their industry. Today the network has a large following that continues to grow, again I am proud and impressed with all the press that they have been receiving. It is an overlooked issue that is getting more attention now much like with what
Tiffany Brown in light of the 400th registered licensed Black female Architect in America, by forming her
400 Forward programme.
Leslie Irby is the first known Black American woman to receive her pilots licence. After a collusion in 2013 that left her paralyzed and wheelchair bound, Irby did not give up on her ambitions of flying. In fact joined Able Flight that assists people with disabilities in aviation and essentially passed her goals with flying colours, pun intended. This lady and anyone with disabilities who has achieved great things truly astound me, as expressed in a recent
post about trying to cater to the blind.
There are other key events in Black history to learn about such as
Britain's 1919 Riots,
The Haitian Revolution, the
South African Bus Boycotts of 1957,
Bristol Bus Boycott 1963,
Apartheid in South Africa,
Genocide of Haitians by the Dominican Republic government (on several occasions but the 1930's in particular),
Black Lives Matter in Jerusalem (police and the government vs East-African Jews),
Human Trafficking in Liberia RIGHT NOW (a horrid example of modern day slavery),
Black Lives Matter (BLM, originally founded in America) the movement in general across USA following the murders of unarmed Black people (primarily Trayvon Martin which was not a police incident but reflected the unjust law system against Black victims).
The Windrush Scandal of 2018 the same year of the
70th Anniversary of Windrush.
You may be astonished to know that the Black race became officially incorporated as an option in the
Census of Mexico and Peru by
2016-17. History has been made with much needed bills being passed this year such as
The Crown Act 2019 in California, following NYC banning hair discrimination in the workplace.
Chinese corporate imperialism from 2004 to my knowledge, as I have
written before is certainly Black history in the unfortunate making. Beyond Africa it has recently stretched to Guyana, Jamaica and some other predominantly Black countries, as well as Far East Asia. The
Take a Knee silent protest famously led by
Colin Kaepernick, 'avalanched' across American sports from high school games into controversial press, raising a much needed nation-to-worldwide conversation about the dispute of the national anthem and why booking a high profile performer for the Super Bowl has now become a political issue.
This took me forever to write, literally days spread over a couple of weeks. That is because I wanted to do my people proud, inform as much as I could with readability and attention span in mind. To be honest the topic in question at this heightened time of frustration has become too passionate therefore provoked my perfectionism to overthink and procrastinate. I can't stand when that happens. British television programming has been so disrespectful with their strategic neglect this year that it makes me want to pull every one of the decision maker's hairs out.
Every day for the past few weeks on television of which I have paid great attention, I have searched for such promotion and there is practically nothing. Tonight is the first time all month that I have seen an advert specifically about BHM advertised outside of BET and this was on Channel 4. Channel 4 also had the documentary about the Warrior Women in Africa aka Amazons. Bear in mind that this one-off documentary appeared between their many showings of repeated irrelevant programming as with ITV's channels that disappointingly but frequently only featured
Blade (at 11pm).
Weeks ago on BBC1 (the website serves far greater Black history than their television programming) two non-promoted sub-par documentaries were featured around MIDNIGHT as they like to slot us into, again the arranged minimal programmes came with a scheduling insult. Channel 5 (across the franchise) continues to show unrelated documentaries, unnecessary films that they have already shown months and years prior yet they cannot feature a film of Black historic relevance. There are plenty to choose from such as
Amistad,
Rosewood,
Red Tails,
Hidden Figures,
Belle,
12 Years of Slave,
Long Road to Freedom,
The Butler,
Winnie, Chocolat,
Birth of a Nation or
Selma to
name A FEW.
They could have at least shown a family film with a Black lead such as Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy or Queen Latifah, as mainstream examples who offer plenty of options. The same goes for Film4 who regularly repeat old comedy and action films however, two days out of this month so far I have seen two unknown, unadvertised Black films listed as their 'Black History Month' specials scheduled for 23:45-02:45. The only films with a Black lead that I have seen in the TV listings was
Blade and
Get Out that were both repeated by the second week of BHM. They're having a laugh as they know damn well that those should have been saved till the fourth week for the sake of relevance. It is just some negligent, disrespectful bullcrap.
Black History Month might as well not exist where television is concerned, in fact all these 5-20yr old whitewashed films in rotation are highly likely to reappear next month anyway. Throughout October I have seen tons of scheduled documentaries about the British monarchy that again are repetitive and irrelevant to this month, many on the Nazi's and Hitler (as I've seen all year), a documentary about the Kings Cross Fire of which the anniversary is NEXT MONTH and they are suspiciously programming a bunch of documentaries on the Victorians, the Vikings, the Edwardian period and you probably guessed it, Henry VIII. They could have easily shown or commissioned something about the Black Tudors since one of Henry VIII's Trumpeters was a Black man. For goodness sake, we already know that the man couldn't keep a wife as we all learned it in school as children, it's in many books and films for the next generation thus we will continue to hear of him forever. LET US HAVE OUR MONTH! It is SO RUDE.
Any of those valuable time slots could have gone to some informative, entertaining and new content of Black significance. The Executives making all the decisions to acquire and schedule content know exactly what they are doing. Decisions like these in media are not made blindly, there may be coincidences once in a while but no such mistakes. Even Comedy Central, Sony Movies and MTV (the nerve) keep screening the same played out films that most of which do not have any Black characters it is so extremely offensive. They could have even had one film per day with a Black lead if not all Black cast, showing 6-10pm or two Black films in a row on the weekend (within the same hours) to show some respect as they would for the Holocaust anniversary or Halloween. Instead they overtly choose to insult Black audiences with their content and scheduling by putting up their middle finger in this subliminal way.
It is up to us to not just protest and formally complain in order to see changes, but more effectively TO TEACH and LEARN what they won't teach in school or in mainstream media our damn selves. Regardless if it takes 15 pages of getting your point across. "HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH PEOPLE" even though we should celebrate it every day.
