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Not really been paying much attention but seems there's a conversation being had in the media about racism in cricket? Rafiq tells everybody British cricket is built on institutionalised racism, the higher ups don't belive him/try to bury it, it comes out, people discuss how far we've moved from overt acts of racism and attitudes like Norman Tessbitts 'cricket test'. Anti semetic tweets emerge, culture war proponents get a hard on. Nothing really changes.
At the same time gollywogs can still be found on the high street, black face still happens.
I can't help but feel a bit frustrated with it but at the very least Rafiq feels the power to be able to stand up and say something and people such as ardicus above are making thier voice heard on rasict symbols of the past.
I got reminded of the book pictured, the title of which came from a racist chant heard in the Yorkshire and Lancashire cricket grounds in the 70s and 80s. The book was written over 30 years ago, a lot has changed but some of the fundamentals can be still be applied today.
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“Someone at the meeting mentioned there was a nearby pub that wouldn’t serve our people and I decided there was no better time than now to confront them,” Rana says. “So the 50 of us marched down to that pub and I demanded ‘Fifty pints of lager please’,” he says, laughing. “They started running around like headless chickens to serve us.”
[...]
As such, Rana is off to see some old friends and activists after our meeting, to discuss next steps. “I’ll never stop,” he says. “We cannot simply rely on politicians, we have to believe in people and in our power to help ourselves – together.”
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396 years of colonial history has ended, gawn Barbados.. it’s time to party, Rihanna to sing in a new dawn
the sun has set on the British monarchy’s reign, with a handover ceremony at midnight on Monday marking the birth of the world’s newest republic.
expecting UK gutter press, to recite myopic resentful bitter words to its readers.
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A small win. The racist dolls were removed from the window display but only after my partner who happens to know the lady responsible for the windows* and mentioned it to her. Aparrently they are called "gollys", quite popular and an important part of history. But they are gone from the window.
*it's a strange setup for a shop with lots of different sellers all in one shop and they rotate the display between them
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Thanks, that prompted me to find this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson%27s#Golly_branding and learn something new (if depressing).
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Indeed Barbados along with St Kitts started the British plantation system in the West Indies .
I think its an important although symbolic step in the right direction. -
thanks @chokalateboywonder
btw we are heading to Barbados later this year, my GF is a returnee still has family there I've never met. I also have an old friend I need to visit, they retired there in 2010, all dependent on covid situation.
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I really enjoyed this tonight on BBC 2. Mum and daughter were in Antigua and Barbuda.
Barbados next week, my GF is already getting a lump in her throat. Our lives are so rooted here, that it is easy to forget what life is like outside our bubble of Babylon-don
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Edit 30/01/22
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00143nm
essential viewing for us tonight. Barbados is changing at a staggering rate, but I am glad that Andi and Miquita went in search of real Bajan culture, beyond the all inclusive package holiday. Also seeing Lord Admiral Nelson’s statue removed felt totally appropriate now that the island has become a republic..
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It’s a great program, the plantation house visit was definitely a highlight. We visited a plantation house in Louisiana a few years ago and it was hard to stomach, there were ghosts everywhere. Imagine a tour guide marvelling at the architecture of a concentration camp.
Their visit to the backstreet bars reminded me of the great morning we spent before catching our connecting flight to St Vincent, drinking and eating souse.
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oh man, those back street bars are the best, I have a collection of fond memories from Medellin, Colombo, Cape Town, Atlanta.
All of which involved local (generally black) folk. Their generosity and hospitality can not be replicated IMO when you go for a deep dive into the local scene.
I could never do gated all inclusive enclave holiday. When we visit BIM it will be hashing / hiking in the back country and liming in the back streets of BIM town. Because I want to meet real Bajan life and their people, not some sanitised white lens of a tropical holiday.
yesterday I read a depressing article about how affluence has fcuked up Mustique with its 120 privately owned properties and that Bequia will be the next island of St Vincent and the Grenadines to be razed and homogenised for white folk to indulge in their exotic retreat.
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From the American Football thread
"God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the
need for change is bigger than my personal goals,"https://www.tmz.com/2022/02/01/coach-brian-flores-suing-nfl-and-ny-giants-claims-search-racist/
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On a lighter note, during lock down I have enjoyed thanks to my GF tons of stand up comedy from the US on YouTube. From Classic Paul Mooney and Richard Pryor, David Chappelle, Sinbad, Katt Williams, also this guy who has been on the Black Comedy Circuit for over 20 years
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Have a look at the film 'life and debt' if you haven't already features bits from Jamaica Kincaid a small place, you are welcome to borrow my copy if you bring it back kinda sharpish (partner is using it for her research). Hope you have a great time dude, remember to take mosquito spray!
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https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1489270957592117250?t=iRZuwvBMxEnlA95RKAJWNg&s=19 twitter is ablaze right now
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statues are a distortion of history
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This is such an awful case. I'd forgotten that she's still alive and wrongly thought she had been shot dead.
The court heard that Johnson remains in hospital with “catastrophic permanent damage”, in a serious but stable condition.
Not that it's a BLM matter as such (unless a related motive is established; it doesn't look like that right now), but as she was active in BLM, I thought I'd post it here.
No idea if it's possible to recover at all from such an injury, but sometimes there are unexpected recoveries. One can only hope.
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https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8HCRfpHxO1
I prefer to helps those with the least support, invasion / conflict thread on ignore.
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#blacklivesmatter racism is a human problem
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@chokalateboywonder
Was reading about it, I think Cricket, and to a certain extent Rugby and Golf and other predominantly white middle class pursuits are always going to have that institutionalised racist foundation in them. A bit like the police force, so despite it being horrific for Azeem Rafiq, his family and for the others who've suffered there, it kind of gets a shrug, maybe because I think, how else would you expect them to act. Just kind of showing their true colours.
But it does also highlight the islamaphobia within that institution as well, and how little they've actually tried to understand and integrate the Pakistani and Indian immigrants who live and work there.
But as with all of these things, a couple of heads of organisations falling on their swords isn't going to change anything. Probably just becomes another line in the sand for the culture war proponents. Education, and instruction into why people of colour are in this country, why they came, why they stay, what the empire actually did, not just the fluffy ideal of the commonwealth games, and how white privilege leads to all of this abuse, is required. But I doubt that will happen, it'll take too much heavy lifting on those who have no stake in making change.
God I sound cynical.