rantshoutwhisper

I suspect a lot of us are going to remember where we were on 4th November. For my part, I'd woken up at 3 o'clock in the morning, wondering why I couldn't sleep. I then went to the computer and remembered why.

I watched it online, eight tabs on Opera with stats aplenty, but then settled onto BBC's coverage. At four, California came home and I leapt out of my seat. I did a gig the next day with Cleveland Watkiss, who hosted it as a tribute to Barack Obama, saying "Doesn't the world feel a better place right now?" And y'know, it does: it really does.

I'm extremely happy that the U.S. decided to pick a relatively young, intelligent man who is part of a party that isn't keen on blowing away large chunks of the world willy-nilly. He seems to want people to live. That kind of thing sways my preferences.

But I don't live over there; I live here. And I still have to cope with the negative aspects of U.S. cultural imperialism that spread through the black community like a wildfire. Sadly, another innocent is dead in Derby.

Now, I've written about this before and it was quite a bit closer to home for me that time. But it doesn't affect what I said last time - it still holds. Everybody's been shouting about the example Obama has set for the African and Caribbean diaspora over here - and all I can see is that the examples of change really have to come from over here, and fast.

But if we're going to appropriate North American culture from now, let's not celebrate that there's a black guy in the White House; let's rejoice in the fact that there's a chap there that prefers dialogue to fighting and WANTS PEOPLE TO LIVE.

I have no idea what's needed. All the role models, special songs, youth schemes &c. don't seem to have helped these people. They seem to be keen on blowing away large chunks of our world willy-nilly and wanting people to die. To me there seems to be a lack of respect for self and others, and a lack of knowledge* about the world and society that is almost insurmountable.


But as I've said before, these people are in the minority; why are we allowing them to be the main reflection of who we are through the media? Blaming the media doesn't help, since they are there to report the news; if these idiots didn't give them the news in the first place then there'd be nothing to report.

And again, all the families suffer. And we suffer. Because of five people with nothing better to do than ruining our world.

*Speaking of which, I'd heard there's a lot of fuss about Jeremy Paxman giving Dizzee Rascal a verbal kicking on Newsnight over Obama winning. I started watching it on YouTube. And what I saw was:

1. Paxman asks a question


2. Dizzee attempts to answer the question


3. Dizzee can't really answer the question and starts talking about something else


4. Paxman helps Dizzee kick himself repeatedly

I then stopped watching.

UPDATE: if you type in "black history" into Wikipedia, it redirects you to?.. "African American History". If that's not a clear case of cultural imperialism, then what is?

There isn't normally much history in Black History Month around here, which around here the organisers are - quite irritatingly - calling AfriKan History [it may be "signifyin(g)", but it also points to a pan-Afrikanist perspective, and not being a pan-Afrikanist I just don't think it helps].

Events usually are limited to quoting empty sound bites about Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey, or involve putting on music or a play with black people - a bit like going to church and dusting off the bible at Easter. As Black History Month is a construct donated by/appropriated from the United States, it tends to be the history of that culture on which a lot of the events hinge [you could write a whole discourse on how United States black cultural values are appropriated over here and the effect of that appropriation. In fact, I think Paul Gilroy did in Black Atlantic].

I find this a bit disturbing. In the absence of a "messiah" such as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King [who, incidentally, is not mentioned as much as you'd think], my generation and the one preceding are filling the "void" with elements that are not unique to here. Kids are growing up not actually knowing about the struggles of their own parents or grandparents [or maybe they're switched off from them?]. I think we're losing the chance to present a British black History.

Relegated to special October projects, and with the addition of solely arts-centred activities, the black British community is succeeding in marginalising itself and trivialising its own history. The replacement of that history with the American one only stirs up visions of the CIA allegedly teaching revisionist histories in African universities in the 1950-70s.

With few people [myself included, sadly] able to name three black British cultural "heroes" - and why not communities? Why does it ALWAYS have to be one person? - dating from LATER than the 18th Century, we weaken the role of the African diaspora in Britain. Also, because of the separationist slant on black history [this is our history, our culture and we don't want anyone else involved in celebrating it] we're missing the chance to integrate the history where it should be: schools. If worked into the syllabus as solid, rigorous modules [the other issue with Black History Month: why are the histories so one-dimensional?], properly [re-]linked in to the history of the country we'll be giving young British children [ALL of them] a full view of the history of the British nation.

Anyways, it was nice to see this on the Black and Asian Studies Association's email digest.

Tickets are still available for the 10 week course with Hakim Adi from Middlesex University, Black people in Britain. Discover how a black presence has existed in Britain since Roman times and the importance of the relationships between Britain, Africa and the Caribbean during the past 500 years. Call 0870 444 3855 to reserve your place.

Learn about us!..

Please refer to:

Moving Here
The Black Presence in Britain
U. S. Imperialism