Bleek on Activism, Politics and Socio-Political Discourse
Beyoncé Breaks the Internet with New Song - 'Formation'
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New Orleans, Collard Greens, Blue rocking her afro and a young boy dances in front of the police - graffitied on the wall behind them is 'Stop Shooting Us'. Beyoncé's new video is unapologetically Black and we love her for it.
Released in time for Black History Month, the song is an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement. The imagery is heavily influenced by her roots, is set in New Orleans, with images of the flooding, Creole dress and references to soul food. Unusual for Beyoncé the video is heavy on the political imagery, with references to the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality and inequality that is rife in America and the world today. But this isn't the Carter family's first public foray in support of black activism, they were present at the rally for Trayvon, and reportedly bailed out protesters in Baltimore and Ferguson, as well as Jay-Z's tidal donating 1.5million dollars to the Black Lives Matter campaign. The Carter's are putting their money and now their mouth towards equality and justice for black people. My favourite lines:- "I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros, I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils" "I grind til I own it" |
“You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation,”
Dam right Mrs Carter, you are indeed Queen Bitch, slaying and slaying and slaying again. There's also a nod to Black entrepreneurship, saying she might be the next Black Bill Gates in the making... Beyoncé is letting all the haters know that she loves Blackness, she loves our hair, she loves our features and our culture. Beyoncé is telling the world she is proud of who she is, where she is from and that she loves being Black. Ultimately this puts Black women at the front and centre, when too often they have been relegated to the back. |
Whitewash America
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Oh lord have mercy!! On the same day they announce Ralph Fiennes is to play, wait for it… Michael Jackson, yes that's right, Michael Jackson!! They done rewrote history and written a children's book about George Washington's Birthday depicting slaves as happy bakers!!
I just can't even…. Okay, now that I've taken a moment to calm the f@#k down, there are so many things wrong with both these stories I just don't know where to begin. The sheer audacity of the creators of these 'fictions' is beyond belief, I mean how you gonna try and erase history Rewriting it as some sort of mutually beneficial co-operative? What's next? Auschwitz was some sort of health spa holiday camp? Apparently Lord Ralph of massive white privilege feels that he can portray Michael as and I quote "He was probably closer to my colour than his original colour.” Recall an interview with Michael where he tells Oprah he would never want a white man to play him… I swear Michael's about to rise out of his grave and go full Thriller on their assess with a few 'hee hee' and a swift kick to the face!! As for the portrayal of slaves as Happy Bakers, I hope the writers suffer eternal writers block from here on out to prevent such rubbish ever reaching the world again!! They're in the same category as Holocaust deniers as far as I'm concerned and aren't worth my time. |
Nope!
And Nope!!
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Britain's cover up of Colonial Crimes
My eyes rolled at this one, I mean I didn’t really expect anything else, but if as David Shamron said "we should just move on" then why cover up things in the first place? It seems the British bureaucracy machine may have shot itself in the foot with this one as they kept disturbingly detailed records of their atrocities during the height of Britain's colonial era.
The cover up came to light as a group of Kenyans detained and allegedly tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion won the right to sue the British government. They requested files from the Foreign office, which holds the records of 37 former colonies. Many of the records should have been available since the 1980's, but weren't made publicly available to prevent the government from being sued. It has since been discovered that many of the most sensitive files have been destroyed.
The files will be available at Kew National Archive.
See Guardian website for full article http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes
The cover up came to light as a group of Kenyans detained and allegedly tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion won the right to sue the British government. They requested files from the Foreign office, which holds the records of 37 former colonies. Many of the records should have been available since the 1980's, but weren't made publicly available to prevent the government from being sued. It has since been discovered that many of the most sensitive files have been destroyed.
The files will be available at Kew National Archive.
See Guardian website for full article http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes
