Blogmas 11: Police Brutality

*Disclaimer - I am a white person living in England, and as such my voice and opinions on this do not matter as much as a black person (particularly living in America). I have not been negatively affected by racism, and thus can never understand how people of colour must be feeling. There are many black voices on the internet speaking about this (I link one video which has a collection of eloquent young black women speaking at the bottom of this page) and I urge you to find them and listen*

If you spend any time on the internet, you won't have been able to escape the things that have been going on in America over the past year.

Police brutality and the thuggification of black men has been going on for centuries, but after the murder of Mike Brown (an unarmed eighteen year old who was shot 6 times by police officer Darren Wilson whilst he had his hands in the air and running away), and more recently the murder of Eric Garner (a man who was stopped by the police for selling cigarettes and was put in an illegal chokehold - he died from a heart attack as a result of asphyxiation) the general public are taking notice.

This isn't even mentioning the shooting of Tamir Rice, a twelve year old boy who was shot for holding a BB gun in Ohio - which is an open carry state.

Or the shooting of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin in 2012.

There are some people who will claim that the police were just doing their job, and things got a little out of hand, and that these crimes are not racially motivated.

I would disagree.

In all of these cases the mainstream media have fed us information as to why these men and children were killed. We are told that Mike Brown robbed a store (the store owner denies this) and then physically assaulted Darren Wilson (I couldn't see the bruising on his face from where he was punched twice so hard that he thought a third punch would kill him as he so claims). We are told that his stepfather is a criminal, as if that makes it okay for him to be murdered. Mike Brown has been turned into a thug by the mainstream media, despite the fact that all of his friends and family have described him as a gentle giant, a kind sweet boy. (Interestingly, Darren Wilson's mother has also been criminally charged, but that is a fact glossed over by the media). It was decided at the end of last month that there was not enough evidence to put him to trial (despite numerous eyewitness statements and some seriously suspicious excuses for various police staff not following procedure) and the prosecutor directly benefited from a fund set up to support Darren Wilson (the man he was supposed to be proving was guilty).

In the case of Eric Garner, once again the police officer involved wasn't even put to trial. This is despite the fact that when a police officer performed the same chokehold on a white student he was fired the next day.

There is no doubt that these crimes were racially motivated. Why else would a twelve year old boy get shot in state where it is legal to carry guns than for the colour of his skin?

I also think we cannot ignore the lynching of Lennon Lacy - a promising young student who was a day away from starting his college football career

And the fact that black Americans are being incarcerated at the same rate of black South Africans during apartheid.

So what can we do about this?

The first thing to do is to speak up, to protest, and to make our voices heard. As a white person, I have to be careful with this. I can be disgusted by what's happening, and speak up about it - use my white privilege to try and get this cause heard. But, I cannot speak for black people. I cannot speak for the communities involved in this. I have no idea about the pain of institutionalised racism.

The best thing white people can do is educate themselves. Go on Tumblr, look through social media, take everything the mainstream media says with a pinch (or handful) of salt. And know when to shut up, stand down, and listen to those who know more than us. It's #blacklivesmatter and #theycantbreathe (not #icantbreathe - that is reserved for people of colour).

I hope I've made myself clear on this. I've been quite vocal about this on tumblr, but it felt wrong not to talk about it on here too, and I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write a post about it (admittedly it is part of my white privilege that I am able to 'ignore' the events and not talk about them for so long). Thank you for reading.

As I promised, if you want to hear black voices on the matter, there is a great video. I urge you to watch it.

Personal Issues with 'yourfaveisproblematic'

Yesterday, I was alerted to the prescience www.yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com. Now, on the face of this this website is nothing to worry about, and in fact should probably be encouraged. It's premise is to look at people in the public eye and point out 'problematic' things they have said/done and make 'reciepts' of them. As I said, on the face of it this should be encouraged - it's good to look critically on the people we admire to make sure what we like about them isn't clouding our judgement. However, after posting libelous things about John Green, I think we need to review some of the more 'problematic' aspects of this website. I would like to stress that this is by no means a comprehensive list, and if you find anything false about it I will more than happily put my hands up and say I got it wrong - I only looked at the website for about half an hour last night.

1) Frequently de-contextualises comments. This includes comments that were obviously made in jest and by no means represent the speakers values, comments that have been taken out of their historical time frame, and comments that have been taken out of their chronology. I'll go into more detail with specifics later.

2) Calls out people on what does/does not constitute cultural appropriation (ie. when celebrities wear a bindi/Native American headdress etc) yet refuses to acknowledge that this makes it a source of information on what is/is not cultural appropriation. If you are stating that 'this is and this isn't', then be prepared to answer for what you're saying and attempt to explain to those who have queries (ie, why aren't corn-rows/ dreadlocks cultural appropriation yet the wearing of the bindi (what wikipedia - and I know it's not the most reliable source - states as worn as fashion for many women, even though the traditional bindi is preserved as a religious symbol) is?). It's not good enough for you to say 'I can't answer that as we are not an authority' when you repeatedly make judgements on other people.

3) Attributes what fictional characters say/do to their authors/the actors who portray them. This appears to only apply to those characters who say/do something considered racially or culturally offensive, not those characters who commit moral crimes/ things that are sexually offensive. The people who run the website can't seem to understand that things that characters say and do are more often than not the complete polar opposite of an authors opinions. This links into point (1), particularly about chronology and historical context. The examples I saw of this on the website: a) John Green wrote a Muslim character into one of his novels (this character was the second most important in the novel) who says a Muslim word which is offensive, but flips it so it is almost a term of endearment. It is a word that Green wouldn't/doesn't say in his life, and a word that is completely appropriate with context. b) A character in 'Mad Men' (I believe) did 'blackface' (where a white person wears black face paint to portray a different ethnicity). Whilst this is completely unacceptable in modern times, this show is set in the 1950s, where this sort of actively was a lot more common place and not frowned on to such a degree. Equally, just because a character did something relevant to its historical context, does not mean to actor who portrayed it agrees with it. As I said, they have not called out people like Tom Cruise, Matt Damon or Bruce Willis for advocating murder simply because they kill people in their films. Equally, they do not call out Jane Austen for portraying patriarchal views in her novels. This is a ridiculous double standard. This website needs to recognise that authors and actors do not represent the views of the characters they create.

4) (This one I am not 100% certain about, but it was my impression after last nights searching) They want their blog to be an open discussion, then close off the 'ask' box feature when they receive a high volume of criticism for the libelous comments made against John Green and get angry at those who find other ways to interact with them. Whilst I understand that the people on this blog were also receiving threats (including death threats) they still have a responsibility to engage with the polite discussion. Threatening people is never acceptable, but when a site is making these claims on people who they do not know then they have to allow themselves to be held accountable for their words - particularly when these words could seriously damage a persons career. Again I am not saying that things celebrities do/say shouldn't be called out on if it is offensive/distasteful, because it's great to look at things we admire critically, HOWEVER these need to be verified before being posted on the internet. It's a dangerous place.

5) Linking to (2) makes political statements yet refuses to acknowledge themselves as a source of information.

6) Linking to above and (2), asks their audience to accept what they are saying as fact, not always revealing the source of their information (although they are mostly good as showing the source) and removes the ability for their audience to directly question me further.


Now, as I've said, I have not comprehensively reviewed this tumblr. Some of what I have said is potentially incorrect, and if anyone who either follows the tumblr or those who run the tumblr would like to speak to me about this then please do so, either in the comments or by my email. I would prefer that any comments were made directly to me as there is a high possibility that I won't see them otherwise, and I would like to address any concerns people may have.

I would also like to stress that I support the premise of the site. But the people who run it need to be aware of the responsibilities that come with running a site like this. If this site gets any more publicity, I would be very surprised if celebrities don't start to sue over some of the claims made on the site. Equally, clearly I am very angry about point (3) as it is ridiculous if you believe that the things characters do/say are they things their creators believe.


Sorry about the long break and about the rant, but this really wound me up.

Best Wishes,

xx

Left Wing Comedy and the BBC

The other night I was listening to BBC Radio 4's comedy Podcast Friday Night Comedy, specifically The Now Show (because I am a middle aged man, apparently). For those of you who don't know Friday Night Comedy is a weekly podcast which alternates between series' of The Now Show (hosted primarily by Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt but frequently featuring Jon Holmes (whom I will be addressing in a moment), Mitch Benn, and a whole host of other comics),  and The News Quiz (hosted by Sandi Toksvig and frequently featuring Susan Calman, Jeremy Hardy (again, more on him later), Andy Hamiliton etc etc the list goes on). Both shows are satires of the weeks news, one in the form of a quiz, the other in a series of segments (stand up, song, sketches etc).

Last week, in Jon Holmes' section, he addressed complaint which many people have with the BBC - it is too left wing. Now, this is problematic for the BBC who are meant to be a non-biased broadcasting institution. Having an partisan take on social, political and economic news stories is very much not in their job description. However, in my opinion for the most part I believe that the BBC does this very well, and in its serious news style programmes (ie, BBC Breakfast, various news programmes, and The One Show) it walks the line between entertainment and reporting very carefully. The Friday Night Comedy shows are not serious news broadcasting shows. Their sole objective is to entertain through mockery and satire. Firstly, I think many of these complaints have arisen because there is a Conservative (right wing) political party in government at the moment, so therefore there is a lot of anti-conservative jokes appearing on these shows. However, when Labour (traditionally left wing) were in government, an equal number of anti-Labour jokes were made. Therefore, I believe it is less about the BBC's political stance, and more about the requirements needed for the show.

However, I think it goes even deeper than this. In the criticism, it was especially picked up that Jeremy Hardy is a very regularly featured comic. He is also rather left wing (as Jon Holmes put it he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve, in particular his left sleeve) and isn't afraid to voice his (very funny in my opinion) views. When I actually sat down to think about it I couldn't really think of any out and out right wing comics who I found funny. This got me asking a question: are the BBC putting on left wing comics because their perpetuating a political stance, or because they are trying to provide the best entertainment? Personally I think it's the later.

Comedy works at its best when you are mocking the system that we live in, when you are picking out something from society and saying 'look, this is wrong, it's funny, but we should also probably change it'. Right wing comics never portray that message. In right wing comedy all you tend to get is mockery of left wing 'utopian' ideas: unattainable dreams that can never be realised. What are these 'unattainable dreams'? Well, they tend to be the desire for equality in society, not only in a monetary sense between rich and poor, but also between men and women, black and white, lgbtq, the list goes on. Left wing comedy mocks the people in power, right wing comedy mocks the victim. I don't know about you, but I don't think that mocking the people who are worse off in society is a very funny thing to do.

Let me know if you know any right wing comics who don't do this, if there are even any right wing comics at all (I'm seriously struggling to think of any, other than Jeremy Clarkson). Tell me if you agree with me, or if you have the same issues in your country.

Oh, and give Friday Night Comedy a listen. It's really rather good. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fricomedy

Best Wishes!

xx

They See Me Haulin', They Hatin'...

Why hello there!

So it was my bonny old birthday yesterday, so I thought I'd share with you what I got!

1)


 

Dictionary of Literary Terms
 and Literary Theory (Penguin, 4th ed.)
ISBN: 9780140513639
Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies:
An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 5th ed.)
ISBN:9780230367258

Both of these books look like they're going to be really useful for my course. Right from the beginning every single lecturer I've had has told me to get my hands on a good literary dictionary, so I asked for one for my birthday. For those of you who don't know what a literary dictionary is, it is basically a cross between and dictionary and a reference book, which allows it to give really in depth definitions of literary ideas (for example, the definition for novel is 40 pages long - going into its etymology and its history), so it should be very helpful for my course. I used the 4th edition of Andy Heywood's political ideologies in the second year of A level politics, and from what I can tell, the only difference between this edition and the 4th is this version has colour (well, blue rather than grey) and occasionally pictures of particularly influential people. (If you are interested in getting a copy, I recommend either the 4th or 5th edition, the 3rd doesn't have word definition boxes, which are incredibly helpful). My course has involved a lot of politics - or rather the need for a broad view of political moments in history, which this book covers within it's overview of ideology. It's very well written, clear and easy to understand.

2)

Zara Ethnic Print Shirt (Medium)

Sorry the picture is on the side, I uploaded it vertically, but it doesn't appear to have worked... Anyway, the shirt is very light weight, almost to the point of being see through. It's in a soft cotton, and has a long torso (it covers my butt). I had to get the medium because I find Zara clothing fits tight on my shoulders and the sleeves tend to be half an inch too short. Really looking forward to some warmer weather so I can frolic in it, as it would look cute tucked into jeans or loose over shorts. Bring on summer!!

3)

My friends got me this 'Cake Pop' tray and recipe book! It looks adorable and I can't wait to get baking!

4)

They also got me this tea-bag tin filled with tea! All the tea is herbal (i think) but they haven't told me what's what. It smells divine though! A gorgeous mix of ginger and peppermint and yum yum yum! It almost smells like Yogi Yogi Chai (a tea I had in a cute little tea shop called Chai Ovna in Glasgow's West End), which was the most delicious tea ever, and once I've finished working my way through these, I think I'll probably invest in some and put tat in there instead!

5)

I'm very much looking forward to wearing these banging earrings! As you can see they were from New Look. I'd write more, but I really moustache... Hahahaha... must dash, moustache, geddit?!?

6)

Love the animal prints on these hair clips! Hopefully they'll look really sweet with my Pocahontas style summer dress!

7)


Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Crystal Clear, Avon Super Shock Mascara in Black,
 Avon  SpotLight Moitsure Shimmer Gel, Avon Nailwear Pro in  Golden Dream
 and Avon Super Shock Eyeshadow Crayon in Icicle and Surf.

Can you tell one of my mates in an Avon rep? I can never afford to buy Avon make up, so I'm super chuffed she thought to get me some! I love it! I can't wait to try out the Rimmel gloss either, I'll be so shimmery if I wear all these together! Hopefully I'll review them once I've given them all a whirl!

8)

FCUK Little Indulgent Box containing body spray, body wash,
body polish and body cream, as well as a body polisher,
 all scented with their 'signature' scent.

My Mum's best friend never forgets my birthday and always gets me lovely gifts - this year was no exception! I am super excited to try out all this stuff - especial the body polish! I'm wearing the body spray at the moment (I think I'll wear it as a perfume rather than a spray) and it smells so floral and fresh - it's lovely. Again, I'll hopefully have a review up in the near future...

9)

Last but not least, EBO! My wonderful sister got me this card game and I cannot wait to play it! The premise of the game is that you are a Time Nanny and you got and kidnap babies who turn out to be evil when they grow up (ie, Hitler), but because they're evil babies, its not quiet as simple as you might think. There's a play through on Team Hypercube's YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/teamhypercube) that should be very helpful, so I'm going to give that a watch in a bit.


That's all folks! I had a wonderful Birthday, and hope your days were just as merry and love filled as mine!

xx

Profundity at Music Gigs

Last night I went to see the incredible Frank Turner. If you don’t know who he is, then give a couple of his songs a listen straight away! It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to in my life, for several reasons.

Firstly, Frank himself. All his songs are very emotive – they’re more than just wishy-washy love songs. They are intended to be heard, to be consumed and to be sung along to. They are war cries and drinking songs. A lot of his music is politically motivated (I did my A level English Language coursework on his lyrics) and that, combined with his performance creates a very strong sense of collective identity. Nearing the end of his gig (or even during the encore) Frank made a small speech on this point. I didn’t record this and I didn’t write it down, but it has stuck with me. He was thanking us for being there to support him and he made the point about how beautiful a music gig is. He basically said “You come here and you leave everything else at the door. You put aside your differences, of class, of religious beliefs, of political beliefs and you come together as a collective. As one.  As a community of people who just want to listen to some music, to dance, to clap to sing and have a fucking good time. And I thank you for that” (note: this has been paraphrased slightly but this was the gist of it). That really struck a chord with me, how a couple of thousand strangers could all come together, united by one thing. And there wasn’t any hatred that night. There wasn’t any fear. It was just about sharing a beautiful experience with friends. Music gigs really are beautiful.

Secondly, the support. The first support band were ok, as far as supports go they were even pretty good. Not sure I’d pay to see them, but I wouldn’t switch stations on the radio and I might even check them out on line (Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun – although I didn’t remember that from the night, I just looked them up through Frank’s website). The second support act was INCREDIBLE however – although not for the reasons you might expect.

He played traditional, old American-Woody-Guthrie-style acoustic music – and anyone who’s heard Woody will know that’s not exactly pretty or dancey. What it is, though, is powerful. It’s strong and emotive and it tells a story. Tim Barry was probably one of the most sincerely humble support acts I’ve ever seen. He didn’t just say “thanks to Frank for having me” but he told us how much he admired and respected Frank, how much of an amazing performer he thought it was. He said how he was honoured to support him and was honoured to be playing for us and that we’re standing around listening to his stuff. And that in itself was deeply touching. He also said one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard at a music gig (and I wrote this down on the back of my hand when he said it):

“I’m not afraid of dying; I’m afraid of not living”

I thought that was a beautiful sentiment. It summed up perfectly the message of the tour – it was called the “Last Minutes and Lost Evenings” tour which is taken from a line of Frank’s song “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” which ends with:

“Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings, about fire in our belly’s and about furtive little feelings, and the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering and help us to remember that the only things that’s left to do is live. After all of the loving and the loosing, for the heroes and the pioneers’ the only thing that’s left to do is get another round in at the bar!”

And isn’t that a perfect little sentiment.

Anyway, all of that got me thinking how ridiculous it is to spend your whole life worrying. It reminded me a lot of the view that is expressed by Margo Roth Spiegelman, a character in John Green’s novel “Paper Towns”. She see’s how vapid the world is, she see’s its faults, how “life has become the future”, and how wrong that is. Now I don’t 100% agree with her view – I think you’ve got to think about the future a little bit. But I do mostly agree with Tim Barry.

It’s ok to be afraid of dying, so long as you’re not afraid of living.

TTNF xx

Links: http://frank-turner.com/  - Frank Turner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c21SfaAwBw0  - I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous

Currently Reading: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

The Art Of Writing Fiction by Andrew Cowan

Why, hello there stranger!

Lord only knows how you got here, but somehow you've managed to stumble upon my little bloggy-thingy-ma-bob. You poor poor soul.

I guess this should really be some kind of introduction - although the "About me" section thing kinda sums it up - but just in case you didn't read it (or want more detail): Hi :) I'm a University student studying English Lit with Creative Writing, and I suspect it'll become pretty apparent that I love reading and writing (so don't expect many short posts). I've always wanted to be an author since I was a but a babe (Although, matter of fact, that's a little bit untrue. I found an old school worksheet that listed my dream jobs as either a) a singer in a band, b) a pop star (I differentiated between the two, apparently) or c) an owner of a shop. I had high hopes for my life.). I applied for accommodation at my university of choice, but because I supposedly live too near to my uni I was declined, despite the fact I live outside the 12mile unguaranteed radius, and will now have to take a train and a bus to get to uni everyday. As you can tell, I'm not bitter about this. Not bitter AT ALL. NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. NOPE. VERY UNBITTER, UNRESTENTFUL PERSON SITTING OVER HERE. So it looks liked I'm going to be living at home for the time being, which sucks.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my family. I get on great with my parents, most of the time, and my little sister ain't so little anymore (she's just started college - ahh scary) so it's not like she's a nuisance or anything. But having accommodation is part of the whole university experience, and experience I'm paying £9,000 a year for thank you very much, and it's not like I'm a kid anymore. Hell, I NEED some independence. So quite a few of these blog posts will be documenting the ups and downs of living at home whilst studying - they'll be labelled as "Sorry, No Vacancies" or SNV.

I also work a little part time job (although the amount of times they've called me in over the summer to do extra hours it's pretty much been a full time job) at a local supermarket-but-not-really-because-it's-not-that-big-but-is-still-a-chain-store-type-thing. It's not a bad little job, I get on great with people there and its easy enough work, but man has it made me determined to do well at uni! I CANNOT be doing that for the rest of my life, I think my brain would decompose.

I love music, fashion, going for long walks... blah blah blah, insert generic girly stuff in here that is true but also kinda dull just to list. I also took Politics at A level and had two of the best teachers in the world which made me totally fall in love with it. There appears to be a growing feminist movement among young women of my age (or there abouts), particularly in America with the presidential campaigns and the huge controversy surrounding Mitt Romney and other Republicans beliefs in reference to women's rights, rape and abortion - which I find completely fascinating. (So expect posts/rants about that).

I think that's about it for now... guess we'll just see how it goes...

Byeeee xx