PUBLICATION

_in my day. issue 001

A Soft, gentle and open space, to talk about the hard stuff.

_Racism Written by Patience moyo

In her own words, 24 year old Patience Moyo discusses an issue that within 2020, changed the course of history, BlackLivesMatter.

I moved to England from Zimbabwe when I was a teenager, and during my time here in the UK I have faced racism in its many ugly forms, from derogatory names being screeched loudly across the street on nights out with my friends, to the silent killer that is a microaggression. Racism is a thing I feel is all about knowledge, just because my outer layer of skin is more melanated than theirs, they think that my intelligence is automatically lower and that I like certain things because of my skin, such as fried chicken and talking like a ‘road man’.

idiotic, it shows me that you are a sheep. Never do racists have a valid reason for hating another race, it’s all through what they have been told, and this is something that can be unlearned through education.

Google is your friend, Google yourself how something truly is. Question why it is that people feel this way, what is the reality of people that aren’t part of my community. Not everybody has the sense to research for themselves, as ‘ignorance is bliss’.

Racism isn’t just in the way you are directly treated by people, but by the way people act around you. I want to be hired for my intelligence not to fill the racial quota. I want people not to be guarded when I walk down the street.

BlackLivesMatter led to the constant injustices that black people face, being highlighted and finally spoken about.

BlackLivesMatter led to Derek Chauvin facing a guilty verdict.

BlackLivesMatter means me finally being taken seriously, I am being taken for my word and not being looked down on for my skin.

I find that if you are racist, you look unintelligent to me. Because to me, hating someone you do not know, or a group of people you have never met is

BlackLivesMatter is interesting to me because of how it has been perceived as a movement where ONLY black lives matter, instead of black lives matter

“BLM is me finally being taken seriously, I am being taken for my word and not being looked down on for my skin.”

TOO. Because of this the movement has been open for media to manipulate the true message of equality to one that ignited further racial hatred, we saw this with the counter riots of white supremacists. During the first lockdown at the time the protests began to get heated, my husband, who is a white man, was scared for me to leave the house, which made me wonder, is speaking up just making things worse?

What the movement has accomplished so far is commendable, they are going in the right direction, but they have a long way to go to achieve true reform in England. Workplaces are still passive-aggressive in dealing with workplace racism, racism is still witnessed in everyday life. I think the movement has brought attention to it, but nowhere near enough to bring the change that is needed.

We are still in a dire situation, just because one murderous police officer has been convicted, it doesn’t mean that an entire system is no longer treating us unfairly. But I am hopeful, if we keep fighting, if we keep addressing, if we keep learning, then society will change for the better and most importantly, heal.

Here at _inmyday.

We fully support the BlackLivesMatter movement, and stand by treating everyone with the kindness and respect they deserve

_Weed Fever Joe Laing investigates the cannabis controversies.

Recent elections in the US have put a spotlight on the legality of cannabis for recreational purposes.

Seventeen states have now legalised the possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal use, yet this follows only four other nations to fully legalise the drug. The question is: why not more?

New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota, and Montana join the battle for consequence-free weed smoking.

Uruguay was the first country to allow full recreational use in 2013, including the growing of up to six plants per household to facilitate the healthy stoner lifestyle one can enjoy there. The people of Canada, Georgia, and South Africa also enjoy similar freedoms, as weed has been legalised for recreational purposes in these countries since 2018.

It seems an odd mix of countries, doesn’t it? All four of them sit on different continents; they’re just not countries that you would normally group together. This just shows how universal weed is and how it is enjoyed by so many around the world.

Many more countries have legalised weed for medical purposes, including the UK, Germany, and Portugal, proving that several prominent countries testify to its health benefits. Additionally, the UN recently took the decision to remove cannabis from the list of IVscheduled substances, conceding that it does indeed have medical advantages. Studies have shown that cannabis eases chronic pain; can treat epilepsy; and even reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s. Many experts have also reported that cannabis helps treat insomnia and anxiety, but there isn’t enough research that truly unlocks the massive potential health benefits that marijuana could bring.

Cannabis also has the potential to bring in vast amounts of revenue for the governments of countries who legalise its recreational use.

According to specialists in Uruguay, the global cannabis market could be worth up to 200 billion dollars a year. Legalising marijuana would also make it better regulated, and the quality of the drug would improve. Crime statistics would fall dramatically, and innocent potsmokers would no longer be penalised for such a meaningless act.

Put simply, it seems that marijuana can greatly enhance your quality of life and could generate vast amounts of revenue, so why is no-one rushing to legalise it fully?

Perhaps because we need examples.

The fear of the unknown is rife in global economics, so many nations are cautiously waiting to see what happens in Canada, or in Uruguay.

Maybe we need more influential nations to get on board to really start the trend of legalising recreational marijuana (no offence to Georgia).

European powers like the UK, France, and Russia need to step up their respective games and implement a full legalisation for recreational use.

And if you’re still on the fence about this whole situation, or worried what this might mean for the world, just sit back, relax, and light up a joint. I guarantee you won’t be worried anymore.

a

g a nd i n i n t

r te

D

_LGBTQ+

ha ds l i se na

m

e

22 year old human geography student and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, Olly, expresses his thoughts on a problem existing within the community Pieces submitted by Olly Büllman

For most of my early life and time at university, I studied and contemplated the meanings and representations of oppression within society. I explored sexual and racial oppression. I delved into the meanings of power and the restraints placed on humanity with hegemonic powers. I always looked at oppression as something beyond myself, as something applied, not dissimilar to a glass box or a cage.

“My fear of not belonging could only be cured by loving myself” part of the UK forced me to be aware of my ‘self’ continually in relation to rejection and how I must check myself to avoid outing myself.

To live in fear of others knowing who you truly are does something to your soul. It changes you. It crushes you. We all do it. We all adjust, check ourselves, suppress the truth of our essence, modify to play a part in society. We live our lives through the thoughts and beliefs of those around us.

Conforming and constricting our choices and behaviours to fit in. For, the discomfort of not belonging is too unbearable to bear. We do anything to run from it, pretend to be people we are not to hide from it— imposters, living lies.

It took me twenty-two years to realise what freedom was, not that my experience is greater or lesser than anyone else. I believe that we are all oppressed, not by the world around us, but by ourselves. We all ‘think’. Rene Descartes proclaimed “cogito ergo sum” meaning, ‘I think, Therefore I am’. We are oppressed by our thoughts as much as we are by society. Growing up in an isolated

I’ve spent my life considering who is and how we’re oppressed; I stared into my own life, into the depths, the highs and the lows. Into the adversities of my experience and discovered that I’d blindly limited my futurity and happiness by carrying shame.

For so long, I had felt shame in the form of my father’s fists, unrequited love, and beyond. Through the ordinary every day, I had collected a

bag of shame—an invisible bag dragging behind me by my feet. I was ashamed of who I was. The shame was so entrenched in me. I didn’t even see it. It was a part of me.

It was normal. It was natural.

It was only in the lowest and darkest part of my life did I finally meet my shame, the root of all. She raised my anxiety, my saboteur, and my grief.

I realised to live, to survive, I had to confront the enemy within me.

I had to learn to love the darkest, deepest, deranged parts of me. My fear of not belonging could only be cured by loving to myself. That’s what existing is about to me. It’s about belonging. To where, to who? I originally believed it was about belonging to others until I discovered that we should only belong to ourselves. For that is a beautiful sentiment.

Letters and poems to the men i love(d) Olly Büllman

Walked out, Come back, Will you ever comeback?

I want you back, Where are you?

I said I want you back, did you not hear my heart?

Can your hardened heart not hear?

Have you gone?

Have you gone deaf now too?

Has the ship left, let me board, don’t go without me?

Please, I can’t bear this.

Hopeless like a lost ship, Sailing, searching, flailing.

Over a bridge, Has it fallen, are you lost?

I called for you.

Does your heart not here it too?

The songs have stopped, Lost their feeling.

The person I knew, I miss you.

I want to call for you again, Are you gone, or are you lost?

I want to find you again

I want you.

Is it your shame, Are you ashamed?

Ashamed of me, of you, Where is the shame.

What does it have to do, With me and you?

Is it your dad, Mine too?

What did he do?

Is he ashamed of you too?

What does it have to do, With me and you?

Is it in pieces, Is it in faraway places, I can feel her, I’ll call her shame.

What does it have to do, With me and you?

Is it mine, Is it yours?

What does it have to do with me loving you?

_Trans Women Trans women and especially trans women of colour, are amongst the most marginalised people within modern society, and whilst progress has been made in the awareness and treatment of this community of strong women, there is still a long way to go until true equality can be achieved.

One of the main issues that trans women face, lies within the way that other people treat them, subjected to oppression in the forms of violence, harassment, mockery, and a lack of access to the necessary healthcare. This all stems from a lack of education and misinformation being presented by the media in a bid to demonize the community as either mentally ill or as cross-dressing sexual predators.

Yet if we look through history; in ancient Greece, Phrygia and Rome, there trans Galli, priests of the ancient religions. If we look to native American culture, trans people, known as ‘two spirit’, were held with the upmost respect, holding the titles of religious leaders and teachers. Trans women of colour were the ones to begin the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and gay liberation,

with Marsha P. Johnson being the first to throw a brick at the stonewall riots in 1969.

A way in which we can tackle this stigma against trans women as a society is to educate ourselves and to do better, we should be taking responsibility upon ourselves as decent human beings to reverse the traumatic climate that we have created. It is not the duty of trans women to educate us to be kinder when compassion is so easily available to us as people. Research, speak out, support the community, and above all, stand with us in solidarity.

_Sustainability

Saving the planet really does start from home, or more specifically, your wardrobe. Choosing to purchase sustainably produces less waste, and looks damn good.

The following is a photoshoot shot entirely with slow fashion, good for the earth garms. Purchased from our current favourites.

“Don’t be a Fast Fashion Killa, Be a Sustainable Saviour”

Yves Saint Laurent Overshirt: JrengVintage Pinstripe Blazer: Our local charity shop Upcycled blazer sleeve crop top: Sarah O Robinson

_Mental Health Over the course of lockdown, it became clear that Coronavirus wasn’t the only pandemic, our mental health took a decline due to the ongoing isolation.

Being locked inside took its toll on all of us, with depression and anxiety reaching an all-time high, its time that we start to address the invisible issue that we are all facing, one of mental health.

More than half of adults and over two thirds of young people said that their mental health has gotten worse during the period of lockdown Over half of adults and young people are over or under eating to cope.

Nearly a third are using alcohol or illegal drugs, with 18–24 year-olds using this coping strategy more than over-25s.

Loneliness has been a key contributor to poor mental health.

Feelings of loneliness have made nearly two thirds of people’s mental health worse during the past month, with 18–24 year-olds the most likely to see loneliness affect their mental health.

Times are uncertain and with the constant pressures and awareness of what is happening in the world, it feels like we can’t escape.

Now is a time to be looking after our friends and neighbours, colleagues and families, we can’t see or sanitize this disease, but what we can do to defeat it, is talk about it.

Graphic designer Brandon Staniford, 22, created a series of work that speaks on the intensity of the mental health crisis, following is a selection of pieces from his project titled ‘The internal struggle’

If low mood is affecting your daily life or causing you distress, call NHS 111

Pieces submitted by Brandon Staniford