The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949
Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
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Issue 905
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Tuesday 29 October
LSE Considers Lewis Legacy Projects Inside Today Special
Before Malcom X
The history of Islam in the Americas
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Comment
The Black Woman’s Body
A discussion of sex and Black women
Eileen Gbagbo
Guest BHM Editor
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campaign to celebrate the legacy of Sir Arthur Lewis at LSE is gaining traction, with reports of a building - potentially 32 Lincolns Inn Fields, as it houses the Economics Department - to be named in his honour and the creation of a scholarship fund for BAME Economics students. Lewis, LSE’s first Black Academic, has been honoured with the Arthur Lewis building at the University of Manchester, where he taught until 1957; a community college in his home country of St Lucia; the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic studies at the University of the West Indies; as well as his portrait on the 100 dollar East Caribbean bill. Lewis attended LSE between 1937 and 1940 to do to his Bachelors and PhD, and, after graduating, taught a course on the interwar years. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences in 1979 along with Theodore Schultz for his “pioneering research into economic development, with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries.” The Lewis model is a dual sector model which highlights the growth of a developing country in terms of labour transition between the subsistence to the capitalist sector. The campaign to see Lewis commemorated argues that as LSE is Lewis’ alma mater and had a formative impact on his academic career, there should be greater efforts to commemorate him, similar to the University of Manchester. Currently, there is a poster in the Student Services centre detailing his time at LSE and notable impact on the field both in theory and practice. The poster, along the wall of the Atrium gallery, next to other Nobel Prize winners, can be easily missed by students. In the Department of Economics, the Arthur Lewis Chair of Development Economics is current-
ly held by Professor Sir Tim Besley. The movement has caught the attention of influential members of the public such as Tim Frost, Chair of Cairn Capital. He writes on LinkedIn: “Why no Sir Arthur Lewis building at the LSE? A SAL building would be a great way for us to show our pride in SAL’s achievements. Sir Arthur spent 5 minutes at Manchester Uni and they have a huge edifice named for him. #BlackHistoryMonth an appropriate time for the world’s best social science university to act.” In the ‘Beyond Black History Month’ panel discussion with Minouche Shafik and Zulum Elumogo, the LSE Director detailed she is keen to move forward with plans to honour Lewis’ legacy. A five minute video exploring Arthur Lewis and his long lasting influence in the field of Economics is to be published towards the end of Black History Month. It includes discussions with Martha Ojo – LSESU’s Education Officer and
Christina Ivey – a Jamaican Government student - on what Lewis’ legacy means to them navigating race relations today, 40 years on. This campaign is a first step in ensuring the celebration of Lewis, raising the question of previous and current institutional neglect of Black students at LSE. Education Officer, Martha Ojo, says “Arthur Lewis paved the way for what we consider to be developmental economics today. Lewis shifted the focus of economics away from the West to the colonies, a major change for the discipline at the time. It inspires, because Lewis did this all at a time and in a country with troubling racial attitude. For these and many other reasons, Lewis remains significant for many across the globe.”
Features
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“What happens in Black History Month should happen all year.” Dr. Abenaa Owusu-Bempah
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BHM Special
The Beaver
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Tuesday 29 October 2019 | The Beaver www.beaveronline.co.uk
Established 1949 | Issue 905 | Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
Meet the team Guest BHM Editor Eileen Gbagbo Executive Editor Morgan Fairless editor@beaveronline.co.uk Managing Editor Isabella Pojuner managing@beaveronline.co.uk Flipside Editor Christina Ivey flipside@beaveronline.co.uk
Design Editor Colette Fogarty Editorial Assistants Ross Lloyd Jamie Boucher Illustrators Rebekah Paredes-Larson Raphaelle Carmarcat Emma Duper Amelia Jabry Sebastian Mullen News Editors Laura Zampini Jeffrey Wang Elena Christaki-Hedrick news@beaveronline.co.uk Comment Editors Lucy Knight
Samuel M. Caveen Michael Shapland comment@beaveronline.co.uk Features Editors Emmanuel Molding Nielsen Marianne Hii Colin Vanelli Annabelle Jarrett features@beaveronline.co.uk Part B Editor Maya Kokerov partb@beaveronline.co.uk Review Editors Amber Iglesia Zehra Jafree partb@beaveronline.co.uk Sport Editors Seth Rice Gabby Sing sport@beaveronline.co.uk Social Editor Analía Ferreyra Sherry union@beaveronline.co.uk
Collective Chair Andreas Redd collective@beaveronline.co.uk Collective members have contributed content three or more times for The Beaver.
Real Gs Move Silent Like in Gbagbo
BHM Special guest editor Eileen Gbagbo reflects on Black History Month and this year’s special.
Eileen Gbagbo
BHM Guest Editor
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lack History Month is the time of year I come alive. Celebrating black achievements and learning more about black history is a beautiful way to create communities. When I was 14, my history teacher rearranged the tables in the room and made us lie on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, to recreate the conditions on the slave ship. He had a couple of us pretend to be newborn babies – crying and wriggling, some others pretended to be sick on themselves, and others were dead and the rest of ‘sang’ in gibberish. This was my introduction into ‘black history’. What struck me the most was the lack of empathy when teaching the topic. And this is what made me hyperaware of skin colour and racial difference. As we transitioned into greater maturity, the girls were no longer asking me to teach them how to twerk, or why my lunch smelt funny, they were conflating the transatlantic slave trade with my personal history, and that was much more uncomfortable.
Through a couple more unfortunate events, I could no longer stand the slothlike pace at which black history was taught. So I drew a ‘radical’ black history programme for myself which included visiting the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, watching Roots and reading the autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. The more I learnt, the deeper my understanding of the interaction between modern racism and capitalism became, especially in the UK. This Black History Month, we have gone beyond celebration. We are demanding the acknowledgement of the plight of Black students at LSE, and for subsequent action to be taken on the institutional amnesia of LSE towards the achievements of its black community, both former and current students, staff and professors alike. I am particularly excited about the range of articles in this edition, written exclusively by black students. I really enjoyed the Before Malcom X – History of Islam in the Americas article. The talk was fantastic, and this visual aid breaks it down really well. Ciaran Marshall’s piece about Arthur Lewis is a poignant and timely reminder of the pioneering legacy of Lewis in developmental economics. Christi-
ana’s piece on ‘Surviving Black History Month’ is a skilfully humorous article that you should all share with even your most well-meaning friend. Finally, thank you to Morgan and the Beaver team for their support and embrace of this issue. I hope that, going forward, there will be greater participation of black writers in LSE’s creative community as this issue has revealed some extremely talented people. Join Lacuna, write for the Beaver, or create your own brand – I’m rooting for you!
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Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union Established 1949 Issue 892 | Tuesday 9 October 2018
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GUEST EDITORS EILEEN GBAGBO + MARTHA OJO
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Last year’s BHM Issue, which Eileen guest edited and featured in
The B in The Beaver stands for Black
Chris discusses her path in The Beaver, and the relevance of the BHM special issue.
Christina Ivey Flipside Editor
flipside@beaveronline.co.uk
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’ve come a long way here at The Beaver. In my first year, the paper published weekly - I couldn’t handle that level of commitment. I had just broken up with my girlfriend (over email) earlier that year – opting to spend every Sunday delivering and editing content did not appeal to me. In second year, The Beaver’s fortunes changed. The Beaver got a huge budget cut which forced it to move to a fortnightly printing schedule, I also became less of a dickhead. I ran for Social Editor, won the position, and joined the team. Social was only two pages and still a very new section so in an alternate universe where I didn’t win it would have been easy to ignore it. Thankfully, we live in this timeline. Editing the Social section fortnightly became the cornerstone around which I planned the rest of my time on campus. I fell in love with the rest of the editorial board, despite occasional snakery and other shady shit. I truly enjoyed all the work I did for Social. I became a stan for Flipside more broadly because I was tired of the team taking the piss out of it. When I realised no one was running for Flipside Editor
in the last election cycle, I stepped up - I haven’t regretted that decision once. I’m particularly proud of this issue. For obvious reasons I care deeply about Black History Month, but I was just a contributor to the last BHM special. The journalism field is disproportionately white and male, so to have an entire special issue that has been edited by Black women for two years running is something to be celebrated. It’s not often we get the chance to speak candidly about our lived experiences without having people ready to come for our throats. This won’t be the only time we speak about Black people or Black culture in the paper. I’m incredibly grateful to our other editors, who aren’t Black, for being so generous with the time they’ve dedicated to working on this issue and the sensitivity with which they treated each article. I’m also grateful to Morgan, our Executive Editor, for his unrelenting patience and doing way more work than he’s really obligated to for this issue. I don’t know who actually reads these editorials besides our copyeditors, but if you’ve made it this far, thank you.
FLIPSIDE VOL. IX
FEB 5 FREE
CHRISTINA LAUREN Chris on the cover of FLIPSIDE, before she became the editor
Room 2.02 Saw Swee Hock Student Centre LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE 020 7955 6705 Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver Editorial Staff. The Beaver is issued under a Creative Commons license.
29 Oct 6:30pm Knights Templar
News
Tuesday 29 October 2019 | The Beaver News Editors Laura Zampini Elena Christaki-Hedrick Jeffrey Wang
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Email us: news@beaveronline.co.uk
Dr Camacho-Felix on Decolonising the Curriculum Dr Sara Camacho-Felix addresses LSE’s Eurocentric academic culture
The News Team Thomas Chau Deputy Editor
Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer
Shuhei Hayashi Staff Writer
Grace Chapman
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he chief drafter of the Inclusive Education Action Plan 2019/2020, Dr Sara Camacho-Felix, presented her work on improving BME student experiences at LSE in a lunchtime seminar on Monday 28 October. The talk is held as part of the Black History Month lunchtime lecture series by EmbRace, LSE’s BME staff network. Dr Camancho-Felix presented her past research conducted at LSE and explored how ‘decolonising’ the curriculum may reduce the BME attainment gap and improve BME student experiences. 2018 data on LSE undergraduates from the Higher Education Statistics Agency indicates Black and Asian students were 8.7 and 8.3 percentage points less likely to achieve First or Upper Second marks than their white peers, respectively. Her previous work includes conducting focus groups and interviews with BAME students on their experiences at LSE. The resulting report, which was first published in March, identified “lack of belonging”, “loss of confidence”, and “feeling of neglect” as common themes among BAME students across departments and degree levels. Participants spoke on how students of colour were excluded from partaking fully in the
Staff Writer
Meher Pandey Staff Writer
Florit Shoihet Staff Writer
Sophie Neyra Staff Writer Eurocentric curriculum and teaching at LSE. Among the report’s recommendations was diversifying the curriculum. In particular, the report called for more authors from BME or Global South backgrounds to be featured, along with a more diverse range of theoretical perspectives. The talk on Monday explored how LSE can reflect on its Eurocentric academic culture and teach ‘other ways of knowing’ in its curriculum. In a statement to The Beaver, Dr Camancho-Felix highlighted the need for institutional change to ad-
dress issues of inclusion. “BME attainment gaps and the experience of BME students is an institutional issue – it is representative of the School as an exclusionary space,” she said. “It is not due to these students lacking anything or needing fixing.” She points to UAL and UCL as nearby examples of universities that have committed to providing the resourcing and staffing needed to eradicate the attainment gap in their institutions. UAL for example recently established its Decolonising Arts Institute which aims to address
Eurocentrism in UAL’s art collections and teaching. Dr Camancho-Felix’s Inclusive Education Action Plan 2019/2020 was unveiled and accepted by the School in September. Drawing on her previous research, the Plan calls for stronger academic mentoring, debiasing staff workshops, monitoring programmes for inclusivity, decolonising the curriculum, and embedding study skills into the curriculum.
Staff Writer
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ustafa Briggs’ Black History Month lecture tour ‘Before Malcolm X: History of Islam in the Americas’ began at LSE on Tuesday, 22 November. His talk Beyond Bilal was among the best attended BHM events last year and he was met with the same enthusiasm this year. The Wolfson Theatre filled ten minutes before the lecture began and the LSE Events staff turned away approximately 50 people at the door for fire safety reasons. The lecture was only an hour long and decidedly academic in its content, presentation, and structure. Briggs described it as a crash course and encouraged attendees to take notes and see it as a starting point to their own exploration of the relationship between Islam and Blackness. Although African-American Muslims make up the largest popula-
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The lecture was a necessary addition to an otherwise Eurocentric Black History Month -Eileen Gbagbo, attendee
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Meher Pandey
tion of Muslims in the Americas, most audience members assumed their numbers only grew after the Civil Rights Movement, inspired by Malcolm X. Briggs said this demonstrated the very misinformation his lecture aimed to address. He said, “Malcolm X represents the legacy of Islam in America that has been there for almost 700 years.” Briggs traced Islam’s arrival to the Americas as far back as the 1310s, when Mansa Abubakari II, the Muslim king of Mali, voyaged to the Americas 180 years before Columbus. Briggs also covered the underexplored Arabic scholarly tradition among enslaved African Muslims and the role of Muslim warriors in the fight for freedom in South American and Carribean slave states.
After his talk ended, Briggs posted a message of thanks on his Instagram. He wrote, “I am so overwhelmed at the response. I never knew when I began this journey, just last year, that it would take me to this point. I just feel blessed, grateful and humbled, and excited for the
Staff Writer
Thahmina Begum Thaniya Staff Writer
Nora Lorenz Staff Writer
Angbeen Abbas
Mustafa Briggs Returns to LSE for Black History Month and Packs the Wolfson Theatre Mustafa Briggs discusses the relationship between Islam and Blackness
Shuhei Hayashi
future.” The lecture series will continue for the rest of October at universities across the UK, including Queen Mary University of London and UCL.
Staff Writer
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News
Tuesday 29 October 2019 | The Beaver
Student Hustings Sessions Kick Off LSESU Election Campaigns LSE students quiz election candidates on campains
Nora Lorenz and Angbeen Abbas Staff Writer
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ver the course of two days the LSESU hosted two events for students to meet and quiz their future representatives running for positions in the Michaelmas Term 2019. The first hustings session took place on Wednesday, October 23rd at the Venue in the Saw Swee Hock Students Centre. Initially quiet, the Venue filled up eventually and hosted about 60 people listening to candidates’ presentations and challenging their agendas. Anti-Racism Officer, Democracy Committee, Disabled Student’s Officer, LGBT+ Officer, Mature & Part Time Students’ Officer, NUS Delegate, Trustee Board and Postgraduate Students’ Officer are all positions up for election. None of the three candidates running for Anti-Racism Officer, nor the two prospective members of the Democracy Committee were present. Jesser Horowitz, running for Disabled Students’ Officer, emphasised the importance of making LSE accessible for everyone through universal design. Edouard Panciulo shared his own history with the audience to advocate for a more inclusive and supportive LSE community for LGBT+. Neither of them had a contestant on stage with them. While Sebastiano Caleffi, running for Mature & Part Time Students’ Officer, was not present to face the audience, his statement was read out on stage. Subsequent positions, such as Member of Trustee Board and Postgraduate Students’ Officer attracted significantly more candidates. After presenting their agendas, eleven candidates for Postgraduate Students’ Officer were quizzed on stage, with questions related to mental health, conscientious investment and accessible building design. While acknowledging that measures have been taken with respect to mental health issues, several candidates as well as members of the audience highlighted that much more needs to be done. The main concerns were shortening the time to see a mental health counsellor and bringing psychiatrists alongside psychologists to LSE. Particularly interesting to students participating in the event was candidates’ involvement with other societies or organisations that would enable them to increase collaboration within the SU. The second hustings session was held the next morning on 24 October, at the Activities Resource Centre (ARC) of the SU building. The
contested positions were General Course President, Member of the Academic Board, and Members of the LSE Council. While none of the candidates for General Course President were present at the hustings, Nico Robben sent a statement that was read out. If selected as General Course President, Robben plans on “leveraging LSE’s resources for our [General Course students] welfare”, while also creating change that can improve the experience for future General Course cohorts. One of the issues raised during speeches for Member of the Academic Board was that of ‘decolonising’ the curriculum at LSE. In their candidate speeches, Andrew Ferris and Blaise Rein discussed the importance of making an active effort to increase program inclusivity, through more diverse course material. Rein also mentioned how his agenda includes making material available in a broader range of languages. Abhilash Vishwanathula, another candidate for Member of the Academic Board, emphasised the need for a mechanism to ensure more continuous feedback from students, as well as making the process of course selection less difficult. During speeches for the position of Member of LSE Council, issues included the need for more international job opportunities, support for those suffering from mental health issues, and sustainability initiatives. Abhilash Vishwanathula and Aarthi Ratnam focused on the need for more job opportunities with international organisations at LSE Careers, as well as a greater presence of start-ups. In terms of support for students, Ella Marshall talked about how she would ensure that academic advisors receive training to equip them to provide pastoral support to students, as well as the need to create a zero plastic environment at LSE. Both Ella Marshall and Blaise Rein highlighted that LSE must work on reducing its carbon footprint more substantially. Candidates’ commitment to an environmentally sustainable campus was a central issue raised by the audience. Some of the specific changes that candidates proposed include banning single-use plastics and moving towards reusable cutlery. Ella Marshall spoke on how the catering services at LSE should shift their focus from profit to sustainability. Aside from this, one of the solutions that Blaise Rein promised to implement is the formation of a farming society, which would use food waste to grow produce on campus.
BHM Events: A Round-Up LSE uses different forums to discuss issues affecting Black students
Laura Zampini News Editor
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his year, LSE kicked off Black History Month with a host of events that discussed a range of socio-economic, cultural and political issues that affect Black students. On the first week of October, the Caribbean Society held its Meet and Greet and collaborated with student curator Francess Okia on the launch of the BHM Exhibition, displaying blackness as a global concept. On 4 October, LSE Embrace organised The Petrie Museum tour, focusing on collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material. From 8-14 October, BHM events included a film screening and discussion of ‘Flame in the Streets’ and the Afro-Caribbean Society Wellness Day. LSE EmbRace Network hosted a Lunch and Learn with Professor Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, who gave a talk on the barriers Black defendants face in criminal proceedings, such as the formality of criminal proceedings and courtroom design, the lack of diversity among legal professionals, and over-representation of Black people as defendants. On Monday 21 October, LSE hosted Beyond Black History Month, a panel chaired by Director Minouche Shafik. The event aimed to provoke a school-wide discussion on how to expand BHM activities into the rest of the year and improve race equity at LSE. The panellist discussed ECU’s Race Equality Charter, that LSE is preparing a submission for, to establish hard targets increasing the percentage of Black staff members in LSE’s academic and professional services. LSE Gen Sec and panellist Zulum Elumogo focused mainly on the importance of representation and making a deliberate and proactive effort
for Black people in leadership positions to be seen. “It’s important that we are visible so we can encourage others,” said Elumogo when asked about his participation in the event. Another panelist, Professor Ijeoma F. Uchegbu from UCL, presented several practical ideas on how LSE can make long-lasting systemic progress in the area of racial equity. Among LSE’s current initiatives is the Eden Centre’s Inclusive Education Plan, which contains mentoring for Black students and funding for Black PhD students. Along with that, Elumogo told The Beaver that he plans to prioritise LSE’s existing BME mentoring program. Last year, in its pilot edition, the program paired 200 students with LSE Alumni. Elumogo commented on the panel’s attendance, which attracted about 40 people in a discussion type-format rather than a presentation. In terms of demographics, the audience was overwhelmingly Black and 80-90% comprised of women, which, for him, raised the question:“how can we get broad engagement at these events?” On the other hand, Mustafa Briggs’ talk ‘Before Malcolm X: History of Islam in the Americas’ which attracted a full crowd, had a more diverse audience with attendees ranging from those interested in Briggs’ scholarly subject area, LSESU Islamic Society members, and staff from LSE and other universities. On Thursday 24 October, LSE EmbRace held a Black history walk titled, ‘Secrets of Soho: a Black History Walk.’ Despite the rain, approximately 20 students joined the walk, during which they were guided through different historical events from the local and colonial history of Black people in London. Maryane Mwaniki, Co-Chair of LSE EmbRace and an organiser of the walk, told the Beaver: “We really want to be able to ensure that the LSE wider community appreciate Black history in terms of past, present and also looking at the future. We want to ensure LSE is an
inclusive place for everyone, from all backgrounds.” Zahra Henry, an LSE Public Policy student from Jamaica, told the Beaver after the tour, “I came to the tour because I wanted to get an understanding of what being Black in the UK means now and historically. There were so many Black people who have been living in Western places, like America and the UK and contributed long before the mainstream history tells us.” The main social event of the week ‘Party like you’re Fresh Prince’ was held at the Three Tuns on Friday 25 October, with 80 people attending at the highest point of the night. The event featured Hip Hop, RnB, Afrobeats, Dancehall, and other genres of African and Caribbean music. “It’s very rare that Black people have a space like that on campus,” commented Elumogo. On the weekend, LSE hosted the 12th annual Black Achievement Conference. Held on Sunday 26 October, the event was attended by a number of high achieving years 1013 students as well as LSE students. Deborah Afolabi, who spoke at the conference, told The Beaver, “It is an amazing event and one that is also incredibly inspiring for students of African and Caribbean backgrounds who are considering pursuing higher education.”
Send us your thoughts on BMH events news@beaveronline.co.uk
Comment
Tuesday 29 October 2019 |The Beaver Comment Editors Samuel Caveen Lucy Knight Michael Shapland
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Email us: comment@beaveronline.co.uk
What Does it Mean to be Black? A Debate Comment Writers
Alejandra PadínDujon
Comment Contributor
Christiana Ajai-Thomas Deputy Editor
An exploration on the history of 'Blackness' as a concept, and in relation to its colonial past. Illustration by Christina Ivey
Oliver Harrison Staff Writer
Jacob van de Beeten Staff Writer
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lack History Month in the UK is a time to celebrate community and Black Pride. But one crucial question remains: what does it mean to be Black? Push that further: what does the concept of Blackness do for ‘Black’ people? Do we keep Blackness, and if so, why? Blackness is, at its root, a declaration of African descent. But it’s more than just objective fact. The concept of Blackness made its debut in the fantastical histories of the ancient Greeks, Arabs, Egyptians, and Chinese, which introduced the Black Man as a dark-skinned figure symbolizing all things savage, mysterious, and occult.
Sagal Mohamed Staff Writer
Jesser Horowitz Staff Writer
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However, in Western countries with disproportionate concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of white citizens, Blackness is a form of strength in unity for the diverse populations it represents. In countries with a rich Afro-descendant tradition that extends to music, dance, film, fashion, scholarship, activism, religion, and sports, Blackness epitomises the resilience and creativity of a globally and locally marginalized, nominally unified ‘community.’
Blackness has a long and painful history... Yet Blackness is also a story of pride, reappropriation, and solidarity.
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Many argue that the label 'Black' is too homogenising... We have distinct cultures, languages, and histories. Don't differences count?
distinct cultures, languages, and histories. Don’t differences count? It’s true that the idea of Blackness originates with the white gaze. In the 1933 French novel Mirages de Paris, the Senegalese protagonist interacts with a white waiter, who sits him, with goodwill, next to his “compatriots”: a diverse crew of Afro-descendant people with different languages and nationalities. The exchange between the protagonist and the waiter, based loosely on the author’s own experiences of France, supports the hypothesis that Blackness in Europe was constructed through white apathy or ignorance. Given this history, it is easy to dismiss Blackness as a colonial imposition—and this is, more or less, the approach of distinguished FrenchCameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe. He argues in his Critique of Black Reason that those who imagine a ‘Black community’ replicate colonial domination by assuming that Black people possess innate characteristics and affinities. Black power activists, he says, have simply replaced narra-
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Blackness epitomises the resilience and creativity of a globally and locally marginalised, nominally unified 'community'.
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fying white British colonial ambitions. In short, Blackness has a long and painful history. It is a story of slavery (in the Americas), colonialism (in Africa), and discrimination (in many, many parts of the world). Anti-Black racism is built into Western institutions as varied as policing and medicine. Yet Blackness is also a story of pride, re-appropriation, and solidarity. The term ‘BAME’ in the U.K.— Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic— has its roots in the idea of political Blackness from the 1970s. Simultaneously, the American Black Power movement proliferated in the United States, and anti-imperialism in newly emancipated countries proclaimed liberation from colonial ideas about race. More recently, Black consciousness in Latin America has taken root as a political force. Despite all of this, many argue that the label ‘Black’ is too homogenizing. After all, an Afro-Caribbean is not an African American, a Black Brit, or an African. I am Saint Lucian and American, not Somali. We have
doesn't care whether you're from Kenya or Jamaica. Isn't it a radical and emancipatory act to care about theses dfferencs ourselves?
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Centuries later, the transatlantic African slave trade transformed the history of Blackness and race in Western thought. In the Americas, colonial policy reimagined Black slavery as a hereditary condition, where children of female slaves became slaves themselves. To justify slavery, Europeans invented stories about African people: they were childlike, dependent, malicious, lazy, or stupid. In Britain, the idea of Blackness picked up steam in the 19th century with the colonization of Africa. The narrative of the ‘Dark Continent’ drew upon Victorian attitudes about race, gender, religion, and general superiority to contrast the ‘whiteness’ of European civilization with ‘depraved’ Sub-Saharan African Blackness, justi-
“The racist on the street
tives of Black inferiority with narratives of Black excellence. These do not change the history of the term or remove the casual racism—the great lumping-together, the litany of assumptions, the fear and simmering resentment—of many people using it. The racist on the street doesn’t care whether you’re from Kenya or Jamaica. Isn’t it a radical and emancipatory act to care about these differences ourselves?
I am a believer in Blackness. Yet I am also of the opinion that any kind of sociopolitical coalition must be built from the ground up, not defined into existence from the top. It must snowball from real interactions among real people, marked at every turn by the internal tensions and growing pains of members struggling to make sense of what binds them together and sets them apart. The term Blackness summarizes past struggles in this area even as it provokes new discussions and debates. What is Blackness, then? Is it a heritage? Is it a culture? Is it solidarity? Yes to all, to a degree. Blackness is the potential for mutual empowerment. It’s a start.
Follow us on twitter: @beaveronline
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Tuesday 29 October 2019 |The Beaver
Before Malcolm X: The history of Eileen Gbagbo
In America, Islam is the third largest religion, and 25% of African Americans are Muslim. Many historians and commentators have equated the presence of Islam in America with the rise and fall of the Nation of Islam, but the presence of Islam in the Americas actually predates Malcom X. .
Twenty enslaved Muslims revolt against their masters for the first time, 269 years before the Haitian revolution. Because of this, Emperor Charles V banned Islam in the colonies and forced conversion.
Mansa Musa, King of the Mali Empire
Mansa Musa was the Muslim King of the Mali Empire. Mali was the economic superpower of the world, with Time magazine reporting him to be one of the richest Kings of all time. The Mali Empire spanned across modern day Senegal, Guinea, Niger, and parts of Ghana. “They came before Columbus.”
Ismail ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco from 1672–1727 Morocco was the first country to formally acknowledge the US as an independent nation, forming the foundation of a strong relationship between the US and Morocco in the coming years.
Whilst it is widely reported and incorrectly taught that Columbus lead the first Old World voyage to ‘discover’ the Americas, academic Mustafa Briggs highlights that Musa’s brother made a voyage to the Americas in the 1300s and settled among the Native American population. Columbus incorrectly conflated the presence of the Mandikas with the Native Americans.
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As in 1787, America signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which was diplomatically invoked to free several captured slaves in America.
1522
1777
Kunta Kinte is the inspiration and lead character in the bestselling novel and film Roots. He was an enslaved Mandika man from modern day Gambia who died in America in 1822. He opposed the slave name which his owners imposed on him and had his right foot cut off after four escape attempts.
www.beaveronline.co.uk | @thebeaveronline
Islam in the Americas The Muslim impact on the Civil rights movement began long before Malcom X. The Moorish Science temple of America founded by Noble Drew Ali advocated for Americans of Moorish and Islamic descent. They aimed to promote sovereignty among the community by issuing “nationality cards”. But in the 1930s, Wallace Fard founded the Nation of Islam. Believing that Christianity was the white man’s religion, Fard preached that Islam was original root of the Black identity. As a group, the Nation of Islam promoted Black pride and Black nationalism, which was an instrument used during the Civil rights movement.
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Furthermore, African American Muslims are also in prolific public roles, such as Ilhan Omar. She is an elected member of the US House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 5th district. She is one of the first two Muslim women, along with Rashida Tlaib to serve in Congress.
Ilhan Omar, (D) US Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district The influence of the Moorish Science Temple of America resulted in purely Islamic communities of Holy Islamberg and Holy Islamville, in New York and South Carolina respectively. They have Islamic schools at all levels of education.
Civil rights era Originally known as Malcom Little, he became involved in the Civil Rights movement, after converting to Islam in prison. He changed his name to X as a rejection of his slave name. X advocated for the establishment of a separate African American community, similar to the Nation of Islam. In 1963, he split from the Nation of Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He was killed on the 21st of February 1965 at a rally in Harlem.
2010 Today
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Comment
Tuesday 29 October 2019 | The Beaver
How to Prevent Digital Racial Profiling
Comment Contributor
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ur capacity to be manipulated is broad and well-documented. Semantic games when positing questions can result in radical changes in answers. George Monbiot, cites a survey to illustrate the power of emotive lexical choice. 65% of Americans agreed that the government was spending too little on “assistance to the poor”. However, only 25% agreed that it was spending too little on “welfare”. This classic method of framing bears no comparison to the powerful repurposing of psychographics – typically a retail market-
“Political micro-targeting is not simply a one-off phenomenon embodied by the Cambridge Analytica scandal
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ing technique relying on people’s personality, interests, opinions, and lifestyles – for use in the political sphere. Political micro-targeting is a pervasive and dominating tool used across multiple jurisdictions that has evaded the reach of the law. Political campaigns and private actors have been able to target and exploit people's anxieties and psychological proclivities via social media platforms to influence their decisionmaking. In the digital age, the influence these actors have in politics can rupture an individual's process of autonomous and intelligible decision-making. Unfortunately, the obscure and deceptive use of harvested personal
data and the connection between political campaigns and wealthy private actors has unveiled an approach that seeks to personalise and localise advertisements and ultimately direct debate instead of facilitating it. The satisfaction of a ravenous appetite for influencing voters through political micro-targeting is an affront to democracy since it capitalises on fear to justify power grabs. Our democracy is further afflicted by the limited number of global platforms, such as Facebook and Google, who consistently introduce initiatives to process information in huge volumes and varied scope, resulting in what American author and scholar Shoshana Zuboff calls 'asymmetries in knowledge’, which are exploited by those with funds. This is damaging: election results can be decided by whoever pours the most money into micro-targeting. Political campaigns can serve our democratic process well. Campaigns that truthfully and coherently outline a political stance, despite having an elective purpose, can inform voters to make decisions that reflect their core beliefs. More has to be done by the UK government and regulators to ensure that campaigns do not continue to drift away from their legitimate function.
Governmental and Regulatory Response Political micro-targeting is not simply a one-off phenomenon embodied by the Cambridge Analytica scandal unveiled by investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr's yearlong investigation. Given the looming potential of a general election, it is paramount that the UK's Electoral law is updated to reflect the change in political campaigning from the physical to the digital. In response to the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee's report outlining its recognition of issues concerning online political campaigning,
fake news and disinformation, the government outlined plans to work closely with the Electoral Commission and social media companies to amend spending rules and policies on political ads. However, the government's response shied away from talk of any law preventing the posting of factually incorrect or false statements, or general palpable statutory changes. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) report 'Democracy Disrupted?' (2018) makes ten recommendations and has issued eleven political parties with letters of warning. These letters of warning outlined non-compliance and areas of concern in advance of compulso-
“More has to be done
by the UK government and regulators to ensure that campaigns do not continue to drift away from their legitimate function.
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Micah Roberts
ry audits of the parties. Notably, the ICO has requested that the government introduce a code of practice underpinned by primary legislation on the use of personal data in political campaigns reiterated in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee's "Disinformation and 'fake news'" report (Feb 2019). However, until then the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham has called for an 'ethical pause', for campaigners and platforms alike to deeply consider their wider responsibilities. The ICO's 'Democracy Disrupted?' report highlights political parties' "special status" is recognised
in law, which allows them to carry out political opinion data when carrying out legitimate activities. However, the report also outlines parties' responsibility as data controllers "to comply with the requirements of the law including data protection principles." Unfortunately, this conflicted wording clearly leaves some scope for misuse. The "special status" of political parties (under S.8 Data Protection Act 2018) may prove an issue in the lead up to the Boris Johnson's tabled upcoming election (12th December 2019), given the rife criticism on the lack of transparency about "fair processing" despite enhanced privacy notice requirements under GDPR. However, the report highlights the DPA 2018's attempt to stifle the extent to which data is harvested by asserting that businesses supplying data to political parties cannot "repurpose that personal data for political campaigning" without the informed consent of individuals. The ICO has already launched investigations into the misuse of personal data by online platforms. If the new Data Protection Act 2018 had been in place when ICO started investigations with Facebook, their Notice of Intent to impose 4% of its annual turnover would have totalled £315 million, instead of its £500,000 penalty for the platform's "lack of transparency and security issues" contravening the Data Protection Act 1998. However, Denham was warned about fines not being the most effective remedy in radically preventing the misuse of personal data.
Steps Taken by Social Media Companies Richard Allan, Facebook’s Vice President of Policy Solutions, has outlined three ways of dealing with microtargeting's disruption of democracy in the lead up to the election. These methods include the (1)
removal of fake accounts, (2) introducing transparency to political advertisements and (3) setting up a dedicated operations team to monitor activity while the UK general election is underway. These steps show despite Facebook clearly making progress to quell the effects of micro-targeting and spread of misinformation in the UK, hazardous issues still remain. It is plain to see that Facebook's political problems are a product of a deeper systemic issue residing at the heart of 'free' business model of online platforms, namely the surveillance and modification of human behaviour for revenue. Despite Richard Allan's agreement with the DCMS committee and the ICO that the political campaigns need more rules in the digital era, a conflict of interest is self-evident. UK electoral law should mimic and work in unison with the data protection advancements, to provide clarity to all stakeholders (political parties, platforms and other private actors). If UK electoral law is not revamped to reflect the peak of digital and trough of the physical then we risk leaving private platforms, like Facebook, to executively set policy about what is permissible in political campaigns and adjudicate in the domain of 2.5 million monthly users. Parliament and regulators have yet to decide and entrench in statute multiple questions about digital political campaigning. Questions that include what constitutes a political ad, the threshold of spending over which political ads must declare who their funders are, in addition to rules about the framing and content of political ads, all remain. Hopefully, the lead up to the election sees increased scrutiny of the digital threat to British democracy and is not overcrowded by Brexit.
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The Black Woman’s Body and Sexuality
Illustration: Christina Ivey
Comment Contributor
"I am a Black Feminist. I mean I recognize that my power as well as my primary oppressions come as a result of my blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both of these fronts are inseparable.” – Audre Lorde"
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Same skin that was broken be the same skin takin’ over
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The Black woman’s sexuality is the most policed, oppressed and, arguably, feared in the world. Since slavery, the Black woman’s autonomy over her body and sexuality has been controlled to benefit just about everyone except for themselves: it elevates that of White women and of course directly benefits Black and White men. Some say things are improving, but I disagree: oppression is ongoing, it’s just be reconstrued or practiced more covertly. As so-
ciologist Dr Akeia Bernard notes: “very little has changed regarding the overall dynamics of oppression in society including the colonial structure of race/class/gender/sexual relations." Relations of domination may change, but systems of domination do not. The persecution of the Black woman’s sexuality dates back to slavery. Despite their age, the structures and ideologies in place today have never really changed. Both hegemonic colonial social structures and capitalism are systems of white patriarchy, and are violent, exploitative, and rely on the ownership of Black and brown bodies. The cultural idea of who can bed and who can wed still has impact. It enforces the notion that Black women can only be taken to bed, but white women are marriage material. It promoted the sexual exploitation of Black women through rape and systems of concubinage, and led to the modern hypersexualised image of Black women in popular culture and the media. The socially created norm of the marriageable white woman is largely based on the constructed idea that Black women are animalistic, morally lax, dirty, diseased, and poor. Although both White and Black women’s bodies are colonized in this process, they are done so in very different ways. This is why it is important (talking to the likes of Gina Rodriguez here) to differentiate between the needs of Black women and non-black women, because the juxtaposition of the marriageable
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White woman and the sexualised Black woman demonstrates the vested interest White women have in the colonization of Black female bodies. Fast forward to the 21st century, and these systems and discourses are still in place. Black women are not allowed to dress sexily, for fear of being
“The
Black woman’s sexuality is the most policed, oppressed and, arguably, feared in the world. Since slavery, the Black woman’s autonomy over her body and sexuality has been controlled to benefit just about everyone except for themselves
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Arianne McCullough
labelled as ‘ghetto’ or ‘ratchet’. There’s an assumed pre-disposition for being curvy, which, although men love it, they do not make an effort to protect, but rather exploit. White women are allowed to appropriate braids, afros, and curls, but Black women are judged for wear-
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ing weaves or wigs. White women love to tan and darken their skin, but Black women are abused incessantly for the colour of theirs. You can see how the same colonial ideologies mentioned earlier prevail in today’s society, hence why it is important to differentiate between white and Black women’s experiences. Whilst the sexuality of women is tied to the service of men, applicable to all women, Black women are afforded zero agency over their bodies and sexuality. Such images of sexual autonomy and power in the mainstream culture appear only for white women: Sex and the City, Fifty Shades of Grey etc., only Black owned productions ever show Black female autonomy. The examples of Black women being scrutinized in the media for their appearance seem to never end. And let’s not get started on the ‘angry’/’aggressive’ Black woman in the workplace. This hypersexualization is also present in the Black community. The aforementioned association with Black women being curvier means they are seen as being ‘grown’ from a young age, and are therefore somehow ‘asking for it’. Take a look at the victims of R. Kelly. Every single one of the girls he abused was a young Black woman – the sense of ownership he has over Black women is horrifying. Religion is another vehicle through which our own community degrades Black women, as it is the strongest force for patriarchal oppression we have seen. In many Black communities, religion is the
be-all and end-all. If you are a Black woman reading this, I don’t want this to be a depressing read! I did consider the draining nature of such a comparative article, but I had to consider the audience that needs to be taught. I want to highlight and bring home the need for Black feminist movements, and for us to hold tight and continue to claim them as Black and not for all women. The #MeToo movement started by Kimberley Crenshaw was supposed to be a movement for Black women to speak out about their sexual abuse stories and empower other Black women – because, as we can see, Black women’s experiences differ greatly to those of other women and consist of very different social dynamics. However, upon being highjacked by mainstream celebrities and made ‘popular’ and ‘trendy’ it became a movement for everyone. Additionally, I appreciate how difficult it seems to begin to navigate ourselves as empowered, independent individuals, in charge of our own bodies, sexuality, and narratives, but unfortunately the responsibility lies with us, the victims. It is a daily struggle, especially in trying to occupy elite, white-dominated institutions, which is why it is more important than ever for us to rally around our sisters in support, and hope that one day, everyone else will catch up.
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Tuesday 29 October 2019 |The Beaver
Features
Features Editors Annabelle Jarrett Colin Vanelli Marianne Hii
Email us: features@beaveronline.co.uk
Sir Arthur Lewis, Today What can Sir Arthur Lewis teach us about our current economic and political climates?
Contributing Writer
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hose who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it – especially in the case of economics. The vigorous political economy debates of today dominate academia and wider political discourse, and history is indeed repeating itself with current debates regarding the nature of market failure, the case for state intervention on the grounds of efficiency and equity, and the interaction between economic, and political forces. These debates grapple with the fundamental questions of economic policy that have ruled supreme since the birth of economics as an independent discipline two centuries ago. The life and works of W. Arthur Lewis, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in economics, are a testament to the rich history of this field. Lewis was born in the British West Indies in 1915 and won a scholarship to LSE, graduating with firstclass honours in 1937. But Lewis’ path was not entirely smooth. At LSE, an institution founded by Fabian socialists, he was confronted with the same racism that he battled on the streets of London. Indeed, when he was considered for a temporary one-year appointment in 1938, the Director of LSE at the time wrote to the Board of Governors that “the appointments com-
mittee is, as I said, quite unanimous but recognise that the appointment of a coloured man may possibly be open to some criticism.” Lewis became involved with the burgeoning decolonisation movement in Britain. The 1930s and 1940s were a period of upheaval not just on the decolonisation front: economics itself was facing a revolution. John Maynard Keynes had excited a generation of students with his critiques of the then-dominant ‘Treasury View’ in the face of massive and persistent unemployment. Lewis was Keynesian in macroeconomic matters but also more interventionist in microeconomic policy, and it was these views that set the foundations for his Nobel Prize in 1979.
How can “one explain the seeming contradictions in Lewis?
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Ciaran Marshall
In 1951, Kwame Nkrumah won a sweeping election victory in the British colony of the Gold Coast (soon to gain independence as the Republic of Ghana), and, in 1952, Lewis was invited by Nkrumah to
write a report on industrialisation. Meanwhile, Lewis was developing his Nobel Prize-winning research on ‘surplus labour’, where he argued that developing economies have a surplus of unproductive workers in the agricultural sector, and that the path to development lies in the manufacturing sector. As the manufacturing sector grows over time, surplus labour becomes increasingly attracted to the higher wages there, and workers migrate to seek employment in manufacturing, where productivity is also higher. This theory implies that the main obstacle to development is inadequate investment in manufacturing. To the extent that this investment is held back by market failures in the manufacturing sector, Lewis believed the government should intervene to address these failures. In his report on industrialisation, however, Lewis argued that the Gold Coast, unlike the West Indies, did not present a situation of surplus labour. Rather, it was faced with labour shortages, given the large amount of land available in agriculture. In this situation, the means through which surplus labour could be released into manufacturing, without inflating wages to the extent that investment would be choked off, was to increase agricultural productivity. This report revealed the remarkable pragmatism of Arthur Lewis as an economist and public policy specialist, a pragma-
Sir Arthur Lewis on the East Caribbean $100 bill tism that came to define his extraordinary work: identify the nature of the market failure first, then design the intervention. How can one explain the seeming contradictions in Lewis? On one hand, he was a radical anti-colonist and firebrand critic of laissez-faire economic policies, on the other an economist whose pragmatism has come to define his work. While he was an advisor to Nkumrah’s government, he often acted as a check on its extreme statist tendencies by arguing against heavy state subsidising of industry on purely economic grounds, even leaving aside the propensity for corruption and use as political patronage. Indeed, it was this practical mindset that allowed Lewis to support some industrial intervention in his first report on the Gold Coast,
while at the same time asserting the primacy of agricultural development. It is what allowed him to support substantial taxation of cocoa while at the same time railing at the misuse of the funds so raised. That was Lewis in Ghana, and it was Lewis all along. It has also been political economy all along, and will continue to be so. During this Black History Month, each of us at LSE and across society would do well to remember the pragmatism of Lewis and his contributions to economics, as well as the wider political discourse. In ultimately striving to make the world a more prosperous place than he found it, W. Arthur Lewis is a meticulous reflection of the best of us.
ation. I should also be more up to date with counselling. I fell off when I started becoming hypomanic but I’m trying to get back into it now. I’ve slowly been putting my life back together since my diagnosis.
it isn’t enough to just tell people that you have a disorder they may not understand. It’s better to give as much detail as possible surrounding your symptoms so that you can get access to the support you require.
The ‘angry Black woman’ trope overlaps a lot with typical bipolar symptoms; can you relate to this at all?
C: Luckily, this summer I was in a workspace with only women of colour, so I didn’t get a lot of the racist blowback that comes with not being demure. Still, I am extremely chatty in my periods of hypomania, which I’m sure annoys people, but they were really nice about it because I completed my work. I look back on that time and see moments where I made people uncomfortable by oversharing in an office space. At the same time though, I could have been diagnosed a lot earlier if I didn’t onload certain disruptive aspects of hypomania as part and parcel of my personality. I’m not blaming my white friends for not calling me out more, but a lot of people actively made my mania worse by encouraging and benefiting from my reckless behaviour. I’m no longer friends with those people.
On Being Black and Bipolar A conversation between Chris and Saleisha.
Christina Ivey and Saleisha Ford
Flipside Editor and Contributing Writer
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he numbers don’t lie: Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder than any other demographic in the UK. For a more personal look at this, Saleisha Ford and I, both Black women diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder, had a conversation about our experiences navigating mental health services and society at large. When did you receive your diagnosis? What were the events in your life that led to your diagnosis? S: I received a diagnosis for Bipolar II disorder two weeks before starting university. During sixth form, I found that my moods kept cycling between what I now know as hypomania and depression. During my episodes of hypomania, I barely slept, didn’t see much of a need to eat, and would run around the common room of my sixth form in order to burn off energy. My depressive phases would come around when I was stressed – particularly during exam season. I would sleep through most of the day during study leave, see no point in looking after myself, and have recurring suicidal tendencies. I originally went to see my GP as I was having trouble
with extreme paranoia and anxiety, and around a year later I attended a psychiatric evaluation after going through multiple rounds of counselling. C: I was diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder in the summer between second and third year. I went home to Jamaica after exams, and when I came back to London I went through an intense hypomanic episode, which ended in an ambulance visit to my flat. I was reckless with my body. I didn’t sleep or eat well. I was constantly craving stimulation but nothing would satisfy me. I’m surprised I didn’t hurt myself more. After the ambulance visit, I went through a severe depression unlike anything I’d experienced before. That prompted me to get in touch with my psychiatrist. How has your experience been navigating mental health services? S: I have found that mental health services have been much more supportive in London than in Birmingham, where I grew up. I’m really lucky that I have a fantastic GP who contacts me regularly and arranges appointments ASAP when
I get in touch. My GP also referred me to a mental health specialist team who helped me make further changes to my medication. I often see a counsellor at LSE when I’m feeling low, which has also been a positive experience for me. My academic advisor has also given me so much support throughout my time at LSE, without this support I would not be as well as I am now. For anyone struggling, I really recommend going to see your GP for a chat or reaching out to the counselling services at LSE. You don’t have to have a serious mental health issue in order to do so, and it’s always useful to speak to someone external if you don’t feel comfortable speaking to your immediate support network. C: As an international student, navigating the NHS is not easy – partly why it’s taken me so long to get on mood stabilisers. It’s a transnational mess because my psychiatrist of four years is based in Jamaica. When I need medical evidence from him it takes at least two weeks to coordinate because he’s also a super busy man, and I cannot afford private psychiatry in London and the NHS waiting list would kill me. I’m making the best of my situ-
S: That label isn’t something that has been imposed on me often. However, whilst interning I found that my symptoms were not understood by my team, leading me to receive unhelpful feedback. My manias tend to be triggered by being around new people, so my internship began with me feeling extremely excited, sociable, and somewhat irritable. Resultantly, my feedback from my manager following this period was that I was ‘loud, sassy, and easily distracted’. Later in the internship, I also went through a depressive phase, which frustratingly came with positive feedback – ‘more reserved and receptive’. Although I know that the feedback was intended to help me improve, I found this really difficult to deal with. A positive from this, however, is that it taught me that
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Interview with Owusu-Bempah Guest Editor
A
benaa is an Assistant Professor in the Law department, specialising in Criminal Evidence, Procedure, and Law. She studied Law at the University of Bristol, and completed both her Masters and PhD at UCL specialising in Criminology and Justice. What does Black History Month mean to you? I don’t really feel any personal attachment to Black History Month. I think that it is an important and useful month and a way of raising awareness and educating people around the contributions of Black people to the society. I enjoy going to lots of talks and events and interesting things going on. At the same time, it’s kind of sad that we need Black History Month and that it’s relegated to this specific month and that Black history isn’t just history. And that outside of October, the Black experience, culture, etc. is not part of the mainstream media. It also raises this question in the UK context around what we mean by ‘Black’. Who is included in Black History Month? Attempts to turn it into a diversity month are concerning, and those further marginalise the histories of Black people. So it a useful and important month, and I enjoy attending events that are on, but it is a shame that we need it at all. What more can be done to celebrate Black history outside of Black History Month? What happens in Black History Month should happen all year. Black history should just be part of the history in schools. It shouldn’t be a separate week on slavery, and that’s it, for example. So it just needs to be integrated more into mainstream education and media. I’m not even sure that we do that during Black History Month, and I’m not sure what we can do as individuals other than applying pressure for change, like in the higher education context – the decolonisation movement. Are there any figures that have inspired you and your academic work? Another hugely influential figure in my life is my father. So I am actually a second generation academic. My dad was an academic in a different field at a different university. When I did decide to go into academia, having him was like having a mentor who knew the system and had been really through it compared to what we go through, and he was a great role model. Could you highlight some of your favourite Black academics here at LSE? There are so few of us here that you could really say all of them. But people that I would shoutout is Dr Coretta Philips in the department of Social Policy. She is an expert in Criminology, and I’ve read some of her work as a student in my Criminology courses. So now I’m working alongside someone whose work is so influential. She has been very kind towards me since I’ve started
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Abenaa
at the LSE. Chaloka Beyani is the other Black academic in my department who has also been very kind to me. He has a very impressive body of academic work but also has done a lot of impactful work outside of academia, such as with the UN and the African Union. Has it felt quite lonely at the LSE with so few Black academics? All higher education institutions are racist institutions, and the LSE is not an exception to that. Is it lonely? Yes and no. I don’t know how many of us there are here, and my guess is about 10. And that means that you are incredibly visible. It often means that I am the only Black person in the room. And it’s like that at most universities that I’ve been to. Here at the LSE, it is the first time I’ve not been the only Black academic in my department. There is an effort made, especially by some academics here at the LSE, to bring this to the forefront. In another interview, you talked about how you were inspired to become a lawyer through TV shows. What were these shows? I loved watching shows like ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Ally McBeal’, and I remember watching them and thinking, “Yes! I could do that.” Do you currently have a favourite series? I watch anything. I love TV, and I don’t have one favourite of anything. I watch a lot of Netflix series. I started watching ‘Raising Dion’ and the new season of ‘Big Mouth’, which is hilarious, and I bingewatched ‘Money Heist’ before term started. I don’t discriminate when it comes to TV shows! What did you think about Ava Duvernay’s show ‘When They See Us’ on Netflix and the idea of mob justice that followed on social media after the release of the show? I thought it was a really powerful show, and it opened a lot of people’s eyes to some of the injustices of the criminal justice system. The context of the show is American, but we have people here who are being wrongfully convicted of criminal offences. So, as a viewer, I found it a really compelling TV show but also educational. It was not easy to watch at all, especially the last episode. This idea of mob justice can go either way. It can provide a means for a group of people who are effectively marginalised, that the system is designed to work against, to allow them to have a more satisfactory outcome. When talking about criminal justice, crimes are public wrongs and criminal prosecutions are brought by the state. By this nature, we are part of the public and criminal verdicts need to be legitimate. Not only do we want them to be accurate, we need them to be legitimate so we can accept the outcome of criminal cases. And so in the case of the exonerated five, if the public are not accepting (of) that verdict, then there is a place for the public to have a voice to push for a better outcome.
What do you think about this idea of the increased participation of the people through social media mobilising to achieve outcomes, which they believe is justice? One problem with social media is that you get snippets of information, and you’ll sometimes see that someone has been tried and sentenced, and there is outrage over what the sentence is, but there is a complete lack of information about why that sentence was given and how it compares to other people who were sentenced in those circumstances. So 90% of what I see on public media commentary on cases is entirely misinformed. But there will also be cases where it is great that the public are rallying against it and asking for a different outcome. How can we then combat this? Read more about the law! But there also needs to be greater reporting around sentencing. Judges’ sentencing remarks aren’t often publicised, and you’d just get the headline – so routinely publishing sentencing remarks, especially with cases that are in the news. Quick fire questions: Favourite Ghanaian cuisine? This is so boring but rice and stew! And jollof rice is a close second. It is just so reliable. A more exciting dish would be something like okra stew and banku, but my go-to is rice and stew.
What songs are currently on your playlist? I’ve been listening to Burna Boy’s album, ‘African Giant’, and Dave’s album ‘Psychodrama’. I have been flipping back and forth between the two of them for the past couple of weeks. I’m getting more into the UK rap scene because I grew up on mainly North American hip hop, and when I came back for university it was Lethal Bizzle and Danae’o, and I was like, “what is this?” You have to give credit where credit is due – they paved the way for the next generation, but it’s tak-
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And that means that you are incredibly visible. It often means that I am the only black person in the room.
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Eileen Gbagbo
Dr
Email us: features@beaveronline.co.uk
en time for me to appreciate the UK rap scene. What was the last book of fiction you read? ‘The Joys of Motherhood’ by Buchi Emecheta. When it comes to reading novels, I like African literature. Almost everything I’ve read in the last few years have been by Black authors – either African, Black British or African American literature. A lot of it touches on themes around feminism and colonialism. So this book takes place during the transition period into colonialism, and it touches on all kinds of themes. For me, a lesson that remained relevant is the societal expectations that are placed on women: you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. It was a conscious decision to read more Black literature. As in education, it is not something that you are required to engage with. And once I started reading more, there was no going back. I was just learning so much! Dream job? My plan was to become a barrister, but I’m not sure that is my dream job. I’d like to be paid to do something fun that involves traveling or photography, or a chocolate tester/chocolate influencer. Travel and chocolate. And finally, any advice for Black students? Especially somewhere like LSE where there is an underrepresentation of home Black students, my advice would be to be yourself and stay true to yourself. Do not feel pressured to fit in or conform or
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Features
Tuesday 29 October 2019 | The Beaver
Dr Clive James Nwonka: The role of the Black Academic Eileen Gbabgo interviews Dr. Clive James Nwonka, LSE Fellow in Film Studies in the Department of Sociology.
Guest Editor
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o first things first: we really want to know what your skincare routine is.
Goodness. Well, thank you – I’m quite flattered. so, as you know Black skin can get pretty dry, so it needs a lot of TLC. So, from birth it was Palmer’s Cocoa Butter. As I got into my teens, I started using things like Nivea which just responded really well to my skin. As I’ve become a bit more financially secure, I’ve really enjoyed using Kiehl’s stuff things like face scrubs and moisturizers. A couple of things that I do that may not be so general is sunscreen. It's always something that I’ve always used. So that and then just obviously daily moisturizing and washing and not eating bad food. I’m happy to send some kind of list of products as well. So just what was your journey into academia? Well, it was never a conscious decision. I mean, when I finished my BA and I came back to London from Manchester, like most students, I was just trying to find a job. I knew that I wanted to do a Masters but paying for that was obviously a big issue for me. So, I saved for four years and did a lot of office jobs to save while just continually improving myself academically as I wanted to keep myself engaged with the field. I approached being in academia, so I would read all the readings on the courses that I wanted to study on. So, I went to Brunel, which was probably the best decision I could have made at a time. I mean, I could have went to more obvious places, like Kings or LSE etc, but at the time they did not cater for the kind of things I was interested in doing - thinking deeply around representation of race and class in cinema, film and TV and popular culture, and really drawing on the work of Stuart Hall and others. I found some amazing people at Brunel. It was a university that had a strong proportion of students from ethnic minority students which was really important for my learning as well. At the time, the staff was changing as well. Professor Sarita Malik - who has become my absolute mentor in academia, and I probably wouldn’t be here it wasn't for her was there, and she was supervised by Stuart Hall. Bernardine Evaristo was there and Benjamin Zephaniah arrived in my Department as well with his poetry. Other academics were coming through who really bridged that gap between being an academic and being very much interested in kinds of Black study which I think exists outside of academia. So, I really enjoy that experience despite having to work full time as well, which was really taxing and involved a lot of sacrifice. And it's only at the end of my dissertation work when I got a first, I thought, "Okay, well, what's next? Maybe a
“I am more
interested in the tensions that students face. I'm watching LSE change quite dramatically since I've been here to a place that is really thinking about exclusion in really progressive ways. And I am interested in being at the vanguard of that change.
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Eileen Gbagbo
PhD." And literally, I handed in my dissertation on the 30th of August 2010. And began my PhD the very next day. The reason why this is important though, is because there was no one I thought any of the elite universities in London that could offer that kind of analysis, who could really invaluate my type of PhD, which was sprawling and was very much interested in representations of Black men, certain forms of urban life, of criminality, of media discourses that married film studies with cultural studies and sociology and politics a very, very multidisciplinary PhD. So what I would say to Black students is that I recognise the tension in wanting to go to the elite universities because they can be a gateway to a particular world, but also thinking hard about what kind of experience you want for the PhD, and who is the best academic to serve that PhD. Me being here, I think is a good thing because it means in the future LSE PhD students who want to express and explore the kind of things I was looking for.
Dr. Clive Nwonka (c) LSE Events In terms of the tensions that you were mentioning, what are the tension specific to LSE as an academic because as an elite university, surely there are some constraints?
races, classes, social backgrounds, and everyone gets treated the same, and everyone responds the same as well. And that's exactly the type of learning culture I’m looking for.
What I will say first of all, is it's been refreshing to be in a department where those tensions aren’t prevalent. There isn't the same obvious sense of elitism, amongst staff at least, that you may find in other institutions. Perhaps the very nature of sociology as a discipline disallows the extreme ends of that. And it's been good since I've been in Sociology. But of course, there are tensions in being Black and British but that's never demonstrated in the lecture room. I have students from all over the world in my class, from different
So, to answer your question directly and in the best way possible, I'm more interested in the tensions that students face than the ones I face because the ones that I face aren’t the same. And I'm watching LSE change quite dramatically since I've been here to a place that is really thinking about exclusion in really progressive ways, with students at the forefront of this. And I’m interested in being at the vanguard of that change with the things I do in my classroom and the things I do outside of the campus as well. How I try to encourage all kinds of
students from all backgrounds, but obviously recognizing that there are different pathways for the Black student. So, I think that's my duty to that tension. You had a talk about the black pedagogy earlier this month. What does that mean practically? Now when I conceived the idea for an event around Black pedagogy, it’s because in many ways I was responding to some of the conversations I've had with yourself and many other students here who are always talking about [how] “I would like to learn this, or I wish this was on our curriculum as well.” And it got me thinking about what we actually mean by Black pedagogy.
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Is it simply teachings that contain blackness? Is it pedagogically about that people? Is it Black in a political sense or an ethnic sense? Are there different methods of teaching race, racism and blackness, to teaching other intellectual disciplines? It's an exploration rather than a declaration, or even an accusation. When I was talking about film, it's about recognizing that the Black film never is just a film. It's always in conversation, in dialectic with the social world of that blackness because those images are so recognizable. It needs to be processed by people to make it meaningful. So that gives the teaching of Black film a much more expansive scope, which is thinking about identities, thinking about race struggle, thinking about history, about representation and what we already know about the black social world, or the social life of blackness, that we bring with us as expectations to the cinema and to the screen. I think it’s a space where Black students, white students and students from other ethnic backgrounds can recognize this and move towards if they want it. I’m never of the opinion that black students must always think and learn in a specific Black manner; firstly, that’s very hard to define. and secondly, I’m not convinced that’s what university is for. So, the Black pedagogy should be available to all students in the same way that the classic canons of learning have been made available to all students, rather than simply imposing Eurocentric knowledge onto people. But I also recognize that Black pedagogy itself means something more to Black students, because of their marginalisation as well. And I'd love to be in a situation where you could harness the best pedagogy around race and create something that's available to support this, in the same way that Paul Gilroy is establishing something at UCL, in the same way that they've established a fantastic new African American and African Diasporic Studies Department at Columbia, which I'll be spending time at this year. I think LSE is at the centre of
so much knowledge and cross-pollinated thinking that there's a space there for it to be a leader in these things- there is no reason why LSE can't do that. What are you currently watching on Netflix? I'm actually quite new to Netflix. I was always anti-Netflix for a while because I thought you watch films in the cinema; I was a purist. But I’m mostly watching 'Top Boy' and 'Peaky Blinders.' I've actually not watched too much recently as I’ve been so busy, but I watched ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco.’ A really, really good film and it's definitely going to be on my course.
“ Now we're
seeing a bigger critical mass of black students, the Black British student, and they deserve to be here.
Students at Dr. Clive's event (c) LSE Events
“
Dr. Clive at a recent event (c) LSE Events
Email us: features@beaveronline.co.uk
Okay, and just finally, do you have any advice for Black students? I recognize it's not easy, because a Black student never just as a student, and as much as I would like them to be just a student. Black students are always going to be marked differently. We see the reports coming out, you know, the marginalisation and harassment and unfair scrutiny-the kind of things that Black students experience is very difficult. Confidence is one thing that I always advocate for. The LSE is one of the best institutions in the world. And now we're seeing a bigger critical mass of black students, the black British student, and they deserve to be here.
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FLIPSIDE VOL. 21
OCT 29 FREE
REVIEW: Rafiki – Love in a hopeless place
SPORT: Black athletes who changed the game
ANGELICA
SOCIAL: Roni’s Declassified Black History Month Survival Guide
PART B: RIP Toni Morrisson, our Beloved
OLAWEPO
I feel like LSE only remembers that they have Black students when it’s time for Black History Month
ANGELICA OLAWEPO
I feel like LSE only remembers that they have Black students when it’s time for Black History Month
Angelica is on YouTube as Angeliculture. Watch one of her videos!
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o one is happier to be at LSE than Angelica Olawepo. After spending a year on an access programme at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she applied to study here. She even travelled to attend the LSE Africa summit whilst still attending Oxford. “I never applied to LSE the first time around was because I didn’t think I was going to get the grades to even get here.” Now she’s the recipient of a scholarship that covers her tuition and living expenses. She says receiving the scholarship felt “amazing” but adds that “there’s also pressure because [she] feels like someone out there has invested money in [her].” Angelica was born in Nigeria, and moved to the UK with her mum at the age of nine. “I knew my life had changed, but I didn’t really understand that I was working class and I didn’t think that there was a reality outside of mine.” She came to realise that she was considered “working class” when she applied for a number of programs with the Sutton Trust and SEO scholars. “It was when I met almost every single of their eligibility criteria that I realized, oh, like, I guess I’m what you call a poor student.” Still, her class background hasn’t stopped her from being a fashion icon (more in the Social pages). She credits Joanna Jarjue, a former The Apprentice contestant, as her biggest style inspiration. The element of her personal style that’s evolved the most is her
relationship with her hair. We both know as black women that hair is political. “I started realizing when I was at Oxford that I had a wig that I was wearing and sometimes I’d have my hair out. But then if I have a special occasion, I felt like I needed to go and put on the weave, and I don’t know why I felt like that.” After investigating this impulse a bit more and exploring the Black hair community on YouTube, Angelica decided to only wear protective styles that actually reflected her natural hair texture. “The arguments black women make… like, ‘I’m growing my hair ... doing protective styles,’ but then like, why do you have to wear straight Barbie hair?” In addition to watching Black beauty gurus on YouTube, Angelica also has her own YouTube channel Angeliculture where she vlogs about her experiences building her career in law and finance, her time at LSE and her rigorous study habits. At the time of writing, she has over 3,700 subscribers and over 280,000 views. “When people write to me and tell me how much my channel has impacted them, they’re studying at LSE now or they got an internship, it makes me feel like I have made a difference in the world.” That being said, she grapples with feeling restricted in the kind of content she can put out. “People subscribe to me for different reasons… [some] for like law or finance… some are there to see LSE. And I feel like I want to please everyone.”
vlogger and I didn’t see one. And it was really annoying. I guess once I started I thought I want to help someone who might be looking for someone like me – be the change I want to see… The second reason was because I’ve had lots of useful advice from like work experience and programs. And I feel like there definitely is like an information deficit for black students and also people from working class backgrounds.” She adds that simple things, like suggesting a visit to a firm’s insight day, have made all the difference to some of her audience. She feels it’s her responsibility to give back to people, having been the beneficiary of so much mentorship and having the privilege to live in the UK: “some people don’t live in this country and so there’s no way they know about like access programs and things like that.” Adding to the voices of those before her (see Comment, pg. 8), Angelica thinks LSE can do more to help its Black students and Black working class students especially. “I feel like LSE only remembers that they have Black students when it’s time for Black History Month and even then it’s the black students taking charge… We’re celebrating black culture, honour Arthur Lewis beyond the little plaque thing that they have in the Student Centre and do something more than that.” A lot of people with Angelica’s circumstances would not have made it this far, but her continued success and singular determination continues to dazzle me.
She started Angeliculture for multiple reasons. “When I was applying to LSE. I looked on YouTube for an LSE
interview: Christina Ivey photography: Sebastian Mullen
quickfire questions Red or white wine? NAB or Old Building?
Dessert wine, like port.
NAB.
Rihanna or Nicki Minaj? Oh God! Rihanna’s no longer really a musician. So like... Okay, fine, Rihanna.
w
SOCIAL Formal Olamide Duyile & Christiana Ajai-Thomas
Casual Maxine Sibihwana & Chad Ndebele
Tuesday 29 October editor: AnalĂa Ferreyra
lifestyle/advice/satire
Casual Partywear Above: Chiebuka Itanyi & AdaluNg, Right: Angelica Olawepo
Modern African Right: Jerome Hart Below: Micheal Lemoru and Adefolarin Adegbite
Roni’s Declassified Black History Month Survival Guide
Christiana Ajai-Thomas (aka Roni)
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lack History month is coming to an end but it’s never a bad time to celebrate Black people, history, and culture. Here’s how you can do that responsibly. Reparations! Black people have been calling for reparations since slavery ended. Reparations relate to the severe losses that resulted from Europeans making it their mission to steal from every non-white land they could find - not to mention enslaving millions of Black people for hundreds of years. The imperial powers show no real intention of paying reparations, so this is where you can step in. To all the individualists out there who call for charity over government welfare aid, here’s your chance to put your money where your mouth is! Buy your Black friend a drink in the club, pay for the Uber home, or even just PayPal them a little something. Not quite the reparations we’ve been asking for, but hey, it’s something! Black History Month stands for Black The British are a mild mannered people trying their best to be politically correct. For evidence, see the consistent use of ‘BME’ (Black Minority Ethnic) as a blanket term for all ethnic minorities in the UK. The issue is using ‘BME’ when the speaker just means ‘Black’. Similarly, Black History Month is just about Black people. Here’s your reminder that the word Black is not a dirty word. Acceptable usages include “Black” in reference to someone’s race and “Black people” in reference to a group of us. Under no circumstances should you use “Blacks”, and if it’s not obvious to you why this is the case, well… good luck, Charlie. And if the spirit of your ancestors takes hold of you, compelling you to launch slander at us, at least be brave enough to direct it towards the actual group you’re talking about. We are Black.
Courtesy: Lick Events via Instagram
Go to that ACS event we invited you to I can assure you that nobody would invite you to a Black space if they thought you wouldn’t be comfortable there. This is not to say that the Afro-Caribbean Society is a playground for nonBlack people who ‘just love the Blacks’, but don’t assume we’re averse to everyone different from us. No doubt, we grow weary of those constantly trying to prove themselves to Black people due to a self-proclaimed case of jungle fever, but we know enough about segregation to understand the need to welcome those unlike ourselves. Cultural appreciation is all about finding a balance between recognising the uniqueness of a culture different from your own and a willingness to engage with said culture. If Black people can assimilate into Western culture without exclaiming to strangers that ‘the new Ed Sheeran is absolutely stupendous’ you can go to an ACS event without the need to tell anyone that ‘a sis finna drown in those edges’ or ‘the new Dave song is too lit, ya get me brother?’ Stop saying it I don’t need to say it, you know what it is. You’ve heard rappers say it. You’ve heard friends say it and thought it wasn’t your place to tell them not to say it to avoid conflict. You may have even said it, since apparently saying it and then learning not to say it is just part of growing up for nonBlack folks. Or perhaps you still say it because you ‘grew up around Black people’ or ‘your Black friend gave you a pass’ or ‘singing it in songs doesn’t count.’ As the overwhelming majority of Black people will tell you, hearing it used by the people it does not target is unsettling. Even if you don’t believe saying it is racist (it’s racist) you can, at the very least, be kind enough not to use such a violent word right in front of us. *Student who decided to sing along to my music whilst I
served you, repeatedly singing ‘I wish a n- would’ I’m talking to you and a curse has been placed.* Long story short, nobody cares about your justifications for it or why Black people shouldn’t get to say it, just stop saying it. Learn the difference between race, ethnicity and nationality. Please. I’m on my knees. This is a short and easy one that anyone who doesn’t want to make a fool of themselves should know by now. Race: A symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry, and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts that is misrecognized as a natural category. Ethnicity: A shared lifestyle informed by cultural, historical, religious, and/or national affiliations. Nationality: Equated with citizenship, membership in a specific politically delineated territory controlled by a government. Simple. I hope to never again hear someone claim to not really be white because they’re Spanish or that they’re mixed race because their dad is Bangladeshi and their mum is Indian. Stop asking what we’re mixed with. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be light-skinned with two fully Black parents. *People gasp, someone faints as their understanding of race begins to crumble all around them, an audience of Black women begins to clap* Genetics are crazy, I know. Additionally, for those who are light-skinned and actually mixed it’s time for those of us who are not to realise that the question of where they’re from is neither interesting nor a valid
conversation starter. And that girl who is clearly mixed with Black? She’s not going to shag you because you – being the woke king that you are - want to decipher her entire genetic makeup. What you may think is an innocent interest sounds more like a fetish rooted in the exoticisation of mixed race people (particularly women) and hyper-sexualisation of Black bodies. Seek help. Stop trying to make reverse racism happen, it’s not going to happen. If we understand society to be situated within its history, in so far as history has created the present, and look back at the history of enslavement, colonisation, imperialism, racism, and overall white supremacy, then it becomes glaringly obvious that we do not live in a world in which reverse racism could possibly exist. As we see the rise of the far-right, which one might call a modern imperialism, I can only deem you either delusional or wilfully ignorant if you believe reverse racism is real. Privilege exists, people. That doesn’t mean that you won’t ever suffer because of your race, but rather that your race is not the source of your suffering. Embrace Black History All in all, Black History Month is about the celebration of a rich cultural history characterized by perseverance, struggle, love, and rejection of white supremacy. I do not advocate literally embracing your local Black person in a hug, but this month is a great time to learn more about the influence of Blackness on the world and vice versa. Get woke!
SPORT
Black athletes who changed the game Sam Taylor Staff Writer
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istorical figures are often a focal point of Black History Month. With a plethora to choose from, it only seems right to remember and celebrate the sacrifices they made in the fight for equality. Current figures who are still fighting the fight against inequality and racial injustice are often overlooked. For BHM this year, I’ve decided to run through three athletes who are currently using their platform to push for change.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Raheem Sterling
A three time Olympic gold medalist, Jackie JoynerKersee is arguably the best heptathlete ever. Sports Illustrated for Women also voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of all time. A world champion in many disciplines, her success on the track is nothing short of admirable. Since her retirement in 1998, she has become an active philanthropist in racial equality and women’s rights. She started her own foundation which works with young, disadvantaged black people from poor areas, encouraging them to pursue athletics while continuing in education. Alongside this, JoynerKersee founded Athletes for Hope - a foundation that helps professional athletes participate in charitable causes within their communities.
As the newest poster boy for English football, Raheem Sterling has always been susceptible to heavy criticism. Throughout his rise to stardom, he faced the usual barriers most young footballers face. However, his exceptional performances have also been met with copious amounts of racial backlash. Sterling’s response has consistently been more than admirable, continuing to perform at the highest level in the face of adversity. He has been an icon off the pitch in the campaign to ‘kick it out’ and remove racism from the game. Amongst other things, Sterling contributes to the work of various charities, raising awareness about blood donation.
Colin Kaepernick Colin Kaepernick is a former NFL Quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. He led the 49ers to a Super Bowl in 2013 and became known as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. In spite of these achievements, Kaepernick is best known for his political activism. He made national and international news in 2016 when he took a knee during the U.S national anthem before a 49ers preseason game (the custom being to stand during the anthem). This was an act of protest against police brutality and the systematic oppression of Black people in the states. As a result, Donald Trump called for him to be fired and, since opting out of his contract at the end of 2016, Kaepernick has been without a team. He has since emerged as a key figure in the American equality movement and his protests against injustice have been well publicised.
Being a top athlete is taxing. One is constantly in the limelight whilst maintaining a gruelling training regime. This becomes harder when you’re trying to overcome systematic racism and other obstacles at the same time. To use the platform for good and generate change speaks volumes about the character of the Black athletes mentioned. Black athletes need to be celebrated for what they achieve not just on the pitch, but off it.
REVIEW RAFIKI Love in a Hopeless Place by Shahana Bagchi
“[You mean] the whole church was watching me and what I was doing?” “Yes.”
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his exchange from Rafiki encompasses the core tension of the film: the fear of constant surveillance, the intrusive feeling that everyone is watching and disproving of your actions. Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki is a landmark film: it is the first Kenyan movie to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. Queer Students of Colour hosted Rafiki at LSE as part of Black History Month. The movie provided the opportunity for students to celebrate queer love stories among black people in the media. ‘Rafiki’ depicts a blossoming romance between two women, Kena Mwaura (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki Okemi (Sheila Munyiva) in a deeply restrictive society. Their coming-of-age love story is fraught with complications: Kena and Ziki are the daughters of rival politicians. Moreover, they face overwhelming opposition from parents, friends, the church, the law itself, and even the lady who serves them sodas at a kiosk stand. They’re eventually outed and consequently separated by their families.
Rafiki was initially banned in Kenya in 2018 for its depiction of lesbian romance. Rafiki has a warmth and lightness which overshadows the hostile environment it portrays. Kahiu’s depiction of the romance between Kena and Ziki has a tender quality, there’s a shyness and restraint which feels immediately endearing and real. The screen is painted in pastel shades in their scenes together; the vibrant soundtrack frames the way Kena sees Ziki, music only plays when the latter is on screen. Despite their fear of censure, we see two people who create a space where they can be something real. Amidst the condemnation of the people around them, Kena’s dad’s acceptance was reassuring – a small but meaningful moment in the movie. Despite the remarkable supporting cast, their detachment from the main love story diminishes the narrative’s impact. Besides the heartwarming reunion between the two, the ending feels rushed and unresolved. This movie’s hopefulness is a welcome break from the mould where queer love stories are either erased or conclude tragically.
Girl, Woman, Other – A Love Letter to Black Womanhood by Amber Iglesia
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ernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to co-win the Booker Prize, alongside Margaret Atwood. Her book, Girl, Woman, Other, follows the lives of 12 black women in the UK. Evaristo spins their disparate stories around Amma’s – a gay black theatre writer – opening night at the National Theatre. The book deals with themes of patriarchy, identity, gender, sexuality, feminism, and success, and Evaristo’s energetic style maintains intrigue throughout. The lack of full stops and capital letters accentuate the key artistic quality of the novel – fluidity. Fluidity of prose characterizes the novel, and fluidity of class, sexuality, and gender. Through Carole, a banker, we witness how success for black women is only attainable by leaving their working-class roots behind. Evaristo describes her book as one that delves into the lives of ‘12 black womxn,’ the ‘x’ being trans-inclusive, as she tackles gender fluidity through the character of Megan/Morgan.
Evaristo’s writing flows as well. The novel is structured as a prose poem, meaning that, even for a novel with no plot, the momentum does not falter. The lack of homogeneity among the 12 distinct lives accentuates the variety of female experiences during the transition from womanhood to adulthood. The contemporary themes accentuate Evaristo’s underlying message: “We are as varied and multiple, in who we are and how we behave in our desires, as any other social group or demographic anywhere.” Evaristo carefully analyses the ‘other’ in her title, exploring how women of colour are othered in society. She states that “the women in the book are ‘othered’ in terms of their sexuality, on account of their class, on account of whether they are immigrants or not, and they even ‘other’ each other”. These questions of feminism and race are timeless. Evaristo’s ability to deliver equal measures
of empathy to all 12 women lets us sympathise with their individual stories; they are all survivors in their own way. Evaristo writes the experiences of African and Caribbean women with passion, energy, and humour. Her fresh, inspiring, and lyrical approach makes for an engrossing hybrid of prose and poetry about the African diaspora.
Tuesday 29 October editors: Amber Iglesia and Zehra Jafree
we review shit.
Who wants BURGERZ? by Alma Simba
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his summer, I had the privilege of attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival thanks to the incredible ‘Fringe of Colour’ scheme which provides free or discounted tickets to people of colour (PoC). The scheme allowed me to see incredible shows by PoC performers for free. I’d been to Edinburgh many times before; I distinctly remember the first night I visited I felt so cold that I wound up crying at how isolated I felt. People weaponise our blackness against us; it’s a feature of our identity that is immutable yet constantly highlighted. Being Black is always political. Attending the Fringe under the scheme combatted this sentiment, seeing Black comedians, actors, actresses, buskers and performance artists in a de-politicized environment felt freeing. We took up spaces without having to speak for the room, laughed and watched performances and felt the space as ours. It was electrifying.
middle-aged and probably middle-upper class, the performance does not fall into the usual formula of pandering to white liberalism. Travis reminds us that discrimination is not always overt, microaggressions like children pointing fingers or adjacent empty tube seats in a full carriage bring an air of social isolation. Black history month needs to include the nuances in experience. Burgerz and Travis’s work as a Black performer illuminates this importance. Being Black is not only about race, but about intersections; being women, men, queer, disabled, working class, single-parent household-raised. But it’s also about what and who has been excluded. Our conversations on identity have to include those who’ve remained in the shadows, whose identity can only be partially shown because of what it isn’t.
The true highlight of the Fringe was Burgerz by Travis Alabanza. The show is a hybrid of performance art, spoken word, interactive theatre and theatre of the oppressed. The show’s name is derived from an incident where Travis had a burger thrown at them on Waterloo Bridge. Drawing on this episode and its passive witnesses moves Travis to explore the composition of the burger and makes their own, inviting a cis white man to come on stage and assist in the process.
One of the most revealing links made in the show was that between gender and blackness. That Black people know what gender can do, how it hyper-sexualizes us, how it categorically places us in between uncontrollable desire and complete rejection of ‘conventional’ beauty. Alabanza is a master of nuances, of penmanship and performance, of wedding emotion with rationality. After being moved to tears by Burgerz, I vowed to attend whatever next performance they would be part of.
The show is a natural, improvised conversation between Travis and the white man. With insightful interjections on musings on gender, blackness, the history of trans and non-gender conforming people. Despite the audience largely being white,
On a rainy Saturday night, nursing a hangover and trekking on the Northern line to the Ovalhouse theatre, I found myself at We Dig, a performance by five-trans artists and performers on digging and self-preservation. The historic Ovalhouse
theatre having to conduct major renovations including digging up the theatre, invited artists to explore the space and whatever was found in the foundations. What the cast of We Dig found was a poster showing that Martha P. Johnson – AfricanAmerican activist and queer rights icon – had performed in the very theatre they were performing in. This introduced the concept of ‘representation’, this idea that conversations on the identities of trans, gender non-conforming and non-binary people is novel is simply false. Trans people have existed, gender non-conforming people have existed, non-binary people have existed. Travis’ work has illuminated to me that representation is a flimsy concept often used to pander to the idea that Black identities should be ‘accepted’. Their work asserts that we have been here, throughout history, contributing to the very foundations of the ground we all walk on. Alabanza’s work illuminates that rather than pointing to the present, history can reveal how perennial we have been. How liberating it is to be in a space knowing that you are not the first, that others have traversed the same course and asserted themselves, did not ask to be seen but boldly declared, I am here and I am not moving.
PART B
Tuesday 29 October
editor: Maya Kokerov
arts & culture
Toni Morrison: the power of language and truth a retrospective by Deepa Mani Toni Morrison died on August 5, 2019, at the age of 88. Morrison‘s work shed light on truths of American society that were largely missing from mainstream literature. Morrison’s writing was both popular and illuminating; her work forced many to confront American realities that they were not ready to. She wrote about black experience through stories like Sula, Pecola, Tar Baby, and Macon, and created new techniques of writing inspired by African-American folktales and music. Born on February 18, 1931, in Ohio, Toni Morrison was educated at Howard University and graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English, continuing her education at Cornell University. Early in her career, Morrison became the first black female Senior Editor of the fiction department at Random House. Morrison discovered and published works of African-American authors of varying range, from Angela Davis to Muhammad Ali. She taught at Texas Southern University, Howard University, the State University of New York, and Princeton University. Her origins as an author can be traced to her time at Howard University, but her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Following the publication of Song of Solomon in 1977, Morrison became popular nationally. She maneuvered syntax and diction to create prose that read like poetry and revolutionized literary techniques, abandoning sequential storytelling to construct circular tales, and taking influence from African-American folktales and music. Morrison was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1993. In her acceptance speech, Morrison told the tale of a blind woman considered wise by her community. The woman is visited by a few young people who question her, asking if the bird they hold in their hands is dead or alive. She replies that she does not know, but that the bird’s fate is within their literal hands. Toni Morrison was a reflection of the wise woman she depicts. She forced us to stand eye to eye with the realities of our times. Morrison made us question both the external world and our own thought processes, forcing us to look at our agency, whether active or passive. Through the tales of friendship in Sula, or the story on coming of age in The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s characters leave readers with no choice but to reflect on the devastating impacts of racism, sexism, neglect, and other manifestations of hatred. The power of love is a persistent theme in Morrison’s work; her characters undergo horri-
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
ble experiences, but find solace community, family, and friendship. Barack Obama celebrated Morrison’s life, describing her as a “national treasure,” and saying it was “a gift to breathe the same air as her, if only for a while.” Morrison wrote 11 novels, and was also the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was an officer of the French Legion of Honor and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Yet her most significant achievement to date is her dedication to language and the unmatched might of words. Morrison constantly reminds us of the power of language. A master storyteller, she captured the everyday struggles of black communities as she wrote about race, gender, and love. In 1993 she wrote, “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
Dr Shirley Anne Tate and Black academia by Jill Lupupa For Black History Month, I would like to shine a spotlight on Dr Shirley Anne Tate, an author, academic, and feminist. Her book Black Skins, Black Masks, (a re-imagination of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks) focuses on recorded everyday conversations between black women while Black Women’s Bodies and The Nation focuses on the discourse of race and representation. I came across Tate when talking to my dissertation module lecturer about my project idea. She suggested I look up Tate and her research in race studies. Tate researches black diaspora studies and institutional racism including race performativity, Caribbean decolonial studies, and the intersections of race and gender. She spoke about the issues I was interested in, like black representation and public spaces, and had gone so far as to directly address institutions. As of July, she is the Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Feminism and Intersectionality at the University of Alberta, having formerly been the Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University. Tate stands as a role model and inspiration for aspiring you black female academics, particularly in the UK. She has given a TEDx Talk and lectures on tackling the small number of black academics in UK universities, as well as the the black student attainment gap as a result of institutional racism and microaggressions. Tate has also addressed the limited number of black professors at University College London (UCL).
“Racism is not unconscious. You have a choice. You can continue to erase racism by talking about ‘unconscious bias’, or, you can name it...and begin to take action against it.” Dr. Shirley Anne Tate In her TEDx Talk, Tate dispels the myth that unconscious bias causes inequality. Importantly, she also dispels the myth that BPOC students self-segregate, one that I have heard frequently concerning black cliques in work and school environments, and even as a black woman myself I have been guilty of believing. “BPOC students do not self-segregate, they are marginalised and that is the status quo in our university classrooms,” Tate said. Tate is also a successful Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa and has said she “cling[s] to [her] Jamaican accent with a vengeance” after being complimented on sounding English. A Black British academic and African-descent Jamaican, Dr Shirley Anne Tate is an inspiration for opening and paving the way for black students in academia. She should be emulated in the manner she encourages an open discourse on race and gender intersections.
Illustration: Christina Ivey
A work (not) in progress I am a work not in progress A haphazardly constructed script Archived on the writing desk Never to be thought of or pondered But to be locked away in the cupboard Lest anyone attempt to trace I am a work not in progress An uneven amorphous illustration Shabbily drawn with a blunt pencil By an artist who herself looked slightly dreadful To be left in the inner room on a canvas Not to be approached for a gander I am a work not in progress An unstable meld of unsound emotions A cantankerous chorus of cussing and clamour A sight not for sore eyes Who can’t seem to show up to a single event on time Don’t come to me for any bit of life advice I am a work not in progress I am the completed product A haphazardly constructed script An uneven amorphous illustration An unstable meld of unsound emotions And yet I remain worthy of love by Lotta Ilukwe