Dear Black Women

Recently a friend signposted me to a youtube channel called the grapevine and I watched a particular video on interracial dating.

It was particularly eyeopening to the black female experience and opinion on interracial dating. Now I am a white person in an interracial relationship of 5 years. He was my friend and best friend for a year leading up to us getting into a committed relationship. I want to be sensitive of the black community experience and do not seek to invalidate anyones experience or opinion....in fact I want tackle the stereotypes of black and white women.

It has become clear through watching the videos that there seems to be a stereotype that black women have to battle with more than white women. That they are not submissive. Let me firstly say to my black sisters and queens. . . Well screw the men who even care about that. My heart is heavy and I want to help.

We are in 2018 people...why should any race of woman be "submissive" to be dateable. I can tell you that my boyfriend cannot be dating outside of race for that reason because I give him normal relationship headaches all the time. For full disclosure he gives me as many relationship headaches so its a good job we love each other lol.

Let me just tell you all something now, women should not even be pitted against each other like that because black women are beautiful and amazing souls and they should never have to feel any kinda way bout themselves where they are compared to white women. I love you all and respect you all, and let me use my shitty white privilage to uplift you.

I cannot tell black men how to think or be because they are living the black experience too. But i just want to tell you why I admire black women.

1. They are strong independent women who have to statistically fight harder in the system than any other category in society. We need to respect their struggle and stand in awe at what they have to do to achieve, and yet they still have beautiful hearts. If they are feeling a bit wounded dont use that as an excuse to date white women.....thats not cool and even as a white woman myself i dont want someone who can't be feminist and respect all women.

2. Regardless of race we are human beings and souls with the capability to love. Race does not define our personalities and if you say there aren't submissive women in the black race, and white women are submissive....again you got us women misunderstood. As i have already said i can give HEADACHES all day every day, and my bestest friend and sister from another mister who is black is the kindest most thoughtful, and quiet soul you will ever meet.

I just want to hold my sisters up and just know I got you. If you need me to give a man stress for you....I'm down lol.

But on a more serious note, I am also wanting to understand, learn, and help change society in the way you need it to change. If you think I got this wrong....talk to me.....make me know. Its all love.

When its love....were all doing something right.


❤

Black History Month: Let’s Talk About Systemic and Institutional Racism

Originally I wanted to do an angry “Dear white people, even white people are fed up of your bullshit” post in defense of Munroe Bergdorf. I feel that it is an obligation of white people to utilise their privilege to tackle racism and enhance equality. I believe that it is every person's (regardless of ethnicity, religion, or any other differences) obligation to promote and share love and kindness. So I wanted to be more logical and informative than a big fat rant at racist white people. I thought, the only way to change the world is to try and be informative, have an objectively excellent argument, and be persuasive. Sounds like an essay I did not so long ago in Jurisprudence where I used the 13^th Amendment to make a few points and vent in an academic setting. I did that a lot though to be honest. My whole degree was probably one big long rant against racism and discrimination to single mothers. So for the sake of copyright law, I am instead going to paraphrase my first class essay as evidence to the systemic racism. Failing that see my Facebook rant of how fuming I was at National Card Shops for being a load of bollocks and whitewashing everything.

 Perhaps one of the most powerful institutions in any nation is its legal system. The legal system has the direct and indirect power to either promote or tear down discrimination and acts of hate. So it makes sense to show you how racism is still alive in the legal systems, let alone the minor issues such as card shops (but tbh I think cards are important but not everyone agrees, I'm sure a large percentage would agree the law is important though, or you get banged up or something). I just want to make a foundational point that EVERYONE should go watch "13th" on Netflix. I think secondary schools should make it compulsory in education as well to be honest, and then maybe we wont have so many thick "intelligent" racists....wont name no names but if the boot fits wear it.

So what is the 13th Amendment? Its a piece of USA constitutional legislation. It provides that: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

 So it bans slavery? Nope not quite. This is why everyone needs to go watch 13th on Netflix. The declaration has the loophole that slavery is allowed as punishment for crime. There in lies the loophole. Politicians basically used the law then to criminalize anything that is known to be black culture (Weed was a big one) to mass incarcerate and subject black people to slavery. Prisons in the USA are actually privatized, and massive corporations were part of a collective that had a say in governmental legislation and owned the prisons for free labour to make huge profit on the back of black people unjustly. If you google the statistics of prison population and ethnicity in the USA you would see that a suspiciously large proportion are black for various unjust reasons. Some of them will be just outright criminals, but you cannot negate the fact that police (whether consciously or subconsciously) will always choose to be more suspicious of black people and so find more black criminals as a result, and racistly overlooking the white criminals. Let's not even get started on police brutality I don't need to explain that to you as the sad videos are all over facebook.  Then there is the fact that tapes got found of advisors to politicians who created a "southern strategy" which criminalised aspects of black culture or hit black people hardest in negative impacts. You water down and conceal the racism in this southern strategy, but it is very alive under the radar. I mean just go google 13th the documentary. Also while you're at it go google ALEC USA (American Legislative Exchange Council).

So you see law is a power tool in which you can brain wash and even conceal stuff from the masses, but conceal it in a way that you've agreed to it through your democratic right, without knowing exactly what you are agreeing to. I feel Marx would be well proud of me right now. JUDGE ME. Technically the Rule of Law is meant to make the law a good thing in which it cannot be abused by the elite (as it stands challengable by society through its clear, consistent, and fair application). BUT now see my essay Extract (Clifford for the Surrey Uni, 2017, The Rule of Law Essay). I would like to note that this is being used solely for educational purposes to educate all the potential racists, and even just non racist people who don't understand that racism can really exist within the law itself without being obvious (saying this to save myself in copyright terms):

Karl Marx essentially was interested in economics and society. He argued that law is a label, or rather an illusion to obscure the power struggles in class and economy. Marxist theory on law is that law itself does not really hold weight in the structure and existence of society. Society is just an ever changing class struggle and the law simply reflects the class structures of the time, which would be existent despite the law itself.[1] Freedom of contract for example, is an illusion when one will always have the bargaining power over another despite its illusion that it serves both parties equally, equality of application being a prime concept of the rule of law.[2] Such a cloak of power is evident throughout time right up to present day as now will be presented.

When law is created so abstractly by an elite class such as politicians, and so far as corporations, people are made to feel the law serves them across all classes, blind to the ulterior motives/power imbalance behind the cloak of the rule of law.[3]  In the USA there has been a recent vat of information revealed on the development of its constitution which allows for modern day slavery to occur in an oppressive class system. The 13^th amendment on face value appears to ban slavery. It appears to be a tool for the oppressed races which were severely subjected to steep class power imbalances. However, on a deeper insight it serves to show a Marxist element of illusion. Despite the amendment banning slavery, political/elite class movements behind the scenes have allowed a mass incarceration of black people legally.

An American politician explained how to make the law deceiving.  Lee Atwater explained how to make oppression and racism against black people so abstract that it becomes acceptable so that it may carry on.[4]  The fact that the law can be so deceiving itself like this just shows that the rule of law has an illusory element to it. The law is just a cloak to the deceitful classist aims and imbalances.

Furthermore, the privatisation of prisons enveloping them into the corporate world has effectively brought slavery under the radar but certainly in existence, largely black people due to the mass incarceration enabled by the abstract legislation and policy (criminalisation of cannabis and issues largely targeting black people only). [5]  This in itself shows that the power imbalance itself is still actually physically there, despite the illusion of the politicians serving the people and the rule of law serving justice and equality to the imbalance. It could even be suggested from this example that it is a labour class differentiation similar to that of Marx’s time (but worse in other ways due to the racism and slavery element). The concept of the rule of law is cloaking the imbalance that is still present and has never really been remedied. This simply points to the fact that with law or not, society will always be structured in such a way where there is a clash of classes in society, and the elites will always have an oppressing hand on the underclasses. The concept of elites being a real thing is even solidified by the ALECK issues.[6]  This is where corporations were creating laws so abstractly and covertly to encourage the slave labour in the privatised prisons to profit themselves. When corporations and politicians are working so closely and abstractly to an end where these situations even exist, the Marxist ideas are very strongly present and evidenced. It also defeats the idea of democracy anyway, so it does not serve to rule all equally in that sense.

---

[1]  K Marx and f Engels, The German Ideology (1845) (repblished, trans. 1970, Lawrence and Wishart, London); K Marx, Preface to Contribution to Critique of Political Economy (1859), in Bottomore and Rubel (eds) Karl Marx, Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy (1961)

[2] Ibid

[3] Thirteenth Amendment To the Constitution of the United States 1865; 13^Th Film Documentary (Ava DuVernay, 2016)

[4] Lee Atwaters interview segment of 13Th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)

[5] At no.5

[6] Alec expose segment of 13^Th at no.5; < http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed > (accessed 4^th January 2017)

SO IN CONCLUSION, WHITE PEOPLE PLEASE STOP DENYING THE EXISTENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, THE MOST POWERFUL INSTITUTION IN SOCIETY IS RACIST. PLEASE TAKE ACTION TO EMPOWER MINORITIES AND THE OPPRESSED. PLEASE USE YOUR PRIVILEGE TO EMPOWER AND GIVE OTHER PEOPLE EQUALITY. PLEASE LOVE. PLEASE BE KIND. PLEASE STOP TRYING TO INVALIDATE THE BLACK LIVES MATTER INITIATIVE WITH YOUR "ALL LIVES MATTER" BULLSHIT. JUST STAY QUIET IF YOU HAVE NOTHING EMPOWERING TO SAY. MORE LIFE MORE LOVE!

Oh and please check this website out as to the Lee Atwater making racism go under the radar within politics and law: https://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

Also some light reading on the 13th Amendment if I didnt give you enough but you can't access netflix:  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-13th-amendment-didn-abolish-slavery-article-1.2801218

The war on cannabis being a way to lock black people up: https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-drug-war-an-excuse-to-lock-up-blacks-and-protesters-continues/&refURL=https://www.google.co.uk/&referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/

ALEC (privatised prisons): https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

There were some words in there that I couldn't bring myself to type....but it is IMPORTANT READING!!!!

 Be good, love one another.

Peace out x

 

Nozicks theory of justice. ABSOLUTE AUTONOMY (no one should enforce anything upon us we should have absolute ownership of ourselves) oh and little old benefit bum me.

Recently someone tried to refer to me as a lazy lefty benefit bum and that is why I am a lefty, and that I’ve never had a full time job in my life. The irony is the person who claimed this of me is on the same benefits as me! Anyways the difference being I went straight from school into having kids and 3 years of an abusive relationship and then into education and onto uni. I worked from the age of 13 and smashed my way through education with excellent grades and a not so ideal home life.  Now I’m doing a law degree one of the heaviest degrees whilst working part time and being a single mother with hardly any support system (unlike the person throwing the false verbal abuse at me to try and impress and make themselves feel superior). 

You would feel from such abuse that this person may think that people on benefits are the scum of society and lazy. Yet again very ironic as they are too on benefits but won’t admit that online because it will make their awful comments about people seem very hypocritical. So today in a very intense lecture the topic was on autonomy and self-ownership.  The debate was based on the tax system and such society structures.

 A famous writer (Nozick) in the jurisprudence and philosophical world argues basically that no-one has the right to force measures upon others, as then you own them. So for example forcing a nation to give blood is basically owning them. Well this argument was then transferred to people selling their labour. The argument was that taking tax from people’s earnings effectively is a way of owning them as they have no say in keeping the fruits of their labour.  I really struggled to find my opinion on this concept.  I could not shift in my mind that actually autonomy is a doubled edged sword. Not only that, should autonomy be at the expense of others in society? It was argued that we can dismiss that. But you cannot. To say believing in autonomy means that you believe a person is owned if they are ever forced to do something, you have to take autonomy very literally. It was an internal battle in me. I definitely don’t believe that people should be owned. I agree with autonomy. But at the same time I could not justify to myself that the poorer in society should be so disposable in the name of autonomy. Complicated right?

I put forward the arguments that tax is a good thing for the poor but that I still believe in autonomy and it was batted down. I needed a stronger argument than just that. Some heated debate happened. People believed that Class A should not be responsible for class B, and class B shouldn’t be so lazy. They should try to go get enough wealth to become part of class A no one is stopping them . I found it hard to listen and not retaliate. I am a bit of an advocate of defending the less fortunate see. It is not a child’s fault they are born into a poor family. And actually Class A are so protective of their wealth that they make it hard for class B to accrue any. As it would start to level the playing field and then class A would no longer be class A as we all would be on the same level. Let’s call it Class A-.  So this view I would see as very classist and unfair. We are all human and it is by pure luck that we are born into rich or poorer families and have varying levels or resources available to us to attain wealth. Some such as disabled people are completely unable to be as resourceful as the average citizen anyway. Ownership and autonomy in this sense would mean they get no money and effectively die….fair? No. But then the argument was turned on its head.

It didn’t matter that it was fair. Ownership is more important. The government should not be allowed to own us and make us pay taxes. If people want to they can but it shouldn’t be forced. Here’s the problem that won’t work . Hardly anyone would voluntarily pay taxes, especially when people who are poor are demonised by the elite classes and everybody is brainwashed by programmes like benefit street. No one wants to pay taxes  (even my boyfriend admitted if he didn’t have to pay taxes he wouldn’t but more of a self-thing rather than not agreeing with where it goes) because they think the jobless are lazy scum. Like the benefit recipient who called me lazy benefits bum lol! See how good the media is at brainwashing. They have actual benefit recipients spewing crap about benefit people. My point is for whatever reason (wanting more money or not agreeing with where the money goes) people wouldn’t pay tax if it wasn’t forced.

Anyways effectively it was agreed that yes ownership would probably mean that yes people will die because they do not have the access or resource to attain the wealth to live. Those who favour this libertarian approach would say that is an acceptable thing to attain true freedom and ownership. I was just still not okay with this. This internal battle was raging like a bloody monster inside me. I wanted to still advocate autonomy but also respect the fundamental rights of all humans. I wanted to remain humanitarian. An option was presented to me that self should be seen as community. Absolutely love the idea. Kudos Jordan! But the truth is I just felt it didn’t retain a respect for individual autonomy whilst promoting welfare state for the less fortunate and needy.

Anyways I walked 2 miles to pick my kids up after that lecture. There’s a saying that most famous ideas were conceived on a walk. I shit you not its true. I had my lightbulb moments, just too bloody late to win my arguments in a popular knighthood fashion. Here were my thoughts:

A)     Absolute autonomy is a double edged sword. Being able to own ourselves completely and abide to no rules sounds awesome but even speaking in a slavery context it can be used in a bad way. Ownership allows slaves to not be slaves. But ownership and autonomy also allows slave owners to do whatever the fuck they want to, so then it becomes a war, survival of the fittest or strongest between the two opposing people. So I think we can all agree that there should be a promotion of positive autonomy (no one should be a slave) and a restriction of negative autonomy (no one should be allowed to have slaves and do whatever they want).

B)      Taxes can promote and enhance autonomy. I do agree that tax rates are entirely flawed. That is for another conversation. But rational tax rates can enhance autonomy of self and others. Paying taxes enables police to protect and intervene from robberies and attacks, protecting physical and mental autonomy. As autonomy is a double edged sword! You have the autonomy not help a poor shit, but the poor shit has the autonomy to rob you for survival, or an immoral person may even rob you just because they want more than necessary and find it funny. Either way taxes promote standard of living to prevent that kind of society etc.

C)      If you’re still really not an advocate of what I have put forward and agree with the Class A v Class B theory I argued against in my lecture. . . . .You know when you start work or accumulate wealth you are going to pay tax. Therefore no infringement of autonomy has occurred as you have already consented to the tax system by conduct. Even if you want to argue that you have no choice but to work to survive, your own classist attitude is another double edged sword. If you don’t want to pay tax don’t work. It’s luck of the drawer, it’s not our fault that you don’t have the skills to live off the land. We shouldn’t be forced not to have a tax system because you want to work without paying tax. This argument many people would not want to agree with. But when you really think about it, you agree to tax when commencing work. It’s practically contractual. Therefore ownership and autonomy are actually not infringed upon.

That is how I found a way to respect autonomy while still justifying some restrictions on autonomy. I mean a humanitarian perspective and love for the world in all led me to find these solutions.

So yeh only love people!!!

Peace out x