🧵 THREAD on "Black" by @Santandave1.
This song tackles overwhelming pain, history, suffering and loss of culture that inter-twines with modern injustices that black people face. #BlackLivesMatter
@MelaninMedics @thermoflynamics @OrthopodReg
🔗:
I will try my best to explain the references in the song but I admit I'm no expert in black history.
Feel free to correct me anywhere.
🗣️ "Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident"
🗣️ "It's workin' twice as hard as the people you know you're better than
' Cause you need to do double what they do so you can level them."
I was told this as a child too. Despite this minorities rarely make leadership positions.
@WRES_team: england.nhs.uk/wp-content/upl…
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZ0Jv_MXQAAV1GC.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZ0JxEJXYAUx9kG.jpg)
🗣️ "With family trees, 'cause they teach you 'bout famine and greed. And show you pictures of our fam on their knees"
Do charities and aid really help developing countries? Many have argued that it maintains the unequal power dynamic.
🔗:
🗣️ “Tell us we used to be barbaric, we had actual queens”
The premise of colonialism was civilising the modern world and that others were inherently inferior.
🔗: pulse.ng/bi/lifestyle/7…
🗣️ "The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice"
“Blacker the Berry” is a 1929 novel by Wallace Thurman.
Focus amongst many communities including black and South Asian countries that lighter skin is better. Likely remnant of Empire.
@UN: un.org/africarenewal/…
South Asian countries are no different: theguardian.com/world/2015/jul…
And Bollywood actors have come under fire:
nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame…
🗣️ "A kid dies, the blacker the killer, the sweeter the news
And if he's white you give him a chance, he's ill and confused. If he's black he's probably armed, you see him and shoot."
Minorities over-represented in criminal justice system:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZ0OlNkXkAIE5Ia.png)
🗣️ “Black is strugglin' to find your history and tracing it
You don't know the truth about your race 'cause they erasin' it”
British Empire is not taught in Britain. Let alone "Black and British" by @DavidOlusoga
@RunnymedeTrust: runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-p…
🗣️ “Look, black ain't just a single colour, man there's shades to it”
When people say "BAME" or "Africa" or "Asia" we miss the nuance and the great diversity in those places and communities.
🔗: worldmap.harvard.edu/africamap/
🗣️ "Her hair's straight and thick but mine's got waves in it"
African hair has been the basis of discrimination and racism, most recently in the workplace: daily.jstor.org/how-natural-bl…
🔗: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
🗣️ "Black is people namin' your countries on what they trade most...Coast of Ivory, Gold Coast, and the Grain Coast.
But most importantly to show how deep all this pain goes West Africa, Benin, they called it slave coast"
🔗: nytimes.com/interactive/20…
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZ0SubtWkAAyxNE.jpg)
🗣️ They say, “You should be grateful we’re the least racist”.
I say “The least racist is still racist”
And if somebody hasn’t said it
Equality’s a right, it doesn’t deserve credit"
There are huge socio-economic injustices that minorities face.
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/06/02…
🗣️ "How the news treats Kate versus how they treated Meghan"
The double standard was clear between the princesses but disputed by many commentators, show hosts and even on Question Time:
🔗: buzzfeednews.com/article/elliev…
🗣️ "And we still need support for the Windrush generation
Reparations for the time our people spent on plantations."
@MayaGoodfellow: versobooks.com/books/3064-hos…
@freemovementlaw: freemovement.org.uk/briefing-what-…
@JCWI_UK: jcwi.org.uk/windrush-scand…