Journal
Window is a journal Maria Amidu started in January 2016, it is a repository for her random musings on significant and insignificant things
telling the truth
"They are lucky black people are looking for equality and not revenge" Kimberley Jones, author
joined up thinking
ever seen these words together in a sentence: black + fragility, white + minority ethnic... EXACTLY, that's how insidious this shit is
all lives matter...
...to the people who keep lingering at the back, this is precisely the point, all lives do matter, so why do us the melaninated keep getting treated as if our lives don't matter... Discuss.
we all know...
...from past experience that there is going to be a point when white people will start saying: 'why do you keep going on and on about being black' 'okay can you stop going on about being black now, you're making me feel uncomfortable'; and I can guarantee that all the organisations who took part in #blackouttuesday who didn't really pay attention before George Floyd got murdered in front of our eyes are saying: 'okay, so when will it be okay to start posting our stuff again' 'will tomorrow be too soon' and my answer to that question is this: actually, only when supremacism has been eradicated and us the melaninated are free to live the carefree, privileged and protected lives you do
changing the narrative
after watching Simon Frederick in conversation with Jay Blades on Instagram and Simon saying we need a new word for what people do to us (along the spectrum, see previous post) from saying "but you're lovely" (1) to kneeling on our necks and killing us in front of an audience (100), I have been thinking about this all night......maybe we need to swap racism for supremacism: an ideology which holds that a certain class of people is superior to others, and that it should be or is entitled to dominate, control, subjugate, and/or eliminate others according to Wikipedia
I am not the explainer
for the people who ask what can I do, I know I am not a racist, this is the last thing I'll say: dig deep into the dark places of yourself (Jane Elliott and Brene Brown will help you) because what you do and say now is not necessarily what you did and said when you were 8 or 12 or 19, it might be guilt and shame you are concealing from yourself; this is very, very difficult work but if you believe in a completely anti-racist world this is the work that needs to be done to change society; you have also been gaslighted
radical kindness
privileged white women - your words - please stop sharing how you feel with me, I cannot be expected to hold your emotions as well as my own, your #iamnotok is not the same as my I am not okay, I hope you understand why I am telling you this, and believe me when I tell you it takes courage to write these words
#dothework #jamesbaldwin #renieddolodge #brenebrown #janeelliott
word collecting
"wanna know why you ain't figured it out just yet, been reading the books by Morrison and West, been reading the books you ain't read"
an example
I do not walk down the street saying I am black I am black I am black, I am just walking down the street when someone across the street points and says you are black you are black you are black, and this pointing comes in various guises, day in and day outI mean fuck, how are we supposed to hold ourselves together when this shitty behaviour is constantly invading our spaceplease just stop doing it, please
