Black Voice

Patrick Cooper-Duffy | 05.01.2004 16:47 | Analysis | Culture | London

How black and oppressed people are treated by Indy Media.

I realise the Indy Media team work under great pressure and do a important job.My concern is how oppressed people/the other ie the treatment of black people .Lord Patch a young West Indian poet based in Canada was rubbished and the post seems to be removed.
I would make the observations ?The impression I have is of very little ideas and a fear of both blackness and of violence.When the violence perpetuated is revealed people kind of run.If you look BZ the Police keep kicking me to death,despite the radical rhetroic he seems to has lost much of that earlier honesty.

Lord Patch seems to be given voice to a West Indian experience in Canadia .This is often sited as a good example of race relations.My little research indicates some what differently.Given the range of issue and its importance.Why not give the man a chance.Here is one of his poems.

Spring st Hustle
By: Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite
Can you hear how the Rock is alludin/to broken buildins/housin human traffic/movin through dead dreams/of government chemical infestion/Westlin souls/you abondon/familia and inspirations/See yourself runnin for the pipe dreams of alchemey/livin a bakin soda vida/Yuh life vaporized in the fumes of ammonia/Watch yuh/clock yuh/blind yuh/Crytalized inna jibbi sucka misconcept/naw yuh livin a life of delusion/weighted inna mathematical equation/a mental project/simple subtraction /3 eyes down to none

About this poem:
The city of Victoria, BC in Canada is attempting to turn my Hood of Fernwood into a cracked out ghetto because we are poor and mulitracial and ethnic. We are working-class. The other option is they gentrify it = which is the plan after the property value sinks low enough. Copyright © 2003 by Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite &

Do please keep up the good work and solidarity.
Best Wishes Patrick Cooper-Duffy

Patrick Cooper-Duffy

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Words

05.01.2004 20:05

I read the post and it worked as rap poetry (if it don't exist, i just invented it)
I kindof liked it. It was written because someone gives a shit about the shit.I think its been pulled because its not news related, having just been to look and read the guidelines. Maybe there is another place for this...
if there isn't, there should be. i don't think that it is a question of how black people are treated by indymedia, just a question of what indymedia is for??
heather

heather

What is new or news in Racism

06.01.2004 11:00

Thankyou Heather for your kind and helpful words.When BZ refuses a reward OBE that is news but when a blackman ojects to dope dealing and the degrading of his environment that is not newsworthy.There are political points to be made regards narco-capitalism.Often the whole issue of racism and oppression is seen as natural.Many years after the death of Steven Lawrence justice seems very distant.Other posts were permited to stay book burning,gender issues media lens.It would be good if Indy Media helped in this debate because it is sorely needed.
Patrick

Patrick Cooper-Duffy

poetry / art / culture

06.01.2004 15:31

There's lots of disagreement within indy volunteers about art / poetry etc

Some people want to see pics posted, others object to cartoonists like latuff posting their work to every imc around the world regularly, others think pictures should not be posted, but maybe it's ok if it's been done with a spraycan on the side of a billboard (?) etc

The same goes for poetry, some people like it others don't. Ive seen some stay and some go, it's not a colour / race issue, though of course you can make it so by bringing in the colour or culture of the poster.

There is a 'culture' section on indy though:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/topics/culture/

squibble

The importance of Free Speech

07.01.2004 19:51

It is not a easy matter sorting out our heads.Should we not welcome every opportunity or chance to do so.
If We Must Die

IF we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain;
then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Claude McKay

http://www.nathanielturner.com/claudemckay.htm
During his address to the American Congress in his effort to encourage American aid and American entry in the fight against German nazism, Winston Churchill, UK prime minister, concluded his speech by a reading of McKay's famous poem "If We Must Die." Uncertainty exists whether Churchill was aware of the source and intent of McKay's sonnet, which was a response to the 1919 wave of Negro lynchings in the American South. Doubtless, the sentiments of the poem were universal and in the then historical context of a colonial power, ironic..
Patrick

Patrick Cooper-Duffy

Blood, Sweat and Plagiarism

07.01.2004 20:32

I reckon Winston Churchill knew what he was doing. His ability to function as a wartime leader was rooted in his rhetorical skills. His exploitation of McKay's poem functions on the same level as the way imperialism exploits its subjects.

Al-Ghazzali
Homepage: http://www.paki.tv

Capitalism and Imperialism

08.01.2004 10:20

Al- an astute comment on both Churchill and Imperialism.I think the formulation use to be bread and roses.People need more than the basics-Marley Me belly full but me still hungery.People want and need more and that this why there should be a space for .Indeed if we detach and laugh at our oppressors.We might gain something from that.Keep up the good work and happy New Year.
Patrick

Patrick Cooper-Duffy