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A digest of news, information, ideas and opinions to keep you up-to-date on the Black Experience in Britain, and world wide.
Press views
Black Press
The New Nation
- CRE to probe med schools, by Ross Slater.
The Commission for Racial Equality is threatening 'strong action' against medical schools after figures showed that black students were failing to win places.
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100 years old and still feisty.
Betsy Prayer is the elder of all elders. Last week the Jamaican-born mother-of-seven became the first black person in Britain to reach 100.
14 June 1999.
The Voice
- Comment on debt repayment crisis: As the poor struggle to repay debts, their people are quite literally dying. It is as simple as that. Yet while Tony Blair and his western allies shed crocodile tears over refugees from Kosovo, plastering their plight all over our TV screens to justify war, they have not given the same coverage to the horrendous state of affairs that conspires to rob the world's impoverished countries of their futures.
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On GM foods: It is high time Black people entered the debate about food production [and genetically modified food] in Britain.
Do we have any evidence about the relationship between the kinds of diets and food preparation amongst Black people and their health implications, both good and bad?
There's a food war going on out there and we need to make our voice heard.
14 June 1999.
Mainstream Press
The Times
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Rosa Parks Honoured. President Clinton presented the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour Congress can bestow. Ms Park's refusal to give up her seat on an Alabama bus to a white man caused the bus boycott by blacks that led to the Supreme Court decision that bus segregation was unconstitutional
The Express
The Independent
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Imran Khan
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Lawrence solicitor is honoured for six-year battle for justice.
Imran Khan, the solicitor who has represented the parents of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence during their six-year battle for justice, will tomorrow be named the legal personality of the year. The prestigious award, sponsored by The Lawyer, is voted on by members of the legal profession.
Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent, 21 June 1999.
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Beethoven rolls over as syllabus gets jazzed up.
Jazz greats including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Thelonius Monk are pushing aside Bach, Beethoven and Mozart in school music lessons.
Nearly 1,300 children have taken piano exams at grade one year of teaching, putting jazz on par with classical courses, and sales of coursebooks have exceeded 100,000.
Ben Russell, Education Correspondent, 12 June 1999.
The Observer
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Queen Charlotte
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Queen Elizabeth II
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Revealed: the Queen's black ancestors.
The connection had been rumoured but never proved. The royal family has hidden credentials that make its members appropriate leaders of Britain's multicultural society. It has black and mixed race royal ancestors who have never been publicly acknowledged.
[Among them] Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, was directly descended from the illegitimate son of an African mistress in the Portuguese royal house.
A more recent African connection is that of Prince Philip's aunt, Nadja, who married George Mountbatten in 1916. Nadja was the great-granddaughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who had black ancestry.
Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Eduardo Goncalves, 6 June 1999.
The Sunday Times
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Private views of senior BBC officials questioned.
Limits on the number of homes black people could buy were once advocated by Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of the BBC, in articles on Britain's "immigrant problem".
As a young Tory activist during the 1960s, Bland produced several controversial reports for a Conservative think tank [the Bow Group]. In one article, he welcomed "generous" schemes to assist voluntary repatriation...
One black community leader [Lee Jaspar, director of the 1990 Trust]... said such comments bordered on racism..."It is completely inappropriate for somebody at the BBC to have views that are even mildly discriminatory."
Maurice Chittenden, "BBC chairman wanted curb on black housing", The Sunday Times, 13 June 1999.
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In his own defence, Bland has denied holding discriminatory and racialist views, saying:
"As chair of the BBC, I support initiatives on workforce composition targets (in relation to gender and ethnic origin). I am proud that, although I inherited an entirely white board of governors, I have helped to ensure that we now have two governors from an Afro-Caribbean and an Indian background. I have always been a passionate believer in racial equality."
Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman, BBC, The Times Letters to the Editor column 20 June 1999
London/Evening Press
The Evening Standard
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Ken's Rival for Mayor sparks race row.
Ken Livingstone was today accused of racism by his Labour rival for the post of London mayor, Trevor Phillips, as the context suddenly turned ugly.
Mr. Phillips hit out at an offer from Mr Livingstone to recruit him as deputy mayor. That, he said, was "arrogant and patronising."
"All of us who come from minority communities get rather used to and fed up of, any time we emerge on the public scene, people treating us as apprentices,"
Charles Reiss, 16 June 1999.
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Court's Caribbean Shine.
Booming business in the Caribbean more than made up for a sharp slump in domestic profits last year at Court's, the furniture and electrical products retailer that has extensive operations overseas, writes Fiona Walsh.
Hit by a near 6% fall in underlying sales, profits earned in Britain slumped by £10.6 million to £900,000 in the year to end March. But operating profits rose 2% to £49.9 million, boosted by double-digit sales growth in places such as Jamaica and Grenada.
Business Day, 16 June 1999.
Voices
A Life in the Day of....
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Velma Davis
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Velma Davis ('60-few' years old) is a retired nurse and an institution in London's Notting Hill. From her three-bedroomed house off Ladbroke Grove she cooks up fish cakes for [Virgin company boss] Richard Branson, and baby-sits [BBC tv manager] Alan Yentob's children. Last year, at the local swimming pool, she was recruited for a fashion shoot for Vogue. Velma (known as Vee) has three children, Kirt, Abdul Karim and Kenrick, and five grand-children.
She says: "Notting Hill is the only area I've known for 40 years...During Carnival I usually sell fish cakes, bakes - like fried dumplings - and jerk chicken.
I'm never stressed out. Even if the Queen came tomorrow, we'd just sit and chat. "How are the grandchildren?" I'd give her fish cakes with a lot of chilli. Burn her twice - going in and coming out. I don't care who you are, you're no better than me. I'll still sleep easy."
Interview by Richard Johnson, with photograph.
The Times, May 23, 1999
The latest news from the Institute of Race Relations...
The web site has been updated with a discussion forum where you can add your comments and discuss issues with other website users: http://www.homebeats.co.uk/discus/. We are hoping that this might be used as an opportunity for serious debate on the issues facing us today, especially how we move forward after the Lawrence Inquiry. As well as this, the online resources section has been revamped and
updated http://www.homebeats.co.uk/resources/ and we have also added a
complete index of all back issues of the IRR journal Race & Class which
are still available to buy
http://www.homebeats.co.uk/publications/rcissues.htm.
A World to Win, essays in honour of A. Sivanandan, appear in the forthcoming special double issue of Race & Class. It features tributes to a key player in the anti-racist, anti-fascist and black movements, on his 75th birthday. Reflections on the struggles of our time from Herman Ouseley, David Edgar, John Pilger, Wilfred Wood, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Ken Leech, Colin Prescod, Chris Searle, Aijaz Ahmed, Melissa Benn and others.
The European Race Bulletin is also available. It is the only comprehensive digest of race relations in Europe, collating and summarising news reports from paper, magazines,
NGOs and campaigns in every European country. Published four times a year, the Bulletin is essential reading for students, academics, researchers, campaigners, policy makers, educationalists, lawyers and all those concerned about racism, fascism and democracy around Europe.
For prices and more information, see:
http://www.homebeats.co.uk/publications/
Arun Kundnani, Institute of Race Relations,
tel: +44 (0) 171 837 0041
fax: +44 (0) 171 278 0623
http://www.homebeats.co.uk/
info@homebeats.co.uk
People in the News
Stephen Lawrence Scholarship
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Steven Lawrence
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"One day I hope to be standing next to the person who was given the scholarship and for them to achieve the goal in life that was denied Stephen," says Mrs. Doreen Lawrence responding to gift of an anonymous benefactor to set up a scholarship in her son's name.
The scholarship is tenable at the Architectural Association school of architecture in London. It is intended for a student who would be eligible to study at the AA but could not otherwise afford the cost.
The recipient will receive full fees for the 1999/2000 year and enquiries are particularly sought from members of ethnic minorities. Candidates will be invited to submit a portfolio of their work to a scholarship panel, which will include a member of the Stephen Lawrence Trust.
For further information contact:
The Admissions officer,
Architectural Association school of architecture
Tel: 0171-887-4052; Fax: 0171-414-0779
e-mail: admissions@arch-assoc.org.uk
Baroness Amos acts for Government on women and development issues
Baroness Valerie Amos, Government spokesperson for international development in the House of Lords, lectured on Women in Development at the Royal Commonwealth Society in May.
She is a prominent black woman in the House and serves as Government Whip and spokesperson on international development, women's issues and social security.
Her distinguished career includes acting as chief executive of the equal opportunities commission 1989-1994.
Baroness Amos is a well-known commentator on public policy issues and is member of a range of charities and committees, among them the Board of Governors, Royal College of Nursing Institute, the Afya Trust, promoting equity in health. She is also deputy chair of the Runnymede Trust, a think tank on race relations, a trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research, Project Hope, and Voluntary Service Overseas.
International Perspectives
Melanin in Malaysia: Dark-Skinned And Proud Of It.
I've been thinking! A dangerous pastime, I've been told, but nonetheless I've been thinking. You know how people tell you to accept yourself the way you are and be proud of your uniqueness? Well, lately I've come to realise that these same people are the ones who can't accept you the way you are. I saw an advertisement on television the other day. This particular advertisement was telling me that I was not good enough to grace any party because I am dark skinned! Yeah, I'm coloured. Hey, that was easy. I thought I
would probably choke on admitting that disability, I actually had my sister on standby in case I turned blue (an impossibility given my colour).
Guess what?
This woman in the advertisement was telling me and fellow dark-skinned women that we are simply not good enough because it is just ohhh so much better to be fair skinned. And guess what? For a reasonable price, we could actually be just that - fair! This woman, and I must say we should all admire her courage in admitting her cosmetic ordeal, actually said that she was ashamed of going out
in public before her colour metamorphosis because she was, God forbid! - dark.
Or maybe I should be politically correct here - the woman was
melanin-challenged. But thanks to the wonders of modern science and a trip to the cosmetic counter, she was enlightened (pardon the pun). Like any smart woman, I was immediately contrite. Here I have been going out in public all these years without knowing any better. I'm glad to admit that I have since retreated to my room and am taking my daily food rations through the little crack under my door.
Get a mask
Realising that this is only a short-term measure, I have also started looking for an underground dwelling. Perhaps, a cave somewhere remote would be suitable.
Yeah, and I have stopped going to work and am thinking of getting a mask to get me through those trips to the stores. Or maybe not!
These advertisements are telling me that I'm not good enough because I'm not as fair-skinned as some? Well, the last time I checked, I could still drive a car, operate a computer and perform brain surgery. OK, OK, so maybe I lied about the last one. Actually in all fairness (pardon the pun again) to the advertisers, they weren't saying that I'm not good enough, they were just saying that I'm not attractive enough.
Questions
Which scale was I rated on? I don't remember volunteering for any such research or analysis. The last I checked, my friends and colleagues didn't find me repulsive or try to sign me up for any beauty-care regimes. Well, they did get me to sign something the other day but I'm pretty sure it was just a requisition form.
In fact, and I do say this in all modesty, I have been known to be quite passably attractive. What is the matter with some people anyway? Who gave them the right to judge others? Are the advertisers now tired of picking on fat women and have decided to have a go at a larger target audience? Will they be going after short women
next? Is some woman going to appear on my television screen recounting her vertically challenged days and how she overcame her traumatic past after acquiring some foot contraption that made her irreversibly taller? And while they're at it, why don't they go after women with big feet? God knows they shouldn't be allowed to walk our streets like the rest of us.
Be proud
All I'm saying is that perhaps there are women out there who are proud of the way genetics has shaped and moulded them. Can we give them a chance to walk tall and gain confidence in themselves? Perhaps then we can all concentrate on the more important things in life.
By M. Maheswary.
News Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad.
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