Archive for category: R.I.P’d Off!

“I’m gonna knock you out

Mama said knock you out…”

Mama Said Knock You Out ~ LL Cool J

So, full disclosure, I didn’t write a blog last week as I’d been in a bit of a funk due to this and that and *almost all of it a negative vibe.

It’s possibly my hormones, but I’ve been feeling hella emotional of late, and an Instagram post of a social experiment had me feeling all kinds of a way, despite me knowing better. There were 2 blind guys, one Black and the other White with a guide stick and dark glasses on and they had them individually walk down a high street and side up to a member of the public who was the opposite colour to them and hold on to their arm for support.

The results spoke volumes. When the white guy approached the Black people all but two continued to allow him to hold on and help guide him, and even then there were other Black folk with the 2 who didn’t help who stepped in and took their place and helped him. 

Reverse the roles and every White person shrugged him off and went about their business.

I felt that. And that’s just it, we feel shit. I’m not saying we’re perfect, and as is the same for most ethnicities there are the bad, uncaring and or prejudice/racist ones; but I believe for most of us our levels of empathy and capacity to love is greater than most. It’s almost as if it’s been passed down with all of the trauma, trials and tribulations of our ancestors. We understand what it’s like to suffer and be made to feel a lesser person and would more time choose love over hate. We will still give it regardless of whether or not we get it back.

Obviously you’d be a little startled at a stranger grabbing your arm out of the blue, I’m pretty sure I would be, but after assessing the situation there’s no way I’m not going to help, whatever colour you may be you’re human first. From the time those White folk assessed the circumstances and still decided to walk on by you know exactly where their minds were at. For some no matter what position we’re in we’ll always be a threat.

This is why when I hear things like, “I don’t see colour” or “If you stop talking about racism it will stop existing” it annoys the hell out of me. All you have to do is look at HisStory to see that’s a crock of shit. They would rather delete and deny their misdeeds or try to spin it and make it appear they were doing us a favour than admit it; and if we allow that to happen we leave the door wide open for them to try their fuckery again as it’s clear some are just waiting for those good ol’ days to return!

It’s people of that mindset that caused my mood to lift extensively and why I’m still laughing days later. I’ve said it time and again but, I FUCKING LOVE US!!!

If you don’t know you need to google the Alabama brawl. Long story short, a Black dock worker was minding his business and doing his job when a group of entitled White folk decided to start antagonising him, all under the watchful eye of a boat load of passengers and staff waiting to dock. True to their red neck roots, their energy took hold and they thought they’d assert their superiority and hit him. Well!! My brother threw up his cap and sent out the signal.

It started as one on one but when he started to get the better of the White dude his friends jumped in – and that’s when the magic happened. The Black folk cried a collective ‘Not today!’ – and it was on! It really needs to be seen to be believed as I can’t do the running commentary justice! It was a beautiful sight to behold.

Hear me when I say I don’t do violence. I can’t even stand watching boxing, BUT I’m a BIG believer in if someone hits you, tump their claart right back – especially in these circumstances. My mum always told me that and I’ve told my girls too. Turning the other cheek or being the bigger person and walking away only allows them to hit you again on the other side or push you down from behind. Their generations done had their fun and games with us – the buck has well and truly stopped here. 

Fuck around and you gon’ find out. You start it and we will finish it. That’s a **S.U.R.T! Just like those White folk in Montgomery we’ll show and prove that despite what you may think we can come together as one – and swim!🤣…well some of us anyway! I’m your stereotypical but working on it.😅

Shoutout to ‘Blaquaman’ Aaren, the young King who jumped from the boat and swam to the dock workers aid. I can only imagine the adrenaline levels to swim fully clothed and still have the energy to fight. Bravo young man. You set many examples that day without even realising it.

Another shoutout goes to the Montgomery Chair! One brother got creative and used a folding chair to fight them off!🤣…allegedly…👀…I hear they’re looking for him and I know nothing.🤷🏾‍♀️…👀…

Talking of creativity, the Black internet is truly undefeated when it comes to bussing jokes! I’ve laughed ‘til I cried seeing some of the memes, videos and songs in response. One thing about us is we’re gonna find a way to have a joke no matter the situation – and we know how to do it well!

But we can’t be all smiles all of the time. We have our limits and Black people on a whole have surpassed theirs when it comes to so called White superiority and supremacy. Pardon my French but you can suck out! I’m all for peace and love for all mankind, but my kind will get a bigger portion every time; and if my thoughts and sentiments disturb you or make you see me in a different light that’s on you. I’m good! 

Too many who have no real experience of what it’s actually like to live as a Black person wanna come and chat the most sheggery on how things should be and how we should behave. No, you shouldn’t have to big up your colour or creed but we’ve been done down for too long, despite bringing our culture, flavour and swag to every corner of the Earth, and we’ve learned the hard way that if we don’t show us love and stand up for us no one else will. Granted some of us could do with working on our unity a lot more but such is life. The rest of us will continue whilst you catch up.

I honestly could have burst with pride seeing that video. I love my people. I love my colour and I love myself enough to know that I will never let any White person try me or us – and I make no apologies. Y’all can have several seats!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvDFA_VIK2D/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Link to the social experiment

R.I.P to all those who have lost their lives this week.

Happy Chapter Six Wedding Anniversary to the Mr.😍

Love you long time King.🖤💚

*I visited the site of the new Daily Deposits home!😍 I can’t wait for the magic to commence!

**S.U.R.T – Straight Up Real Talk! Always!

Try Me And See! Stay Blessed & #CelebrateLife

I put off writing about the current events happening in the world in regards to the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement for a reason. It was because I wanted to repost the previous R.I.P’d Off blogs to show and prove that this isn’t a new phenomenon and some of us have been shouting about it for years.

Yesterday I changed my mind, and it was in part thanks to a White ‘friend’. It all started with a post on Facebook. She was up in arms and disgusted at the London mayors proposal to possibly remove the statues of figureheads around the town with connections to profiteering from slavery.

She made her feelings quite clear. It’s just disgusting, history is history and it makes her so pissed. The majority of her friends agreed with her and commented about how we (Black people) wanted to try and rewrite history or erase it. They also spoke about the holocaust and how the Jews don’t carry on and make such a fuss so what’s our problem?

It’s funny how quickly and easy it is to be dismissed and perceived as the ‘angry Black woman’ when all you’ve done is politely speak your mind.

This is what I wrote back in response:

No one is asking to forget or rewrite history. They are asking you to acknowledge that this ‘great’ country was made great off of the backs of slaves. If it’s history and we should forget about it why are you getting all up in your feelings by having them removed? Shouldn’t you be doing the same? And comparing it to the holocaust is a joke. You acknowledge the holocaust and reparations were given for their treatment. We’re told, yeah it happened and what? Here’s a reminder on the daily! Whether they’re in public or in a museum where they belong it doesn’t change what happened in the past – but you could at least acknowledge the impact they may have on us.

My ‘friend’ saw fit to bypass and ignore my response, yet continued to interact and like other posts of those who shared her sentiment. As you can see I didn’t cuss, I just tried to politely put my point across but obviously that was too much. I scrolled back on her page and saw that this was the first mention she’d made of anything that had gone on previously in regards to this subject.

No disgust at the murder of George Floyd or support or empathy for her black friends – just anger over statues that I very much doubt she even knew existed before they were highlighted in the press, but such is life! I left it at that and moved on.

So then we come to Saturday, and the patriotic counter-protesters (🙄) who were supposedly protecting these precious statues in London by getting bladdered, fighting police, fighting each other, pissing on monuments, terrorising picnickers and generally being a bunch of racist, small minded dicks.

Funnily enough she had nothing to say about them. Crickets all round. But she did see fit to post about a Black pedophile who caused tremendous hurt and damage to a little girl. She was rightly disgusted and wanted him named and shamed.

Now, I understand her disgust fully and personally I hope he rots in whatever prison he’s in, but that post was over a year old and considering the current climate we’re in, I figured there were more important issues we should be focusing on today than to rile people up over something abhorrent that had already been dealt with.

So again I responded:

You’re right, he is a totally disgusting specimen and deserves all that he gets and then some. But I’ve gotta ask why you’re sharing something over a year old and you’ve got nothing to say about the mob that went out on Saturday to “protect” the statues you care so much about? Oh, my bad, is that classed as history too now it’s Tuesday and to be forgotten? Bye Felicia!🖐🏾

I decided that I couldn’t be arsed and unfriended her. She’d already shown me all I needed to see. But I was informed she responded back by saying she has nothing to say because she’s fucking sick to the back teeth of it all, Black, White, yellow, she doesn’t care. She just wishes everyone would get on. Seriously I need to calm down and she’s all for peace.

I need to calm down. Hmmm….

If you check it, it was she who wrote the angry post about statues and agreed with all of her angry little friends. I don’t recall her telling any of them to calm down and we should all get on. Not once did I use a cuss word or angry faced emoji, yet she did and so did her angry friends.

Yet I should calm down.

Black, White, yellow – she doesn’t care, but diss a concrete statue and it’s on! She’s got time to care about that!

She then decided to private message a family member – not me, and spin those go to lines of certain white folk of growing up with Black people and having mixed race family.

Can someone please explain to me just what the fuck that’s suppose to prove?

She also added that all this bitterness is getting no one anywhere. Which bitterness would that be? Me politely calling her out or the bitterness spewed out by herself and her angry little friends over statues? #AnswersOnAPostcard

It’s funny how quickly and easy it is to be dismissed and perceived as ‘the angry Black woman’ when all you’ve done is politely speak your mind. She’s not the first one to describe me in such a way, and as I really don’t give a fuck I’m sure she won’t be the last either.

It’s all good for her to be sick to the back teeth of it, but she was over it after 3 weeks. Try a lifetime then come at me! See how sick, tired, fed up, frustrated, confused, upset, disappointed, downhearted and pissed she feels then. And that’s just a few emotions at the tip of the iceberg.

Whilst her fellow patriots were busy ‘protecting’ statues and not being a menace to society in the slightest, I was busy at a peaceful protest on the same day in a local park. It was a beautiful day with no trouble and good vibes. Everyone came together for a common cause and it was truly a sight to see. I was asked to give a speech and admit to feeling flattered that they would ask but also nervous. I’m really not a limelight girl or public speaker, but I felt the need to come out of my comfort zone and show my support.

For the ‘friend’ who chose to ignore our plight and the rest of my readers I’ll end with the speech I gave. I hope it gives a little more understanding and incite into why we feel the way we do.

In life there comes a time when you look at a certain situation and come to the conclusion that enough is enough. I’d reached my limit a good while ago, but the horrific, public murder of George Floyd became the straw that broke the camels back for a lot more of us.

His murder may have been the catalyst for these protests and current events, but it is by no means the only reason why we find ourselves taking to the streets. For centuries the tale has been the same. Depending on how far back you go, HIStory will tell you of how great a country is, but deny or try to sweep under the carpet the reality of how that greatness came to be – and racism is key!

We have been – and for a lot of people will always be seen as the dregs of society. To be used, abused and disposed of accordingly. Racism runs deep within the police force and governments, home and away, and the reality is they were not created to benefit the likes of us. Only now are we slowly beginning to see change, but even still, the level of justice that is mete out to White people is highly disproportionate to those of colour.

They will throw statistics at us to prove our plight is a myth and we literally doth protest too much, but actions will always speak louder than words or figures on a page. It’s funny how people are incensed and raging over the removal of statues, but not outraged at the brutal loss of life they represent. That in itself speaks volumes. It seems like no matter what we do, or how we do it, someone will take issue with us telling the world that our lives matter and we deserve to be treated with respect.

You don’t even have to go way back to 1775 to highlight things. For example, look at how they handled the murders of Steven Lawrence and Mark Duggan. In 2015 the last reparations to slave owners was paid out. In 2015! It’s nearly 3 years to the day that the Grenfell fire broke out, with very little progress made in the enquiry and the Windrush scandal is still ongoing. I could happily stand here all day and give you example after example but what we really need is change. The system has been proven to be broken and corrupt from the core and desperately needs to be addressed and fixed, but that is not something we can do alone.

This is not a Black and White issue, it’s a humanitarian one. There are plenty that hate us but also an equal measure that have shown love and support from the start and from the heart. I know plenty who actually get it and understand that our cry isn’t about being selfish, it’s about being treated equally, respectfully and with dignity.

They are aware that White privilege is very real and they benefit from it on a daily basis without having to try. They understand that the privilege is the ease to walk and talk freely without fear of repercussions based purely on the colour of their skin. But to those who say that they are not racist or don’t see colour it has to be said that that is not enough. For real change to be made you need to be anti racism and acknowledge that yes, we are different shades, but it doesn’t make us lesser people.
I want you to see my melanin and embrace it, not deny it exists.

I’ll never forget my first racist encounter, and it was in this very town not far from here, by a blonde haired, blue eyed boy who spat at me and called me a nigger whilst I was simply minding my own business walking down the back of the high street. I’d love to say that that was my one and only experience but it hasn’t been. To those who have been lucky enough to not experience any racism so far in their lives, I’m happy for you, but please don’t dismiss those that have as talking nonsense. Who feels it knows it.

So, where do we go from here? Well, you’re never too old to learn, and it’s never too late for change. Racism isn’t genetic. To the White people who want to make a difference start by teaching your children to love not hate and educate yourselves on the real history of how your countries became so ‘great’.
Try to empathise and put yourselves in our shoes before you judge us.

To my fellow brethren, especially those who live in Slough, I say this; we need to focus on us and feel no way about it, and that’s not being divisive, it’s about coming together as one and celebrating us. Throughout the years I have seen nearly every other ethnic minority pull together and support their own without any issue. It’s more than time for us to do the same. It can be achieved we just need trust in each other, faith and to believe.

You can’t have a community without unity, and to the ladies that organised this protest today, my husband Chris Biggs, Rebecca Richardson, Tina Brooks, Tanya and Claudine Brooks-Carty, Anita Herbert and those who have already started in paving the way I thank you.
To the parents out there I’ll end with this, we need to teach our children that these postcode wars and fighting each other will get us nowhere and is bullshit! We will always be stronger together!

R.I.P George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and all those who have lost their lives this week.

It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy and blogging, for me, is a welcome release. Unfortunately I’m dealing with an ongoing issue that, to be completely honest, is draining but necessary.

The endless emails I’ve had to write took the joy out of me wanting to pick up my iPad and reel off to whoever chooses to actually READ my thoughts. (And I truly do appreciate and applaud you all – you’re a dying breed!). Then after watching the news recently I felt the old spark return and compelled to write.

You see part of my problem is having to deal with various government bodies and if I ever needed a picture of how fucked up this cuntry can be I have been shown with clarity. These recent events have just confirmed that they really are incredible. And not in a good way.

For those of you who pay any attention to the news, and especially those who still believe the lie being told and sold to the masses that Grate Britain isn’t run by a bunch of incompetent racists, your eyes should have been well and truly opened over the past couple of weeks. You will notice I’ve always spelt it as Grate Britain and now you know why. They constantly have the ability to rub you up the wrong way.

Yes, it’s the place of my birth and there are far worse places I could have been born in, trust me I’m aware and thankful, but that doesn’t mean because there are worse places I should accept their bad. I fully expect to receive the obligatory eye rolls and shouts of ‘sod off back to where you came from then!’, but I honestly couldn’t give a fuck.

You’ve gotta hand it to team GB – they’ve got balls! They’ll take pride in regaling on the past but conveniently omit the darker parts – pun fully intended – and tell us we need to let things go. The reality is a cuntry that at various time’s throughout history have invaded almost 90% of the planet doesn’t make you great, it makes you opportunist bullies and users.

You don’t even have to dig too deep to discover how the majority of the businesses that made you “great” were funded by the blood, sweat and tears of a lot of black and brown folk – you know, somewhere around the time you were being paid compensation for your loss of livestock after getting rich from years of free labour.

Fast forward to the present day and here you are again trying it! Only this time it’s not as easy to sweep us under the carpet. You colonised and created the commonwealth to benefit you all the while maintaining you were doing a good thing to help out those poor, unfortunate and uncivilised black souls. Thank God for the British rule. However did we manage before you came along?

It’s nice to jet off to your holiday home in the Caribbean to top up your tan and sip on a rum punch, yet when the storm comes and we’re looking at you for assistance we’re somehow not sheltered under your umbrella-ella-ella-eh EH? And you wonder why they took so long when the hurricanes struck! That’s the problem with sticking your oar in and announcing your authority. At some point people are going to question your interference and ask you to show and prove.

YOU asked for the so called ‘Windrush Generation’ to come over here and they came to meet a cold front on many levels yet knuckled down and grafted hard to build you up again. There’s no denying their contribution and this is how you repay them. When I hear stories of people denied cancer treatment or stuck in the Caribbean unable to make it home for their mothers funeral it makes my blood boil and my heart sink.

You’d rather real terrorist threats stay here yet deport people who have proved their worth and dedication for decades. At the very least they could have kept the boarding cards as memorabilia before putting them in a shredder and throwing them out with the rubbish, but it says it all really.

You may have offered up Amber Rudd as the sacrificial lamb and replaced her with a token figure to try to placate us, but that don’t mean a thing. This shit runs deep and has been flowing for a lot longer than I’d realised. Now they want to add insult to injury and have voted against public disclosure. Why Grate Britain? What more have you got to hide? It can’t be much worse than what we’re aware of surely, and if it is you may as well rip the bandage off and fix the issue. It’s ok – we’re not going anywhere.

3 years in remission today! Woop! Woop!

R.I.P little cuz Aliyah and to all those who have lost their lives this week

⚠️Warning: There’s strong language from the start. If you are easily offended you may want to allow this one!

Now I don’t want to bring a negative vibe, and to be fair this week hasn’t been all bad, but have you ever had one where you’ve dealt with or heard the most eye twitching, head shaking, brain numbing, frustrating, teeth gritting, blood boiling, deep breath inducing, would-be-funny-if-it-wasn’t-so-sad FUCKERY? I have, and coming from fellow brothers and sisters it’s quite disheartening. And as I’m the sharing type, I’ll give you a whiff of the shit I’ve happened across along my merry way.

Firstly I’m going to address the words of Ben Carson, who is the current US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Trump administration. Now this man is a legend in his own right.

Before losing his mind he was the Director of Paediatric Neurosurgery from 1984 until his retirement in 2013 and performed some truly amazing and pioneering surgeries in his time, including the only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. Phenomenal! This man has worked wonders and has more accolades than you can shake a stick at which deserves a big WOW, and he’s still performing wonders by managing to prove how highly intelligent people can function whilst suffering from severe brain damage.

Mr Carson gave a speech on Monday which included this gem; “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”

Really Ben? Really!? I’d hazard a guess that wasn’t the kind of dreams they were having whilst being forcibly taken from their homeland and shackled in the bottom of a ship, and if they were, it wasn’t that land of prosperity and happiness they wanted to see their family thrive in. Samuel L. Jackson summed it up neatly in one tweet! I know his use of the word motherf****r is a harsh one but it derives from a time where Mr Carson’s mind seems to have lapsed back to.

I heard there was a new superbug called the DJT45 Virus that’s infecting the brains of the susceptible and it has a whole host of nasty side effects – it’s possible he’s caught a dose. Or maybe he went one surgery too far and experimented on himself with disastrous results – his grey matter fading to a funky shade of off white, causing severe damage to the realness neurone. Shit can happen!

Either way, what was he thinking? How can he seriously compare the two? (They were both rhetorical questions by the way). He’s shown us what he is; a White House N****r plain and simple. He’s backtracked on what he’s said now but with little effect. The damage had already been done from the time he decided it would be appropriate to air that fuckery in the first place. #TakeTenBenAndLie Down

Moving swiftly on, I watched a 10 minute video that in itself evoked all the emotions in the first paragraph. It was of two men (well, one man and one wasteman) discussing what was happening on the streets today. The wasteman chose to keep his face hidden and pixelated for anonymity, though he’s apparently friends with the interviewer and they didn’t do anything to disguise his voice so if you’re from their “ends” I’m sure you’ll know who he is.

In all honesty just listening to him speak made me want to punch that cunt in the throat. Anyway, I’ve digressed from my main point which is it was a very candid discussion with this “man” explaining how things work. The first thing I noticed was how he got quite defensive when described as a roadman. He made it clear he’s not a roadman fam! He gets the youth to move the food (drugs) so he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, yet it’s ok for him to have our youth doing his dirty work for him. But what does it matter, they’re getting paid right?

He purposely targets and encourages vulnerable children, especially those with no father figures in their lives, with a flash of the cash and a promise they’ll be living large and don’t have to work a £7.20 pittance of a job. He tells it straight – they are easy targets and a great catch when you get them young. He is the role model they’re looking up to.

In this day and age where material things mean more than anything the temptation is mighty real for a lot of them out there and he’s the modern day Fagin, sowing the seeds in impressionable young minds. Yet, when asked about his own children he was adamant that they would never be a part of that life, never get trapped.

He went as far as pulling what I think was a bullet out of his pocket to reiterate the lengths he would go to to protect them but he continued to glamourise the life and suck other people’s children in. If it’s so great, why wouldn’t he want it for his own flesh and blood? Hypocrisy much?

He touched on risks and consequences but they were only mentioned in regards to what would happen should someone lose his goods or try to swindle him and very little to do with the hard time they’d be doing should they get caught, in fact he stated that he’s not about going to jail which is why he encourages the youngers to do his bidding.

He blatantly mocked the interviewers good intentions and told him he could send out all the positive vibes he wants – they ain’t listening! The legitimate life is not the one that is going to get them the things they want. He’s making the most of the situation because that’s life and the way of the street. He made a good point on some of the wotless mothers out there who know what their child is doing, but as long as they’re bringing home that paper, it’s all good! No bitch, it’s not!

But then a lot of those mothers were babies having babies with not a lick of common sense so it’s inevitable that they’d think that way. Thankfully his words were not enough to put his friend off, and he eventually became so disgusted with their talk that he cut it short stating that he would continue to try and get through to the youths, which brings me to my conclusion on this subject.

I had a discussion recently about what they should be teaching our kids in school. I said that real life skills and knowledge should be on the curriculum where as my friend said it should be taught at home. My point is just because people become parents it doesn’t automatically mean they have what it takes to raise a child and teach them how to survive in the real world. Not all are cut out for the role or deserve the title and a lot of them are less mature than their bloody kids!

School is where you go to learn so teach them things that will help them once they pass the school gates. I would love to see people like the interviewer go into schools armed with things like the video and break it down to the kids – the same way the wasteman recruits them when they’re young, they need to know to watch out for these predators from young too.

Play the footage, pause it and make them understand each statement and that matey isn’t working in your best interest but his. As much as he seems like a father figure he wouldn’t have his own son or daughter living the life he wants you to so how has he got you? #RealTalkIsTheKey

The last waft of fuckery falls under the unnecessary bracket! Understand I am a superwoman of sorts, but I admit I am lacking in certain abilities – like flying and mind reading. It has come to light recently that I’ve upset a friend because of my inability to do the latter.

Apparently I should automatically know what they are thinking or how they are feeling and make them my priority despite what is happening in my life or their inability to be adult enough to tell me to my face or respond to communications. I can only imagine how I’m being portrayed by said friend as they can be quite a character to say the least, but at 42 I know my worth and am well over playground antics.

I have more than enough sincere and genuine friends in my life to have me begging anyone’s friendship so move and go ‘long with your petty fuckery, I’ve got bigger and more important fish to fry!
Rant over! Over and out!!

R.I.P to ally hose who have lost their lives this week.

Big belated love to all of the women of the world for Women’s Day!

Allow The Fuckery, Stay Blessed & #CelebrateLife