Constance Briscoe: A Sad Fall From Grace

The Twisted Mind of Franklin

 

She became one of Britains first black judges

To come from obscurity

Coming from a childhood of abuse

Depravity and cruelty

She wrote a harrowing memoir

Detailing her childhood abuse

This caused outrage from her family

Prompting her mother to sue

Her mother lost the libel case

And Constance Won

But unfortunately 4 years later

The worst was yet to come

It turned out she lied to police

And tampered with witness statements

Getting caught up in a scandal

Which caused further embarrassment

She worked her arse off

To get to where she is today

And because of one bad choice

She had a sad fall from grace

Her mother Carmen abused her

Physically, mentally & psychologically

Her siblings turned a blind eye

Pretending they didn’t see

Her eldest sister Pauline

Let her down really badly

She saw what really happened

But didn’t come to her time of need

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The Black Man Who Created the Dot-Com Phenomenon

(thanks to Racism is White Supremacy)

Racism Is White Supremacy

When I ran across this story on another website, I knew it was a story that deserved to be told.

Reading the story brought back my early days of surfing the Internet and my first amateur attempts at building my own website. I registered my first domain name with Network Solutions and had no idea that a black man created the company NOR was I aware that this same black man created the revolutionary Dot-Com naming phenomenon.

So, without much ado (or unnecessary commentary by me), here’s an excerpt from the article about the brilliant and largely unknown Internet visionary, Emmit McHenry.

Please share this story with others, especially with young black people who are being programmed to believe that the most successful blacks MUST BE entertainers, athletes, and political puppets — when in reality, there are thousands of black creators, innovators, inventors, and visionaries who will never become black…

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Creative Trailblazin’!!!

As a recovering creative person, someone in the process of accepting that my creativity is meaningful and good after all, I think it’s appropriate for me to highlight some key points that have helped me come to terms with my creativity (and overall mind) over the past few years. Lord only knows how many creatively minded people have been mentally scarred from being made to believe their talents are a waste of time. I’ve listed the individual/ private ones first because that’s where the external ones stem from, inner changes spawn outer changes (contrary to conventional thinking).

Yes, changes was deliberate. I trust you’ve already worked out why.

These are ones gleaned from personal experience, thus I expect you to translate them into a manner suitable to your experiences, and disregard what’s completely irrelevant to you.

 

Individual/ private tips: 

• Fear is a totally useless emotion. And I mean all forms of it, from mere nervousness, anxiety &  timidity/ shyness to its more intense forms of panic, phobia & terror (caution & hesitation don’t necessarily count). Try to be fearless rather than just brave, and do what you really want. 
• Look after yourself physically: work out*, eat healthily, drink water (at least 1.5 to 2 litres a day), get outdoors just for the sake of it, make yourself look and smell good (I like wearing ‘atr, non-alcoholic Islamic perfumes). I don’t personally do this but if you want to, even get a massage.

* however and wherever you want. Do it in a gym, at a park, in your back garden, in your house, whatever. Preferably vigorous and fast-paced, and with the foremost focus on enjoying yourself. Physical activity maintains mental & spiritual activity. 

• Be more involved and focused on dunya (Arabic for world/ this life), and just accept that the environment is replete with blessings tailor-made for you. However, they won’t do anything for you if you just stand around scratching your ass expecting to not have to work for them. 
• Snap decisions, gung-ho attitude (to a degree) & imprecision work just as well as, and in many cases better than, meticulous planning & pin-point perfectionism. 
• Be mercilessly honest to yourself about what kind of person you really are, noticing all the details, and what you really want. Then relish the parts you like and do something about the parts you don’t like, either changing your behaviour or perceptions or both. 
• Improvement = change. Those who refuse to change are those to refuse to improve, and those who refuse to improve are f***ed. Tolerate, accept, like, even yearn for change. 

 

Interpersonal/ public tips: 

• Make some time & space in your daily life to practise & develop your creativity, and defend that time and space regardless of all other commitments. Only compromise once every 10 blue moons, if ever. 
• Seek others’ help to make your stuff better. Whether it’s joining a writing club, poetry club, acting classes, singing class, doesn’t matter. Be around other people and learn from what they do. 
• Have vague plans* to get your works out there in the world. I say vague to give you space to modify and expand on them as and when necessary. Be happy with your achievements so far and expect to do better & go further in the near future. 

* Yes that was deliberate too.

• Be willing to take risks, for without risk change can’t happen. If you get it wrong, see exactly what you got wrong and try again.
• When trying to get your work out there in the big wide world, to get it showcased/ published/ received in some manner by others, accept that no is AN answer. However, never let it be THE FINAL answer. Keep going to different people in different places, use alternatives, adapt your style of asking, until you get a yes. And maybe is an answer, if confronted with this take it! It’s a yes until proven otherwise.
• There are people in the world who genuinely believe creativity is dangerous and will try to stop you practising it. It doesn’t matter if it’s because they were once creative and it didn’t pay off, if they just don’t like you or if they’re family and friends just looking out for you “because they care”, they are all the same. Defend yourself against their negativity, and when they attack you with it acknowledge your anger. Don’t let it die down before it’s ready, and practise something creative and enjoyable to you asap.

Inspirations for this post are Joseph McClendon III & Anthony Robbins (co-authors of Unlimited Power: A Black Choice, ISBN 9780684838724) and Julia Cameron (author of The Artist’s Way, ISBN 9781585421466 & The Vein of Gold, ISBN 9780330352857).

This list is not exhaustive, I’m sure other creatives out there, professional, amateur and beginner alike, have other good tips they want to share.

Was Charles Darwin racist?

Charles Darwin in his youth

This is a question believers in his theory of evolution, both scientists and laypeople alike, like to dismiss as an irrelevant or misleading point. It gets very little if any media attention, far less than the overall theory at hand, ie. that all biological life forms gradually and incrementally changed over the millions of years from a primordial soup (inanimate) to all the different forms that exist now, and more that existed before. Despite how widely referenced and believed his theory is, and the number of times it’s called scientific fact, there is no real evidence to support it. It’s just a theory, but I will restrict myself specifically to the racism therein. When the topic of Darwin’s racism does come up, however, some common defences are regurgitated:

 

• Some claim however racist he MIGHT have been, his contemporaries were worse – true but irrelevant because the discussion isn’t about his peers. The way that point is used is to excuse or hide it, as if others’ crimes make one’s own OK. 

• Some claim that 1- he wasn’t racist at all and 2- the parts of his theory that have been used to support racism were used by other people with their own agendas and interpretations. In other words, taken out of context. This point is false, both 1 & 2, as will be shown below. 

• Some claim that racism has existed long before Darwin – true but also irrelevant. Darwin didn’t start racism, not even scientific racism, but he did maintain and support it. Whether that was deliberate or not is debatable. 

• It’s also claimed that he wasn’t racist because he was against slavery. While it is TRUE he was against slavery in theory, he did nothing to oppose it. Back then, as is still the case now, if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem. Furthermore, this doesn’t negate his racism, as will be explained below. 

OK that’s enough. You can stop now.

 

There is a multitude of evidence to show that he was racist. Not just in his private life, but that racism is also part & parcel of his theory.

• In Chapter 7 of his book The Descent of Man he describes the “Negro” (ie. ‘black’ African) & the “Australian” (‘black’ Aborigine, not ‘white’) as occupying an intermediary position between gorillas & the “Caucasian” (ie. ‘white’ European). 

(On a point of fact, this is what led to the extermination of the Aboriginal Tasmanians & subsequent digging up of their skulls to be displayed in British museums as proofs of their supposed intermediary position. It was also the inspiration for human zoos, the most famous victim being Ota Benga but that deserves its own post.)

• In that same chapter he hopes that “Caucasians” will soon evolve into something even higher and break his link to the great apes (& “Negroes” & “Australians”). 

This is the hierarchy Darwin believed in (he didn’t draw this, it was made by Josiah Clark Nott & George Robins Gliddon, 1857). Note how the “Negro’s” jaw is ridiculously elongated, to make us look more ape-like than apes!

• In that same book he ponders over the concept of a race war, whether it’d be beneficial or not. He then answers yes, because by his theory evolution of the more evolved can only happen if they eliminate their less evolved predecessors. In other words, ethnic cleansing. 

• In no uncertain terms he referred to Turks & Irish as “lower races”, and he found it hard to believe Fuegians (people of Tierra del Fuego, island just below Chile) were humans at all. 

• As mentioned above, it is true that he was against slavery. However, that’s because he believed it would hinder our evolution because evolution only works under natural conditions. He basically believed that ‘black’ and other non-‘white’ people should be left to evolve into ‘white’ people in their own good time, thus he still saw us as inferior. Even in this very day the theory of evolution says this, though tries to soften the blow by combining it with the Out of Africa theory, thus mixing truth with falsehood. 

(Another point of fact: in Mein Kampf, Hitler mentioned that Darwin was his inspiration. And with what he espoused, it’s easy to see why.)

 

Charles Darwin was definitely not the founder of scientific racism but he became one of its greatest proponents. He was also a main reason for the spread of Nazism, fascism, globalised racism & arguably even plain old capitalism.

 

Sources:

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2009/02/12/charles-darwin-did-he-help-create-scientific-racism/

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/charles-darwin-biologist-botanist-and-racist/

http://evolutionwiki.org/wiki/Darwin_himself_was_racist

http://harunyahya.com/en/Articles/12529/darwinism-is-the-main-source

http://harunyahya.com/en/Books/971/the-disasters-darwinism-brought-to/chapter/3207

Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man.

http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/darwin_nazism.htm