Great Quotes
I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol. - Alexandre Dumas
Follow up – Turkish Airlines

We wrote of the prejudice and mistreatment of Africans by Turkish airlines.  I wrote at that time to the senior directors to complain. I recently travelled again on Turkish Airlines (the only flight available at the time). I am pleased to state that the treatment of Africans was punctilious and fair. I could not see any difference in treatment of African travellers from non-African. I thought my communications had been ignored as no acknowledgement was received. But better than…

Read More

Dr Umar Johnson – Does the FBI pay him?

There is a popular video travelling around the internet of Umar Johnson . ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVhBOcUv4QY ) He is advocating anti Chinese views and race hatred against other races in the name of Black nationalism. He even goes so far as to advocate ending inter racial marriage. First thing: this is full of outright lies. So let us identify the outright lies: he states that Mandarin is an official language of South Africa – untrue, and that Xhosa and Zulu…

Read More

Covid-19: Dr Fauci to Black America – WE DON’T CARE!

This is important and we need to parse Dr Fauci’s statements carefully. Quote A: ‘Jacqueline Policastro: New data shows  African Americans  are dying of coronavirus at higher rates. What can you tell us? Dr Fauci: Yeah, unfortunately that’s not surprising and the reason is there is a health disparity as we call it, that African Americans disproportionately suffer from diseases diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and even some cancers like prostate cancer in African American men. One of the problems…

Read More

Visions of prejudice and hatred – noughts and crosses -Malorie Blackman
portrait Blackman

This series by BBC based on novellas by Malorie Backman is an interesting challenge. There are those who may feel that  heavy analysis of this work is more than it deserves, that it is in fact light entertainment. I seriously disagree.  One must address the issue of production, context and reception for artistic creation as Stuart hall so well educated us. A fundamental issue is that the perspective on life presented here turns the political into the personal. To…

Read More

Larry Amponsah’s latest exhibition at 50 Goldbourne
larry speaking

exhibition title:  “when a stone cracks we don’t stitch.” -5 Oct 19 artist: larry amponsah gallery: 50 Goldbourne Went to Larry Amponsah’s latest exhibition at 50 Goldbourne on Saturday 5 Oct 2019. This exhibition covered works done in the past year which show considerable development in his  artistic trajectory or his practice as he prefers to call it. His command of visual language has increased remarkably. What we have now is  beautiful, layered images suffused with a quality of…

Read More

Update on Boston MFA – good news!
director fo MFA Boston

We have received, dated 12 July, a warm reply from  the director of Boston MFA, Matthew Teitelbaum. A clear and concise explanation of the appropriate steps being taken to remedy matters and a clear statement that the  audio track was unacceptable. It is not always we can say an effort was worthwhile but also a great thank you to Matthew for taking these matters seriously.

Read More

Phyllis Wheatley – blue plaque unveiling 16 July 2019
mpment of unveiling

Attended the unveiling of a blue plaque to Phyllis Wheatley. This famous African poet had to come to London from the US in 1773 to find a publisher for her poetry. She was born in The Gambia  and by the age of 15 was fluent in Latin, Greek and English and was publishing her poetry in her teens. No publishing house in US would touch her work. She met Granville Sharp among many British dignitaries and also Benjamin Franklin….

Read More

Michelle I Goa & Mussolini – Getting it quite wrong

Michelle Goa writes in Harvard Crimson: ‘It bemuses me that some absolve non-white people of racism. They declare point-blank, “It’s literally impossible to be racist to a white person.” “Racism against white people doesn’t exist.” “Because there’s no scenario in which racism is not a bad thing. If some extremists won’t engage in good faith, we can’t force them. But at least among the rest of us, we can do better. We shouldn’t need to compare how a possible…

Read More

MFA Boston back in the ‘racism’ cross hairs
african exhibit at MFA

Boston Museum  appears not to have learnt anything or taken steps to root out racism in its institution since our earlier commentary. We had thought our previous report of their absurd  commentary that ancient Royal Egyptians got their dark skins from working outside in the sun may have been a one-off to be dealt quietly and circumspectly. We now learn that racism is rather endemic at the Museum. A teacher took her class to the Museum only for them…

Read More

Turkish Airlines and African passengers

Nigerian passengers are very profitable for many airlines. However that does not always translate into due respect. There is some silly behaviour that in my original opinion was due to rogue staff. they would harrass African passenger who were in transit over their passports. Remember these passengers are not seeking entry into Turkey. These are passemgers who have already been checked for the final destination at their port of embarkation by Turkish airlines staff. In one case I heard…

Read More