I can’t believe it’s September already.. This year has flown by..

If you’re celebrating the start of Ramadan today – may you have a blessed Ramadan Mubarak.

If you’re not, keep this quote from the Qur’an in mind anyway..

“A good word is like a good tree whose root is firmly fixed and whose top is in the sky.”

Remember, a few kind words go a long way. Tell someone you believe in them, and their limits will be endless.

Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns Grow.

Some people never cease to amaze you..

I bumped into a girl I went to school with, in the pet shop this morning. I was keen to get the polite greetings over with, and just get on with buying cat litter. She, however, wanted to have a full-on recount of the past God-know-how-many years in which we hadn’t seen each other.

No, I’m not married.
Yes, she tied the knot two years ago.
No, I don’t have any children.
Yes, she has three.
No, I’m not an IT genius, I work with kids.
No, she doesn’t work, she’s currently sapping state benefits while she sits on her ass and does fuck-all else.

And isn’t it a terrible shame that I’m not married yet. And isn’t it awful for me that I haven’t had any children.. Of course, my children would be ‘half cast‘ and it would surely be really hard for me accept that my kids would be ‘coffee and cream babies’.

Excuse me?

It’s actually not a terrible shame, nor is it awful that I’m not married and don’t have kids. It’s not exactly what I’d say was my choice, but it’s hardly the end of the world. And the fact that if the other-half and I spawn some kids, they will be mixed race, really doesn’t concern me in the slightest, nor should it concern any other human being. Half Cast is a derogatory word, which yes – was used years ago to describe someone of mixed race, but is now incredibly un-PC, and is quite frankly just unac-fucking-ceptable.

I can categorically state that my children will benefit from knowing about two different cultures, two different worlds, and that will not in any way hinder them in being perfectly rounded individuals. In this day and age, how can any grown adult view a child of mixed race as any different to a child who’s parents are from the same race and/or religion?

She really pissed me off. And I made it perfectly clear that she was incredibly lucky that I hadn’t knocked her ignorant, stupid little head right off her shoulders. Coffee and cream babies.. For fuck’s sake.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can still be so ignorant, how they can still be so judgemental and narrow minded.

Sure, I worry that my children might be picked on at school, or that some people may look at them a different way because they don’t fit into some neat little category of race. But I’m 150% sure that not only will I be able to handle that in a positive way, but that I’ll be able to educate and reassure my children that anyone who treats them in a negative way does so simply because they are undereducated, ignorant, racist and small minded.

I first read the poem below when I was fifteen, and instantly fell in love with it. I chose it for my oral work and read the entire poem in dialect, much to the amusement of my idiot classmates..

To me, it perfectly explains how someone can use a word, whether innocently or not, and end up creating all sorts of insinuations about another person. It’s a piece of literary art that I’m sure I’ll read to my kids one day, so that they too can understand that every person is a whole person, no matter who they are, who their parents, or even the parents of their parents are.

John Agard is a legend. And it’s probably worth me pointing out, that the poem isn’t ’spelt wrong’ – it’s written in dialect. Just incase there are any ignorant readers out there that were about to let me know I hadn’t turned my spell check on. :-)

Half-Caste by John Agard.

Excuse me
standing on one leg
I’m half-caste

Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/
explain yuself
wha u mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather/
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
ah rass/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
is a half-caste symphony/

Explain yuself
wha yu mean
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Ah looking at u wid de keen
half of mih eye
and when I’m introduced to yu
I’m sure you’ll understand
why I offer yu half-a-hand
an when I sleep at night
I close half-a-eye
consequently when I dream
I dream half-a-dream
an when moon begin to glow
I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu come back tomorrow
wid de whole of yu eye
an de whole of yu ear
and de whole of yu mind

an I will tell yu
de other half
of my story

I came across this post whilst browsing my WordPress tags.. It documents this post, where a white male talks about his first dating experience with a black female.

He describes how people reacted to them walking down a street together – ‘examining us for clues” [re: why they're together] – and how these reactions would differ from black males and black females. He clearly views the relationship between them as ‘out of the norm’, by not only blogging about it, but by documenting it as a ‘novel’ experience.

Why should he be suprised that other people stare, viewing the partnership as ‘unusual’ – when he does so himself?

It’s sad to think that an adult would embark on a relationship with someone who they view as ‘different’, whether that be by culture, religion, race or background – just for the experience of it. Just for the “I’ve nailed a black woman” notch on their bedpost..

Moving on from this point.. The post in question repulses me, reducing the memory of this man’s sexual relationship with a black woman, to ‘the contrast between the white jizz and black skin’:

After a while we barebacked raw dogged it (thanks, roosh) and the money shots were incredibly stimulating for me. I loved how aesthetically pleasing was the contrast between the white jizz and the black skin. Like modern art, the geometric arrangement and bold ejaculatory strokes set against the dark canvas of her smooth skin prompted me to admire my handiwork like I was pausing in front of a particularly abstruse painting in a museum to contemplate its majesty. Plus, it made finding the mess easier for cleanup.

Embracing the differences between ourselves and other people is one thing – but to degrade those differences into something so crass, is just repulsive.

The author of that post, in my opinion, is a fine example of the type of person who helps to define mixed-race relationships as socially deviant. I would be very interested to know whether he was interested in this woman as a person – or whether he wanted her because she was black.

Just to clarify – I don’t think this man is racist, I don’t think he necessarily disrespects women. I just think he’s an idiot – responsible for degrading the woman he blogs about, by using her race to define her before anything else, and by reducing her down to one thing – the first black woman he nailed, as though he had fulfilled his quest.