When my big brother shared Azealia Banks' interview on Hot 97 in the video below, I cried. Banks clearly articulated the pain felt by black creatives when their art is misappropriated by white people who they then must watch become wealthy while they languish, be awarded while they are left empty handed. It was decided, I would conjure my Black Girl Magic to rally around Banks and ignore the problematic points in her argument (is she shedding tears for Bill Cosby?) because I cape hard for black women. I cape especially hard for NW45, Deep Dark outspoken, women artists. Skip to the 7:52 mark to hear the discussion pertaining to the effects of cultural misappropriation in hip hop and rap music.
Read moreBlackness In The White House : Film Vs Reality
In Zimbabwe, when the TV turned on at 6pm and the newscaster read the news, they spoke of President Robert Mugabe. Blackness in the highest echelons of political office only became a myth when I returned to Britain. Since childhood, I have understood that seeing a black person as the leader of a country in the western world could only be realised in America. Wanna know even as a child I knew? The movies. Yes. Don’t laugh. Movies have long prophesied the coming of what would be. There have obviously been British Prime Ministers in film but they weren’t the films I was watching as a child and they definitely weren’t black.
Read more