Whoa, Whoa! The title was an intentional misnomer. I hope that by knowing me you can agree I have zero issue with people of colour. My problems lies with the phrase itself. In this essay/ random sociological musing that invaded the latter half of my Thursday lunchtime I will explain why.

Before I start, it’s important to remember that I am talking about collectives and communities and I am in no way trying to say that my experience is representative of every single individual that shares the same social categories as me. Furthermore, this essay should not be used as an apparatus to make sweeping generalizations of already marginalized groups but should be seen as an opinion piece that could give you insight on experiences that differ from your own.

I do not like or vibe with the term ‘Person Of Colour’ because I believe its impact runs antithetical to what I hope were valiant efforts to illuminate the truth of people’s experiences and unify diverse groups based on a shared goal of dismantling our White Supremacist society, creating a more equitable future in the process. This is not possible until we collectively confront the rampant Anti-Blackness and colourism in Asian communities, which I’ve experienced, witnessed and invested my time in listening to accounts about to know it’s a prevalent issue. This can not happen until we have the uncomfortable and revelatory conversations about the Anti- Black American sentiment in African communities, which I’ve heard and regrettably been complicit in allowing to fester until it became an unavoidable rotten stench that could only be evaporated by meticulously weeding through wretched layers that spread over generations. Even Black Twitter, my favorite internet residence, has ‘Diaspora Wars’ on what feels like a bi-weekly basis. These entertaining, salacious and always revealing dragging sessions/ informative lectures reveal the tension omnipresent in the African Diaspora. While conversations about our differences and the ways in which those said differences impact our conceptual framework are extremely necessary, lack of care and rightful frustrations make sure that what had the godly potential of being fruitful healing times mutate into xenophobia more times than not. This has a less than desired result, only working to reify the same systems of oppressions we should break. We become double agents of White Supremacy! ‘Carrying the White Man’s water’ if you will. The term ‘POC’ does nothing to address the divisions created around our differences, falsely and naively assuming that everyone that falls under this unwinding umbrella term is on consensus about everything. I barely agree with my mum and dad (If you’re reading this I love you much and Migwo), how I am supposed to agree with millions, no, Billions of individuals?!

‘POC’ doesn’t unite our nuanced experiences. It smudges and blurs. ‘POC’ doesn’t make things clearer. It erases the distinctive ways we show up in the world and, in turn, fails to facilitate the safe space for us to talk freely about those distinctions without being unfairly targeted and silenced with the label ‘divisive’.

While I am technically a ‘POC’- my blackness compounded by my brown skin (Alexa, play ‘Brown Skin Girl by Queen Bey, Blue Ivy and WizKid) and visible and finally unabashed queerness- renders me unsafe in many allegedly ‘POC’ inclusive spaces.

Before I am any socially constructed marker, I am Emoefeoghene Akpofure Imoyin-Omene. A friend (hopefully a good one. I’ll text Jade, Moni and Princess for confirmation), a lover of great music and even more compelling artists, a borderline Chloe X Halle sycophant (semi-joking), a writer and thinker in perpetual progress and Human. We don’t live in the world where those qualities are solely what I am judged on and I believe the usage of the term ‘POC’ will not get us any closer to that utopia.

I’ve been working with the Holocaust Educational Trust and this article is a part of my final project

Introduction:

For my next steps I want to do an article for my school’s History magazine. I’ve already written an article previously so I think my Next Steps project would be a good fit for it. In the session, we were giving certain prompts and this one really resonated with me, and I really want to do my project using this statement as a springboard: Although the Holocaust was the genocide of Jewish people, we must understand the reasons why other groups were persecuted in order to gain a full understanding of the Holocaust.

How is the Holocaust defined?

The Holocaust Educational Trust defines the Holocaust thus: The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six million Jewish, men women and children by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War. 

Usefulness of the definition

The definition is useful in a multitude of ways. ‘men, women and children’ demonstrates to us that they were targeted for who they are rather than anything they’ve done, challenging the stereotypical depictions of Jewish people as evil, predatory, money-obsessed and conspirators to world domination. ‘Nazi Germany and its collaborators’ shows that states and individuals were complicit even if they were not directly involved like SS members, freight drivers, guards etc. Even Lithuanian collaborators murdered Jewish people as Nazi Germany took over.  The verb ‘murder’ as opposed to the much more passive ‘kill’ is also important as it highlights that these were humans killing other humans, affirming the humanity of not only the perpetrators but the victims whose names were replaced by tattoos and their worldly possessions discarded for prison uniforms, starvation rations and brutality.

Limitations of the definition

While the definition is useful in the aforementioned ways, it is limited as it only focuses on the persecution of Jewish people and while they should rightfully be at the forefront of our remembrance, other groups also deserve recognition. Many other groups faced hardships during this time like the disabled community, black and mixed communities, the gay community, Roma and Sinti people and those the Nazis deemed to be dangerous political adversaries. I want to share some of their stories and investigate why those groups were also persecuted to gain a full understanding of the Holocaust.

Soviet Prisoners of War

During the course of Operation Barbarossa, 5.7 million Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner by Germany. Around 3.3 million of them died in Nazi captivity, most from Autumn 1941 to Spring 1942. They were held in ‘camps’ which were usually just fenced off fields with no food or accommodation. Among the victims was Konstantin Alexandrovich Skilov. Furthermore, over 7 million soviet citizens were killed (1.3 million of those people being of Jewish descent). The Nazis regarded them as both ideological and racial enemies. Learning about this is so important because there is so much divisiveness in politics and the ‘us and them’ mentality has really been allowed to flourish. Whether it is the paradigm between Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Labour, rhetoric like those espoused in Nazi Germany still exist and must be addressed quickly.

Football’s relation to all of this

 To show solidarity for the Black Lives Matter Movement, Footballers took a knee representing how the police officer Dereck Chauvin murdered George Floyd. They were booed and politicians like Priti Patel and Boris Johnson.

 Taking the knee was actually something popularized by Colin Kaepernick. He is an American Football player who player in the NFL and was called unpatriotic and Anti- American for simply advocating for equal rights for Black people. There is a rich legacy of black people internationally making symbolic statements and use their bodies, voices and influences to catalyse a tidal wave of immense change.

Beyoncé paying homage to the Black Panther movement during her 2016 Superbowl performance also caused a revealing controversy She faced backlash, vitriol and boycotting all for supporting the autonomy, freedom and complete liberation of her race. While not exactly the same, there is an extremely rich legacy of persecuted group’s self-defence being interpreted as a disruption to power structures. That interpretation is what led to Rosa Parks being arrested, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X being assassinated, Nelson Mandela being imprisoned for 27 years and Beyoncé facing major pushback. By thinking of the Holocaust beyond the subjugation of Jewish People, we are able to understand it better and create connections of those events to contemporary movements.

The Disabled Community

The Holocaust was partly motivated by the pursuits of Eugenics. The Nazi’s sought to create the perfect race of people (Aryans). And disabled people were viewed as being a financial liability, leading to over 250 thousand of them being murdered. One of them was Theresia Karas who was born on the 13^thMay 1928 in Austria. She suffered from epilepsy and spent her life in and out of hospitals and even though she was receiving physical therapy at the Diakoniewerk Gallneukirchen – a home for the disabled- on 13^th January 1941, twelve-year-old Theresia was one of the 59 people transported to Hartheim Castle where she was murdered.

Mixed-race community

The Nazis were also concerned with the purity of the race and those who were of mixed origin opposed that very narrow-minded goal

Theodor Wonja- Michael is an example His mother was of White Jewish descent and his father of African descent. Jews and black people were actually implicated as co-conspirators by the Nazi regime as bringing about the destruction of the pure and unblemished white race and as a mixed person, Theodore, even as innocent, defenceless and unaware baby, was a sinister amalgamation of all their fears. He was called a ‘foreigner’ and repeatedly attacked and tried to remain invisible out of fear of forced sterilization as over 500 mixed and black kids were. In 1943 at the age of 18 years old, he is put in a forced labour camp for foreigners and after the war is liberated.  He’d since become a successful journalist, activist, actor and performer. He passed away 19^th October 2019 at the age of 94.

The rise in anti- Jewish hate crimes

Overall, this project has had a huge impact on me and while I believe that definition of the Holocaust could benefit from refining and expanding, it remains true unfortunately to this day that Jewish people are being ‘targeted’ and ‘othered’. The Community Security Trust revealed a record high of 1,805 antisemitic incidents in 2019 and in 2020 the number was 1,668 (the third highest recorded in CST history). These are not outliers. These numbers point to a pertinent problem.  It is clear that Covid-19 has led to a rise in antisemitic conspiracy theories and the use of dangerous alternative media platforms. Whilst it is partly to do with better reporting and knowledge, it is worrying that this trend isn’t coming down.

Regarding the nature of the incidents, CST reports that there were 100 cases of assault/extreme violence, 72 of damage and desecration of Jewish property, 1,399 reports of abusive behaviour (including verbal abuse, antisemitic graffiti, antisemitic abuse via social media and one-off hate mail), 85 direct antisemitic threats, and 12 cases of mass-mailed antisemitic leaflets or emails. The hate that made the Holocaust happen didn’t disappear, it re-designed. The propaganda that created terrible stereotypes about Jews didn’t stop spreading, it found new modes, more viral and sensationalised platforms to be disseminated.

Impact

This experience has had an indelible impact on me, expanding my mind, understanding and knowledge in ways words in any language would be inadequate in conveying. What struck above all else is the immense loss the Jewish community and other disenfranchised minority groups had to grapple with purely because of facets of their identity that had no control ovel. This inspired me to write a poem called ‘Loss’ as I feel like that is what an underpins the true tragedy of the Holocaust. Whether it was loss of a loved one (s), friends, business, possessions and ties to their cultural roots, loss was and is inescapable and must be remembered with a level of sensitivity and care not afforded to them during the devastating reign of the Nazi regime.

Loss

 

Infiltrating minds

Colonizing thoughts

Terrorist to my beating heart

Loss

 

A non-linear series

A sequence of disconnected cries

A piece of me died with you

But I grieve for the puzzles pieces that stay

 Lost

 

Unforgettable. That’s what you are sways in the background

You glide with me. Powerful. Elegant. Sensual. Passionate. Alive

You died on me. Weak. Messy. Repulsive. Detached.             Cold

Though near or far. So soulful. So sorrowful.

  Loss

 

“I’ll fight for you!” you chanted to us (me)

In shiny black uniform, we strut, we march, we demand, take up and seize space

In your memory

In your honour

I don’t know how to lead a revolution

All I have is

   Loss

 

They’re fleeing like flies

Grabbing audience members with my flimsy grasp

I beg them to stay

A group without its leader

Is a cacophony of conflict and banging noise

No justice, no peace

Where is the peace when we don’t know what happened to our…

My Friday Post is an article I wrote for the History Magazine at the end of last year. It is a topic I’m really passionate about and spent time educating myself on and I hope you all enjoy it.

What is Black feminism?

Black feminism values the inalienable truth that there is no universal experience of womanhood and aims to increase understanding of black women’s position in society relating to sexism, racism and class oppression. Black feminists believe it’s impossible to separate their unique experiences with blackness and womanhood from each other in order to fit into one movement (The Civil Rights Movement) or another (Feminist movements), both of which tend to marginalise the voices of black women who have been instrumental in the collective fight for liberation. Black feminism states that the experience of black womanhood must be elucidated through the progressive lens of intersectionality; a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in her 1989 essay Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. Crenshaw argues that the legal definitions of the terms sexism and racism are too limited and inadvertently erase the multi-layered experience of black women. The legal system generally defines sexism as an unspoken reference to the injustices confronted by all women, ignoring the impact race, ethnicity and class have on various experiences of womanhood, whereas racism is defined as the injustice faced by people of colour. The framework of both definitions frequently renders black women legally “invisible”.

19^th Century

While the introduction of the term ‘intersectionality’ is praised as revolutionary and is widely adopted because it manages the near impossible feat of encompassing the multiple oppressions black women face into a single term, the concept was not a new one. Since slavery, Black women have found numerous ways to intellectualise their precarious standing in society. “Interlocking oppressions”, “simultaneous oppressions”, “double jeopardy” and “triple jeopardy” are just a few examples of terms black feminists have conceived to articulate their multifaceted trials and tribulations. Sojourner Truth, a Black American abolitionist, a woman born into the unspeakable evil of slavery and an incredibly influential women’s rights activist ushered in a moment that would shift the axis of feminism with her 1851 speech: Ain’t I a Woman?  In the speech she delivered to the Women’s Convention, she listed the ways white women were treated like “being helped into carriages and lifted over ditches”.  She fiercely declared “nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles.” She recounted the painful history of slavery by demanding that the blissfully ignorant audience “Look” at her and her “arm”, recounts “having to bear the lash” and being separated from her “thirteen children” because they were sold off into slavery. She ended her poignant speech with a simple question and a galvanising call to action “Ain’t I a woman?” Truth’s speech in no way discounts the oppression of white women in a patriarchal society however, it vividly illustrates the nature of oppression the two groups of women face(d). While white middle class women have been traditionally stereotyped as delicate and overly emotional- destined to fulfil an inferior position to their male counterparts- Black women were and still are being beaten into performing back breaking labour, abused because they were only seen as 3/5 a human being and are subject to misogynoir (misogyny directed towards black women where both their gender and race play a role in the bias. Coined by queer black feminist Moya Bailey).

Suffrage

Many of us have learnt about suffrage via movies and history lessons. While we rightfully digest this information commending the courage, bravery and persistence of these women; we must also realise that their suffrage movement was notoriously exclusionary of Black women. To promote women getting the right to vote in America many suffrages used dehumanising appeals. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Women Suffrage Association admonished her male counterparts for granting “your black men” suffrage rights and denying white women “thus making them political superiors”. She mourned, saying “Never before in the history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses!” This tirade unfortunately echoed the feelings of many white feminists, many of whom supported the lynching of black men and were violently silent when it came to Jim Crow-state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the south, making it difficult for black people to access adequate education, housing and employment. Black feminists like Ida B Wells and Mary Church Terrell- one of the first African- American women to earn a college degree- were often banned from women’s marches and parades. Black feminists forged their own spaces, starting the National Association of Colored Women’s Club in 1904 and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 among a plethora of other organisations.  Black writers integrated feminist themes into their works. Some noteworthy examples are Terrell’s memoir A Colored Woman in a White World (1940) where she chronicled her experiences with racism and sexism, and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston

Recy Taylor

While many black feminists were fighting to create a more inclusive feminism, setting the blueprint for theories like intersectionality, other feminists like Rosa Parks were organising around racial and sexual violence. A turning point was her and Esther Cooper helping Recy Taylor, a sharecropper who in 1944, while leaving church, was kidnapped and gang-raped by six white men. Despite the six perpetrator’s confession to the authorities, outcry and nationwide protests from black communities, the men were acquitted twice and instead of being embraced with compassion, Taylor was accused of being a sex worker which is now and even more then, a highly stigmatized profession, and the lives of her loved ones were invaded with death threats. Her treatment directly contrasts the treatment of white women whose false accusations of rape or mere offence resulted in the lynching’s of black males like Emmet Till in 1955, a 14-year-old black boy and Mark Charles- Parker, a 23-year-old accused of raping a pregnant white woman. Despite the disappointing results, this case laid the groundworks for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and 70s and the MeToo movement, started by Black American activist Tarana Burke in 2006, which has became a global phenomenon that raises awareness about sexual harassment, abuse and assault in society. At the 2018 Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey, while accepting her award, referenced Recy Taylor. While attending the 2018 State of the Union Address, the Congressional Black Caucus led the Democratic Caucus members in wearing red “Recy” pins.

1990s- Now

While Hip-Hop is a genre meant to empower black people, black feminist themes were supressed. However, many women emcees and songstresses like Mary J Blige, Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill and Lil Kim emerged swinging with unapologetic feminism, unprecedented lyrics and vast ways of expressing female sexuality. Female rappers like Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion have gained acclaim for their provocative lyrics and their unabashed critiques of Rap’s misogynoiristic double standards. In our social media age, Black feminists use platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to broadcast their views on social justice. In 2013 Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza formed #BlackLivesMatter, a movement against police brutality and global black oppression. While the movement was sparked by the unlawful killing of Trayvon Martin, the movement has contributed to a revitalisation and re-examining of black feminism and while it has faced criticism for its failure to focus on black women’s treatment by the police, in recent times it has done much better. Black Feminists have spread #sayhername, a hashtag that highlights the black female victims of police brutality like Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Eleanor Bumpurs and too many more. Black Feminism has impacted the world, musical artists like Katy Perry are using key terminology like ‘misogynoir’ and Taylor Swift, an artist who has faced warranted criticism for her complicit silence, mentioned the Black Lives Matter movement numerous times over the past summer of unrest and revelations.

 The Backlash to Beyoncé’s Brand of ‘Black Feminism’

Beyoncé, a visibly Black Feminist entertainer evident in multi-platinum hits like Bills, Bills, Bills, Say My Name, Independent Women, Survivor, Bootlylicious, Me Myself And I, Girl, Single Ladies, If I Were A Boy and Run The World has always skirted around the feminist topic with thinly veiled media-training once saying “I’m a Feminist but I love my husband”. In 2010, when questioned, she shied away from the controversial task of fully embracing the label, taking the title “feminist in a way” because she values her female friendships. In 2013, after suffering a miscarriage and welcoming her first born, she released her self-titled visual album. The 11^th track ***Flawless interpolates a snippet of a Ted x Talk by Nigerian author and Feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie titled We Should All Be Feminists, finally showing her legion of supporters, denouncers and casual listeners what her feminism is and what ours ought to be: “A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.” Using Adichie’s words, Beyoncé embraced the Black Feminist role, blazoning “FEMINIST” in blinding lights for many of her concert and award show performances, donating to Black Feminist organisations, writing essays about the gender pay gap and her phrase “I woke up like this” inspired women of all backgrounds to embrace their natural beauty. Themes of feminism, black womanhood, infidelity and generational trauma can be found in her music and films today. In her 2019 Netflix documentary Homecoming she said “As a black woman, I used to feel like the world wanted me to stay in my little box. And black women often feel underestimated.” Beyoncé is incredibly influential, being the most awarded black woman of all time, the most awarded singer in Grammy history and has broken numerous boundaries like being the first black woman to headline Coachella and Glastonbury and being a consummate collaborator with black women like Zerina Akers, Tiwa Savage, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, Chloe x Halle and so many other icons in their own right.  Still, many feminists have taken umbrage with her specific brand of black feminism. bell Hooks has called her a “terrorist” to young girls and Adichie grew resentful of her association with the singer, drawing lines between her feminism and Beyoncé’s that “gives quiet a lot of necessity to men.” She clarified, stating: “I think men are lovely, but I don’t think that women should relate everything they do to men: did he hurt me, do I forgive him, did he put a ring on my finger?”. In a 2014 interview actress and activist Emma Watson praised Beyoncé’s “sexuality” as “empowering because it is her choice”, commending her album for being “inclusive” but “felt very conflicted in the sense she is putting herself in a category of feminist, but then the camera, it felt very male, such a male voyeuristic experience of her”.

To conclude

The legacy of black feminism is wide reaching and forever evolving. Its themes can be found in books such as The Colour Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, Black Feminist Thought (1990) by Patricia Hill Collins, Janet Mock’s memoir Redefining Realness (2014), Dear Ijeawele (2017) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and many more. The legacy of black feminism lives in entertainers like Keke Palmer, Ashanti, Kelly Rowland and Coco Jones speaking on how they have been underestimated, silenced and violated as black women. The legacy of black feminism is #oscarssowhite, #blackgirlmagic, #carefreeblackgirl, #blackoutuesday, #metoo and so much more I could have spent decades writing about. To make a long history short, we should all be Black Feminists.