THOUGHTS FROM THE FENCES – YARL’S WOOD & THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Student and tagged #GE2017, abuse, asylum seekers, austerity, borders, Brexit, Britain, British values, crime, cuts, deportation, depression, detention, detention centres, dignity, education, empowerment, government, harassment, hate crime, healthcare, Home Office, homophobia, Hostile Environment Policy, human rights, hunger strike, immigration, immigration law, immigration raids, international students, intimidation, kidnapping, law, legal aid, LGBT+, migrants, migration, money, Movement for Justice, norwich, POC, prison, privatisation, protest, queer, racism, rape, scapegoating, self harm, Serco, solicitors, solidarity, Stansted airport, student activism, students, suicide, survivors, theresa may, tolerance, trauma, tuition fees, UEA, violence, welfare, women, women's rights, work, Yarl's Wood.

by Lotty Clare

Content warning: mentions violence against women, abuse, rape, self-harm, suicide, racism, harassment, homophobia.

Last Saturday, a group of UEA students and Norwich residents travelled to a protest at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. This protest was the fifth Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary (MFJ) has organised to shut down detention centres. As I approached the building, hidden inside an industrial estate, surrounded by fields, in the middle of nowhere, it was just as intimidating and depressing as 6 months ago when I went to Yarl’s Wood for the first time. It looks like a prison, except that it is ‘worse than prison, because you have no rights’, as former detainee Aisha Shua put it. Some women are in Yarl’s Wood because their visa expired, others because their asylum claim was unsuccessful. They have committed no crime. And yet they can be detained there indefinitely.

BUT HE’S NOT RACIST

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged African, BAME, berlin, berlin wall, black, BLM, Britain, Business Location Center, colonialism, culture, France, germany, guilt, Isaiah Lopaz, manchester, melting pot, microaggression, personal experience, POC, politics, population, race, racism, report, resist, resistance, shame, slurs, statistics, systematic racism, The Netherlands, uk, UN, white west, whiteness, woc.

by Candice Nembhard

I have been living in Berlin for around two months now and generally the transition from the UK to mainland Europe has been a relatively easy process. If we put rising rent prices, endless German bureaucracy, and the future of Brexit aside, Berlin in some ways is a safe haven for a young black Brit such as myself.

Undoubtedly, my ability to move, live and work in Germany is not possible without an immense amount of privilege. I, unlike many people, do not face the same amount of adversity by simply being here; irrespective of my feelings towards my nationality, having a British passport is a golden ticket I didn’t have to work for. However, even with its numerous working and academic advantages, my citizenship does not defend me against the microaggressions of prejudice and racism that I receive almost on a daily basis.Continue Reading

RESISTANCE VOICES: THOSE WHO MARCHED FOR WOMEN

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged 'Nawlins, angelenos, anti-fascism, antifa, banner, Beyonce, Black Lives Matters, boston, Cardiff, class, collaboration, collective, deplorable, Donald Trump, dyke, external, fascism, feminist, femme, fight back, first they came, genitalia, global crisis, guthrie, Hallelujah, human rights, ideology, LA, Leonard Cohen, london, Los Angeles, march, marginalisation, nasty women, New Orleans, objectification, oppression, pastor martin niemöller, performance, POC, poem, police, protest, protest 101, protestors, pussy, pussy power, race, religion, resist, resistance, Rufus Wainwright, sexuality, Trump, US, US administration, US election, uterus, voices, washington dc, white feminist, womanhood, women, women of colour, womens march, wont bow.

In the aftermath of the Women’s March — a worldwide protest in resistance to Donald Trump on Saturday January 21st 2017 that saw an estimated 4.6million people take to the streets in the US alone — The Norwich Radical’s Tara Debra G and Cadi Cliff put a call out. This article is the product of that call out, which asked for thoughts from those who identified as women and who attended one of the many Women’s Marches on why they marched. These are just some voices, but they speak from across the UK and the US in an act of collaboration, solidarity, and resistance. Continue Reading

THE LONGEVITY OF ART

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged adult education, art, artists of colour, arts, arts cuts, austerity, books, budget, catharsis, CILIP, Creative Scotland, creativity, economics, Edinburgh, education, entertainment, funding, Gal-dem, HE, Inverleith House, libraries, literacy, money, National Gallery, National Lottery, New Art Gallery, NHS, numeracy, philanthropy, POC, reading, Tate, V&A, value, Walsall, woc, worth.

by Candice Nembhard

In times of national or personal struggle, we have long since turned to our favourite books, records or films for companionship and reassurance. We find comfort in these creative endeavours – the note of a song or the rhythm of a sentence – that often mirror the nuances of daily existence. Yet, whilst we use these tools of communication, we have yet to fully support them with our time, interest and money. With authorisation from government officials, local authorities have seen their arts funds and budgets cut consistently since 2010. Consequently, libraries, art galleries and museums have been affected most, with numerous closures occurring across the country.Continue Reading

WHITEWASHING OF MENTAL HEALTH

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged disability, eurocentric, LGBT+, lgbtQ+, LGBTQIA+, mental health, mental illness, people of colour, POC, police, police brutality, psychology, queer, race, racism, therapy, white washing.

By Julian Canlas

TW: Mental health, racialised violence, racism

The first session at the psychotherapist is always tough. Your psychiatrist is a lanky white man presumably in his 50s. There’s a mosaic of framed medical certificates hanging behind his desk. You’re an 18-year old brown-skinned boy slumped back on this armchair that’s supposed to feel comfortable, but really the fake leather sticks coldly against your sweaty back. He asks about various aspects of your life to get a better evaluation: family history, school, suicide, self-harm, homelessness. He tries to sound nice—this condescendingly sweet falsetto undermined by the mechanical typing in of your diagnosis. Every time you spill yourself, you feel the room closing in.Continue Reading

BLACK ERASURE IN ART

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged amma asante, art, art history, bernice bing, black, carrie mae weems, cecile emeke, charles henry alston, diasporic roots, dido elizabeth belle, disapora, DIY, film, Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, kanye west, kerry james marshall, multiracial, POC, race, racism, sphinx, sugar sphinx, sugar trade, tokenism, yeezy, Youtube.

by Candice Nembhard

In the niche space we call the ‘art world’, the discrediting or downplaying of black artists has not gone unnoticed as it has undocumented. That’s not to say critical discussion of African/African diaspora art has not been made; it is to suggest however that favourable and more accessible criticism is blessed upon the dominant sphere of white, European Art. For many black artists, including the likes of Kerry James Marshall, publicising the potential racist nature of art history opens up the narrative of what really goes on in the art world.

RACIAL PLURALISM IN THE OLYMPICS

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged 1969, Black Power, Brazil, crime, Gabby Douglas, John Carlos, media, Michael Phelps, nationalism, Norman Smith, olympics, oppression, POC, race, racism, Rio, Ryan Lochte, segregation, sexism, social media, Tommie Smith, tradition.

by Julian Canlas

The 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil, has resulted in a lot of firsts. Nine countries are celebrating their first ever gold medal, including first-time entrant Kosovo, whose sovereignty the Olympics committee recognised only two years ago. The Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) was also formed to ‘bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis’. Despite not having won any medals, their significance lies in their representation. The ROT acts as a symbol of hope to those who have been forcefully displaced from their home country that the dreams of these displaced athletes will happen despite all the unfair hardships, injustices and atrocities they have experienced.

AND THEY SAY RACISM IS DEAD

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged #BlackLivesMatter, #FreeDeray, Alva Braziel, anger, antiwar, art, Asia Patel, Aston Sterling, BLM, colour, Dallas, DeRay Mckesson, digital art, frustration, Houston, killing, non binary artists, non-binary, nonviolence, original art, original design, peace, Philandro Castile, POC, police brutality, portrait, solidarity, terrorism, US, USA.

by Asia Patel

THEPEWPEWLIFE AND WHY I’M HOPELESSLY ANGRY

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #thePewPewLife, America, Boston Marathon, Colion Noir, daesh, FBI, firearms, Florida, G4S, gay bar, gun, gun law, gun sales, gunners, guns, homophobia, islamophobia, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Latinx, LGBT+, lgbtQ+, Mark Longhurst, mass shooting, massacre, Mateen, non-binary, NRA, Orlando, Orlando shooting, Owen Jones, POC, police, Rick Scott, Sky News, Smith and Wesson and Ruger, US.

by Zoe Harding

Content warning: mentions mass shooting, homophobia, Islamophobia.

As you know, on Sunday a homophobic mass-murderer killed 49 people and seriously wounded 53 others in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He used a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle, took hostages and was only finally killed when the Orlando police rammed the wall of the club with an armoured vehicle and forced him to come out, before gunning him down.

News media and political statements have been full of Islamophobic vitriol and scaremongering. Owen Jones walked off Sky News after deciding he was sick of listening to Mark Longhurst and Julia Hartley-Brewer trying to downplay the homophobic aspects of shooting up a gay club in favour of a more anti-Daesh approach — despite the attack not yet being confirmed either way if in any way connected to Daesh. As Julian Canlas commented for The Norwich Radical, ‘It is not just an ‘Orlando nightclub massacre’. It is an Orlando lgbtQ+ Latinx nightclub massacre.’ Florida governor Rick Scott suggested that the best thing one could do to aid victims of the shooting was pray, and dodged questions about what could be done to stop further shootings— the NRA logo practically glistening behind his eyes. Continue Reading

WE’RE HERE. WE’RE QUEER. AND WE MATTER: THE HIDDEN FACE OF THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-Muslim, Bathroom Bill, cisgender, colourblind, disabled, equality, erasure, gay nightclub, genderblind, hate crime, hate crimes, heterosexual, homophobia, identity, intersectionality, Islam, Latinx, lgbt, lgbtQ+, media, mental health, Muslim, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, NCAVP, New Orleans, non-binary, oppression, Orlando, Orlando shooting, Owen Jones, people of colour, POC, privilege, Pulse, queer, racism, religion, Sky News, suicide, terrorism, tolerance, Upstairs Lounge, US, US congress, western society, women.

by Julian Ignacio Canlas

Content warning: mentions racism, homophobia, suicide, arson, massacre, mental health

On June 12^th 2016, a mass shooting happened at Pulse, gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, USA. 49 people were killed and 52 injured, mostly of Latinx descent. Across the world, lgbtQ+ communities and allies have been organising vigils and other events to express support and condolences.

‘Look, you don’t understand this because you’re not gay,’ Owen Jones said, before storming out of a Sky News debate on the massacre, after the two presenters refused to see the incident in a lgbtQ+ context.Continue Reading

POC

THOUGHTS FROM THE FENCES – YARL’S WOOD & THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

BUT HE’S NOT RACIST

RESISTANCE VOICES: THOSE WHO MARCHED FOR WOMEN

THE LONGEVITY OF ART

WHITEWASHING OF MENTAL HEALTH

BLACK ERASURE IN ART

AND THEY SAY RACISM IS DEAD

THEPEWPEWLIFE AND WHY I’M HOPELESSLY ANGRY

WE’RE HERE. WE’RE QUEER. AND WE MATTER: THE HIDDEN FACE OF THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

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