ivnscribbles

[ivnscribbles]

No thoughts only v2

[ivnscribbles]

Centipede, watercolor and ink on paper by nickbleb

[ivnscribbles]

[ivnscribbles]

Ahsshshdlhh I'm a day late but HAPPY WINDRUSH DAY! In 1948, West Indian immigrants came to the UK on HMT Windrush to help rebuild the UK after WWII. From then, immigrants from many West Indian countries like Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia, Trinidad etc. came to the UK, but also immigrants from African and South Asian countries too.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric from the British government increased throughout the 1950s-1970s, including increased policing in Wet Indian communities by the Met Police. In 2018 there was the Windrush Scandal, where the British government detained and deported the same Windrush members they invited decades back. The individuals, their families and the community have never been compensated for this. We're still waiting for justice.

The modern UK culture you see now, from the music, the dialects and slang, the food... is heavily influenced by the Windrush. Multicultural London English and Black British Vernacular are blends of Pidgin, Patois, Creole and Arabic. The many shops, stalls and restaurants across London and throughout the country were set up by the immigrants that first arrived and are the reason you can get items from across the globe just around the corner. The UK's ska and rock and roll age was birthed from reggae and rude boys. Learn about the Windrush. Celebrate them. And fight for them!

[ivnscribbles]

Obviously not expecting a (white) American site to gaf about today so lemme talk a bit more about Windrush Day and the Black British experience:

I feel like the Black British experience is constantly one of work and struggle. Our parents and grandparents lived through colonial and post colonial (using the term lightly) rule just to end up working and serving the imperial core, targeted by the same government that invited them here. A lot of the time its phrased as a choice but in reality what else could they have done? Ts and Cs apply bc for some West African Brits their parents were middle class back home but for me and others our families grew up in poverty in places still recovering from slavery and colonialism.

Britain whitewashes the history of Black immigrants, literally in the sense we're not taught our own history of Black people in Britain and metaphorically by applying British individualist myths; that as long as you work hard, don't complain about it and love Britain you can be British too. But it erases, ignores and distorts the truth that the British state used our community as nothing more than a labour force to rebuild after WWII and actively targeted Black British communities with police surveillance, brutality and systemic racism. All whilst denying it of course and turning their nose up at the very accusation. Very British.

Black British contributions, West African and West Indian to be more specific don't just apply in terms of work but in terms of shaping culture. 'Roadman' has become a meme and a caricature (including by some Americans on here ik u lot love 'chav') with barely any connection to its Black British roots, even when the term gets used as an insult to mainly Black working class men or used as a British version of 'thug'. The grime scene is undeniably a staple of Black Britain yet it is pathologised and judged, moral panics about Black people's violence and yet capitalised and profitted off of by non Black Brits as an aesthetic. Everybody wants the tracksuits, the tunes and the terminology innit. To be 'road' means to be Black British yet when its time to talk culture, nobody wants to credit it us. All of a sudden its 'London culture'.

But it isn't all doom and gloom. There's so much history and culture here in our spaces. I'd be lying if I said growing up where I did was easy. But it has shaped my outlook and made me and I'll carry that with me forever. Our grandparents and parents came here with so little and made so much out of nothing. And I'll always honour that. Justice for the Windrush generation.

[ivnscribbles]

Do you have a flag in your room? Country or pride or whatever.

[ivnscribbles]

I took my little brother (autistic, mostly non verbal) out and he was using his voice keyboard to tell me something, and this little boy (maybe 4 or 5?) heard him and asked me "Is he a robot??" I tried to explain to him that no, he isn't a robot, he just communicates differently, but my darling brother was in the background max volume "I am robot I am robot I am robot I am robot"

[ivnscribbles]

what advantage on charmed + lucky feat is looking like for our sorcerer

[ivnscribbles]

pink in the night

[ivnscribbles]

[ivnscribbles]

i like tehm

[ivnscribbles]

Tenner

[ivnscribbles]

Want to draw my favorite deltarune post

[ivnscribbles]

“it’s circus work.” not to me. not if it’s my monkeys.

[ivnscribbles]

Congratulations to Brooke from Let's Not Date for winning Father's Day.

[ivnscribbles]

my vocabulary is rapidly dwindling. "yay" is one of my default responses now

[ivnscribbles]

the polarity of will graham being perceived as a very highly emotional, unstable character and hannibal perceived as minimally emotional but, when their person suits come off, will graham is precise and cold, and hannibal is impulsive and rash

i will never get over this show