#first Black Caribbean Leaders from Guyana

[reasoningdaily]

Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (Guyana)

BlackFacts.com breaks new ground with a Video Series on "Caribbean Revolutionaries". This series tells the often untold stories of the significant figures of the Caribbean Islands that pushed the boundaries for freedom and changed the landscape of the Caribbean as we know it. This installment tells the story and the achievements of: LINDEN FORBES SAMPSON BURNHAM (Guyana) Narrated by BlackFacts.com A.I. driven Digital Griot - "Timbuktu(tm)"

[osamu-jinguji]

My favorite books in Mar-2023 - #7 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa – November 27, 2018 by Walter Rodney (Author), Angela Davis (Introduction) The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today. Editorial Reviews Review “Rodney’s analysis remains as relevant as it was when first published—a call to arms in the class struggle for racial equality.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “A masterpiece.” —Andy Higginbottom, Redline “Appearing in 1972, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was a genuine tour de force. It fused, as had never been done in a single volume before, African history in the global sense and underdevelopment theory, Marxism and black nationalism, intellectual passion and political commitment. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa instantly joined a select pan-Africanist canon that would be read at least as much outside as within the academy, an exclusive category that included the two texts that had greatly influenced Rodney’s intellectual development, notably James’s Black Jacobins and Williams’s Capitalism & Slavery, along with Black Reconstruction, W. E. B. Dubois’s magisterial work on the struggle for democracy in the United States during the post-Civil War, post-slavery era. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, however, differed from the above-mentioned works, which were written long after the events they charted occurred. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by contrast, was more urgent and immediate, having been produced in the heat of battle, which is to say amid the ongoing struggle of Africans against capitalist and neocolonialist underdevelopment. His purpose in writing the book, Rodney explained in the Preface, was ‘to try and reach Africans who wish to explore further the nature of their exploitation, rather than to satisfy the ‘standards’ set by our oppressors and their spokesmen in the academic world.” —Michael West, Groundings About the Author Walter Rodney was an internationally renowned historian of colonialism and a leader of Black Power and Pan-African movements across the diaspora, most notably the Guyanese Working People's Alliance. His life and work brought together struggles for independence on the African continent with the strivings of the black working classes of North America and the Caribbean basin. On June the 13th, 1980, Rodney was assassinated, most likely by the then-president of Guyana. He was 38 years old.

[georgefairbrother]

The 1987 UK General Election saw the emergence, for the first time, of three MPs of African and/or Caribbean background, all on the Labour side. Bernie Grant was elected MP for Tottenham, Paul Boateng for Brent South,  and Diane Abbott for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

Bernard Alexander Montgomery (Bernie) Grant was born in 1944, in British Guiana, now Guyana.  He arrived in Britain at the age of 19, and began working for British Rail.  He soon became active in  trade union affairs, including the Black Trade Unionists Solidarity Movement, and after a decade as a Councillor for the London Borough of Haringey, was elected as its leader in 1985.  He was the first black leader of a local authority, and at the general election of 1987, was elected Labour MP for Tottenham. He passed away in 2000, aged 56,

Paul Boateng was born in London in 1951.  He spent his early years in Ghana, his father being a Cabinet Minister in the Ghanaian government. Following a military coup in 1966, his family returned to England, and by the late 1970s, Paul Boateng was building a reputation as a crusading housing and civil rights lawyer in Lambeth, South London.  He was elected to the GLC (Greater London Council) in 1981, and served on the police and ethnic minorities committees.  As chair of the police committee, he fought for  greater accountability from the Metropolitan Police, particularly in their dealings with minority and disadvantaged communities. He was elected as Labour MP for Brent South at the general election of 1987.  He was part of the move toward a more moderate ideology that was emerging under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, and served in a number of key Opposition posts.

Diane Abbott was born in Paddington, London in 1953, to Jamaican parents.  Having achieved a Masters Degree in history at Cambridge, she went into the Civil Service, then worked as a journalist, broadcaster and PR Consultant.  She was active in the National Council for Civil Liberties, and in the general election of 1987 was elected Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, becoming Britain's  first black female MP.

[aion-rsa]

From Bridgerton to Sanditon—Putting Island Queen in a Period Drama Context

https://ift.tt/3dpMXo9

This article contains book spoilers for Island Queen and a trigger warning for racism and sexual assault.

Caribbean history is often ignored in US discussions of the era, despite myself and many other Americans having ancestry from this part of the world. Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park has extended references to Caribbean slavery but many adaptations sidestep these implications or briefly address them before moving back to the white main characters. In addition, the focus is often on male leaders of rebellions such as Toussaint L’Overture leading the Haitian rebellion, or on women with island ancestry such as Dido Elizabeth from the movie Belle living in England. All are written by white novelists and screenwriters who miss cultural nuances and are unaware of subconscious bias. Island Queen, Vanessa Riley’s latest foray into Black historical fiction reveals a hidden figure of Caribbean history. Dorothy Kirwan was born into slavery in Montserrat, but secured her own freedom by becoming an astute businesswoman. 

Riley’s novel takes readers on a complex but emotionally fufilling journey which brings up serious historical questions on slavery, class, gender, and business ethics during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Riley’s novel is the answer for fans who feel recent historical dramas prioritize varying levels of whitewashing or escapism over featuring real Black history. 

Kirwan’s story has incredible relevance today as many look to understand the enduring legacies of British colonialism and the slave trade in the late 18th and early 19th Century. Her diary does not exist but Riley assembled birth records and other primary sources to trace her life. This is in contrast to sources such as the anonymously published novel The Woman Of Colour which historians are still looking to corroborate authorship and connections to real Caribbean figures.   Kirwan at times the mirror image of the fictionalized story of July from The Long Song, but there are also flash points of difference along class and timeframe context. July was born roughly 50 years later than Kirwan in Jamaica.  In addition, Dorothy’s life journey takes the reader from Montserrat to Demerara (off the coast of modern day Guyana), Grenada, and Dominica. Most importantly, Riley is an Caribbean-American writer while Andrea Levy wrote The Long Song for Black British readers. 

Dorothy’s in-character first person narration is the glue that holds the story together through frequent flashbacks to her childhood and young adulthood to her life in 1824 as a grandmother. The main theme of self-determination in a world where rich white men decide the rules everyone must play keeps the reader engaged even when it is not clear where the plot is heading. In the present plot, Dorothy has returned to London after many years away to petition colonial leaders to retain hard-won rights for Black and biracial women in Demerara. These unequal laws threaten Dorothy’s children and grandchildren and could even take away the freedom and inheritance she has spent her whole life to build. 

Bridgerton’s critics will find solace in Island Queen. Those who wanted the Black aristocracy of Haiti and other Caribbean islands featured in the series will find this history at the center. Kirwan navigates a world with inherent inequality, despite how much she has achieved in property ownership and savings. When she interacts with British and colonial elites, they never treat her as if she has power over them. The racial caste system in existence influences all of her interactions. After a breakup, she takes up an offer from Prince William (Queen Victoria’s uncle who died with no legitimate heirs) to travel with him on his ship. In Dorothy’s story, he provides a temporary emotional distraction but also a recognition that she would never fit into the British elite because of her skin color and island background. Unlike Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton, the real prejudices of the era held Dorothy back from ascending completely into the highest levels of royal society. Riley’s narrative, especially, ignores what could have been and shows readers the truth. 

These rich white men who placed artificial limits on Dorothy were also the source for young Alexander Hamilton’s childhood poverty. However, his solution as featured in the opening song of Hamilton was to leave the islands to pursue his education in America. This was an option steeped in male and to an extent white privilege as women at this point in history were not allowed to attend college. In addition, American society had already enacted severe restrictions in the rights of free people of color. Hamilton also was an orphan. Dorothy’s parents and her children kept her rooted to the Caribbean. 

The road to Dorothy acquiring a thriving business and heirs was lengthy and arduous, and Riley does not sugar coat the dynamics at play in her life. Kirwan’s mother was a slave and her father owned a plantation. The more percentage of white ancestry you have in your blood, the more freedom and rights you have. In her teenage years, Dorothy’s white half-brother Nicholas rapes her and she ends up giving birth to a daughter. Dorothy is forced to run away with a trusted friend to another island and has to leave her daughter behind. This is the beginning of many sacrifices she makes in order to protect her family. 

Although many readers may object to Riley portraying incest and sexual assault, the historical research makes this clear that this was the reality for women in slave societies. Dorothy’s narration is carefully crafted to show not only the trauma of the event, but her processing the trauma. For Dorothy, healing comes in the form of survival. The objective isn’t exploitation or the male gaze, but to illuminate ignored history and the intersection of race and gender in sexual power dynamics. Dorothy has to repeatedly establish consent and trust in a world where her partners can and will refuse to agree to those terms. The debate over rape culture in historical fiction revolves around characters that are fictional facing fictionalized situations, especially in the TV adaptations of Outlander and Bridgerton. Additionally, Outlander has sidestepped any serious contemplation of exploitation dynamics in slave societies despite plots featuring 8th Century Jamaica and North Carolina.  It is difficult to apply this same critique to Riley’s novel as her intention is historical recreation and reconstruction of Kirwan’s life story. 

Riley’s explanation and contextualization of race and gender dynamics is something many viewers wanted the first season of British historical drama Sanditon to address, past the show alluding to Georgiana’s ancestry and £100,000 inheritance. In fact, Riley explains in the Author’s Note that the journey to finding Dorothy Kirwan began with figuring out who the real Miss Lambe could have been over a decade ago. For Georgiana to have that kind of wealth, she would have had to have a white male ancestor willing and able to use the law to secure her freedom. Sidney’s connection to Georgiana as her legal ward isn’t clear, representing a missed opportunity that erodes the story’s worldbuilding. Dorothy’s explanation of social rankings and her own background means it is highly likely Georgiana is the product of a relationship between a white planter and an enslaved or indentured woman. Georgiana isn’t the only example of an fictional heir from the islands around this time period. Rhoda Swartz from Vanity Fair has Black and Jewish ancestry along with thousands of pounds. Island Queen has the space and interest to completely center the story of women like Georgiana and Rhoda position from the perspective of a Black writer and historian. 

Dorothy also reveals through her life experiences that interracial relationships with unequal power dynamics were often one of the only ways enslaved Black and biracial women could gain their freedom. In stark contrast to America during the late 18th Century, interracial relationships were never officially outlawed, but it was very rare for white men to officially marry women of color. More often, these women were mistresses and concubines, and any children from these relationships legally belonged to the father. Any relationship an enslaved woman undertook carried the risk of losing her children, with her past often used as a weapon of misogynoir, or simultaneous racist and sexist discrimination.  

One plot line unites Island Queen and The Long Song: both July and Dorothy lose a daughter to their white slave holding father who wanted to raise them in England. This trauma drives July to poverty while Dorothy had to wrestle the trauma alongside her mission to to fight to secure manumission papers for her children and also to develop a source of income that cannot be controlled by the men in her life. 

Read more

TV

How The Long Song Spotlights Ignored Black Caribbean History

By Amanda-Rae Prescott

Books

How Bridgerton Season 2 Can Improve On Season 1

By Amanda-Rae Prescott

At one point, she engages in survival sex work, then finds work as a housekeeper. Eventually, she is able to start her own housekeeping and domestic worker agency. She was well aware that some of her employees would choose to have relations with their bosses, but she made sure that she was not seen as a brothel owner for legal reasons. This is in stark contrast to some of the characters from Harlots on Hulu where brothel ownership or their sex worker status was an open secret.This is another area where Black women would suffer worse consequences for perceived immorality in society compared to white women. In fact, rumors of sex work follow her  Dorothy doesn’t intefere if her housekeepers decide to engage in sex work but she insists on mutual consent.  Riley does not apply any modern notions of slut-shaming or anti-sex-worker rhetoric. The reader understands that options for women’s employment outside of domestic service in these island colonies were severely limited. 

Dorothy’s narrative exposes both vulnerability in her relationships with her children and her significant others and also in her resolve to maintain her status. Far too often, Black women in historical fiction are reduced to tropes such as the “strong Black woman” that are not realistic to historical or modern readers. Or even worse, authors who completely erase the presence of Black women in the late Georgian and Regency Era by only featuring white women. 

The challenge in reading Island Queen for those uninitiated in Caribbean history of this era is to separate our modern historical knowledge from the reality Dorothy faces. Although Riley’s narrative does not make excuses for her questionable decisions, the narration makes clear that Dortothy is navigating a racist, sexist and classist society. Part of Dorothy’s later wealth comes from owning slaves. This was not a decision based on wanting to inflict cruelty, but due to the power dynamics in colonial society which punished those who refused to participate in the slave trade. Dorothy opposes slavery but also realize that open rebellion will cost her life or the lives of those around her. She is not isolated from the violence of slave rebellions and of the consequences of suppression. Riley in the Author’s Note says Kirwan freed all of her slaves in 1833 when slavery in Demerara was officially outlawed.

Dorothy’s narrative may have the background makings of a tragedy, but Riley reveals that her life was ultimately a success. Kirwan built her business and eventually reunited most members of her family. She even saw her children marry successfully and met several of her grandchildren. None of her children lived in poverty and she prevented all of them from working as slaves. While some may wish her various relationships could have created a permanent happy ever after, the real satisfaction comes from seeing Kirwan preserve her legacy for the next generation. Real Black historical stories such as Kirwan’s are incredibly rare in US and UK media as wholly fictional composite characters dominate existing period dramas and historical fiction novels. Island Queen, if enough people read it, could become a TV or movie adaptation that would give viewers the real truths of late 18th Century/Regency Era Caribbean history. The genre is overdue for a biography adaptation led by Black writers without the white gaze. 

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Island Queen will be available in bookstores July 6th. You can order the book here.

The post From Bridgerton to Sanditon—Putting Island Queen in a Period Drama Context appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3drNnu3

[askaphjamaica1962]

Hello, I've had this character for awhile but just got around to it.

Quote:

"Ha take that you fucking Russian loser commie. It must be so embarrassing, losing a winter game against a tropical country."

-Jamaica 1994 Winter Olympics after the team beat Russia.

HUMAN NAME:

Gabrielle Amancia Sharpe-Gordon 

Gabrielle is the most popular name in Jamaica, the middle name, Amancia is a name of Jamaican origin and the two last names are after two of our national heroes, Samuel Sharpe and George William Gordon.

Born: Discovery Bay/Bahia del descubrimiento (it was the first place the Tainos settled and the first place Christopher Colombus docked.)

.

GOVERNMENT:

Unitary Parliamentary and Constitutional Monarchy. 

FOUNDING DATE:

The island was ‘discoverd’ by Christopher Colombus on the 5th of May, 1494.

INDEPENDENCE DATE:

Was granted independence from England on the 6th of August, 1962.

MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGES:

NATIONAL: Jamaican Patois

OFFICIAL: Jamaican Standard English

She can also speak Spanish (since you know first colonizer), French and Dutch (from the Caribbean), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (because of the close relations) and the language of her native people, the Arawaks.

Age: Appears to be 20 (did this because I saw a suggestion that countries that were colonised earlier, would be older), in term of Independence 58 and in terms of colonisation, 526 years old or between 1121 and 1111 since to me she was born soon after the Tainos settled which was sometime between 800 and 900 AD.

BIRTHDAY: August 6

HOROSCOPE: Leo

GENDER: Female (I did this because in modern and historical times, women have always had an important role in Jamaica)

ASSOCIATIONS:

CARICOM (Caribbean Community, was one of the four founding members, along with Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, in 1973.)

The United Nations (since 1962)

The Commonwealth (since 1962)

G-15

G-33

G-77

UN Security Council (temporarily in 1992 and 2001 was president in July 2000 and November 2001)

The organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)

Food and Agricultural Organisation

International Atomic Energy Agency

Non-Aligned Movement

Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL)

The organisation of American States

World Health Organisation

World Trade Organisation, etc.

APPEARANCE

Mixed. Quite a lot of her features are reminiscent of the Africans with some European and a small amount of Asian features.

HEIGHT: 5’5 or 165.09cm which is the average height for women in the country.

WEIGHT: 110lbs, or 49kg.

HAIR LENGTH: Mid-back

HAIR COLOUR: Medium brown

HAIR TYPE: Very curly hair, messy and frizzy. She always spends at least two hours, fixing it.

EYEBROWS: Quiet thick eyebrows.

EYE COLOUR: Medium brown

SKIN COLOUR: Medium brown

EYE TYPE:  Wide almond-shaped eyes, averagely spaced.

FACIAL FEATURES: A very round face, high cheekbones, medium-sized pink lips and a wide, short nose. She also has a very flat forehead, reminiscent of the Tainos who used to flatten the foreheads of babies as they thought it would make them more beautiful, mouth corner dimples.

BODY TYPE: Lithe, bottom hourglass shape, C cup breasts, and a large bottom..

OTHER FEATURES:

Has an aheago on the right side of her head, shaped like what was left of Port Royal after the 1692 earthquake.

Has many scars all over her body from natural disasters and battles over the years.

Has very scarred hands, from slavery, one of the reasons why she always wears gloves.

Has small freckles on her knuckles from being in the sun a lot.

Has a long burn mark on her entire thigh, from the 1907 earthquake that destroyed the entire capital, Kingston City

Has a long scar from her right hip to her left shoulder, from the 1692 Port Royal earthquake

CLOTHES:

GLASSES: Wears half-framed black glasses representing Kingston Parish and the tendency of Jamaicans to only look at the short-term effects and not focus on the long term effects.

ACCESSORIES: Wears a small braided bracelet with the colours of her flag.

Tattoos: Has a large tattoo on her back of a map of Port Royal as a memorial.

PIERCINGS: Her left ear has full piercings (but she hardly wears them and they are the most recent ones. She was experimenting which is being done more in the country with piercings and tattoos.) and her right ear has two earlobe piercings and one in the inside of her ear. Also has a navel piercing. (It is one of the most common piercings in the country.) A nose piercing which is also quite common.

MILITARY OUTFIT:

FOR COMBAT: Full camouflage pants and long or short sleeves, steel-tipped, black combat boots, black wrist length gloves small, gold knob earrings, and either a beret (black or white), or a green sunhat or various other military caps.

FOR CEREMONIES: Black military cover, no earrings, red jacket with gold piping and gold buttons and a white belt with a leather and gold belt buckle, white wrist-length gloves, black skirt with one red stripe on the sides and black dress shoes.

THE WORLD WARS: As a colony of Britain during the time of the wars, she would have worn the same uniform. During both, she served in the Royal Air Force (RAF)

MILITARY RANK: Enlisted in the Air Wing, she is a Warrant Officer Class 1, which is the highest in the enlisted ranks.

In all of these outfits, her hair is in a tight bun.

CASUAL CLOTHING: Green spaghetti-strapped blouse, black short shorts, black sponge slippers, brown gloves, small cross earrings in her earlobes and a small stud in her upper ear. Hair is in a low, loose ponytail. Most of the piercings are in. She wears a gold nose ring

NORMAL CLOTHING: A green off the shoulder blouse, yellow knee-length flowy skirt, black flats, black gloves, small gold hoops and a small stud in her upper ear and two rings in her upper left ear. Her hair will normally be in a loose side ponytail, tied with a black ribbon. 

MEETING CLOTHING: A green, knee-length tunic, with a yellow dress shirt underneath, black sandals with a small heel, drop earrings with a circular wooden piece. Her hair will normally be either down and loose or pushed back with a bandeau.

Or for more formal meetings:

A black pants suit with gold accents with a yellow dress shirt underneath and a pale green vest. Normally wears black wedge heeled shoes. Only small gold earrings are in of her earlobes, a gold watch and her hair is normally in a low ponytail with a black ribbon.

FORMAL CLOTHING: A dress, one inch above the knee, large, octagonal gold hoops and a small gold star in her upper ear, black wedge heeled shoes and black, wrist length gloves. Her hair will normally be braided with black and yellow beads.

PERSONALITY:

She is normally a very loud, kind and helpful person. Though, as a former pirate, she has quite a short temper and when angered, she will normally refrain from using violence unless you're Trinidad or got her really pissed. Unless it is something very important, she'll be angry for the most, a week, doesn't easily keep grudges. She is normally someone who prefers to stay out of international conflicts but will stick her nose into peoples’ business and involves herself in everything (stereotype). She is very good at lying, which is a stereotype, very athletic, competitive (will do anything to win, once it’s not illegal), a tardy person when it comes on to social gatherings, but will be at least two hours early to anything important, independent and very extroverted, confident, go getter, ambitious, Always wakes up at the latest 8 o’clock and spends at least one-hour jogging or walking, curses like a sailor, very petty.

HOBBIES:

Gardening/Farming

Swimming

Running

Writing Poems

Pottery or just arts and crafts in general

Playing music (her favourites are the drums and the guitar)

Practicing magic

Playing sports

FLAWS:

Stubborn and won’t listen to anyone. (this is from how Jamaicans refuse to ask for help, especially directions.)

Blunt

Judgemental, especially with sexuality and class

Nosy

Can be quite hypocritical

RELATIONSHIPS/FAMILY:

MOTHER: Arawak, the original settlers of the Greater Antilles

FATHER: She sees England as her father figure

SIBLINGS:

Cuba

The Dominican Republic

Haiti

Puerto Rico

I made these four countries siblings because they were settled by the same people

Ex-Husband: Belize. When she was a colony, Belize was joined together from 1749 to 1884.

The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos (kind of like adopted brothers since now they are considered a part of the Greater Antilles)

Friends:

Russia

Germany

Italy

The Caribbean

Canada

America

Italy

The Netherlands

Brazil

Spain

(those are the main ones. Is friends with the world.)

CHILDREN: Kingston City and Montego Bay City

LOVE INTEREST: Brazil (in recent years, they've grown much closer and she eventually developed a crush.)

RIVALS: Trinidad and Tobago (they are rivals in basically everything.)

OTHER: Has had a strained relationship with Grenada ever since the 1983 invasion.

In recent years, her relationship with America has faced a downturn because of disagreements regarding trade and climate change.

The relationship with China has also not been the best in terms of jobs and trade.

STATS:

INTELLIGENCE: 7/10

WISDOM: 7/10

STRENGTH: 6/10

WEAKNESSES: 5/10

CONFIDENCE: 6/10

WEAPONS:

A handgun

Sub-machine gun

A cutlass/machete

NATION INFO:

FULL NATIONAL NAME: The Commonwealth of Jamaica

NATIONALITY: Jamaican

CAPITAL CITY: Kingston City

WORLD LEADER/PRIME MINISTER: The Most Honourable Andrew Holness

HUMAN POPULATION: 2,969,736

LAND AREA: 10,991km2

FLAG COLOURS: Black, meaning the strength and creativity of the people which has allowed them to overcome hardships, gold represents the wealth of the country and the golden sunshine and green represents the lush vegetation of the island, as well as hope.

ALSO CALLED: The Isle of the West Indies

                            The isle of the Caribbean

NATIONAL ANTHEM: 

Jamaica’s national anthem is a prayer, calling on God to bless and guard our country, and bless our leaders with divine wisdom. The playing or singing of the anthem always fills us with pride, whether it is at a school devotion, a national event or on a global stage, such as the Olympics, when we celebrate the excellence of our athletes.

There are also two other, not national, Jamaica Land of Beauty and I Pledge My Heart/ the School Song.

NATIONAL PLEDGE:

Before God and All mankind.

I pledge the love and loyalty of my heart

The wisdom and courage of my mind,

The strength and vigour of my body

in the service of my fellow citizens.

I promise to stand up for justice,

Brotherhood and Peace, to work diligently and creatively,

To think generously and honestly, so that,

Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship

and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare

of the whole human race.

RELIGION:

68.9% Christianity

     64.8% Protestantism

     4.1% Other Christian

21.3% No religion

1.1% Rastafarianism

6.5% Others

2.3% Not stated

ETHNIC GROUPS:

92.1% Afro-Jamaicans

(incl. 25% mixed Irish Jamaican)

6.1% Mixed

0.8% Indian

0.4% Other

0.7% Unspecified

LIKES:

Sports (is freakishly good at them and is a fast learner)

Being with friends and family

Drinking alcohol

Food with flavour

Pottery

Brazil

DISLIKES:

France (because of what he did to Haiti, nothing perverted)

People making weed jokes at her. 

Being bossed around

Dry and tasteless food

Line skippers (even though she’s one)

Anywhere colder than 13 degrees Celius

QUIRKS:

She is the only one who can hear the narrator

She also has the ghost of her former boss and famous pirate, Henry Morgan following her around.

Also has magical creatures around her that she talks to, mostly ghosts tbh.

FEARS:

Natural disasters. Even though they are quite common, she still fears the damage, loss of lives and pain that it will bring.

She fears getting to such a state where she has to be dependent on another nation too much as she is a very independent nation.

Most creepy crawlies

Green lizards

SHE IS A HEAVY DRINKER.

STRENGTHS:

She is a very creative person in both the arts and in general

Integrity

Persistence

WEAKNESSES:

Is legally blind without her glasses

Has no patience

Nosey

TALENTS:

Very good potter

Good at playing the Guitar and Drums 

Good poet

Occupation:

[xtruss]

The Amazon’s ‘Mouth-Watering’ Fifth Flavour

— By Catherine Balston | BBC Travel | November 23, 2020

The ancestral sauce of black tucupi is making its way onto the menus of some of South America’s best restaurants, bringing a new sense of pride to an age-old tradition.

It all started with a bottle of chilli sauce. It was so fiery it makes my eyes water just thinking about it. I had bought it in 2014 from an old woman in Paraitepuy, a Venezuelan village near the base of Monte Roraima. It was the end of a seven-day hike up the table-top mountain, a sacred place for the local Pemon people, from which waterfalls spill over the edge in dizzying vertical drops. The sauce came home with me where it stayed, lurking unused in my kitchen cupboard for the next four years as it was far too hot for my palate.

A couple of years later, I discovered that this sauce was in fact black tucupi, a thick, dark sauce rich in the satisfying savouriness of umami, the so-called “fifth flavour”. Little-known beyond indigenous communities in the Amazon, it is being discovered by high-profile chefs in São Paulo, Lima, Bogotá and even Paris. Curious to know more, I began to dig into its origins, and what emerged was a tale of ancestral wisdom, rare Amazonian languages, poison and layers of intrigue that thickened, just like the sauce, the deeper I dug.

I am not the first person to be fascinated by black tucupi. The first written record of the sauce dates to 1929, in a posthumous publication by the Italian explorer and ethnographer Ermanno Stradelli: “To my taste, it is the king of sauces,” he wrote, “as much for game as for fish… and to which extraordinary cures can be attributed.”

Black tucupi, a thick, umani-rich sauce, has been made by indigenous communities across the Amazon for thousands of years (Credit: rchphotos/Getty Images)

Stradelli had discovered black tucupi during one of a number of expeditions deep into the Amazon rainforest in the 1880s and 1890s. The unique flavours of the Amazon enchanted him, as they had the Dutch, English and Portuguese explorers who had been shipping their “discoveries” back to Europe as far back as the 16th Century. When writing about this king of sauces, Stradelli referred to it as tucupi pixuna (pronounced “pishuna”) – pixuna meaning “black” in Nheengatu, a now-severely endangered language that was spoken all across the Amazon region until the late 1800s.

Tucupi pixuna, tucupi negro, kumaji, ají negro, kanyzi pudidy and cassareep are all different names for the same sauce. It’s a linguistic register of some of the indigenous nations that still make black tucupi right across the Amazon as far and wide as Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. “When was black tucupi discovered? Who discovered it? No-one will ever know because it was thousands of years ago,” explained Sandra Baré, from the Baré people that live in the Upper Rio Negro region, one of a handful of ethnic groups who still speak Nheengatu and whose tucupi pixuna is sold in markets around São Gabriel da Cachoeira, on the banks of the Rio Negro.

As for how it is made, that is one question Baré can answer, and I happily listened to her explain the process as part of a cooking class on manioc, a root vegetable (also known as cassava, or tapioca when in its pure starch form) that is now the staple food for hundreds of millions of people across the world. “Manioc has been sustaining indigenous nations for many years,” said Baré. She detailed the various techniques for turning bitter manioc into breads and flours, as well as the process by which bitter manioc juice is simmered down from a yellow liquid into dark and syrupy black tucupi.

Manioc, which is a staple food for hundreds of millions of people across the World, is packed with toxic cyanide (Credit: Tina Leme Scott)

“You have to be really careful cooking black tucupi because bitter manioc kills,” Baré warned. “Anyone who drinks the raw juice won’t take two steps before falling down dead.” It turns out bitter manioc is packed with toxic cyanide, and I wonder how many people over the years have literally fallen at that first hurdle. None hopefully, at least not for a couple of millennia, as bitter manioc has been cultivated and cooked (which brings the cyanide down to safe levels) by the Amazon’s indigenous nations as far back as 4,000 years.

Denise Rohnelt de Araújo, a Brazilian cook and food writer, first came across Stradelli’s reference to tucupi pixuna 10 years ago in História da Alimentação no Brasil, an encyclopaedic register of Brazil’s diverse culinary history that was first published in 1963 by the historian Luís da Câmara Cascudo. She’s been on its trail ever since, collecting samples from all over the Amazon. Late last year, when I visited her home in Boa Vista in Brazil’s northernmost state of Roraima, she presented me with a box full of bottles in all shapes and sizes.

“When I read Stradelli’s description of this king of sauces, I had to find out more,” de Araújo told me. “There are various different ways to make black tucupi and none of them are the same. The only thing they have in common is that it’s a reduction of bitter manioc juice. Some remove the manioc starch, others don’t. Some are fermented. Others add ants. The Venezuelans add chilli. In Guyana you have clove and cinnamon. Some have a slight bitterness or smokiness. Every ethnic group does it their own way.”

Boa Vista was my jumping-off point into the interior of Roraima to see for myself how different indigenous peoples make black tucupi. Here in the heart of the Amazonian savannah on the triple border of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana, hot, dry air blows across a mainly grassy landscape. At Tabalascada, about 24km outside Boa Vista, a Wapichana community are fighting to preserve their land and their culture. Monoculture crop farming and urban development encroach from all sides. I hiked from the village into the forest with a community leader, Marcolino da Silva, to see their manioc plantation. The young plants were only five months old and nearly twice my height already, with leaves fanning out at the top of thin stems.

To prepare black tucupi, manioc has to be peeled and grated and the juice squeezed out (Credit: Tina Leme Scott)

Back in the village, a long table was being laid for lunch under the shade of some tall mango trees with parakeets screeching overhead. The shy but lively 62-year old Dona Carol, da Silva’s mother, is the village expert in making black tucupi, and she busied about bringing dishes to the table and clapping a nosy cockerel away. Everything she laid out was made with manioc, from the bread (beiju) to a manioc and fish stew (damorida) and a jug of boozy fermented manioc (caxiri). The prints of trainers, bare feet and animal claws in the dry earth charted the afternoon’s comings and goings, and as the sun started its downward slide and the caxiri went to my head, I eyed up a nearby hammock. Dona Carol has been teaching the younger generation her black tucupi recipe. “They have to learn to do this to not forget our Wapichana culture,” she said. “I am here today but who knows about tomorrow. Death knows no age.”

My next stop, Yupukari, was just over the border in Guyana’s Rupununi region. In a small Macuxi village, home to about 100 families, I was spending three days learning how to make black tucupi. I met the team at Caiman House, an eco-lodge in the village and one of a dozen or so eco-lodges run by indigenous peoples in the interior wilderness of Guyana. Nature lovers come here to explore the “land of the giants”, as it has been called; the world’s largest otters, spiders, anteaters, rodents and eagles can all be spotted here.

I had my sights set on black tucupi, however, known in Guyana as cassareep, or cassava sauce. This is the only country in the Amazon Basin where black tucupi has made its way into the national cuisine. It’s an essential ingredient in pepperpot, a meat stew in which black tucupi mingles with the cloves and cinnamon of Guyana’s Caribbean heritage. Industrially made cassareep is sold everywhere in Guyana, but I’d come to learn the traditional, artisanal way.

The resulting manioc juice is decanted and then simmered for several hours until it becomes dark and syrupy (Credit: Tina Leme Scott)

My next two days were spent with two local women as they harvested, peeled and grated nearly 100kg of manioc. The grated manioc was stuffed into a plaited palm tube called a matapi (or tipiti in Brazil), which looks like the engorged belly of an anaconda before it is stretched out thin, squeezing the manioc juice into a bowl below. Next, the juice rests for a few hours to let the solid starch (tapioca) decant, and the juice was then poured into a cauldron and left to simmer over a wood fire for around four or five hours.

In the meantime, the women transformed the grated manioc into toasted flour and flatbread. A crowd of onlookers shuffled around the space to avoid the smoke as it curled up and around. Things got tense in the final minutes as the simmering manioc juice begins to camarelise, turning red and then dark brown, then as thick as molasses and hastily whipped off the fire before it burned. Once it had cooled we all dipped the flatbread into the sauce and tasted the flavour bomb: intense, sweet and mildly sour.

The next day, it was added to a fragrant bowl of tuma pot – a traditional fish stew – served for lunch on my last day. I also took a bottle home with me, all the more valuable having seen the backbreaking work in making it.

Outside of indigenous communities, black tucupi evangelists in some of South America’s best restaurants are getting excited about its umami potential, glazing meats with it, adding it to dressings, broths and sauces, and even mixing it in Bloody Marys.

Black tucupi is making its way onto the menus of South America’s best restaurants due to its rich umami flavour (Credit: Tina Leme Scott)

In São Paulo, chef Helena Rizzo glazes fish with black tucupi at Maní restaurant; while Carla Pernambuco served confit duck with a black tucupi sauce at Carlota. On the far side of the continent in the Peruvian capital, Lima, high-profile chefs have been experimenting with black tucupi on their menus for a few years already. Their supply, sold in elegant glass bottles in Lima’s upmarket delis, comes from Bora and Huitito women near Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon thanks to a partnership with NGO Despensa Amazónica. Pedro Miguel Schiaffino has put it at the heart of his menu at new casual diner Boa Street Food, infusing tomato sauce, pirarucu (fish) sausages and smoked pork tacos with its richness; while Gaston Acúrio brushes it on roasted cauliflower at Astrid y Gastón.

“Some people compare it to soy, some to Worcestershire sauce, but chefs simply see it as something unique,” said Joanna Martins, whose Brazilian food company Manioca sells black tucupi to retailers. She supplies some of Brazil’s top chefs with her version and is testing out the US market, too.

The Wapichana community in Tabalascada has plans to launch a certified, branded version to Brazilian retailers next year. They sell it locally and informally for now but are building up their capacity through a partnership with Brazilian NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) as well as government funding thanks to Joênia Wapichana (the first indigenous woman to be voted into the Brazilian congress).

Manioc is also turned into flours and bread, as well as traditional alcoholic beverages (Credit: Tina Leme Scott)

“Black tucupi is an incredible product that respects the Wapichana way of life and their traditional agricultural systems, and that in turn helps protect biodiversity and the forest,” said ISA’s Amanda Latosinski. “For the youngsters, the chance to earn an income is an incentive to not leave for the city, and to resist the pressures of destructive activities like mining.”

It’s a win-win for the indigenous communities. And it’s a win-win for those who can get their hands on a precious bottle – the chance to try a unique, umami flavour and support a tradition that runs deep into the heart of the Amazon. I can still only handle a few drops at a time of the fiery black tucupi bought all those years ago in Venezuela, but the treacle-like cassareep from Guyana is black gold, used in my cooking as sparingly as my willpower allows.

[pnwdoodlesreads]

Black Power ABC's

Who’s On The Cards?

A is for Angela Davis

Angela Yvonne Davis, activist, educator, scholar, and politician, was born on January 26, 1944, in the “Dynamite Hill” area of Birmingham, Alabama.  The area received that name because so many African American homes in this middle class neighborhood had been bombed over the years by the Ku Klux Klan.  Her father, Frank Davis, was a service station owner and her mother, Sallye Davis, was an elementary school teacher.  Davis’s mother was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), when it was dangerous to be openly associated with the organization because of its civil rights activities.  Angela Davis  emerged as a prominent figure in the Black Power Movement as a member of the Black Panther and Communist Parties. Davis later went on to become a University Professor, and has authored numerous books about issues of race, class, and gender, while continuing to fight for the liberation of black people across the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BIZy0HScM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ZP7U1Wnbo

B is for Black Power

Black Power is a political ideology and rallying cry first uttered by SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael. Carmichael described Black Power as “a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community [and]…  to define their own goals, [and] lead their own organizations.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxrzTsfpPfM

C is for Amilcar Cabral

Amilcar Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan revolutionary and anti-colonial leader. Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, which led the nationalist movements of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and the war of Independence in Guinea-Bissau. He was assassinated on January 20th, 1973, about eight months after Guinea-Bissau declared their independence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVZoxudN_Rk&t=2s

D is for Self-Determination

Self determination means the ability to define oneself, to choose one’s own political leaders, to establish one’s own aesthetics and art forms, and to exist outside of the definitions imposed upon yourself by others.

E is for Elaine Brown

Elaine Brown is a political activist and artist who was the only woman to serve as chairperson of the Black Panther Party. Brown was an integral part in the development of the Black Panther Liberation School. Elaine Brown continues to advocate and work for the liberation of black people across the world to this day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0aOJaEa1m0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BieUw5CKH_s

F is for Franz Fanon

Franz Omar Fanon was an Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, physician, philosopher, writer, and revolutionary. As a young man, Fanon fought as a revolutionary soldier in the Algerian War of Independence. Later in life, his books Black Skin, White Masks, and The Wretched of the Earth became foundational texts in the world of anti-colonial theory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4fQ7KwKgFA

G is for Grenada

Grenada is a Caribbean island which experienced a bloodless revolution in March of 1979, when the New Jewel Movement,  led by Maurice Bishop,  assumed power of the government in an armed takeover. Grenada served as a site of inspiration across the African diaspora, as evidence that a revolutionary party can take and keep power without extreme bloodshed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI45fixtxLU

H is for Homecooked

Revolutionaries need to eat. Homecooked meals often served as the fuel that allowed revolutionaries to heal and continue their struggle for liberation.

J is for Julian Bond

Julian Bond was an American political activist who helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee(SNCC) and served as the organization’s communications director for its first five years. In 1965, at the young age of 25, Bond was elected to a seat in the Georgia State Legislature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shKCcw0EzHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb7g8qDsOvg

K is for Kwame Nkurmah

Kwame Nkurmah was the first prime minister and president of Ghana, after leading Ghana to independence in 1957. Nkrumah was also a founding member of the Organization for African Unity,  and a foremost advocate of of Pan-Africanism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIr09k_LMoE

L is for Lowndes County

Lowndes County, Alabama, is an 80% black county in Alabama that had no black registered voters in 1965. Under the direction of SNCC, black voters in Lowndes county were registered to vote, and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization was formed, an independent political organization which ran multiple candidates for office in county elections. Although no candidates were elected to office, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization and their symbol of the black panther served as the inspiration for the Black Panther Party.

M is for Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Griffiths is a Jamaican singer and songwriter, and member of the I Threes, the group which sang the harmonious back up vocals for Bob Marley at the heights of his career. Griffiths went on to write and sing the song, Electric Boogie, a song whose accompanying dance has since become a staple of black parties and gatherings in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97OtsR8L1NY

N is for Nina Simone

Nina Simone is an african-american singer, songwriter, and activist whose songs like To Be Young Gifted and Black and Backlash Blues provided a soundtrack to the Black Power Movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hdVFiANBTk

O is for Organize

The struggle for Black Power was organized and intentional. Organization meant establishing political parties with explicit goals, planning events to reach people, building coalitions and much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8mNBf56I4

P is for Pan African

Pan-Africanism is an intellectual, political, and cultural movement which asserts that all people of African descent have common interests and goals around which they should be unified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn12bNvt1sY

Q is for Queer

Black people cannot be free unless all black people are free, and that includes queer black people. Queer people were vital in the movement for Black Power, although they are rarely included in its history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_XQU2_fF5E

R is for Rastafari

Rastafari is a revolutionary religious and political system originating in the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Rastafari seeks to affirm blackness in the face of a white supremacist world, and is best known for its aesthetic and artistic aspects, such as dreadlocks, dread talk, and reggae music.

S is for SNCC

SNCC, or the the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was a political organization primarily made up of students and young people which was one of the most radical and important groups of the Black Power Movement. SNCC organized the Freedom Rides, which aimed to desegregate buses in the south, Freedom Summer, which aimed to register voters throughout the south, and The Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which served as the inspiration for the Black Panther Party.

T is for Tanzania

Tanzania is an African country whose capital city, Dar es Salaam, served as a meeting site for African revolutionaries fighting for independence throughout the late 1960’s and 70’s.

U is for Us

We are important, and must take care of each other. Revolution cannot be just be about individuals, but must be about “us”.

V is for Brother Valentino

Brother Valentino is a Grenadian born calypso artist, whose songs like Stay up Zimbabwe and Barking Dogs expressed a revolutionary sentiment and served as the music and sound to the Black Power Movement.

W is for Walter Rodney

Walter Rodney was a prominent Guyanese scholar, theorist, and activist, whose writings and speeches about the ideology of Black Power were extremely influential throughout the Black Power Movement and across the diaspora. Rodney was a professor at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, before being banned from the country, and later served as a leader of the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, before being assassinated.

X is for Malcolm X

Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and political leader, who rose to prominence as a leader within the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was a staunch advocate for black self-determination, and argued for liberation “by any means necessary,” and for the creation of an autonomous black state.

Y is for The Young Lords

The Young Lords was a Puerto Rican nationalist group based in Chicago and New york, which advocated for Puerto Rican independence and the liberation of Afro-Latinx people living in the U.S. The Young Lords carried out many direct-action occupations of vacant land, hospitals, churches and other institutions to demand that they operate programs for the poor.

Z is for David Ze

David Ze was an Angolan musical artist and revolutionary who was a member of Agostinho Neto’s Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.

This collection also includes an extra card, which could be used in place of or in addition to the A for Angela Davis Card. The card was included in the deck as it allows you to use this collection with variation, starting with a different card every time you use the deck to teach. It was also important to include this extra card, as both Angela Davis and Assata Shakur are figures of extreme importance to the Black Power Movement, whose knowledge must be passed to the next generation.

A is for Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur is an american activist, scholar, and revolutionary who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Shakur is currently living as a fugitive in Cuba, where she has been granted political asylum from the U.S. government. Shakur’s affirmation chant, “it is our duty to fight for freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains,” is recited at protests across the country to this day (if comfortable, please recite this chant with your children).

[melsa17]

How I learned I was  #blackgirlmagic

I’ve never really sat and thought about what it means to be a woman of color in science. My environment has always included intelligent, strong, black females and to me that was the norm. I was born and raised in Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean (NOT the Dominican Republic) and I attended an all girls’ catholic high school. Black women were my teachers, spiritual leaders, coaches and role models. Being in a class of thirty bright minds fostered a healthy competitive spirit and left me with friendships that still exist today. At the age of fifteen you do not really appreciate the role these women and girls play in your life, but looking back, being surrounded by them influenced the person I’m becoming.

Women are just as capable as men, no one taught me this. It was common sense, if we have the same opportunities and we both have a brain, why shouldn’t we be? Growing up, when taking exams at the national and regional level where my competition now included males I never thought twice about being any less capable. As far as I was concerned I was just as good if not better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no genius and I’m pretty average but I’ve always been a good student.

In 2007 at the age of eighteen, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland to attend Morgan State University (MSU). Morgan belongs to a group of academic institutions termed historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) where both the faculty and students are predominantly black.  Most of these institutions were established after the American Civil War to serve African American communities, but have always been open to all races. Prior to moving to the United States I’d never heard of an HBCU and over the past ten years I’ve described attending an HBCU as living in a bubble. And at that point in my life, I think I needed that. It was hard enough adjusting to life in a city like Baltimore.

Despite having totally different backgrounds, at Morgan everyone looks like you, everyone is treated equally and skin color never played a part in my college experience. This was probably not the case for everyone but I was sheltered because I seldom left my bubble. My teachers, deans, provost, president were all strong powerful black men and women. So when my general biology professor talked about being black and being a black woman in America, growing up black, dealing with racism and being one of the only black students when doing her PhD I really couldn’t relate. I didn’t understand their struggle because honestly I hadn’t experienced it. Growing up black in Dominica is totally different from growing up black in America and so my HBCU experience wasn’t like most of my fellow students.

Recently, a white man asked me if there was slavery in the Caribbean and I looked at him dumbfounded. There are almost 40 million people living in the Caribbean and this educated man didn’t have a clue how we got there, and we both live in the same hemisphere. Once I stopped judging him in my head I explained to him that yes, our countries were also built on the backs of slaves. However, unlike countries like Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaican where you see a lot of diversity among the people, in Dominica everyone looks pretty similar. Yes our complexions vary but at the end of the day we all call ourselves black. Racism did not exist, which is why even at an HBCU where I looked like my peers I didn’t see race the way a young black man who grew up in Alabama saw race.  For me, the most difficult thing about being black in America was being away from home and just trying to figure out who I was, something that didn’t involve the color of my skin back then.

Once I overcame my initial doubts (self-doubt is something I’m still working on) and stopped underestimating my abilities I was able to excel at Morgan. I didn’t see it then but not only did MSU provide a solid foundation and help boost my confidence in my academic abilities, it gave me a glimpse into what many people may now call black girl magic.  My teachers included strong black women and I attended conferences such as the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, where black women ran things. Over the course of my undergraduate career seeing black women in positions of prestige in academia was normal. At Morgan, I was no longer the girl from the Caribbean just trying to keep her scholarship; I was the Chemistry major who knew her stuff and who did research and was good at it. However, through all that I never saw myself as a woman doing well, much less as a black woman doing well. It was simply Melissa, expected to do well and getting it done.

Fast-forward to 2011 when I moved to Gainesville, Florida for graduate school and my bubble popped. University of Florida (UF) was nothing like Morgan. It is a predominantly white institution (PWI) and in a class of over 30 PhD students there were only two black people, including myself. For the first time in my life I was a minority, and self-doubt started creeping in, and I felt extremely alone.  I was a small fish in a very big pond and the familiarity and support that existed at Morgan was gone. And my doubt had nothing to do with the color of my skin and that’s because the same way I was never taught boys are better than girls I was also never taught white people are smarter than black people.

This probably saved me in grad school, because had I been doubting myself based on skin color or what these people though of me I’d have been a basket case. My self-doubt was because these people seemed so damn smart and experienced; some had worked in industry, gotten master’s degrees, or been doing research for years and here I was feeling all-good about myself because I got a couple awards in undergrad. I remember calling my mom telling her be prepared I’m going to fail out and I’ll be home soon, sorry for being a disappointment (this was all before the first test). However, my mother is my biggest cheerleader and prayer warrior and so she ignored me like she normally does when I say these things. She probably said something like: “Melissa I know what you’re capable of and you’ll be fine, God is in control (West Indian mom lingo101).”

In the Caribbean its ingrained in you at a young age that you can’t fail and you don’t quit. However, growing up I was a lot harder on myself than my own parents, and they were often the ones telling me to relax. On the day of my Common Entrance Examination (an exam that allows Caribbean students to move on to high school) my dad took me to the river at 6 am for a swim so that I would just relax and stop panicking. Yes, at ten years old I was already that hard on myself.  I’ve always been competitive and for that first year of grad school I was just trying to keep my head in the game and not disappoint all the people who believed in me. Looking back, I wish I could tell my 23 year old self: “CHILL, listen to more Kartel and go have a drink!”

The first year of grad school was the toughest and though I came in with a strong chemistry background all the biology material I was presented with was sometimes overwhelming. Chemistry and math had always made sense, and biology just wasn’t my favorite. I made it through the first year, did pretty well actually and kept that fellowship. And like at Morgan I found my footing and did well, my project worked, my lab environment was great, I made good friends, learned hard lessons and apart from Gainesville, being the most boring place ever, life was good. I have no horrible PhD stories and sometimes I feel guilty about it. I have a lot of friends who’ve gone (and are still going) through some tough times. My PhD mentor was great and I enjoyed my PhD experience. Not many PhD candidates can say they graduated with almost twenty peer-reviewed publications and for that I’m grateful and also very lucky (also another story).  

Even though I attended a PWI in Florida I still lived in a bubble; not the kind of bubble I experienced in Baltimore but a bubble nonetheless. I hadn’t experienced blatant racism, just the usual stares or stereotypical questions and comments. My former mentor is white but his wife holds a PhD in Biophysics and is a brilliant black woman at the top of her field; she is also the only black faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She may not see it because she is also extremely humble but she is the perfect example of  “black girl magic” and to me this was all so normal. Of course black women were killing it in science and engineering why wouldn’t they its all I had seen since moving to the U.S. Granted, I saw less of it in Florida and even though it bothered me that most of the black women I saw in my building were janitors who others wouldn’t even take the time to greet, it was ok because I knew we existed. And then Trayvon Martin was killed, and it never stopped. Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, John Crawford and we know how it goes. I’m not naïve, I know oppression and racism didn’t end with slavery and I know this had ben going on in America for years but I was now experiencing it first hand.  And over the past 5 years I’ve come to understand what it means to be black in America and I’ve also learnt slavery didn’t end just because it was abolished. It doesn’t matter if you’re an MD, CEO or lawyer, all certain people see is the color of your skin. I finally understood what my undergrad professor was talking about.  Seeing young black men and women being targeted because their hue was slightly different was my rude awakening.

It came to the point where watching movies like 12 Years a Slave filled me with so much anger that I’d need extra time to myself before talking to others at work. I left every movie asking why, watched every breaking news update and every not-guilty verdict and just asked “but how?” I’ve always being quick to correct others when they called me African American because I’m extremely proud of my West Indian heritage. “I’m not from this country, I’m West Indian!”  However, I’ve learned, that in America it doesn’t matter what kind of black you are, racists see in black and white and if you’re black you’re beneath them. For the first time in my life I was being told that I was not equal to a certain group of people and that I was not as qualified. After more than twenty years I was being taught what some children had been told all their lives. It has left me angry, filled with hate, hurt and so confused, not because I believe them but because somewhere there is a child who’s accepted this as their fate. Also because I know its not the truth.

This week I saw the film Hidden Figures, which tells the story of three exceptionally brilliant black women who worked at NASA in the 1960s, at a time when segregation still existed in the state of Virginia. The movie focuses on the critical roles they played in the launch of the astronaut John Glen into orbit using their skills in mathematics and physics.  Despite the rave reviews I’d seen I wasn’t excited about this movie. I entered the movie theater with the mindset that this would just be another film that would leave me filled with anger and asking, “why do black people have to endure so much?” This movie made me angry; the way these women were treated solely because of the color of their skin and lady parts was ridiculous and let my blood boil but it also made me realize how much I take for granted. My circle is filled with women in science that I’ve met over the years: chemists, civil engineers, nuclear engineers, immunologists, mechanical engineers, physicists and biochemists; we do it because its what we love and what we’ve always done.  I am a black woman with a PhD in Biochemistry in the field of X-ray crystallography and there are not a lot of us (I checked the numbers). Like I said, I’ve always seen black women doing extraordinary things so I’ve never dwelled on how long it took us to get here. Its not about not playing the race card (a term I despise), its just that I know that a black woman is just as capable. I have the kind of parents who think I’m capable of anything I put my mind to, some days I doubt myself but they never do and more black girls need that growing up. This movie left me feeling empowered on a day where once again I had been questioning my abilities and worrying about my future.  All women need to see this movie whether you’re a scientist or economist or you’re just trying to figure it out; this movie is for all of us.

Currently I work as a research scientist at the National Institutes of Health, as an X-ray crystallographer and most days I still find myself asking “Melissa what do you want to be when you grow up, what do you want to contribute with this skill-set?” Not too long ago, I went to the store on campus to buy a couple items for the lab with my white lab mates and at the register, I shared “the nod” and a smile with the cashier, a forty-something year old black woman and placed my items on the counter. She then asked me if I was a doctor and I responded yes without much thought of it and paid for my items. When we were done with my transaction she told me how proud she was of me and thanked me on behalf of her family for all my work. I had never met this woman and she had no idea what my research entailed but the fact a black woman was a doctor and was trying to make a difference filled her with pride. I hadn’t thought about that moment much but I remembered it after watching the movie and I realized how blessed I was and how grateful I should be.

I may not think what I’m doing for a living is a big deal, most days its just a job where I do experiments that may not work, or where I question what I’ll do with this PhD. Other days a band on a western blot and a protein crystal in a drop make me smile, and I meet intelligent people who make me want to do better. But there are a lot of people out there, who look up not to me but to the idea of people like me. I have a community of people who are rooting for my black girl magic friends and I because it is still an amazing thing to see.