Iz it because I iz black? ummm well yes... but it's not just about me...

It’s that time again, where I turn off Classical FM and conveniently highlight my ancestry with the sound of Peter Tosh dub wafting out my cottage door. I could quite easily be perceived as a coconut sat on this white middle class Estate, I confess sometimes I do forget what my parents sacrificed in order for me to be sat here but I can assure you, living in the UK it’s a memory lapse that occurs infrequently. After all I am the only black living on this hill and I'm not the help !!

So try not to start any mass political debate about the blacks having a month to celebrate their heritage and don’t do that ‘us and them’ standardised argument.. ‘if there is a black month there should be a white month’. Do try to avoid the constant droning bitter grumblings of… ‘better not be government funded’!!….give that monotone moaning a rest. For this month serves not just as a celebration for the BHM culture but a reminder of the importance of how we....yes I said WE, as a country have changed, grown, educated ourselves about the integration of other cultures, improved and moved on more harmoniously now. Much more congruent, than that of the days of the Brixton riots, Bradford and the lovely stop, batter, arrest then search tactics of the police back in the day. We all need to see and have this benchmark. It’s no longer an ‘us and them’ society, *coughs* well not as much… if anything the lack of popular support for the BNP thankfully evidences that.

So for all those Windrush, Ugandan Asians, Bengali, Chinese, Indian and African next generation to name a select few. If it weren’t for the utter horrific hardships our parents and ancestors had to endure, when they were actually INVITED here, to help strengthen the UKs infrastructure in order to make their lives better, which in turn aided our parents lives to improve. Then we sure as hell wouldn’t be as thriving when we make the comparison to some of the countries they have left behind.

And to all the original inhabitants of the UK you need to celebrate this month along side the BHM. If you look at the history of the immigration here, you will see it is a partnership that overall has worked and as much as the UK gives me constant despair, I am actually really proud of our progress. It’s these celebrations that bring it home to me that there really are worse places you could be living. Not really surprising people are bashing down the door to get here, we all worked fucking hard to get this place so desirable.

So press the play button below, collect some soul food, sit back and for once instead of moaning about what we need to achieve, lets really feel good about just how much we have.




Spliffs optional of course....