New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
New essay up on Substack! Blonde Ambition; Beyonce: Bellwether / Horseman of the Apocalypse. “Race blind” until the #BlackLivesMatter Movement was safely established, in an interview over a decade ago with the repellent Piers Morgan, when asked about experiencing racism, #Beyonce replied “I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race” LOL. Ok sis. Yet as soon as it became commercially expedient, Bey was suddenly and vocally Unapologetically Black™. Yet even that charade was contradictory, confused at best, Psy Ops at worst…. “Beyonce was not putting herself on the line with her use Black Power imagery, it was a calculated move, made at the right time, just as her segue into the visuals of Cowboy Carter preceded the movement towards MAGA alignment”. Link to full article in stories !
Earlier this year I sat down in the @nationalportraitgallery with the philosopher #JohnGray, the writer @ayishat_akanbi and others to talk about race and the #CultureWars The Invention of our modern concept of a “White Race” and a “Black Race” in the 17th century English colony of Barbados , how it encompasses #Irish history and #Africanhistory, how it relates to the Culture Wars today and how racism and racial division remains one of the most effective tools for mobilising people against acting in their own best interests. In this new era where we are witnessing the reassertion of race as a biological and immutable truth (in order to justify the hierarchy that places white at the top and black firmly at the bottom) through spurious claims that have been discredited for the last century, it is ever more pressing that we understand the history ideology informing our racial categories. I remember @fkatwigs recently asking “where are all the thinkers ” here ya go sis ! Feel free to share this with your millions of followers 😜#caribbean #caribbeanhistory #blackhistory #britishhistory #theinventionofrace #whatwhitepeoplecandonext
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Got a really juicy Substack up today !!! Billie Eilish, Ireland, Blue Eyes, (An Egyptian Princess), and Why, No, It’s Not Racist !!! Let’s talk about it 💙🩵💙🩵 link in stories bio ! Ps Don’t worry lads the #bigirishhead features in the essay 😭
Life in winter by the sea, and other generally pretty, pleasing, and magical things 🎀 The sun (an ghrian) 🌞 and the moon🌙 (an ghealach) are central to what I’m writing and thinking about at the moment so loved this little cosmic nod burrowed into my @ffern.co perfume bottle. Also look at their beautiful candle holder with selkie design 🦭🧜🏽♀️ I arrived home from one of my favourite shops @onawhimmargate where I had just bought the perfect teacup & a lighthouse lamp (the same lighthouse in the background of my photograph) to this Ffern delivery with its own lighthouse🏮and the perfect tea for the inaugural cup of tea (these kind of things delight me) I also got this sublime @balzacparis cape ate lots of delicious food @margatebens birthday party 🩵
Life in winter by the sea, and other generally pretty, pleasing, and magical things 🎀 The sun (an ghrian) 🌞 and the moon🌙 (an ghealach) are central to what I’m writing and thinking about at the moment so loved this little cosmic nod burrowed into my @ffern.co perfume bottle. Also look at their beautiful candle holder with selkie design 🦭🧜🏽♀️ I arrived home from one of my favourite shops @onawhimmargate where I had just bought the perfect teacup & a lighthouse lamp (the same lighthouse in the background of my photograph) to this Ffern delivery with its own lighthouse🏮and the perfect tea for the inaugural cup of tea (these kind of things delight me) I also got this sublime @balzacparis cape ate lots of delicious food @margatebens birthday party 🩵
Life in winter by the sea, and other generally pretty, pleasing, and magical things 🎀 The sun (an ghrian) 🌞 and the moon🌙 (an ghealach) are central to what I’m writing and thinking about at the moment so loved this little cosmic nod burrowed into my @ffern.co perfume bottle. Also look at their beautiful candle holder with selkie design 🦭🧜🏽♀️ I arrived home from one of my favourite shops @onawhimmargate where I had just bought the perfect teacup & a lighthouse lamp (the same lighthouse in the background of my photograph) to this Ffern delivery with its own lighthouse🏮and the perfect tea for the inaugural cup of tea (these kind of things delight me) I also got this sublime @balzacparis cape ate lots of delicious food @margatebens birthday party 🩵
Life in winter by the sea, and other generally pretty, pleasing, and magical things 🎀 The sun (an ghrian) 🌞 and the moon🌙 (an ghealach) are central to what I’m writing and thinking about at the moment so loved this little cosmic nod burrowed into my @ffern.co perfume bottle. Also look at their beautiful candle holder with selkie design 🦭🧜🏽♀️ I arrived home from one of my favourite shops @onawhimmargate where I had just bought the perfect teacup & a lighthouse lamp (the same lighthouse in the background of my photograph) to this Ffern delivery with its own lighthouse🏮and the perfect tea for the inaugural cup of tea (these kind of things delight me) I also got this sublime @balzacparis cape ate lots of delicious food @margatebens birthday party 🩵
Make up free for ELLEUK feature this month on self love so called #flaws ! I wrote about the #portwinestain birthmark I have on my face “I was born with a portwine stain that covers half of my lower lip and most of my chin. I was mildly bullied about it in primary school, but the names I was called because of that couldn’t hold a candle to those I received for being Black, so I think I was relatively unbothered by the attention my birthmark attracted. It has been a point of comment throughout my life, though. Often, when I’m not wearing make-up, someone asks in shock, ‘Oh! What happened to your face?’ And, forgetting about my birthmark, I’ll respond with: ‘Sh*t, I don’t know.’ An ex once joked, after I’d stayed over at his house for the first time: ‘Look at your chin – not so perfect now, are you?’, which I should have seen as a huge red flag but laughed off as evidence of our shared edgy humour. The thing is, as I’ve grown older and thought more consciously about beauty – especially through writing Disobedient Bodies: Redlaim Your Unruly Beauty, my book exploring how we might liberate beauty culture from some of its more oppressive tendencies – I have really come to reject the notion of ‘flaws’ in the first place. Flaws presuppose some sort of standard from which the imperfection must be a deviation, but who sets that standard? And where or when did any of us consent to conform to it? In a world of increasing homogeneity in faces – same face shape, same nose, same uniform, gleaming-white teeth – aren’t our unique features all the more special and beautiful? Who else has a dusky-pink pattern dusted across their chin, just like mine? Probably no one in this whole big beautiful world! It’s not a flaw, it’s just part of me” Let me know what you think 💭
Make up free for ELLEUK feature this month on self love so called #flaws ! I wrote about the #portwinestain birthmark I have on my face “I was born with a portwine stain that covers half of my lower lip and most of my chin. I was mildly bullied about it in primary school, but the names I was called because of that couldn’t hold a candle to those I received for being Black, so I think I was relatively unbothered by the attention my birthmark attracted. It has been a point of comment throughout my life, though. Often, when I’m not wearing make-up, someone asks in shock, ‘Oh! What happened to your face?’ And, forgetting about my birthmark, I’ll respond with: ‘Sh*t, I don’t know.’ An ex once joked, after I’d stayed over at his house for the first time: ‘Look at your chin – not so perfect now, are you?’, which I should have seen as a huge red flag but laughed off as evidence of our shared edgy humour. The thing is, as I’ve grown older and thought more consciously about beauty – especially through writing Disobedient Bodies: Redlaim Your Unruly Beauty, my book exploring how we might liberate beauty culture from some of its more oppressive tendencies – I have really come to reject the notion of ‘flaws’ in the first place. Flaws presuppose some sort of standard from which the imperfection must be a deviation, but who sets that standard? And where or when did any of us consent to conform to it? In a world of increasing homogeneity in faces – same face shape, same nose, same uniform, gleaming-white teeth – aren’t our unique features all the more special and beautiful? Who else has a dusky-pink pattern dusted across their chin, just like mine? Probably no one in this whole big beautiful world! It’s not a flaw, it’s just part of me” Let me know what you think 💭
Make up free for ELLEUK feature this month on self love so called #flaws ! I wrote about the #portwinestain birthmark I have on my face “I was born with a portwine stain that covers half of my lower lip and most of my chin. I was mildly bullied about it in primary school, but the names I was called because of that couldn’t hold a candle to those I received for being Black, so I think I was relatively unbothered by the attention my birthmark attracted. It has been a point of comment throughout my life, though. Often, when I’m not wearing make-up, someone asks in shock, ‘Oh! What happened to your face?’ And, forgetting about my birthmark, I’ll respond with: ‘Sh*t, I don’t know.’ An ex once joked, after I’d stayed over at his house for the first time: ‘Look at your chin – not so perfect now, are you?’, which I should have seen as a huge red flag but laughed off as evidence of our shared edgy humour. The thing is, as I’ve grown older and thought more consciously about beauty – especially through writing Disobedient Bodies: Redlaim Your Unruly Beauty, my book exploring how we might liberate beauty culture from some of its more oppressive tendencies – I have really come to reject the notion of ‘flaws’ in the first place. Flaws presuppose some sort of standard from which the imperfection must be a deviation, but who sets that standard? And where or when did any of us consent to conform to it? In a world of increasing homogeneity in faces – same face shape, same nose, same uniform, gleaming-white teeth – aren’t our unique features all the more special and beautiful? Who else has a dusky-pink pattern dusted across their chin, just like mine? Probably no one in this whole big beautiful world! It’s not a flaw, it’s just part of me” Let me know what you think 💭
