The Chronicleworld.org kept Neville’s spirits high

Respect for the Lawrence’s campaign for justice:
Prof Thomas L Blair greets Stephen’s father Neville Lawrence (left)
at the Chronicleworld’s race and the media conference in London 1998

When your child suffers death in a lethal racist attack, it’s the loss and lack of justice that drives you on, Neville Lawrence told me at dinner before I introduced him to the audience. Doreen and I cannot rest until the press and law officers listen to us, and people take up our rightful campaign for our son, Stephen, he said.

And that was his message to my conference, “What colour is the news?” at the Freedom Forum European Centre, London on a winter’s night December 7, 1998.

A Baroness, Bishop and Police chief and Black journalists and  community groups backed the call for positive race reporting 

His message struck a chord with the panel of prominent persons — Baroness Patricia Scotland of the House of Lords, Church of England Bishop of Stepney John Mugabi Sentamu, and Chief Inspector of police Dalton McConney, left to right. He encouraged support of the more than 150 people from a wide range of backgrounds and opinions: Black community leaders and journalists, students and parents, scholars and rail workers, teachers and local politicians.

Today’s world needs integrated newsrooms

With his Jamaican roots still alive, Mr Lawrence said he was deeply troubled about media unfairness, sensationalism and bias towards black people five years after Stephen’s murder. True, the Daily Mail took a risk in naming Stephen’s “Murderers” in February 1997. However, the nation’s newsrooms were silent — and lily-white.

Mr Lawrence told of the family’s worries and sleepless nights, and his distress that no daily papers mentioned his son’s death; yet reporters lamented the maltreatment of a stray dog. I recall he said this spurred their determination to have Stephen’s death reported and his killers found.

People grasped the anti-racism message and were squarely behind it

The press, police and politicians say it’s just a matter of time. We must tell them the time is now and our patience has run out, was the audience’s response. One after another, people took the microphone to tell of the Black community’s flagging confidence in the uncaring press. Friendly white journalists declared themselves unprejudiced; however, I reported that my research revealed “widespread discriminatory practises, despite claims by editors that they are “colour-blind” in hiring and promoting black journalists”.

“To be both fair and free, the British press needs to have more black journalists on staff and to do a better job of covering minority communities” I said in “What colour is the news?”

The Lawrence’s justice campaign is a beacon for us   all  

                                                                   The young aspiring Stephen Lawrence his parents would like us to remember

We all agreed, from the top table to the back row: the authorities must solve “unsolvable” white on Black hate murders and find the guilty that remain unpunished.

If you’re mad about it, do something about it.

At evening’s end, in my heart I felt that the struggle must continue. There is a generation of bright young teenagers, African/Caribbean British-born, yearning to contribute to a society free of racism, and not enough Doreen’s and Neville’s to fight for them  – let’s support the ones we have.

Prof Thomas Blair, a problem-solving sociologist, founded the Chronicleworld.org in November 1997. Hs goal was to confront the poverty of information about Black people in the news, research education and public affairs. He aimed to be a Cyber-action expression of the African Diaspora in Britain and Europe, This would link information, commentary and ideas to people’s advancement.  Thereby strengthening and improving the growth of “Black studies”. This he believes is the way a Black scholar must fulfil the unmet aspirations of earlier generations, and serve as a bridge to a better future.

The Chronicleworld.org and its publications are an important “representation of British Culture”, says the national British Library, leader in “conserving world knowledge”. 

• TOP-CLASS COMMENTARY on policy issues, problems, pride and power of Black Britain and Afro-Europe is our secret of success. Cyber Social Action and Bridging the Digital Divide are constant themes.
• OPEN A WINDOW on the Black experience, Go to Cyberaction for Social Change http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15810.html

• READERS BENEFIT from more than a Decade and a 1000 pages on our website founded in the UK domain in 1997.
• Go to Chronicleworld.org – Changing Black Britain  http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15811.html

CONTACT Prof Thomas L Blair: e-mail: tb@thechronicle.demon.co.uk

Picture this. An awe-inspiring black man preaching national unity in an era marked by violence and upheaval. An overflow audience of residents and students rise to their feet to welcome the soul-saving American leader. His words, their meaning, and compassion comfort the stricken and fearful; they invoke common bonds of citizenship and humanity.

No, not US President Barack Obama in tragic Tucson, Arizona, 2011, urging peaceful solutions “to our most pressing national problems”. But, rather, Rev Dr Martin Luther King, the most admired human rights leader of his day, speaking to the multitudes in the National Stadium in Kingston thirty-six years ago. We must learn from Jamaica’s motto, “out of many, one people” if there is to be real progress in human relations”, he declared.

King’s rallying cry “To Face the Challenge of a New Age” echoes as Americans celebrate the birthday of the Nobel Prize winner and hero to millions on the third Monday of January. O tempera o mores (then and now): —“If only we would see and respect our shared humanity, so much of what ails America could be healed”.

** Thomas L Blair publishes the Chronicleworld http://www. chronicleworld.org. Discover the Internet facts and commentaries on Black Britain in the author’s web site http://www.thomblair.org.uk

By Thomas L Blair — 20-12-10 ©

At its best, Black culture offers rich cultural experiences, the drive for achievement and an endless love of justice – along with some rhythmic soul. Rooted cultural awareness is a powerful motive force for creativity in all institutions of culture.

As Paul Robeson, one-time resident in London said “In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African. Multitudes of men have died for less worthy ideas: it is even more eminently worth living for.”

However, not all of Britain’s 1.4 million people of African and West Indian heritage, colours and faiths can be expected to tread a single path to progress. Contenders in the movement towards renewing Black Britain range from youth-saving Christians to ministers of the Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam, from disillusioned marxists and Labour stalwarts to obama-ists, integrationists, mixed-race rights campaigners, Rastafarians and cultural nationalists.

Nevertheless, all face a common crisis. Failure rates are quite high – peoples pride and identity erode, self-hatred sets in and complacency limits horizons in often racist and crisis-ridden societies. That is why I have identified a “new Black urbanism” — in which all people of colour can share in the rescue, revival and representation of Black culture.

Robust talents drawn from youth, professionals, policy makers and community building leaders will share their strengths and spirits. “We must learn to use Black culture as springboards to the future”, says Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize winning writer, cultural activist and member of the Society of African Culture. By networking, learning to listen and communicate, developing team building skills and fraternal relationships, they will enrich the International Year for People of African Descent 2011

Furthermore, I have identified the actions that are crucial to success in the the Decade for Black British Culture and Development 2010 to 2020, they are:

• Explore Black culture and identity in the citadel of urbanism,

• Link the talents of parents, elders and youth,

• Affirm Black Culture’s link between tradition and modernity,

• Transform intellectuals, artists and writers into vanguard activists for Black people,

• Mobilise new cultural policy leaders,

• Cyber organise for culture and development and

• Commit to a positive future.

By these actions, people will secure their place in the atlas of history and human geography. “[Cultural} history tells people who, where and what they are and where they still must go, and what they still must be”, said the eminent Africanist John Henrik Clarke.

Forward looking Afro-Britons must use their talents to inspire “cultural creativity, influence policy and effect change in the interest of social justice,” said poet-writer-activist John La Rose. So to a conclusion. Cultural power without economic and political power is no power.

_______________________________________

This is the final of ten instalments in his Black History Month 2009-10 series on the crisis of Black urbanism. It is hailed as essential reading for anyone who wants to chart the present failures and future prospects in the State of Black Britain. The tags are: Introduction. Black British culture is in crisis’ says leading scholar, Unshackling the Afro-British mind in history month, Talented newcomers call for action to ‘Save Black Britain’, Aspiring Black youth are the solution not the problem, Jail or empowerment for Black youth?, Why aren’t Black deaths in custody an election issue, New African Caribbean faces in parliament are high-flyers, ‘Play Mas’ at carnival but challenge cultural racism, Sancho’s children: Are “new Africans” the future for Black British political culture, Let’s make 2010/2020 Black Britain’s decade for culture and development.

Notes on terminology and statistics

Black British, as used here, refers to British people of Black African/Caribbean descent. It has been used primarily from the 1950s to describe those from the former colonies of Africa, and the Caribbean, i.e. the New Commonwealth. More recently, it has come to define a British resident with specifically Sub-Saharan African ancestral origins, who self-identifies, or is identified, as “Black”, African or Afro-Caribbean. Black British is used as a category in UK national statistics ethnicity classifications, where it is sub-divided into Caribbean, African and Other Black groups.

Census categorization is a minefield of suspicious and inaccurate terminology. However, the best official reports are used here. Black Britain, Black British or Afro-British, refer to the total 2million descendants of African heritage in Britain. Afro- Caribbeans in Britain are a sub-category and refers specifically to the people of Afro-Caribbean or West Indian heritage (600,000-estimated population). Further sub-categories of Black British include Black African (800,000) and others (120,000), and a significant, growing number of mixed-race children with whites (400,000), according to the Office of National Statistics, Neighbourhood statistics 2009.

Useful resources

Look for well-written books by Black social scientists. These include The Oxford Companion to Black British History by David Dabydeen, Black British Culture and Society by Kwesi Owusu (Editor) and After Empire: Multiculture or Postcolonial Melancholia by Paul Gilroy. Readers will benefit from Susan Okokon, Black Londoners 1880-1990, Hakim Adi West Africans in Britain 1900-1960 and Harry Goulbourne Race Relations in Britain since 1945.

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall links prejudice and the media in racially constructed societies and has influenced contemporary cultural studies. John La Rose, the poet of Black and working class unity has demonstrated the power of poetics. His colleagues Roxy Harris and Sarah White at the George Padmore Institute have revealed the progress of Black Britons in “humanising and transcending the limitations of British society” in two volumes on Changing Britannia and Building Britannia.

Notes on the Author

Thomas L Blair, PhD and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts FRSA, is an African-American sociologist resident in Britain for over 40 years. Immediately relevant is his companion article, “Urbanism and Poetics” in Présence Africaine 175-176-177, 50th Anniversary of the 1er International Congress of Black Writers and Artists, 19-22 September 2006,Volume II, p.246-252.

He is editor and publisher of the Chronicleworld at http://www.chronicleworld.org, the Internet magazine on the Black experience in Britain and Afro-Europe. He also blogs on http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com and has a professional profile on http://www.thomblair.org.uk. His online web sites are an important “representation of British Culture”, according to the national British Library, a leader in “conserving world knowledge”. See his Cyberaction for Social Change http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15810.html, and Changing Black Britain http://www.webarchive.org.uk/tep/15811.html

His book The Audacity of Cyberspace: The struggle for Internet power (2009) ISBN 978-1 906986-81-0 describes how Black communities in America, England, and language groups in sub-Saharan Africa are taming the new information technologies. It complements this series and is available through bookstores, libraries and online via Google and Amazon books.

This article supports the enduring capacity for cultural self-renewal of Black British communities, especially at times of disaster. Every thought-provoking topic weaves the immediate desperate present with recent history and its must-be-planned future. They are: Explore Black culture and identity in the citadel of urbanism, Link the talents of parents, elders and youth, Affirm Black Culture’s link between tradition and modernity, Transform intellectuals, artists and writers into vanguard activists for Black people, Mobilise new cultural policy leaders, Cyber organise for culture and development and Commit to a positive future.

 Black Britons are probably the most written about, vilified and least understood community in the nation. Hence, UNESCO’s International Year for People of African Descent 2011 should bolster their spirits and resolve.

There has never been a better moment to plan longer-term cultural action. Why not make 2010 to 2020 the Decade for Black British Culture and Development?  It could lead to most dramatic reshaping of urban Black culture since the 1960s.

 Explore Black culture and identity in the citadel of urbanism

Black Culture has its strongest in roots in London. That’s where the majority of Black Britons of African and Caribbean heritage reside. Crucially, Black London is the cultural and intellectual hub of Black heritage, as the compilers of the first Atlas of Black Literature and Arts will show.

Modern Black culture is the expression of the geography, life, labour and aspirations of the African Diaspora in Britain. Cultural activists must make it clear that living in the city is a constant struggle against the forces that want to tame Black people and stifle their culture.  

The best of Black Londoners’ outpourings will subvert the old tired distinction between “high” and “low” culture. They will portray the cultural awakenings of the so-called Black people of the abyss —  rising from the crumbling terraces and obsolescent public housing to compete in the urban arena of power, institutions and politics/economic.

Link the talents of parents, elders and youth

After decades of family disintegration, cultural-political activists will release a potent blend of immigrant aspirations and youth revolt. Much is at stake; memories lost are not easily regained. 

Project leaders will highlight the founding talents, faiths, protest and self-help mutual aid groups of “those who came before us”. Youth will put their creative energies at the service of their parents and elders. Learning to communicate across generations is crucial. “When a book is lost, it can be replaced but when an elder dies, an entire library disappears”, goes a familiar African saying.

Together, the generations will gain insights from the rich cultural past of hard working newcomers and citizens alike. Old and young will learn to appreciate the hidden arts: old photographs, clothes and fashion styles, music, dances, letters, poems and hymns. In this way, they will honour those who spawned, along with life itself, the economic basis for Black survival.

Affirm Black Culture’s link between tradition and modernity

The Decade’s cultural activists will explore the past to secure the future. They will reveal the Africanisation of Britain. Evidence shows that Black culture’s DNA unfolds from Septimus Severus, the commander of Roman Britain, to the post-World War II Windrush generation’s children.

Participants will discover the cultural tools of  resistance, praise-songs and prophecy that lit the survival fires during the African Holocaust. They will forge links between overseas communities and homeland cultures in Africa, the West Indies and Latin America. This will affirm that Black Britons are an extended family of the African Diaspora.

 Furthermore, Black archivists must reclaim historic arts and artefacts, another key action point in the Decade. They will pursue their mission to gain command and control over “one’s own cultural heritage”. They will unlock the vaults of the great London collections that are stuffed with the jewels of Black culture. Among them are Ghana’s Asante Golden Stool, Nigeria’s Benin bronze figures, Mali’s masks and sculptures, and Ethiopia’s statue, Lion of Judah. This is a crucial step toward cultural ownership, affirmation and justice.

Out of serfdom and helotry, “I say …the African Personality in liberty and freedom will have the chance to find its free expression and make its particular contribution to the totality of culture and civilization.” – Kwame Nkrumah, in Voice of Africa – Freedom!

Transform intellectuals, artists and writers into vanguard activists for Black people

There is no room for naivety about the Decade’s intellectual challenges. Black academics, writers and educators must become problem solvers not an isolated “I’m all right” loss to Black communities. They must help define and act upon key issues shaping the crisis of Black culture.

What makes this an appealing prospect is the chance to create new institutions from a range of initiatives:

• To formulate the mission statement, syllabus and structure of the first Black University in Britain.
• To create the first Black Digital Centres of cultural information, music, style and filmography that are user-friendly and linked to digital reservoirs of knowledge.
• To write the first Black British intellectual journals and Black-authored histories of Black Britain in print and eBook formats.
• To link the major elements of Black music: entertainment, social commentary and education
• To launch the first training projects in cultural management and Black London tourism — highlighting maps of Afro-Caribbean markets, heritage and cultural sites
• To set standards for role models to tutor Black  school children and students at crucial stages in their lives

Mobilise new cultural policy leaders

Why is forward planning the Decade of utmost importance?  Major challenges will emerge. The Decade’s results will benefit Black Britons. The consequences of inaction are pernicious.

Partisans must recall the strong voices that exposed the pseudo-experts on Black culture. Prof Paul Gilroy fired warning shots with his “The Empire Strikes Back – Race and Racism in ’70s Britain and “There Ain’t No Black In the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation”.  The prominent cultural theorist Prof Stuart Hall put Black-white contact, conflict and change into the Open University curricula.

The dim outlines of change are coming into focus. Campaigners must mobilise the sleeping giant of Black-led voluntary, fraternal and faith organisations. Emerging pro bono lawyers and solicitors, and community-based architects and sociologists must combat racial disparities in cultural power and finance that stifle creativity.

Small-scale actions can bring big changes. Black entrepreneurs can turn the Black “ghettos” into industrious nodes of globalising urban Britain. They can plough their talents into micro-financing the tiny loans that revitalise the most enterprising hard-hit communities.

Cyber-organise for culture and development

Culture is the Black community’s software to make sense of the raw megabytes of Black experience. Implementing this theme is the task of the newly emerging cyber-cultural warriors. They include: 

• CyberMentors to  counsel and provide expert intervention in arts, culture and the media
• CyberVolunteers to work with clients in a diverse range of music, theatre and dance cultural productions
• CyberCitizen cultural journalists and bloggers to influence public opinion and policy makers
• CyberFuturists to chart opportunities that can  inspire and empower communities
• CyberDemocracy advocates promoting universal access to and use of information  technology

 Commit to forging a positive future

None of us can afford to sit out the UNESCO International Year for People of African Descent 2011. It will raise crucially important issues to carry forward to the 2010 to 2020 Decade for Black British Culture and Development.

First, Black communities will realise that what is really at stake is their own status and survival in Britain.  Secondly, they will discover that working together they can prove some elemental truths. Black History can be re-discovered and saved from oblivion. Black Culture and identity can be revitalised. A new Black Agenda can be constructed. Full enjoyment of cultural, economic, social, civil and political rights for Black people in British society is the ultimate goal.

 +++++++++++++++++++++

* Thomas L Blair, editor and publisher of Chronicleworldweblog, is a Black scholar and independent commentator on Black urban affairs. See http://www.Chronicleworld.org, http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com and http://www.thomblair.org.uk. All rights reserved © 31 October 2010

 This is the ninth of ten instalments in his Black History Month 2009-10 series on the crisis of Black urbanism. It is hailed as essential reading for anyone who wants to chart the present failures and future prospects in the State of Black Britain.

By Thomas L Blair © 02 October 2010

First came the bitter disenchantment of post World War II Afro-Caribbean settlers, and their youth modelled a “reggae roots” counter-attack on political and cultural racism in Britain. Now the “new Africans” in Parliament may signal the beginning of a radically different outlook. 

They are,left to right, Umanna, Onwurah, Gyimah,  Grant, and Kwarteng

Emergent Africans in national politics

These high-achievers emerged in the May 2010 national elections. Of the nine Black British parliamentarians, five are newbie’s and all are Africans.

 Employment lawyer Chuka Umunna (Labour) is called “Britain’s Barack Obama”.  Chineyelu Onwurah (Labour), a student anti-apartheid campaigner, went on to become a well-paid new technology engineer. Helen Grant (Conservative) overcame “taunts for being black” to become a thriving family lawyer and “a reflection of modern Britain”. They are British Nigerians.  

Kwesi Kwarteng (Conservative), a Harvard University history scholar, is a widely consulted financial investment analyst. Sam Gyima (Conservative) is a graduate of top-class schools in Africa and UK universities and hailed by corporate business leaders as an “Entrepreneur of the Future”. They are of British Ghanaian heritage.

 Hard-won gilded pedigrees

The new Africans’ political and cultural outlook owes much to their acceptable character and background. They won the endorsement of their party leaders. They garnered forty to sixty per cent of the votes cast. They were unusually victorious in the suburbs and leafy impenetrable domains of white majority Britons.  

Furthermore, they are ideal 21st century candidates trained and anointed for success. They are young-ish, 30-45-year-olds, educated at the best, expensive schools. Their record of accomplishment in politics, business and public services is impeccable.  Moreover, they have the ingrained manners of the British elites: inherently guarded in language with an acute sense of their place in the upper hierarchy of privilege.

New Africa in London

However, another set of influences will surely affect the outlook of the new African legislators. Black Africans are re-shaping politics and culture in London, the great multi-cultural, diverse racial and faith metropolis of 7.5 million people. Africans born on the continent and in the UK, mainly Nigerians and Ghanaians, have outstripped the Afro-Caribbean population (5.5 per cent and 4.3 percent of city’s population, respectively, according to research findings of the Greater London Authority, DMAG group).

The new African presence in parliament is matched and influenced by the “high-life” buoyancy on the main streets of deprived areas of south and east London – in Peckham, Hackney, Elephant & Castle, Tottenham, Lewisham and Leytonstone.  Enterprising evangelical church leaders attract 20-30,000 donating parishioners. Furthermore, it will not be long before Yoruba esusu rotating savings clubs emerge. They turn migrant dreams of cultural survival, community development and wealth creation into reality.  In this context, the arrival of the new African parliamentarian is a welcome sign — as a Nigerian might say: “Ti Oluwa Ni Yio Se, God’s willing has come to pass”

These unprecedented population and cultural forces must give the new Africans in parliament a boost. For instance, in the heart of Chuka Umanna’s constituency in Streatham, London, 23% of the voters are African/Caribbean making it one of the largest Black populations in the country, according to the rights group Operation Black Vote. 

Moreover, the boost has positive political and cultural implications for the new parliamentarians. African communities are part of the one-third “minority ethnic population of colour” in London, the political capital of the nation. They share this status with people of African Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Vietnamese heritage. Highly visible and vocal, they are becoming a significant population group and voting public in key parliamentary districts.   

The changing culture of Black politics

Consequently, could the new Africans parliamentarians and vibrant communities be the future for Black Britain’s political culture? Perhaps, but they will need to recognise, respect and re-connect with the essential themes of Black History.  

Black Britons of Continental African and African Caribbean heritage share a similar experience as pawns in the Great Game of Empire — they have braved the perils of exodus, migration and struggle in Britain.

Ignatio Sancho, the 18^th century “extraordinary Negro”, understood the need for cultural unity and freedom. The prosperous London grocer and pamphleteer was the first African to vote in British elections. He championed the abolition of slavery in Africa and the rights of all Africans in the Diaspora.

 Learie Constantine (1902-71), the first Afro-Caribbean in the House of Lords, fought for the equality of race and culture. Lord David Pitt from Grenada (1913-94) called for workers’ unity against racism. The first Black parliamentarians in modern times, Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott and Paul Boateng, of Guyanese, Jamaican and Ghanaian-Scottish heritage, respectively,  captured the riotous spirit. They swore to serve the interests of the disillusioned Black people who propelled them in to the halls of power in 1987.

Need for a reality check

However, the new African parliamentarians of the 21^st century may not express the same devoted commitment as their illustrious African and Afro-Caribbean forebears. They owe allegiance to their suburban middle class electorate and party leaders. Furthermore, much of their outlook on life is informed by their rise to privilege. So many of their closest friends and advisers, inside and outside politics, live in a narrow mono-cultural world.

Yet, inevitably, continuing race-based problems in a divided society will force the new legislators and their mentors in to the equality debate. The statistics belie the nation’s claim to post-racial equality. Almost half of young black people between the ages of 16 and 24 are out of work compared with 20% of young whites. They are miseducated in schools and shamed in the press. They could become, say community workers, a lost, restless and disaffected generation, that could spill over into the type of social unrest that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s.

Certainly, the government’s slashing cuts in jobs, pay and services will cast a darkening shadow on the prospects of historically underserved Black people. Patrons and the public will demand action. Therefore, the new African parliamentarians cannot escape the role they will be called to assume in the equality debate. If they are not participants in producing educated, confident skilled, civic-minded Black workers in better jobs with higher wages, they are part of the problem not the solution. How will they respond?

What role for Sancho’s children?

Bolstered by impeccable credentials and emerging Black urbanites, the new African parliamentarians may author a different narrative of Black politics and culture. First, they must learn that speaking up for Blacks, one of the most maligned social groups, has not debarred the early rights activists from a rise to influence. Two notable successes in 2010 have proved this. Re-elected Diane Abbott survived 23 years in parliament and was nominated for leadership of the Labour Party. Paul Boateng, who famously declared, “We can never be free in Brent, London (his constituency) until South Africa is free, too”, went on to become a cabinet minister and Lord Boateng of Akyem and Wembley).  

Second, they must declare solidarity, across ethnicity and class privilege, and help define the political and cultural future of Black Britain.

Third, and this may be a dream deferred, they should form a cross-party Parliamentary Black Caucus promoting race equality solutions in Britain and development aid in Africa. (This is not as surprising as it sounds. Chuka Umunna has set a precedent as Vice Chair of the Nigeria All-Party Parliamentary Group “to help build dialogue between the two nations [Britain and Nigeria], and support development within Nigeria”.)

Launching these initiatives must surely be part of the way forward for the new African parliamentarians.  Their political masters and middle-class white constituents have promised “to eradicate poverty, inequality and racism”. They have pledged for African and Caribbean development. Now the new Africans, in parliament and communities, must create the political culture and power to hold them to it.

NOTE 1. The New Africans join four other winners in the May 10 elections. Multi-millionaire Adam Afriyie, 44, is the jewel in the Conservative crown. The agricultural economist of Ghanaian-English parents was re-elected with 60.8 per cent of the votes cast in affluent Windsor, Berkshire. Notably, he represents Windsor Castle, the historic centre of the Empire and official residence of the Queen and the British Royal Family, and, of course, the tourists’ delight. Famed Eton College is also within his constituency.

The rise of this first Black Conservative MP is a rags-to-riches story straight out of the party’s public relations office.  Afriyie started life in low-income multi-racial inner city Peckham, London. He left to make his fortune in informatics and news services, became Entrepreneur of the Year, and led the Policy Exchange, a centre-right policy body. Significantly, Afriyie’s story shows how some new Black Parliamentarians have gained higher social status as well as political influence in the new government.  

The returning Labour Party members of Parliament – two in inner city London areas of Black disadvantage – had an easy ride to victory even though the party was defeated. 

Diane Abbott of Jamaican heritage and the first Black woman in Parliament in 1987, retained her seat with a much-increased 55 per cent of the votes in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, inner London. A bit of history is important here. Cambridge educated Abbott, (born 27 September 1953), won her spurs as one of the first four Members of Parliament from ethnic minorities in 1987, the others being Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz, members and beneficiaries of the Labour Party Black Sections movement.

Abbott is a lightning rod for dissent and ran for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2010. Her constant concerns are Black educational opportunity, social justice and human rights and racism in British immigration policies.

David Lammy, (born July 19 1972) was re-elected in multi-racial Tottenham, north London with 59 per cent of the votes. (Bernie Grant MP preceded him). The Harvard Law School-educated politician (the first Black Briton to do so) supports school achievement programmes, Black cultural heritage centres and equality rights.  Once called the Baby of the House (the youngest MP), Lammy’s impressive political CV includes government appointments in constitutional affairs, culture, sport, business, universities and innovation ministries.

To the north of Britain, Mark Hendrick, (born November 2 1958), an engineer of Somali-British heritage, won 48 percent of the votes cast in Preston, Lancashire. Re-elected for the fourth time, the “local lad” Hendrick represents a depressed city whose minority Black and Asian workers and families are concentrated in bleak streets and run-down neighbourhoods.

NOTE 2. The next generation of New Africans are gathering at the starting line for future elections. Nigerians lead the way following losses in May 2010. Abiodun Akinoshun was an independent candidate for the Erith and Thamesmead seat. Conservative Kemi Adegoke contested for the Dulwich and West Norwood seat.

NOTE 3. There are 18 Asian MPs – a two-fold increase.

* Thomas L Blair, editor and publisher of Chronicleworldweblog, is a Black scholar and independent commentator on Black urban affairs at http://www.Chronicleworld.org and http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com; and http://www.thomblair.org.uk  This is the eighth instalment in the Black History Month 2009-10 series on the crisis of Black urbanism. It is hailed as essential reading for anyone who wants to chart the present failures and future prospects in the State of Black Britain. Editorial assistance from the editors of http://www.the-latest.com is gratefully acknowledged.

PHOTOS credit acknowledged to all sources. 

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Now is the time for “We t’ing!” No, I don’t mean the “rum and rhythm” street party that attracts a million revellers every August to Notting Hill, the iconic Black district in London. Now is the time to refute the popular stereotype:  that Black people in Britain have “No-culture, no-history and hence no-worth, no power, no-chance”

The dispiriting fact is that to fight cultural racism, Black leaders must campaign against drastic cuts in public arts funding and mobilise the resources they need to keep Black cultural opportunities alive and local. 

 First, in an increasingly bitter dispute, community leaders question English Arts Council’s average cuts of £2,000 that threaten carnival enterprises. The nation’s well-endowed Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company may weather the cuts, but Black organisations are at risk, say critics.

One is the UK Centre for Carnival Arts based in Luton. Tiny groups such as the Notting Hill Mas Bands Association and the Elimu Carnival Club can barely survive. Under threat, too, are Prof Stuart Hall’s Institute of International Visual Arts and the Yaa Asantewaa Arts and Community Centre.

Critics say that carnival organisers should lay claim to the estimated £93 million it earns for  London and the  UK tourist, air, rail and bus transport and music, media and commerce giants, according to Dotun Adebayo, in “Who is Making All the Money from Carnival”, in the Black newspaper The Voice, August 30 – September 8, 2010.

If Black people took ownership of this Black cultural icon themselves, they could create strong Black enterprises. After all, it is the floats and dancers, bands and costume makers, stallholders and hot food and drinks sellers, and the carnival workshops and children’s activities that attract revellers to Europe’s biggest street festival. 

This new economic orientation is linked to the emerging view that “You can’t pray the devil back to hell”. “More church leaders need to look at the way they can serve their members”, says Marcia Dixon (in Soul Stirrings, in The Voice August 23-29, 2010).

 Clergy of the 4,300 inner city Black majority churches could meet this challenge. Five thriving churches have an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 donating members, according to Pastor Jonathan Oloyede of the newly launched City Chapel in Newham, east London. writing in Christian Today, 25 August 2010.

London’s mega-African religious charity, Kingsway International Christian Centre’s (KICC), could set a standard for creating cultural capital: the vital elements are arts, business and philanthropy. It grew from 300 to 12, 000 members and reported £22.9m in assets and £4.9m profit in 2008 making the East London church one of the largest and wealthiest Christian establishments in Europe.

Third, Black intellectuals should refute the stereotypes and slander that limit the creative potential of Black communities. With their books, articles and lectures, they can nourish the fragile roots of Black British cultural heritage, of which Carnival is an important part.

Furthermore, beating the “pan” for Black culture and expression, they could:

•           Formulate a mission statement, syllabus and structure of the first University of Black Studies in Britain.

•           Create the first Black Digital Centres of cultural production that are user-friendly and linked to digital reservoirs of knowledge and cultural action.

•           Write the first Black British intellectual journals and Black-authored histories of Black Britain in print, eBook formats and Internet web sites.

•           Launch the first training projects in cultural production and tourism highlighting maps of African/Caribbean markets, heritage and cultural sites

•           Set standards for integrating Black culture into core academic subjects and supplementary community centres for Black  school children and students at crucial stages in their lives

 These creative endeavours will prove the slanderers wrong. Renascent communities can build on the cultural arts they produce. New cooperative Black leaders could plough their financial and intellectual resources into community development. This would help raise the status and power of Black people to compete with other minority ethnic groups for scarce resources. 

Plumes, bikinis and fantastical costumes in tropical colours are all in evidence on carnival day, Guardian journalists report. Yet, “Behind the Masquerade” of carnival is a basic conflict between Black culture and the state, Kwesi Owusu and Jacob Ross observed.. They are profoundly different views about cultural survival, economic orientation, race relations and political purpose in British society.

“Mother of the Carnival”, Claudia Jones, understood the power of culture as a tool of political resistance. She founded The West Indian Gazette And Afro-Asian Caribbean News – a strong vehicle for her ongoing campaign for equal opportunities for Black people.  She is remembered by the stirring proclamation “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.”

* Thomas L Blair is a Black scholar and independent commentator on Black urban affairs at http://www.Chronicleworld.org; and http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com; and  http://www.thomblair.org.uk  This is the seventh instalment in the Black History Month 2009-10 series on the Crisis of Black Urbanism. It is hailed as essential reading for anyone who wants to chart the present failures and future prospects in the State of Black Britain. Editorial assistance from the editors of http://www.the-latest.com is gratefully acknowledged. Key tags are:

Jail or empowerment for Black youth?, New African Caribbean faces in parliament are high-flyers, Talented newcomers call for action to Save Black Britain, Unshackling the Afro-British mind, Why aren’t Black deaths in custody an election issue?, Black British culture is in crisis

Thomas L Blair

courtesy The-Latest.com

Headlines damning young Blacks as  “neets” – “not in education, employment or training” – heralds a major cultural disaster facing Black Britain this century.

In my opinion youth’s emerging from urban and internet cultures will have benefits not only for themselves but also for Black communities and society. What they need is support for their freedom of expression not benign neglect and judicial, media and statistical lynching.

That Black youth are worthy of inclusion in our search for solutions cannot be denied. Have we forgotten that rebel youth of the 1980s took to the streets and wrote the manifestos for better housing, jobs and education? They forced HRH the Prince of Wales to convene the 1984 Windsor Conference of business leaders, government and community groups to help Black youth into education and employment.

To their credit, radical youth exposed the cultural longings of excluded African and Caribbean peoples.  Bernie Grant, the “African Rebel in the Community and Parliament” welcomed youth’s expression of Black Consciousness. He thundered: “For far too long the Black community has had no voice in Britain and we are seeking to redress that.”

Black youth are confident

Surely, the new standard-bearers for the revitalisation of Black culture must be today’s youth. Those who feel it know it, and there are several good reasons for this legitimacy. Youth are fortunate.  They do not have their parents’ anglophilic love of Britain and obeisance to the cult of the royal family.

Breaking the shackles

Youth are free of the tyrannies of the past. They have not directly suffered the traumas, emotional imperatives and political failures of their mid-20^th century forebears.

They have good reasons to be confident. The best of them have succeeded against almost insurmountable odds. Research shows that despite the heavy burdens of race, class, gender and age:

• More Black young people continue further study after compulsory schooling
• They are banging on the doors of colleges and employers
• Additionally, a higher proportion of Afro-British born young people attend institutions of higher education than white working class youth.

It is easy to notice the change in attitude and potential.  The most culturally aware Black youth are finding how liberating Black history can be. They inherit the memories of their long-forgotten rebel ancestors who fought the plantation owners and hastened the abolition of the slave trade.

History records that their grandparents fought valiantly for “Queen and Mother Country” in World War II. They were midwives to the re-birth of badly damaged post-war Britain.  However, drudgery, disappointment and discrimination were their bitter reward. (The 12-year colour bar against West Indian workers at  all London stations only ended in 1966 after complaints by the social and cultural Standing Conference of West Indian Organisations).

Rebel Black voices

Moreover, youth’s confidence comes from a tradition of weaving artefacts, arts and music into political statements. The annual African-Caribbean Notting Hill festival followed the racist murder of Antiguan immigrant Kelso Cochrane in May 1959. The Rastafarian’s dreadlocks under a black, red, gold and green knitted tam signifies African-Caribbean resistance to oppression in Babylon, as Bob Marley famously sang in Burnin’.

Linton Kwesi Johnson

They ken the new sounds and voices that demanded their parents’ attention. Inglan’ is a bitch as the dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson cried out; and the sociologist Paul Gilroy’s There ain’t no Black in the Union Jack fitted their new mood. From their grandparents they must have heard of Marcus Garvey’s fiery message to millions in the Black World: “Pan African self determination, socio-political freedom, physical health and spiritual wealth.”

Youth today can confidently assert a new set of cultural aspirations forged in their polyglot and poor districts. The ranks of African-Caribbean youth of the post-war Jamaican, Trinidadian and West Indian migrants are swelled by African newcomers – the Nigerians, Ghanaians, Somalis, Zimbabwean, Ivoreans, Ugandan and Congolese – many with a strong mercantile and independent streak.

Together Afro-British youth can mix Rhyme and Rhythm, with Reason and Resistance. They can heat up  a spicy jerk sauce of rap, hip-hop, afro-jazz and Dub, Rasta reggae, Jamaican slang and street-cred, with a dash of “I’m Black British and proud”.

dizzee rascal

What’s more, they weave popular arts and street cultures into political

statements. Urban artist Dizzee Rascal, son of Ghanaian parents in poorest East London, is a prime example. After struggling through a rocky childhood, he captured the intense anger of “kids in the ‘hood”. Rapping against the arbitrary controls targeting Black people – expulsion from classrooms for being “cheeky”,  police harassment for hanging out and arrest for resisting stop and search orders – he hip-hopped into the charts with youth’s angry anthem: “Respect Me”

“You people gonna respect me if it kills you
I know what your thinkin it’s gone too far now innit
Fuck it
If I dont speak whos gonna speak for me
Stand up for myself in this shit
So fuck you
Unapoligetic.”

The Respect Me lyrics are the property of the respective author, artists and labels, the lyrics are provided for educational purposes only.

Born in the cultural cockpits of urbanism, Black youth’s aspirations have a transformative power. The damned “neets” become the confident, fledging net generation. Armed with the instruments of mobile telephony, they are part of the internet moment in human history. Wired-up youth are the first generation in Black history to have this capacity. Thus, this digital generation of talents will be heard above the storm of racial abuse and harassment. They are Black people’s cyberspace cultural warriors.

What can they do? First, assert their cultural awareness. Their rousing cry should be “A people’s art and cultures are the genesis of freedom and justice”.

They should draw from the two rivers of the African Diaspora that meet in Britain after centuries of brutal separation. African-Caribbean youth and their African mates must act fraternally to assert a new set of cultural aspirations that fit youth’s need in the Information Age.

Bonds of hope connect youth’s past and their digital present and future. Eager young people work on digitising oral histories at the London Metropolitan Archives.  Ex-offenders are taking up arts management projects sponsored by charities, the Arts Council and the government.

Talented youth in schools and community groups discover the pleasures of workshops to develop Black cultural arts – in carnival “play mas”, drumming, storytelling and gospel song.  Young citizen journalists document community lives, family and oral histories. Fashion and media students scour old steamer trunks for their treasure troves of Black style.

This drives forward youth’s aspirations to engage in the cultural economy, production and business. They are even challenging privileged people for cultural awards and internships. Moreover, Black youth are a common sight in the august chambers of the Grandees of High Culture – in the national museums, symphony, ballet and opera companies.

Second, youth must search for life-affirming opportunities. These include conversations with their elders and community religious leaders. Indeed, more youth are joining Black-led institutions – among them the fast-growing mosques and Pentecostalist congregations.

Mass involvement in cultural activities builds self-confidence.  Increasingly, youth are active in libraries, archives and cultural heritage centres. These include the City of London Museum, Liverpool Slavery Museum, Black Cultural Archives, the Bernie Grant Foundation and the Race Relations Centre in Manchester.  This makes them better able to access knowledge than any past generation.

In addition, they are galvanised toward community action.  They appreciate that cultural reform must be based first on gains won in the socio-political arena. “We must learn to use Black culture as springboards to the future”, to paraphrase Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, poet, playwright and cultural activist.

A digital borderless transatlantic world is on Black youth’s horizon. From their platforms in cyberspace, they will answer the barrage of racially inspired hateful propaganda with creativity and the challenge: “Black Culture is at war”.

* Thomas L Blair is a Black scholar and independent commentator on Black urban affairs at http://www.Chronicleworld.org.  See details of his book The Audacity of Cyberspace – The struggle for Internet power at http://bit.ly/m-ybooks.co.uk/blair/index.html and is highly recommended by the citizens’  journal The-Latest.com.

In all the 2010 election brouhaha about fairness in society, no political party has made the alarming number of deaths of Black people in police custody a priority. However, thanks to the GPI Generation (the heirs of the “Stop Police Brutality” marches) the anguish and concerns of Black communities and voters have gained a voice.   

Campaigner Remi Harris/Chronicleworld

The call
“Now is the time to empower people with “strategies of protest” against injustice in the hands of the law”, said Remi Harris, music producer, and Aisha Phoenix, graduate student as they welcomed speakers, campaigners and bereaved families to the George Padmore Institute meeting.

Dying for justice, Black communities have suffered deaths in custody for far too long, they said. It was 41 years ago that Nigerian David Oluwale was assaulted by two police officers and found dead in the River Aire in Leeds in May 1969. Eleven years ago, Roger Sylvester died in hospital days after a beating by police on a freezing cold January evening in 1999. He collapsed when eight police officers used force against him – despite the fact hat he offered no resistance when they arrested him.

A little known fact is that about 82 Black and minority persons (out of a total of 558) died in police custody from 1995-2005, according to Home Office reports. This is the big issue for families like the Sylvester’s. They rarely see officers face charges and are kept in the dark for years. No police officers has been successfully prosecuted even when they have ended up in court, for example after the killing of mother Joy Gardner.

Long-standing concerns about the disproportionate number of Black deaths in custody as a result of police brutality have had a major impact on community relations, according to legal advocates. Lawyer Ian MacDonald QC put the spotlight on uncaring police, magistrates and bureaucrats. They fail to appreciate that bereaved Black families suffer race and class prejudice more than any other minority group.

Intolerable judicial obstacles and long delays lead to anguish and despair, said MacDonald. As a result, most of the cases are still subject to long-drawn-out court proceedings. Deaths in police custody as a result of excessive force and fatal shootings all raise issues about standards of care, said fellow panellist Deborah Coles, co-director of the Inquest victim support charity.

Furthermore, failed enquiries “provoke discontent about and ineffective procedures to deal with police misconduct”, she said. These were the expressions of discontent. Then suddenly there was a piercing loud cry: “Where is the justice”. It was followed by a chorus of sympathy and anger.

The deaths seem more to do with racial profiling than the disputed event. “We need to know more and do more to defend ourselves when arrested”, said Ken Hinds, chair of the Haringey (borough) Stop ‘n Search Group, who claims racially prejudiced British Transport Police assaulted him. “What must we do to get a fair and impartial hearing in the courts?”, pleaded Rupert Sylvester, Roger’s grieving father.

Grieving parent Rupert Sylvester/Chronicleworld

The response
Key strategies include a demand for fair and impartial hearings. This has become a call for action. Reaching out from their tiny headquarters in Finsbury Park, Remi and her colleagues’ strategies of protest make an ideal community organiser’s manual: Stop police brutality. Call for full and independent enquiries. Fill the public galleries at the inquests and trials. Aim to influence the often-quixotic judgements of courts. File well-prepared statements for defence lawyers. Use your mobile phones and webcams to record the protagonist and events and interview on-the-spot witnesses.

But none of this stands any chance without finance. Padmore institute director Michael La Rose praised the youth wing’s clarity of purpose and the resilience of Black communities. Asked what resources he needed to successfully roll out the GPI Generation campaign, La Rose replied: “Money matters – perhaps £8 to £10,000 a year”.

Linton Kwesi Johnson/Chronicleworld

The good news is that institute’s five-year Dream to Change the World Project just received a £206,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The GPI Generation will benefit from this largesse. And they can reckon on help from the institute’s trustees and senior cultural activists – among them the reggae dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, Professor Gus John author of Taking a Stand and Emancipate Yourself, and writer and lecturer Roxy Harris and Sarah White of New Beacon Books, authors of Building Britannia: Life experiences with Britain.

From protest to community politics
So, when will political party leaders and parliamentarians be convinced that Black deaths in police custody and state care are an urgent political issue? Not soon and surely not without a determined struggle. However, the GPI Generation could use the hiatus to take Black community protest from the margins to  full participation in the politics  and culture of society. This  prime goal they inherit from  John La Rose, a leading African Caribbean scholar, activist and founder with his colleagues  of the George Padmore Institute.

John La Rose poster, Ken Hinds (left) and participant/Chronicleworld free use with citation

And here are some ways to expose the injustice of Black deaths in custody, to raise the consciousness of this injustice generally, and to bring about a change in attitude and policies in government. One, they should make sure that key government agencies – the Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and the Home Office – monitor all types of deaths in state custody; including those occurring in prison; approved premises; police; revenue and customs; immigration centres; and psychiatric hospitals.

Two, they must demand a chair at the decision-making table as advisors to the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAP) Board. Third, they should identify and exploit the general outrage that cuts across party lines. Moreover, perhaps the most exciting prospect is to forge alliances with advocacy groups and call for an independent commission on deaths in custody.

This would give young Black scholars a crack at policy research and political action planning. By raising public awareness, forging allies and rousing disaffected and first time young voters, the GPI Generation could launch a demand for an early 2011 “referendum” on Black deaths in custody to which I would add a 21st century amendment to spread the word.

Have the audacity to defend your terrestrial concerns in cyberspace as well. Yes, build a grassroots movement that knocks on the most doors and makes the most calls. But also send the most e-mail messages and Twitter to alert crime justice advocates and online citizen’s journalists.

The GPI Generation’s protest strategies could have an electoral future. Revitalised by African Caribbean traditions of resistance and charged with Obama-style cyber action, they could spark a politically enthusiastic third generation of youth to take on the new post-2010 government, whatever party makes it past the post.

*This is the fifth article in a series including Unshackling the Afro-British mind; Black British culture is in crisis; Jail or empowerment for Black youth? ; Talented newcomers call for action to Save Black Britain. Thomas L Blair is a well-known academic and independent political commentator on Black urban affairs at http://www.Chronicleworld.org. Details and copies of his book The Audacity Of Cyberspace -The struggle for Internet power are available at http://m-ybooks.co.uk/blair/index.html and is highly recommended by The-Latest.com.

By Thomas L Blair ©2010

Black youth-savers have fired the first broadside in their fightback against crime and the rising head count of youth in prison and gangs, according to participants in the State of Black Britain conference in London.

After decades of drift, they are targeting under-performing teenagers, street hustlers and the toughest hooligans with a new message:  “Salvation is nigh. Aspire and you’ll get through the agony, somehow”.

But who are the Black youth-savers and have they found the right initiatives for a fateful choice: Inclusion or Incarceration of Black youth?

The preachers
“Street Pastors are the answer to Black crime and disorder,” said Rev. Les Isaacs, of a leading voluntary group. Singing from the same hymn sheet are influential Christians – the Anglican bishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and Baptist leader, Rev David Shosanya, organiser of the SOBB 17 October conference.

A phalanx of Christians supports Rev Shosanya’s SOBB initiatives. Keep the Faith magazine editor, Shirley McGreal, is their influential media voice. Andrea Minichiello Williams and the crusading Christian Legal Centre add their expert support.

Crime-busters
Sympathetic police officers and prominent achievers are another youth-saving force. “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” is a repeated slogan. They “aim to halt rising Black on Black crime, drugs, gang wars and anti-social behaviour”.

Raising aspirations is on the top of Officer Leroy Logan’s action agenda at REALLITY (Raising Everyone’s Awareness of Lives Lost in the Youth). The Metropolitan Police superintendent and founding member of the Black Police Association wants to “see lives restored and regenerated not alienated and or destroyed”.  He offers an antidote to youth crime that leads to streets of peace and safety.

Educators  encourage confidence
Successful professionals said increased education and training will bring positive change in the state of Black British youth. “There is no better rung on the ladder of advancement than schooling from the primary to the higher degrees level”, said Allan Nigel Smith, Head of Global Risk Strategy, HSBC Bank.

Methodist Black preacher Dr Anthony Reddie, an expert on faith issues for the international journal Black Theology, is in accord. Local magistrate Triumph Ayop Isegun, JP, aims to empower lone parents of susceptible, troubled youth.

Professional youth workers are expanding ways for ex-offenders to serve their communities. Jeremy Whittle of Resettlement UK is determined to steer Black youth away from crime, out of jail and back into productive life. Jeremy Crook’s Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) helps young people into jobs, business, and training.

Lawmakers, artists promote role models
Youth-savers in government and the arts are making themselves heard. Attorney General Baroness Patricia Scotland and writer-actor Kwame Kwei-Armah introduced “National Role Models — to “Be an inspiration and Make a difference” –   to an audience of 300 in London in December 2009. Moreover, there are no limits to creative advocacy.

Innovators in business are choosing to make a difference. They argue that self-employment and ownership is the way out of poverty and insecurity. “Using their own ideas, youth could start a future in business,” is the mantra of Levi Roots. The dreadlocked musician’s Reggae Reggae sauce “put music on the food shelves” of British supermarkets.

The supremely confident Rev David Shosanya, concluded, “In the midst of social and economic turmoil, youth must become political literates and learn the rhetoric of the media and public square, and study every issue and use their vote wisely”. 

Take a Power-Step Up
But Black youth-savers may have underestimated the challenges they face. Looking at the larger picture suggests they have more to do to secure inclusion over incarceration of Black youth.

The inclusion bells will ring when young people’s creativity and  income-production  revitalise Black communities.  The Hallelujah Day will be a-dawning when  youth programme their futures with sustainable aspirations, vibrant organisations  and life-affirming moral practices.

The national implications are clear said youth champion Lord Victor Olufemi Adebowale,  first “People’s peer” and social care charity leader: ” Black youth are a potent symbol of a stronger civil society”.

*This is the fourth instalment in the Black History Month 2009 series on Unshackling the Afro-British Mind published here by the author. It is hailed as essential reading for anyone who wants to chart the present failures and future prospects in the State of Black Britain. Thomas L Blair is a Black scholar and independent commentator on Black urban affairs at http://www.Chronicleworld.org.  Details of his book THE AUDACITY OF CYBERSPACE -The struggle for Internet power can be viewed at http://bit.ly/m-ybooksblair  and is highly recommended by the citizens’  journal http://www.The-Latest.com.