TheOrator.Press: Schools, University, Language & Leadership Education Special: Interview Series (4 of 4) Comedian Rudi Lickwood May 2021

(Interview Series Part 4 of 4)

The Racial Caste System,

BAME ~ People of Colour ~ African

Black ~Black British ~ Afro~Caribbean

~ And ~

Just Playin’ The Comedy Clown For Laughs or Critical Thinkin’, & Workin’ Things Out

Photo Gallery (1): Chloe Zhoa Oscars 2021, Comedian Rudi Lickwood, Morgan Freeman As Azeem In Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), A Radisson Blu Hotel In Nigeria, Kevin Costner In In Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), The River Niger, The Nigerian Coat of Arms, The River Nile, The Nigerian Flag, The Oscar, China’s National Flag, Britain’s Union Jack, The American Flag, The Jamaican Flag, The Oscars Logo, Robin Hood Prince of Theives, The Full Size Oscar Statuette, The Upper Half of The Oscar

The Corrupted N-Word Is Never OK

Photo Gallery (2): When R & B Music Queen Rhianna, Born In Barbados, In The Caribbean, Was Presented As A Homage To Queen Nefertiti In Arabia Vogue 2017, She Was Accused of Cultural Appropriation, Notwithstandin’ That She Looked Stunnin’. Notably There Is No Vogue Africa. Egypt Is An African Country. It Is Also Part of Asia. And It Is Also Part of The Middle East.

Inspired By The Acadamy Awards Last Month, For The Fourth And Final Part of Our Four Part Interview Special With Comedian, Social Commentator, Podcast Host, Presenter And Producer Rudi Lickwood We Talk To Him About Acceptable Racial References Used To Describe Black People – By Themselves. (Comedy Page April 2021) (Comedy Page May 2021) (Business Page May 2021) (Education May 2021).

The Use of The Use of The Corrupted N-Word To Address A Person Is Never Acceptable By Anyone of Any Colour. Historically In African Culture The Letter “N” Was The First Letter of Many Grand, Revered, Powerful, Naturally Beautiful And Majestic Things Such As The Niger (The Powerful West African River), Niger (The African Country), Nigeria (The African Country) And Nana Which Is An African Unisex Name Meanin’ Majesty, King or Queen Interchangeably. But Invaders Came And Corrupted And Disrespected This Cultural Tradition Circa The 19th Century.

Now The N-Word Is A Bad Thing Used To Project It’s Corrupted, Derogatory And Racist Meanin’. Members of The Black Community Usin’ It Themselves To Refer To Each Other Does Not Negate That Nor Make It Okay. Especially If Niave Kids Copy That Behaviour With No Notion of Its History. And When Racist White Folks Do It It Makes Our Case Against Them Doin’ So Much More Weak. And They Don’t Need Excuses As It Is. Notably, No Other Culture Uses Digustin’ Racial Slurs Against Itself. It Is Unacceptable From Anyone.

A ‘Person of Colour’ Quota Could Meet Compliance Without Includin’ A Single Black Person

Chinese Independent Film Maker And Screen Writer Chloe Zhao, Won The Best Director Award At The Oscars Last Month (Sunday April 24 2021). The Film She Directed, Nomadlands, Stars Frances McDormand, As A Widow Who Does Travellin’ Around Like A Nomad In Her Camper Van, Also Won Best Picture.

Congratulations To Chloe Zhao! She Has Done Exceptionally Well. And She Rightly Looked Happy And Proud. No Doubt Her Parents Are. Her Father Is A Steel Executive And Her Mother A Hospital Worker And Former Army Corp Troupe Performer. She Was Born In China, Educated In England, And Lives In America. However The Chinese Government Reportedly Do Not Celebrate Her And Repress News of Her Success.

However Academy Awards Announcer Described Her As Both The First “Woman of Colour” To Win The Award And The First Woman of Asian Descent” To Do So.

Nevertheless The Racial References Used By The Academy Awards Ceremony On The Night Highlight An Interestin’ Fact. She Was Triple Referenced As Chinese, Asian, And A Woman of Colour. Demonstratively, Technically That Means Now, Describin’ Someone As A Person of Colour Does Not Necessarily Factually Mean That Person Is Black. It Now Simply Means They Are Non-White.

So It Seems That This Term For Black People Has Effectively Been Hijacked. The Term Was Originally Devised As An Alternative To Use of The Word “Coloured” Which Is What Non-Black People Used To Call Black People. Many Black People Found The Term “Coloured” Offensive (As The Short But Powerful Poem Below Illustrates).

Rudi Says: “It Forever Has Been. You Don’t Look At The Ethnicity of People You Just Lump Them Into One Class And Then That Means That You’ve Fulfilled Your Quota. When You Look At The Class System And The Caste System, We Haven’t Really Moved On. We Still End Up Bein’ At The Bottom. And Everybody Once Again Is On Our Shoulders Based On An Issue Or A Problem We Brought To The Attention of The Masses. Our Issues Always Get Diluted. There Are No People of Colour. You’ve Got Africans. You’ve Got Caribbeans. You’ve Got Asians. You’ve Got Caucasions. 

Lickwood Jokes That He Would Go Even Further And Encourages His Kids And Grand Child To Describe Themselves As “Moor”. He Says, “One, Because You Are More.” And Two, Because “If It Wasn’t For Us You Wouldn’t Have Chemistry, You Wouldn’t Have Maths. You Wouldn’t Have Astrology. You Wouldn’t Have Architecure. You Wouldn’t Have All of These Things. If It Was Not For The Moors You Don’t Get Electricity. If It Was Not For The Moors You Don’t Get Architecture. If It Was Not For The Moors You Wouldn’t Get People Travellin’ On The Seas And All of That Stuff.  They Are Associated With Historical Events And Achievement. If You Say Africa I Don’t Think You Get The Same Impact. You Don’t Get The Same Sense. “

“Especially When I Talk To White Middle Class People. Because That Joke Only Works With A Certain Section of Black People. Those Are Black People Who Are Well Read. If I Go Into Middle England And I Say It They Get It Straight Away. They Understand It Straightaway.”

Undoubtedly Rudi Is Right That Lumpin’ All Non White Ethnic Groups Together Makes The Expression “People of Colour” No Better Than The Much Miligned Expression “BAME” (Black & Minority Ethnic). As It Effectively Means Black People Can Be Easily Excluded.

The Moors of Before Became No More

The Story of The Moors Is A Long And Complicated One With History Spannin’ AD (Anno Domini/After Christ) And BC (Before Christ) And Featurin’ Many Different Tribes, Invasions, Military Campaigns And The Enslavement of Various Different People By Different Nations. But There Are, As With Most Histories, Some Stand Out Moments, Which Help With Understandin’ Their Fascinatin’ Story. In The Case of The Moors It Is The War of Granada (Not To Be Confused With Grenada), The Spanish Inquisition And The Explorations of Christopher Columbus.

The Moors Were Ancient, Indigenous, Medieval, Muslim, African Tribes People. They Were The Original Natural Inhabitants of North Africa. They Were African Muslims Who Followed The Islamic Faith And Believed Allah Was The Only True God.

The Moors Were Dominant In The Islamic Empire of Iberia, Also Known As Al-Andalus. They Were There Before The Romans. They Were Strong There, On And Off, From The Time of The Famous Muslim Invasion of 711 To The Granada War of 1491 Which They Lost. (Granada Is Not To Be Confused With Grenada Notwithstandin’ They Sound Very Similar.)

An Army of Muslim Moors Conquered The Vast Majority of Kingdoms In The Iberian Peninsula – Also Known Simply As Iberia – After An Eight Year War Which Began In 711. The Moors Were Made Up of Different African Tribes of Different Names But Were Collectively Referred To As Moors, Meanin’ Muslims, By Uninvited Outsiders, Invaders And Settlers.

Within The Moor Groups There Were Different Ethnicities Including, Arabs And Berbers. Berbers Were Largely From Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali (French Sudan), Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia And The Eyptian Siwa Oasis. And They Spoke The Afroasiatic Language (A Fusion of African And Arabic). 

The First Wave of Arabs Were The Yemenites And The Second Wave Were The Syrians. The Arabs Repeatedly Acted As Though They Believed Themselves Superior To All The Other Ethnicities. This Has Caused Historical Rivalry, Brutality And Inhumanity. Ultimately The Region Would Be What Scholars Call ‘Arabised And Islamised’. Or Subjected To ‘Arabization or Islamization’.

Mixed Ethnicities Within The Arab Dominated Territories Were Called Muladi. And Included Mixed Arab, Portuguese, Spanish, Hispano-Roman People.

Major Religious Conversions of Hitherto Christians In These Territories Took Place Durin’ The 7th, 8th, 9th And 10th Century. However Whilst Some Converted Under Duress, Oppression, And The Muslim Invasion, Pre-Islamic Ways Were Not Completely Erased.

Eventually An Elitist, Societal, Hierachical, System Was Established In Muslim Society Called The Dhimmah System. This System Permitted Non-Muslims To Live Within A Muslim Country Subject To Certain Oppressive Rules, Laws And Conditions (Even Relatin’ To Clothin’) Under Sharia Law. This Included Chrisitans And Jews.

Slavery Was Rife Durin’ Ancient Times, Medieval Times, The Roman Empire And The Middles Ages And Varied Between Muslims And Christians. And The Codified Laws Concernin’ Slave Treatment Changed Along The Way Dependin’ On The Ruler of The Day. The World Map And The Landscapes Have Changed Enormously Since The Time of The Moors.

Jewish Slave Traders Often Acted As Slave Brokers Between Christian And Muslim Rulers. And Yet It Was Rumoured That Jewish Traders Were Sleepin’ With The Women of Christian And Muslim Men Whilst They Were Away Fightin’ Each Other. In Europe And The Mediterranean The Church Had Eventually Forbade Christians Enslavin’ Other Christians. Christians And Jews Were Considered “People of The Book” And Were Afforded Certain Protections Even In Enslavement. Slaves Were Often In Service To Their Owners On A One To One Basis, As Special Advisors For Instance, Rather Than Just Large Groups.

When Muslim Control Was Dominant, Slaves Under Muslim Ownership In The Iberian Empire, Were Often ‘Slavs’ Captured In Raids On Eastern Europe (It Is From The Word ‘Slav’ That The Word Slave Developed).

When Christian Control Was Dominant Slaves Were Often Muslims Captured In Battle Within Islamic States or Were Slaves Traded With Muslim Kingdoms In The Southern Part of The Penisular. Many Were Trafficked From Along The Main Routes of The Sahara Where Portuguese And Spanish Slave Merchants Were Particularly Notorious When It Came To Sudanese Enslavement, As Were The French, Near The Alpine Terrortories Connectin’ Italy To Western Europe.

Independent Muslim Rule in Iberia Ended In 1492 When An Ever Developin’ Christian Power Finally Took Over After A Decade of War In Granada (Not To Be Confused With Grenada). Muslim Rule Was Superceeded By The Joint Rule of The Catholic Monarch Under Queen Isabella of Castile (Just 18) And King Ferdinand II of Aragon (Just 18). They Were Second Cousins But Given Special Dispensation By The Pope To Marry. Their Marriage In October 1469 In Effect Facilitated The Unification of Spain. And Secured Their Power Under A New Catholic Iberian Peninsula.

Queen Isobella Succeeded The Throne In 1474 In Castile. And King Ferdinand Succeeded The Throne In Aragon In 1479. In Betweeen, In 1478 The Married Monarchs (Under Dual Catholic Rule) Enacted The Spanish Inquisition. Their Mission Was To Ensure Through Militant Catholicism That Those Who Had Converted To Christianity Did Not Revert To Islam Again.

King Ferdinand of Argaon Retained Interests In Italy, The Mediterranean, And Conquerin’ North Africa. And Queen Isobel of Castile Retained An Interest In Her Geographical Region Acquaintin’ Itself With The Atlantic.

In 1492, The Same Year The The Granada War Ended, Navigator Christopher Columbus Was Authorised To Embark On His Explorations Seekin’ More Lands For Spain To Claim. And The World Would Never Be The Same Again.

Prior To Azeem In The 1990s Movie ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’ (1991), One of The Most Famous Moors Known In Modern Popular Culture Is Othello, Brought To Life In Literature, By Shakespeare [Apr 1564 – Apr 23 1616]. He Has Been Played By Many Different Black Actors, Includin’ Comedian And Actor Sir Lenny Henry.

The Berbers Were Eventually Dominated By The Arabs After Various Military Campaigns Over The Decades And Centuries. Cave Paintings, Burial Tools, Archelogical Discoveries Such As Sculptures (As In The Case of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti), Sacred Scripts, Maps And Military Records And Other Historical Artefacts Are Used To Determine The Outcome of These Campaigns From The Earliest of Ages. Greek, Roman, Arab And Byzantine Scholars Are Acknowledged As Havin’ Written About Them From As Early As 900AD.

After Conquerin’ The Moors, Those Who Were Victorious Often Made Their Own Discriminatory Distinctions Between Africans From North African And Africans From Eastern, Southern or West Africa. They Consider Themselves (As North Africans) To Have Different Features, Cultures, Economic Status, Geography, And History, Such As Lighter Skin Colour, Naturally Straighter Hair, And Eradication of The Moors, That Makes Them Superior To Other Africans.

This Is Still Horrifically Reflected In Their Treatment of Different of Africans. Particularly At Border Control Points, Where Treatment Can Be Savage, Brutal And Inhumane.

The Global Majority Community

This Is A Critical Example of How, Sadly, Bein’ African Does Not Mean All Africans Consider Themselves To Be One Kin. This Is Just As All Caribbeans Do Not Consider Themselves All The Same Either. The Distinction Between Small Island And Other Islands Is Famous. Also Comparable Is The Fact That Being British Is Not Without Distinction Between The English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

And Thus It Follows That The Term “People of Colour” or “Person of Colour” Is Not Representative of One Race, One Colour, Or One Set of People. It Simply Means Not White. So, Technically An Organisation Could Claim To Have Fulfilled A Set Quota For A Certain Percentage of “People of Colour” And Not Have Engaged A Single Black Child, Man or Woman.

So Then We Are Back To Square One, Where Some Consider It Necessary To Spell Out The Whole Nine Yards To Make Clear Exactly What Our Different Identities Are. This Can Be Colour. Nationality. Ethnicity. Geography. And Geography Can Be Particularly Prescriptive Eg: Black. British. Caribbean. Jamaican. England. London.

But Ultimately, As Diversity Specialist Sheeren Daniels Points Out, At The Very Least, Black People Are “The Global Majority Community”. And That Sounds Alot Better Than BAME (Black And Minority Ethnic) And The Rather Vague Term ‘Person of Colour’.

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