I’m white. I have many friends who’s skin is a darker colour than mine. I often see them go through things, that I don’t go through as a white person. However what I see is a peak, like through the crack of a door. I don’t see their entire lives and miss a lot of what they go through. Most notably the incessant nature of it. How could I understand what a black person goes through? I can’t. No white person could truly understand. To assume I could understand would be a massive error of judgement, born of a arrogant and egotistical mind.
Throughout this article you might hear me call what you might think of as a black person as slightly more melanated. I like this reference because it really blurs the edges between what is black and what isn’t black and it’s not just about people of an African diasporic decent. Scientifically we are all humans with just varying degrees of pigment in our skin. As a white person I have some pigment, but I don’t experience the discrimination that black people go through.
I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and so have experienced some limited amount of discrimination in my life and that seemed significant to me, but my orientation/gender identity is not written on my skin. If a person meets me they might not know my LGBTQIA+ nature and so might not discriminate until they do know it. They might be open to me until it is known I identify as a cis-gender gay man. A person with darker skin cannot hide what they are discriminated for! It’s easy for me to assume I know what a person with brown skin goes through, but I don’t. To assume, would be a massive error of judgement, born of a arrogant and egotistical mind.
So I’m not going to write my view of BLM. As a white person, I don’t know! Neither do any white people reading it know. Do I run and cry because I think I’m not being allowed to have a view about such things? No. Do I say people are being racist to me because I can’t express my view, as a white person? No. Because it’s not about my skin colour. It’s not about the amount of melanin in my skin. It’s about my experience. A person with no experience with Enochian magic should not be teaching a class on it because they don’t understand it and can lead other to misinformation. In the same way a person with no experience of racism should shut the fuck up about BLM! They don’t know. Instead they should raise up more melanated voice who do know. Failure to do so would be a massive error of judgement, born of a arrogant and egotistical mind.
Since I cannot comment I hope to present the voices of people who’s skin has a little bit more melanin, than the melanin in my skin. There is a great beauty in the joy of people and even more in the joy of people who have overcome difficulties. So I love the writing of Maya Angelou who’s characters are strong. While I would not wish suffering on anyone. Some of her work features people who have grown strong because of the suffering they have endured. The characters that feature in his poem remind me of the kings of the Book of the Law. They use their joy to stamp down the wretched who are upset with other people’s happiness.
Following killings and lynching particularly in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. Nina Simone wrote a song called Mississippi God Damn. This featured the pain she felt during the civil rights movement and focused on these killings. It became a civil rights song and was performed during Marhces. Nina Simone spent her life fighting oppression and it really cost her. She suffered with terrible depression. She knew Martin Luther King Jr personally and had to mourn him. When she was young she actually trained to do classical music, but was not accepted as a classical musician because that was a “white people” style. The constant all consuming fighting truly shows a person who adheres to the call to their Will, but some aspects of her Will were crushed resulting in great pain. This king will surely never die, but live and as her body dissolves may she remain in pure ecstasy for ever.
In honour of those that have died I like to read this section from the Gnostic mass so I put it here for the sake of Nina Simone and Maya Angelou.
Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen may there be granted the accomplishment of their true Wills; whether they will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with their chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another, or in any Star, or aught else, unto them may there be granted the accomplishment of their wills; yea, the accomplishment of their wills. Aumgn.
Finally I grew up in Berkshire in white man’s land… there were hardly anyone more melanated than me around. So I grew up thinking racisim was gone. It wasn’t until I began to get to know my closest friend who is part Thai and part Indian that my eyes were opened. We went around London and I saw it every where. She opened my eyes for which I must thank her. I noticed how easy it is to be fooled that racism doesn’t exist here when I was working in Oxford and someone said well racism isn’t really a problem today and I said show me the person here who is black… we are all white so where would we see the racism? He quickly pointed out that one white guy in the office was Spanish. I very nearly face palmed. We are in white city! No wonder it is easy to convince yourself racism is gone.
These following videos look at whether racism exists in the UK. Again What can I say because I don’t experience it so I’d like to raise up more melanated voices.
If you are not persuaded by the statistics mentioned in this video. Maybe you are more persuaded by personal stories. Then perhaps the next videos are for you. At a BLM protest that I attended the audience was asked “put your hand up if you were told you’re beautiful FOR A BLACK PERSON” and every black woman put their hand up. They were asked “put your hand up if you have been asked where are you REALLY from” as if a black person can’t be from England and many of the black people put their hands up. A drag queen I know who is black and lives in Hampstead Heath was stopped because there had been robberies and they were suspicious because this person was black and in the area which is a predominantly white area. She informed them she lived in the area and that was why she was there, but the police did not stop and asked her to prove it. Then she proved it by showing she had keys for her flat which worked on the door and the police still did not let up and asked to enter the flat to make sure she didn’t have stolen property inside. When she said “no” they said it made them suspicious and they attempted to enter the flat anyway.
What can be done? A person can educate themselves about the statistics without trying to find some excuse as to why they are that way. Too often people look at the statistics and blame black people. On average black people have lower grades, doesn’t mean they don’t study as hard. It might be that the system is set up in such a way to been fit white people, but we don’t know why it is. Black people get better job opportunities, this doesn’t mean they don’t apply for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean they work less hard. It might be that white people feel they can relate to white people more easily and therefore promote more white people. We don’t know it could be caused by either, both or neither. Black people are more likely to be arrested or get prosecuted. This does not mean that black people commit more crimes in fact other statistics suggest that black people are more likely to be stopped and searched when they haven’t done anything wrong than white people. So it’s entirely possible that police view innocent black people with suspicion more than white people. We don’t know why so we can’t assume why. But how does a black person face life with all these statistics facing them. Should they even bother to play by the rules of a game that already has them at a disadvantage? If you’re losing at monopoly do you want to draw the game to its long winded conclusion or just pack it in? Could this be the same here? If you could choose to be a black man or woman would you?
I struggle to accept that anyone racist is a spiritual person. If a person can’t see beyond the skin of a person then they can’t working from a spiritual level. If a person can’t educate themselves to the issues that exist today why bother trying to study things that were ancient. If you’re stupid enough to think that you should be treated equally as a person who has less educational opportunity, less vocation opportunity, more chance of being arrested for something they did not do, more chance of being convicted and with higher sentences than you then you do not have the compartmentalisation or the ego to practice magic. If you feel that you need to argue against much of this article then you probably do not have what it takes to be any kind of magician. To assume you do, would be a massive error of judgement, born of a arrogant and egotistical mind.