One morning armed police stormed into Afeni Shakur’s apartment and arrested her. All the other members of her cell were also arrested. They were charged with what the government said was a giant plan to destroy those elements of society which the defendants called The Power Structure. It included attacking police stations and planning to bomb five large department stores and the Bronx botanical gardens. They became known as the Panther 21. Their trial was held in a state of paranoia … Three of the founding members of the group had been undercover police officers. ibid.
In America in the 1960s was a man who was convinced that there was something frightening hidden under the surface of the new modern suburbs. Behind what looked like a confident individualism was rising up throughout America there were really hidden fears eating away at people from inside. There were feelings of anxiety, loneliness and emptiness, and he was convinced he could make a lot of money out of these feelings: he was called Arthur Sackler … Valium: he offered it to the doctors as an extraordinary new way to treat these inner anxieties, and he said it wasn’t dangerous or addictive. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head III: Money Changes Everything
On the surface Tupac Shakur was part of the age of the individual. He believed deeply in the idea of self-expression. But he was also one of the few in the 1980s who still believed in the power of grand stories to move people and to inspire them to change the world. His mother Afeni had been a Black Panther and she still believed in the idea of revolution in America. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? *****
‘She always raised me to think I was the black prince of the revolution.’ ibid. Tupac
‘We’re not being taught to deal with the world as it is. We’re being to taught to deal with this fairyland which we’re not even living in anymore.’ ibid. Tupac shool interview 19988
‘More kids are being handed Crack than are handed diplomas.’ ibid.
By the 1980s it was clear that the promises of the civil rights’ movement had not been kept in America. And the idealism of black politics fell away. And the communities divided into gangs then turned on each other. Then Crack swept through the black communities in America. And a fading Shakur finally gave up: she became addicted to Crack, and Tupac found himself alone. ibid.
Tupac Shakur set out to awaken the radicalism of the Panthers. And to do it he was going to use himself as the central character. ibid.
Maybe many people didn’t want to change. They were happy living in their own fairytale world of gangs and violence. ibid.
President Clinton had brought in tough new crime laws. Even though in reality crime was falling. Hundreds of thousands of young black men were now imprisoned with no hope of parole, even for minor offences. It seemed to show that President Clinton cared more about the fears of white middle-class voters than he did about the lives of young black men. ibid.
His [Tupac’s] message was simple: that suspicion was just another form of control. ibid.
Tottenham Hotspur had just won promotion to the First Division and now they wanted Walter … Britain’s first professional black player … Tony Robinson’s History of Britain s2e2: Edwardians, Channel 5 2022
The Blackman is the original man. From him came all brown, yellow, red, and white people. By using a special method of birth control law, the Blackman was able to produce the white race. This method of birth control was developed by a Black scientist known as Yakub, who envisioned making and teaching a nation of people who would be diametrically opposed to the Original People. A Race of people who would one day rule the original people and the earth for a period of 6,000 years. Yakub promised his followers that he would graft a nation from his own people, and he would teach them how to rule his people, through a system of tricks and lies whereby they use deceit to divide and conquer, and break the unity of the darker people, put one brother against another, and then act as mediators and rule both sides. Elijah Muhammad
I was born here in Dudley in the West Midlands. And I grew up here in Douglas Road. I’ve got so many brilliant memories of growing up in a very very Caribbean household. Everything we did was Jamaican – the way we talked, the way we ate, the music we played. Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Culture I, BBC 2022
We Hintigrated and we Escalated. These little islands suddenly to create this immense cultural output – all this music, all this culture, all this art, all this creativity, it’s an extraordinary achievement. ibid.
Shameful Episode in Notting Hill. ibid. Pathé news 1958
Predictably, the mainstream turned its nose up at Caribbean art. ibid.
Afros were out, dreadlocks were in. Reggae was now the dominant force in Jamaican music.
Britain got to see West Indians party at the cricket. ibid.
Three of a Kind came just at the right time for me … Being part of a sketch show meant I had to learn fast. ibid.
The success of reggae and punk meant that we had bands like Madness, The Specials, The Beat, Selector, all mixed tracks. ibid. Dr Mykaell Riley
At one point UB40 was the best-selling reggae artist around the world. ibid. dude
During the Second World War, nearly three million American soldiers passed through Britain. 240,000 of them were African-Americans. Some struck up relationships with local women and an estimated 2,000 children were born scattered all across the UK. Britain’s Secret War Babies, Channel 4 2022
The first significant generation to be born black and British but missing a vital part of their identity. ibid.
Being mixed race means I’m three times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth and soon after. But black women fare even worse. And are four times more likely to suffer maternal death than white women. Dispatches: The Black Maternity Scandal, Channel 4 2021