Black Smart & Single

Don’t listen to their books or statues.

"I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."

Rest in Power.

Emergencies really do crop up more often for poor people. Necessities, like vacuum cleaners or phones or bedding or shoes, need replacement or repair more often when you only buy the cheapest possible option.

Poor people’s health tends to be compromised by cheap, unhealthy food; stress; being around lots of similarly-poor contagious sick people who can’t afford to stay home or get treatment; inadequate healthcare; and often, hazardous and/or demanding work conditions – including longer hours allowing less time for sleep, home food prep, and mental or physical exercise.

Our homes may not offer much respite, as we’re less likely to have comfortable furniture for sleep or relaxation, more likely to be forced to rely on abusive people for financial reasons.  We’re also more likely to live in high-pollution areas, food deserts, and in poorly-maintained rental housing. We’re less likely to have access to heat or cooling even in dangerous weather.

For all these reasons and more, we get sick more, and when we do, we have less access to medical care – even the poor people lucky enough to have adequate insurance and a doctor who will provide appropriate care without discrimination may face significant difficulties getting to and from a doctor and pharmacy.

Poor people have less reliable transportation; any cars that are affordable for a poor person will usually need major repairs at least a couple times a year - more emergencies! - and poor people are less likely to live anywhere near an adequate public transit system. Just the cab fare to and from a doctor visit can easily cost a week’s worth of groceries or more. Ignoring medical needs as long as possible and not accessing preventative care causes massive future expense.

Many people are poor specifically because of disability, making work difficult or impossible in addition to the expenses of managing chronic illness, accessing mobility aids, or other costs associated with disability.

Poverty runs in families, and friend groups are often based heavily on class in our stratified society, so in addition to your own emergencies as a poor person, you’ll likely also be sharing resources to keep your loved ones alive. You’re not likely to have wealthier friends or family who can or will help.

Poor people are less likely to have enough clothing that we can wait to replace unwearable items. Because our clothing collections are smaller (and often secondhand and/or poorly made), our clothes wear out faster. Not having clothing that marks us as ‘respectable’ can bar us from employment, make us more vulnerable to violence from police or other harassers, and make resources like social programmes less accessible.

Overdraft fees target poor people specifically. Being a few pennies off in your maths can mean sudden huge bills that compound themselves. Predatory banks routinely run all charges before processing the deposits you make earlier in the day or week, which can mean huge overdraft fees can happen even if you deposit your money hours or days before trying to spend any of it.

There are thousands of examples. For poor people, unexpected expenses happen more often. And when you’re poor, any unexpected expense can be an emergency with serious consequences.

Even the cheapest (most temporary) solution for an emergency often breaks the bank.  People who aren’t poor don’t realize that an urgent expense of thirty dollars can mean not eating for a week. Poor people who try to save find our savings slipping away as emergency after emergency happens. Some poor people turn to predatory lending companies, not because they don’t know it’s a bad deal but because being hugely in debt tomorrow is better than your kids starving today.

I don’t think people who’ve never been poor realise what it’s like. It’s not that we’re terrible at budgeting, it’s that even the most perfect budget breaks under the weight of the basic maths: we do not have enough resources.

Polyglot

Created, written, directed and edited by Amelia Umuhire, a Rwandan-European self-taught filmmaker from Berlin and self-identifying Afro-European, Polyglot is fictional webseries based in the German capital that explores the diverse stories of politics, growing pains, love and the challenges of living in a city as complex as its inhabitants. Each episode centers on individuals who, through their equally complex hyphenated identities, represent these intricacies as they navigate the multi-layered worlds and spaces of their everyday Afro-European lives.

Pretty by Un’ruly

Putting the focus on black women in Europe and their experiences navigating and interrogating concepts of beauty within spaces where blackness is less than celebrated, simply titled Pretty, this multi-episode webseries by France-based beauty and hair site Un’ruly both highlights these problematic encounters and simultaneously celebrates individual concepts of beauty through the personal accounts of black women who’ve grown up and lived in various European cities.

Strolling

Cecile Emeke’s Strolling series is perhaps one of the most important string of intertwined visual narratives to come out of the diaspora. Having started in England, filming friends and acquaintances in conversation on the streets of London, the series has since been replicated to include versions filmed in France and the Netherlands, with more seasons from other locations still to come. At its very essence, as outlined in its mission statement, Strolling both captures and fulfills its objective of connecting the scattered stories of the Black and African diaspora.

Life Of Hers

In the fictional world created by writer Samantha Chioma, and directed by Ola Masha and Olan Collardy, Life Of Hers reflects the lives and friendships of four women living in London whose complexities, as young woman of the African diaspora, are all too real and relatable.

Gidi Up

Revolving around the ever eventful lives of a diverse cast of young twentysomethings living in the hustle and bustle world of Africa’s leading economic epicenter, Ndani TV’s Gidi Up chronicles the lives of young creatives and professionals trying to make it in various cities across Nigeria. Complementing the quality production each character is thoroughly fleshed out through the well-scripted narrative in each episode. Two seasons deep since its introduction in 2013, the show has become increasingly successful, with more episodes to follow.

Women on Sex

What filmmaker Mmabatho Mantsho has created is a collage of perspectives on sex that speak directly to the complexities of women’s sexuality not just in South Africa, but around the world too. In unmasking various critical stigma and stereotypes surrounding women’s sexuality in South Africa in particular, the series uncovers and interrogates a number of misrepresentations concerning the expectations of women and their sexuality. Through the accounts of women who represent various demographics, we see how these false moral standards dangerously impact individual lives, compressing the fluidity and colourful nature of sex and sexuality whilst maintaining precarious patriarchal prejudices. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the series is that women can, and have the right to, have access to healthy and accurate information concerning sex, and sexual pleasure too, and that it really is OK to tell the truth about sex.

My Africa Is

Positioning itself as a documentary series that takes viewers on a “journey across the continent through the eyes of an insider”, My Africa Is is a project that sheds stereotypes and single story narratives and instead replaces them not with any particular agenda, but instead focuses on capturing the essence of each storyteller featured.

MTV Shuga

With four seasons currently under its belt, and having being filmed in two of Africa’s leading cultural epicenters – Nairobi and Lagos respectively, MTV Base Africa’s Shuga is a show with a strong informative edge. Its high drama content is aimed at educating young Africans across the continent about everything from sexual and reproductive health, to gender-based violence and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.  Though not exclusively a webseries, as its airs first on cable television, episodes are made available on line soon after their terrestrial broadcast.