Brøken Habits

In the past few days, there’s been a video of George Floyd being murdered in cold blood virally circulating the internet and social media. I couldn’t tell you what possessed me to write about this particular case but something in my brain clicked this morning when I opened my eyes; I’m alive and I will never have the fear of being brutalised by police for the colour of my skin.

The first thing I want to bring to light is the fact that caucasian police officers MURDERED someone in broad daylight in cold blood, simply because he has more melanin in his DNA. Police are meant to be a symbol of safety and help and kindness and the fact that, throughout history and in present day, policemen/women/officers have been abusing their power to make minorities feel inferior to them is disgusting. If you’ve seen the video, you can hear George repeatedly saying “I cant breathe” “Please don’t kill me” “I’m going to die”, the policeman proceeded to put pressure on his neck for 7 minutes. During these 7 minutes, civilians were trying to help George but were told if they get too close they will be detained or maced. 

“Bad people can wear uniform”. That’s something my friend said to me today whilst we were taking about it and I don’t think anything has ever made so much sense to me. The system is corrupt and that’s the reality the governments want to cover up. They give murderers the power to murder with no consequence. These people do not wake up one day with the thought of “I want to kill someone today” and do it, it’s something they’ve been thinking on for a while. The (now fired) criminal involved in the murder of George Floyd is called Derek M. Chauvin. Derek M Chauvin was a Minneapolis Police Officer. The technique Chauvin used to detain George Floyd was NOT demonstrated as a part of the departments training. Derek Chauvin was put on leave in 2011 for an inappropriate police shooting of Alaskan Native American, Leroy Martinez. Chauvin was one of the officers involved in the brutal murder of Wayne Reyez, Reyez was a latino man who had 16 bullets forced into him with 42 rounds being fired at him. Chauvin has currently got 12 Police Brutality complaints against him in the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct complaint database. They are all listed as “closed”, “non-public” and “no discipline”. Derek M Chauvin is being represented by Tom Kelly, the same attorney who got Jeronimo Yavez aquitted (Yavez murdered Phaillandro Castile).  Derek M Chauvin. Know his name. Let people know what he’s done. Spread awareness.

Racism is taught. That is something I strongly believe in. When we are born, we don’t see colour and I mean that literally. Nobody wakes up thinking “today I’m going to be racist.”, 99.9% of the time, villains in movies or a tv show is a person of colour and young children grow up watching these thinking that this is the norm. Kids then go to school and when they play cops and robbers or whatever it is, the kid with colour in his or her skin will be coined the villain simply because this is what they are conditioned to think. The fact that fear is instilled in people of colour from such a young age is so sad, it’s something i’ve witnessed first hand. In school we are taught to love everyone no matter what but racism does not start and finish with school and the education system, it’s continued in the household, teachers can only do so much. The responsibility of educating children out of school hours then falls into the hands of parents. If you are a parent or guardian or have siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts, friends siblings etc, please make sure to educate them to be anti-racist, it must stop and the only way it’ll happen is if we start doing what the older generations have done before us and teach those younger than us the right way. Racism is something so normalised that when we speak up for those who have been a victim of it, we get attacked and shunned upon. RACISM IS THE PROBLEM, NOT P.O.C!!!!!!!

There are people out there now protesting that ‘all lives matter’ and as much as that it is true, people do not see that the reason the Black Lives Matter movement has been created is simply because Black Lives Matter. White people, whether you are ethnic or not - as long as you have white skin and can westernise yourself and hide your heritage, are not in danger as much as people of colour. This is not me saying that if you’re from ethnic origin, you are not in danger, I’m saying that if your skin isn’t black then you are not waking up everyday in a modern world in fear of your life. Let me make it simpler to understand for those who will talk their shit; if you have 2 kids in front of you and one starts crying are you going to comfort the child in distress or the child who is completely fine? Obviously the child in distress, now apply this logic to the current racism problem we have. Black Lives Matter was created by the oppressed for the oppressed and those who support the struggle of the oppressed. It is not about all lives mattering, not everything is about the privileged so please, if you’ve never been a target of racial profiling, shut the fuck up and let those whom have make their voices be heard loud and clear. People who sit there and say ‘all lives matter’ and don’t support the BLM movement, you listen to their music, you appropriate their culture, you eat their food, you talk like them, you watch their movies but you don’t want to join them in their suffering? You bleed the same blood, you breathe the same air, but if you have white skin, you are more likely to be heard, so please USE YOUR VOICE TO LET THIS BE KNOWN; WE WILL NOT STAND DOWN UNTIL EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN RACIALLY PROFILED, FACED POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDERED FOR THE COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN IS AVENGED. THEY CANT STOP ALL 7 BILLION OF US!!!

THE UK IS NOT INNOCENT EITHER!!!! GET THIS RIGHT, RACISM IS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

REMEMBER THIER NAMES, FIGHT FOR THEM (UK);

MARK DUGGAN              JIMMY MUBENGA          JOY GARDENER

SARAH REED                  MICHEAL POWELL          SEAN RIGG

SHEKU BEYOH                 LEON BRIGGS              LEON PATTERSON

CHRISTOPHER ADLER        RICKY BISHOP        CYNTHIA JARRETT 

SMILEY CULTURE            BRIAN DOUGLAS        CHERRY GROCE

DEREK BENNETT            KINGSLEY BURRELL     JOY GARDENER

RODGER SYLVESTER           AZELLE RODNEY         HABIB ULLAH

FARUK ALI           ADRIAN THOMPSON             JEAN CHARLES DE MENEZES 

DEMETRE FRAZER        ASTON MCLEAN    SENI LEWIS 

ANTHONY GRANGER     ROCKY BENNETT     ALTON MANNING    

MARK NUNES     BELLY MUJINGA    SHUKRI ABDI    

Week 5 of lockdown, things are looking up. Over the past few weeks a lot has changed, especially supermarkets, we know have to wait in lines up to 45 minutes long (yes I timed them :)) standing 2 metres apart from people and only having a certain amount of people in the store at once. Having to wait in these long lines and hoping that when you get into store there will be food on the shelves as well as toilet roles and medication. It has now all become so normal to us that I worry once this is over how weird it is going to feel to be able to just walk into a store and not have to think about how long you’ll be out or planning on going the store at 1pm so you’ll be home by 2:30pm the latest.

-NIGHTMARISH-

Here are a few ideas we had when we first started researching for our zine. Our topic is Women Empowerment, so we wanted to focus on the basics of being a woman as well as what makes us strong, independent people. Being a woman is being equal, no matter your age, race, religion, we are woman and we are united. I wanted to put together a little mood board of some things that have inspired us so you know and understand our process as to how we got to our final product, sadly now because of COVID-19 we wont be able to make our final product so just enjoy these and more to come. 

UNfinished

LOndon UNderground 2014

35mm FIlm PHotography

EXperimentation ON PHotoshop

Quarantine has made me realise that, as humans we leave a lot of shit UNfinished ie. books, drawings, Netflix shows, home decor and all that other stuff. I found some art work I made over the years and came to the conclusion that “i don’t have the time right now” is not an excuse anymore. The next few posts will be the finished works, I hope you enjoy. 

As we al know we are in the middle of a life changing event and honestly I don't know how to act, at first I was happy that we didn't have to go to work or university but now I miss it. I was so excited to do my zine with my friends and show the university my potential as well as prove to myself that I am a good photographer and all I need is a kick up the backside to get my goals. With the UK being on lockdown we have resorted to creating a Tumblr and expressing ourselves on this, we will be posting a bunch of different things such as photographs, links to cool new apps that can make a drawing come to life, mood boards, and more. I hope that they find a cure for COVID-19 and the world can go back to normal, but for now we have to go with the flow and just hope for the best. Anyways, I am so excited that me and Arj are still able to show off our work and keep our creativity flowing. 

Stay safe and STAY INDOORS!!

Welcome to COVID-19. Currently, there is an international virus going around by the name of the Human Corona Virus (COVID-19) and us humans know very little about it. This “zine” was meant to be my discipline specific project for my foundation year to show my tutors what I am capable of, it was meant to end up with an exhibition of my work but unfortunately, i cant do that anymore. Schools and libraries have been shut down, in fact many public places have been shut down and it feels like i’m in a zombie apocalypse movie. I was speaking to my tutor before i came up with the idea of creating a tumblr zine to document my experiences during this time and its REALLY out of my comfort zone to not create a collection as an outcome for a project but you gots to do what you gots to do and i guess this is what i have to do. I really hope me recording my experiences will give everyone an idea of whats going on with fashion and politics and the world as i write or upload the future posts. View this as a diary, not just a “blog” or a “zine”, its a day to day guide of how to get through shit when shit hits the fan. 

Stay safe and wash your hands.