I'm saying this as I've experienced, I was born black, it was never an issue I grew up in Somerset, Weston Super Mare, being the only black boy, no one bullied me or called me names I just was and it just was, as we grew up together we didn't see ourselves as different, I only noticed difference in school one day, when we were drawing the outlines of heads our silhouette projected onto a piece of paper where another chalked it out, mine was radically different, from my head shape, to my large lips and broad nose, it was there and then I realised what race was.

For nine years I lived in Weston and There was only one incident as when my Nanny began fostering other kids, the child was from another school, we threw a party for that child and as we were inviting children one parent said she didn't want her child around blacks. That was the first time I experienced racism, I don't know how I felt but I felt something and that's why I can remember that experience.

It's not even the fact of choosing my skin colour, I love being black because black is me. I love Africa for it's beauty, diversity & history from Egypt to Songhai and it's iconic animals. To me the issue is what comes with having the skin colour the assumptions and preconceived notions of what blackness is, our culture of black people being laughed for being dumb, classless and 'ghetto' it's frustrating and I can get mad and cry over it, because it's still like o wow if you talk articulately and show that you process a brain,

I'm so tired of white entitlement, I'm so tired of people telling me not to be angry, I'm so tired of people black people thinking they have to conform therefore settling therefore not allowing progress,

I'm just fed the fuck up and it pisses me off that I entered into an industry that accepts racism and thinks it's ok to pat themselves on the back for doing a token all black issue of a magazine, when a black model walks for a prestigious house for the first time in more than a decade. These are accomplishments yes but shouldn't they shock and horrify first and congratulate second?

Black Mirror white Xmas

Sometimes I forget what it is that makes me want to critique, consume and contribute, culture. Then I see a piece of work that reminds me why, reason being it's all communication really and without that what are we?

Black Mirror has always been brilliant like a hyper play, this Xmas special didn't stray away from it's usual themes of the horrors of society creating a cautionary tale.
Largely it's about technology and it's advancement, people have these google glass like eyes, where there's no longer a need for a laptop or a phone

First act looks into reality, when a hapless young man seeks advice on dating what he gets is a guru who he consults and advises him on how to pick up girls ( sounds familiar with recent furore of blocking access to the UK of a pickup artist). We see him watch and guide yet not only is the guru watching there's a online forum of other people giving advice and pitching in to the guru equally seeing someone go about their daily life. It can easily be viewed as the trend we have to consume the lives of others through constructed reality tv series, how real can real be? here we have the answer although the guru can be considered the producers pushing for situations that cause entertainment to arise. It all turns dark and nasty when he picks up a women suffering from schizophrenia assuming that as she watched him off guard and caught him talking to people not present that he suffered the same. It eventually ends in her poisoning then both as the watchers look in with horror getting more entertainment then they could of bargained for.

Second act is about simulated experiences and artificial intelligence as we rely on technology more and more to do the menial tasks. A service is offered to observe and replicate and then extract your being, copying your mind and thought process essentially turning you into a robot that isn't aware they're a robot and then has to be punished and broken into before they understand they're not real. Who better knows themselves than them-self, the sim is there simply to be a PDA nothing more and nothing less. Entrapped in a digital sphere with nothing but these tasks to keep busy and entertained. it brings to mind that if AI's can process this much level of intelligence what's to stop them from envying and hurting their master although death of their owner would essentially mean that there would be absolutely nothing for them to do. Modern day Slavery yes although not real if able to produce thoughts and feelings then the ethics on this would have to be considered.

Third act is more like the JLO vehicle 'The Cell' using techniques to delve into the mind of a suspect except it's not the actual mind but a simulation of the mind yet that still holds the secrets that are hidden from the main mind and using technology such as speeding up time, it allows for eternal entrapment to be real and to do things that couldn't be done on the real human to the sim. In this age humans can block each other and then they become nothing but a pixelated blob with their words echoes, although the outline of the blob still allows the blocked to still possibly harm the blocker, with the use of a button it's easier to erase people from your life but at what cost ?


Sent from my iPhone

Jaiden James
Editorial Director
RE-BEL Magazine
Re-belmagazine.com