Ryanair: The banned Ad

There has been lots of talk last week about the banned Ryan Air advert and whether it was appropriately banned, though while the general consensus seems to be in agreement for banning the advert, alarmingly it would seem much of the British public doesn't see the offensive nature of the ad.

LBC radio held a debate on the advert, going as far as comparing the legitimacy of the Ryan Air advert with that of a Marks & Spencer's underwear advert! How they the could honestly pin these two company adverts against each other is besides me, though more concerning is what is says about our tolerance to female nudity.

Rightfully so the Ryan Air advert should have been banned since it doesn't actually advertise a service Ryan Air is in the business of, the advert offers a deal of £9.99 one way (which we assume is for a flight) but to which destination is unknown.

The sole nature of this advert is selling sex and vamping up the Ryan Air image consider the wording "Red hot fares & crew" which implies that their female cabin crew have been employed on their looks offering their male customers some eye candy on their flight, this can't be far off the mark since the female model in the advert actually is a Ryan Air cabin crew employee. The picture was taken from the companies charity calender which show include 12 female ONLY cabin crew in their underwear and in sexually suggestively poses on of which would look out of place in a lads magazine (see photo).

Its terrible that Ryan Air are able to exploit their female staff in such a way, in any of their past and current current calendars the company have yet to included any of their 'red hot' male cabin crew members, or at least offer a separate male calender to even out the exploitation of their staff!

By Donalea

Thanks to our sisters over at Make Everyone Woman Count, we republish this excellent interview with Miriam, a woman living with Female Genital Mutilation.

www. http://makeeverywomancount.org

Thank you

Mariam (not her real name) is from West Africa, she is among the million of women who have undergo FGM/C in Africa. In this International Day against Female Genitale Mutilation, Mariam has decided to share her story with us in the hope that it will stop people from perfroming this horrible practice on young African women. The 6th Feb. has been designated by the United Nations to raise awareness amongst the general public about this traditional practice which severely violates the human rights of women and girls.

In the 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East where female genital mutilation/cutting is performed, some 130 million women and girls have been affected. In addition to causing severe pain, FGM can result in prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and death. The practice is still widespread in spite of a global commitment following the 2002 UN Special Session on Children to end FGM by 2010.

How old where you when you were cut?
I was just 5 years-old when I went through FGM/C. The all thing happened when I was on holiday with my sisters to visit my uncle in the capital.

How and where did it happen?
I was so excited when my mum told that I was going on holiday with my sisters to visit my uncle in the capital but I had to get a great mark at school in order for me to go. It was my first time that I was allowed to go in the capital on holiday and I guess you could imagine my excitement.

On the day of the trip in the summer holiday my sisters and I were all packed and ready to go. Until then, I would go days without sleeping just thinking about my summer holiday in the capital.

I didn't know that my first summer holiday will be the worst holiday ever. One week after our arrival, my uncle’s driver was meant to take us to the playground with my cousins and my aunt. On our way to the playground, the driver stopped in a health centre. I said to my aunt ‘this doesn't look like the playground’ and I asked why we are stopping at a health centre. My aunt told me that we were going to visit a sick relative and that it won't take too much time.

We stopped in front of an office and a lady wearing a white blouse came out to greet us and asked my aunt to come in. After 10 minutes, my aunt came out and asked me to come with her first before the other girls, which I found later was because I was the youngest one and it always starts with the youngest girl first. When I walked in, I saw my two aunts standing there, and I was thinking why are these two here and why do they look so sad. I was asked by the nurse to come on the table and that she is going to just touch me down there and to see if everything is OK and that it would not hurt at all. I looked at my aunts and they told me to do what the nurse said. I jumped on the table and the next thing I knew was that my aunt had her arms around my eyes and my mouth to stop me from seeing anything and screaming.

I could feel a pain like someone was cutting a part of my body and it hurt so much. In my screams, I was asking the nurse why she is doing this to me; I have been a good girl so why are you cutting me? I told her that I wanted to see my mum and my dad and that if my mum was here she wouldn't have let her hurt me so badly. While listening to what I was saying, all my aunts had tears in their eyes and they were all trying to hide their faces but it was too obvious. As I was getting down of the table screaming and crying, my aunt told me that she is very sorry but all girls have to go through it at some point in their lives. I looked at her and said right to her face that I wished she could have waited the next time I came to see her because this was my first holiday and I wanted to enjoy myself without spending my holiday in pain.

Back home, my uncle was very upset at my aunts and asked them why they did it. He then had to call my mum to tell her the news. Days before my mum arrived, I wouldn't eat or play with anyone; I spent my time crying.

I never went back to visit my uncle again and I don't think I will ever forget my aunt for what she did to me.

What is your message to parents who are planning to cut their daughters?

FGM is a bigger issue than what people think. I always read reports and news that tell of some villages where women said that they have stopped cutting their daughters. The truth is they haven’t stopped. They say it to please the international community or the UN,... but FGM is so much a part of our culture in Africa that I don't see any end to it. One of the ways of ending it, it think, would be perhaps to show the consequences on the victim’s life. Perhaps after that, our mothers, aunts, grandmother would understand how much pain they are causing us.

What does your life look like 23 years later?

23 years later, the cutting still has a disastrous effect on my life. I got married 2 years ago and I always have to fight with myself when it comes to sex with my husband. Since that day, I never let anyone touched me down there and that was one of the reasons that I was still virgin when I got married at 26 years old. I am a good looking woman but my whole life I just pushed back all the guys that wanted to go out with me.

I always try to find excuses for not having sex with my husband because of the pain I still have since the cutting. I don't know how long my marriage is going to last if I keep on avoiding my husband. The question is: although I love my husband more than anything else, should I keep on suffering while having sex or shall I just avoid him? I don't know the answer to this question but there is one thing that I am sure about, my life will never be the same again. They destroyed my life without asking and without knowing the consequences of their acts. I may end up without husband and without children because of what they did to me.

"Will I have a normal life again, the answer is NO. By cutting that part of me, they remove something that I will never be able to get back again"

Still a game of two halves

Anouchka Burton

When I was about 8 years old, a classmate, from Tottenham but of Indian origin, falsely accused me of calling her paki. As the child of lefty north London types, I'd been brought up with a no tolerance approach to prejudice. Imagine my horror. Outrage, confusion, worry and distress followed (said classmate eventually admitted that she had lied. I think she works in law now, go figure). I was concerned that no-one would believe my side of the story, my family would be accused of racism, and that I'd be unable to shake the stigma for the rest of my academic life. It was horrible.

I remember this story every time someone in the public eye is accused of racism. I think about how it feels and wonder how they will defend themselves. Recently, I've remembered this story more frequently. From Jade Goody on Big Brother to Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, racially charged language seems like it is slipping back onto our television screens.

No more so has this been evident – or so it seems - than on Premier League match days. John Terry's recent outburst has been well documented and is still subject to a police investigation, so we'll say no more about it here. The other high profile incident took place at the end of 2011 between Liverpool's Luis Suarez and Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

For those of you that don't follow football, a quick recap: during a match in October, the players were involved in an altercation where Suarez (originally from Uruguay), repeatedly called Evra (French, of Senegalese descent) Black/Blackie/Negro/Nigger depending on the translation you prefer. What isn't in dispute is that he said he “doesn't speak to Blacks”. The incident eventually resulted in an eight match ban and £40,000 fine for Suarez. So far, so by the book.

What's disturbing and depressing is what happened next. Liverpool football club rejected the findings of the enquiry and mounted a robust defence of Suarez. Statements were issued in “total support” of the footballer, and Liverpool football team publicly declared their allegiance on t-shirts.

Closer to home, some of my friends started saying some strange things. “Oh, well, who knows what Evra said first”, I heard from one, “Black isn't offensive, he's just describing him”, I heard from several. And the inevitable, “people always play the race card in arguments” (where do you get this mythical race card? I must have missed it waiting for my NUS one.)

How to respond to this. Certainly, yes, I am Black. I would describe myself as a Black woman. If someone calls me a bitch, I find it offensive. If someone calls me a Black bitch, it is even worse. Why? Because the person who has added “Black” does so for the sole purpose of insult to injury. Intention here is key: Suarez and Evra were having an argument. Suarez used the fact of Evra's race to insult him, knowing that this would cause deep offence. He wasn't describing what he looked like, he was being derogatory. This sort of abuse isn't allowed on the football pitch any more than it is allowed in the workplace. That's a good thing.

“But where will it end? Anyone can be offended by anything.” I heard. People suddenly seemed worried that they wouldn't be allowed to call people, “fat” or “ginger” because of the PC police. Perhaps I can make a suggestion: this could be progress. Really. Because until we live in a society where all people are treated equally, I say its perfectly reasonable to sanction against prejudice, be it racial, gender-based, sexual and so on.

When Barack Obama won the American Presidential race, I remember announcing to my pub mates that I hoped he would be allowed to be as mediocre as a White President. What I meant, which few understood, was that true racial equality would mean that he'd be judged to the same standards as all who came before him, criticised and celebrated according to the same rules. He isn't, of course. For me, a similar principle applies here – until Black people get to be judged and criticised and celebrated according to the same rules as White people, we get to be offended by racial epithets, and White people don't get to say them.

Racism: A Clear and Present Danger

by Lola Okolosie

When I first heard the news that Gary Dobson and David Norris had been convicted for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, I simply felt heavy with sadness. Not joy or even relief, but an overwhelming sense of gloom that it had taken so long, longer than Stephen had lived as the papers continue to remind us, to get this little bit of justice; three or four of the killers are still out there living their lives freely. If I am honest, I had no hope that the British justice system would pull through for the Lawrence family. Or indeed faith that the police at that time were capable of following procedures well enough to not have contaminated the evidence. Damning, I know, but what else am I supposed to think as a black person? After all, this was the same police force that dismissed 27 eye witnesses identifying the five as Stephen’s attackers. The police preferred, rather, to work under their own racist vision of the truth- a black teenager has been stabbed to death, therefore a gang member/drug dealer he must be, ergo he is underserving of a thorough investigation. It was only the fact that Nelson Mandela discussed and highlighted the issues surrounding the case that lead the embarrassed police force to begin pursuing the correct leads.

The racist logic of the police enabled the murderers to grow into wizened men, seemingly encapsulated in their bitter racism. David Norris evidently learnt nothing; in 2002 he served a prison term for racist behaviour directed at a plain clothes police officer. I felt a sense of pride that Doreen Lawrence refused to let the celebrations proceed without reminding us of the terrible way in which the police had handled the case. The sentencing of the two cannot and should not, as I fear may be the case, be used as some sort of bench mark of how far we have come as a nation when it comes to race. Those 18 years aren’t really that far away in terms of race relations, walk anywhere in some of our most deprived metropolitan neighbourhoods and it will become quite clear how far we are yet to go. Arguably since 9/11 and the 7/7 bombing, Britain has become a much more racially divided society. Islamophobia has become widely established as a natural and understandable reaction to the ‘war on terror’.

The police, rather than congratulating themselves for having the foresight to pursue a ‘cold case’ review, need to continue to readdress their sustained use of racial profiling. In 2010 researchers from London School of Economics and the Open Society Justice initiative examined official figures discovering that in ‘2008/2009, there were 41.6 searches for every 1,000 black people, but only 1.6 for every 1,000 white people’, making black people 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched. 26 times! We are 3 times more likely to be arrested than white people despite the fact that we are more likely to be victims of crime. If this is not proof that the police remains institutionally racist, then I don’t know what is.

I remember the sense of utter anger and frustration when the revelations of just how wrong the police got it were revealed. As a teenage black girl in the north, it only served to remind me of how I existed within a society that expected absolutely nothing of me but the worse. We may have stumbled a few paces beyond this awful point but we really do need to do much more work.

The same papers that are so self-congratulating at the moment, your Daily Mails for example, need to recognise that their constant attacks on immigrants and their woeful reporting of August’s riots, to name just a few topical issues, are only the flip side of the same coin as that of the murderous racists. Yes the Daily Mail was instrumental in getting the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to order the Macpherson Inquiry. The irony is unsettling. To that end, millions who subscribe to their daily dose of insidious xenophobia need to take note. The right-wing media’s coverage of the case smacks a little too much of middle England’s desire to distance itself from a thorough analysis of its own routine acts of racism. Underlying the coverage of this case is the message that these men are an isolated example, possibly prototypical of ‘chav’ behaviour in the extreme. This view allows for a convenient separation, falsely deluding many into thinking that they are not themselves connected to this heinous crime. The same disconnect that seemed to be operating for middle England during the summer, when most of the media coverage all but said ‘look at those black thugs’, is operating here. There is a pervading censoriousness that believes it is wholly separated from its object of disgust. It is not. Insidious racism and xenophobia provide the bedrock on which violent racists can and do operate.

Justice For One But Not For All

by Donalea

After a wait of 18 years the family and close friends of Stephen Lawrence can breathe a sigh of relief as two of the five original suspects were found guilty of his murder and sentenced to up to 15 years imprisonment without early release.

A major triumph for the Lawrence family who have for the last 18 years been on a dignified crusade for the justice of their sons racially motivated murder.

Though in the frenzy of all this media coverage these last 2 days on the high profile race relation case of Stephen Lawrence, it is becoming apparent that the justice received was more about repairing the tarnished reputation of institutionally racist Britain then actually working on improving race relationships in Britain.

Much of the talk now is of the job well done by the Metropolitan Police for finally securing a conviction in the murder case, many of our politicians have agreed on this and even the Met Police have publicly given themselves a pat on the back.

I don't dispute the effort it has taken the Met Police to finally make these 2 convictions, though I cannot agree that their reputation for being institutionally racist should be repealed because of this.

The last 18 years may have seen changes in British Law and police procedures as repercussions of the Lawrence's campaign for Justice though this has had little effect in improving the conditions of being black in Britain nor has it made any improvements in race relations.

The press, clearly absent minded, seems to have forgotten that only 6 months ago England was battered by 4 days of riots, caused by the suspicious killing of black Tottenham resident Mark Duggan by the police.

United the press perpetuated the image of the loots as being black, with most of the news clips showing black youths smashing through shop windows and carrying bags of looted goods. This was followed up with the racist comments made by David Starkey, that black hip-hop and criminality culture had infiltrated white working class culture. - Again this was only six months ago!

Since Lawrence's murder in April 1993 the Institute of Race Relations lists the deaths of 37 black people whom have died in police custody alone (see link below).

Scarily many of the inquests into these deaths are ruled as unknown verdicts, a notable example which made the headlines, though not nearly as high profile as the Lawrence's case is of Roger Sylvester, who died in January 1999 after being restrained by police in Tottenham.

So what exactly has the Met Police learnt since Stephen Lawrence's death? Apart from bringing 2 of Lawrence's killers to justice now due blotching up the initial investigations 18 years ago, what qualifies them for redemption? If the Met Police are no longer racist then why is it that 4 in 10 black men in the UK will have their DNA on the database? And why are black people still seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people?

Comforting as it is to see that justice has finally been served for the heinous murder of a innocent and promising black teen, it is very important that we do not start to confuse this triumph of justice over racism as a generalisation, this is just one out of the many cases of racism that has been fortunate enough to receive some form of justice in what is still very much a racist society.

For many black families in similar cases to the Lawrence's, they won't have connections to international politicians or humanitarian figures to raise awareness for their fight like the Lawrence's did with Nelson Mandela, nor do the conditions of their situations appeal to the Britishh media as being considered news worthy.

Race relations in this country will not improve till a continual dialogue is opened up, this dipping in and out of trend does nothing to validate the reality of a problem that affects the lives of those considered in this country as an ethnic minority.

"Learning from the journey to here, for the journeys to come"

Black Feminist Learning Event

The under-documentation of Black feminist herstory means that much learning is at risk of being lost. The aim of this event is to share learning and experiences which will strengthen Black feminist activism. So we are calling together Black feminists who were instrumental in setting up and running groups, organisations and campaigns over the past five decades to share their experiences and document Black herstory. All groups and campaigns have had their ups and downs. We would like to focus the event on:
- what were the achievements
- what were the challenges
- what would you do differently (with hindsight)
- what is the focus for Black feminist activism now

For women descended (through one or both parents) from Africa, Asia (including Pacific nations), Latin America, the original inhabitants of Australasia, North America, and the islands of the Atlantic, Caribbean and Indian Oceans. This includes trans women.

WHEN: 6.30 – 9.30pm, Wednesday 26th October 2011

WHERE: Development House, 56 - 64 Leonard St, London, EC2A 4LT

The format will be facilitated large and small group discussions - not a panel. If you would like to help shape the event, please do get in touch: blackfeministsuk@gmail.com

ACCESS DETAILS FOR DEVELOPMENT HOUSE: 3 steps and lift access at main entrance (with alternative ramped entrance directly to basement); lift or 19 steps to basement from lobby level; accessible toilets in basement area. Basement floor even throughout. Nearest Blue Badge Parking in Moorfields (850 metres). If you need further access information, please do get in touch. There will be sign language interpretation at the event.

DIRECTIONS FROM OLD STREET UNDERGROUND: Use exit 4. Go past Sainsbury’s on your left; turn left onto Leonard Street. Go down Leonard Street for two minutes, Development House is on your right immediately before the small roundabout.
SUPERVISED CHILDREN WELCOME (no crèche)
COST: FREE (Black Feminists is an unfunded group; donations are welcome on the night to cover the cost of the event.)

Street Harassment Part 1?

by Saba Mossagizi

I was born and lived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada up until 8 months ago. Alberta is a province known for its conservatism, lack of respect for the environment and abundance of money from its natural resources (see: lack of respect for the environment). Edmonton, as a city, is quite small with a population of just over a million. Besides the occasional random car driving past and honking, I could walk down the street without ever being hassled by strange men. If a man did approach me on the street with an “excuse me miss” I would never give out my number, but I would always stop because they were being polite, and who am I to just ignore another human being.

Moving to London was an insane culture shock for many reasons, the main one being, just the vast difference in population (there are just a lot more people living here). Another massive reason for my uneasy transition into life in London is the way I am spoken to while walking down the street. Men make hissing sounds, look me up and down and become aggressors, sometimes they stand in packs and intimidate me into walking around them.

Being talked to by strangers is not the issue, being complimented is not the issue, however, being disrespected on almost a daily basis can weigh on a person. When a man is shouting at you as you pass, not even attempting to have a conversation then what is the point in that interaction other than to make you feel uncomfortable and lesser than him?

I find myself passing men who are being polite because I cannot walk down the street without a “hey darlin/beautiful/gorgeous/love”, which is unfortunate because I do not want to be shaped into a different kind of person because of the men who act as aggressors towards me. I should not have to feel like I have to fix up or be embarrassed because someone has taken it upon themselves to hiss at me like they are calling for their house pet. This same type of attention directed at any male in the same circumstance would undoubtedly lead to some type of altercation; but as women, we are taught that we are to be looked at and men are taught to look (a bigger can of worms that represents a larger problem and cannot be respectfully dealt with in this relatively short post).

The first time I spoke up when at a Black Feminist gathering about street harassment, I was surprised to hear that most women have become used to this type of harassment. I even heard murmurings that it was just a part of living in London. The fact that these women that I respect so highly, never thought of this type of harassment as constantly or consistently as myself, completely and totally baffled me. However, this is the sad truth, all of my female friends who are from London have dealt with street harassment since they have hit puberty. Unfortunately, they are used to street harassment.

My end goal when I walk out of my flat is to make it to my destination without feeling dread, that I might make eye contact with someone who will try and “put me in my place”. No one has the right me to feel that uncomfortable, full stop.