I can take criticisms, in fact I appreciate it (see the anon message I just published, I appreciate that), but telling me I’m a pretentious asshole and that I need to stop ruining peoples fun is not a criticism and I just DON’T CARE 

I honestly just can’t bring myself to care about your stupid anon messages calling me an idiot and a jerk and that I need to think about the white people because I just don’t care. I mean, it is as simple as that so you re wasting your time if you want to tell me I’m a terrible person.

I’m almost entirely incapable of normal human emotions especially when I just got off of a really shit shift at work so LOL I hope you feel better by getting these feelings off your chest at least.

If anyone has a gif of someone running through a field of flowers and the words ‘I DONT CARE’ flashing then you have seen an exact image of me at almost every moment in time.

capitalisttom:

angryhistory:

(If anyone finds the way I discuss race in this problematic, please let me know so I can change it so it’s more appropriate to the conversation at hand)

The topic of PoC in Britain has been discussed at length here before. However, I feel like it hasn’t been discussed enough…

Currently, Britain is 92% white.

1300 years ago, Britain was pretty much 100% white.  Few - if any - black people lived there.

I have a feeling you didn’t even read my post.

Lets slow clap it out.

Mod note:

I’m aware that my English gets pretty wonky sometimes, so I’m kind of sort of looking for someone to do some editing for me for this blog???

Leave me a message if you’re interested and I’ll either check it in the morning or after I get off of work tomorrow.

Thanks for following and liking/reblogging my posts everyone!

AKA your precious Freedom of Speech is not being stolen from you

The point of this blog is to display that I sometimes get really, really angry about history. One thing that makes me really, really angry is the phrase “THIS MIGHT AS WELL BE COMMUNIST RUSSIA!!!”

This phrase is usually uttered within some context of a person being called racist for their (blatantly racist) speech. It’s like when someone tells you that you shouldn’t say something it’s suddenly like we’ve got another Red Scare on, and quite frankly I find the phrase to be incredibly inappropriate. 

Let me break down why this is bullshit for you.

• What you’re saying to me:

“Help I’m stuck in the 1950s and can’t get up!!!”

When a lot of people say ‘communism’ I know the first image that springs to mind is probably Stalin or Lenin, or more generally just Russia. Just big ol’ Russia hanging out painted red with the sickle and hammer. 

Except the Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore (and wasn’t comprised solely of Russia BY THE WAY, I know no one can tell the difference between any of the Eastern European countries but christ they are all different countries). It hasn’t existed for over 20 years now! While the Russian Federation still has some major issues in the political system (which, for your sake and probably my own we won’t discuss here), it isn’t the Soviet Union!!! 

• Ok we get it. But what does this have to do with free speech?

Well, lets discuss freedom of speech in an American-centric way. The freedom of speech is protected under the first amended of the constitution.

Quote:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So basically what that means is that CONGRESS can’t limit what you say, and in 1925 state legislatures were prohibited from making laws to limit what you say. That’s not to say that there aren’t laws that do censor, but they fall under things that can be outlawed for morality reasons (things like child porn)

Where does that say “I can be a racist douche bag and yell at people who disagree with me using FREEDOM OF SPEECH as a defense”? Because unfortunately if you use that excuse then people are also able to use their freedom of speech to disagree with you.

It means that you can’t go to jail for saying things, and it means that you CAN say things but you know… you really shouldn’t.

• But why can’t I say that?! Didn’t the communists have laws restricting what people said?

Well you’re right, but that’s precisely why it’s inappropriate. The Soviet Union had an incredibly oppressive regime. 

I mean, take someone like Joseph Stalin for example. 

Ah, good ol’ Uncle Joe. He was seriously terrible man who basically viewed himself as a god which meant he could (in his mind) do whatever he wanted.

While this anecdote is not necessarily about censorship, it does display what kind of asshole we’re dealing with who could literally make people disappear. 

Once upon a time (1934) in the Soviet Union there was a secret police organization known as the NKVD. When people stepped out of line and did things that Uncle Joe didn’t approve of, they kidnapped them, tortured and executed them.

The first leader of the NKVD was a man named Genrikh Yagoda, who was later arrested and executed by his own organization… but this story is not about him. It’s about the man who replaced him. A man by the name of Nikolai Yezhov.

Now, Yezhov was very good at his job. He followed all his orders obediently and kidnapped and murdered and tortured everyone he was told to. His coworkers liked him and he was well respected.

Uncle Joe did not like that Yezhov was well liked and respected, because only HE was supposed to be well liked and respected!!!

Stalin saw that Yezhov wielded too much power than he liked, so Yezhov one night… disappeared! He was tortured and executed on false charges. He was taken in the middle of the night, no one knew what happened to him for a long time.

But lets talk about what I meant about literal disappearance. Stalin wanted no evidence of his existence, so a photo that originally looked like this:

Became this:

Now, that is some scary shit. And it wasn’t really an uncommon occurance for Stalin to have these kind of photo edits made. People disappeared ALL the times for things they said, things they did, and things that someone had imagined they did.

This is the kind of thing you are comparing your experience to when you say ‘THIS SHOULD JUST BE A COMMUNIST COUNTRY IF WE CANT SAY WHAT WE WANT!!!’

Now stop and think.

Is it really the same? Is someone on the internet disagreeing with you even close to this?

Is it really even close to a member of your family being murdered by the NKVD for disagreeing with the political system of your country?

No, no it’s not. Now stop that shit.

(If anyone finds the way I discuss race in this problematic, please let me know so I can change it so it’s more appropriate to the conversation at hand)

The topic of PoC in Britain has been discussed at length here before. However, I feel like it hasn’t been discussed enough because some dumb asses still aren’t getting that Britain has basically never been segregated from parts of the world with PoC.

Now, even if it had been why does visibility of PoC in these areas become somehow less believable than a talking bear or a dragon? PoC at least exist! So why does it matter. I digress, this is a history blog so let me get onto the history.

To quote a friend (who I wouldn’t call a dumb ass, rather I will call her uninformed) said to me, “But that would be unrealistic, there were no black people in 15th century Scotland.” To which of course I replied, “Oh and the magic bears were?” 

Brave doesn’t even really have a standing in a realistic time period as there’s too many things that make it hard to really stake down when it’s taking place. But since my aforementioned friend mentioned ‘15th century’, that’s where we’re going.

Did Scotland have PoC in the 15 century? YES. 

Helpfully, a quick google search for some sources to back up some background knowledge I found that the British National Archives has a website with an entire section called “Black Presence”

I know, I can hear you all groaning so I’m going to quote a few of the pages from this source for you.

Even more helpfully, they have a page titled ‘Black Moors in Scotland’!

“There were no black people in Scotland until…”

Africans have been present in Europe from classical times.

“Oh.”

Exactly.

 In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Roman soldiers of African origin served in Britain, and some stayed after their military service ended. According to the historians Fryer, Edwards and Walvin, in the 9th century Viking fleets raided North Africa and Spain, captured Black people, and took them to Britain and Ireland. From the end of the 15th century we begin to see more evidence for the presence of Black Moors in the accounts of the reign of King James IV of Scotland, and later in Elizabethan England.

So clearly PoC have been present in Britain for… well pretty much forever. They weren’t taken there entirely willingly, and yes a lot of them were slaves but they still existed there.

I’m glad they mention King James IV though, because they do have a section on him. Apparently he had black people in his courts, not necessarily even as slaves or servants- but as invited guests. There’s also evidence to support that black women (who may have been servants) were also given expensive gowns and jewelry by the king as gifts.

There were many PoC there at that point in time, and fewer accounts of this type of thing exist afterwards. But some of this also disproves the notion that PoC could have only been slaves.

There’s another page on the National Archives website that says

People of African and Asian origin have lived in Britain for at least two millennia.

Another thing that is interesting to note is Kenneth III who was king of Scotland from 997-1005. Though there’s no conclusive evidence of his race, there is some proof that he was black.

He was sometimes known as “Kenneth the Niger” (I was uncomfortable including that, but it has one G rather than two so I hope that makes some sort of difference in the context) and also Kenneth Dubh (Dubh being a surname meaning ‘the black man’). 

There were plenty of warriors from North Africa that sailed and stayed in Europe and eventually held power all over the place so it is entirely possible that he was an African. However there is some controversy to whether or not Kenneth III was of some south-European descent or North-African (though personally I believe he was African as so much evidence points to that).

If we go to Wales in history we find St. Deiniol who died in 584. There’s not a whole lot of information to be found… but I find that pictures speak a thousand words, so here’s two:

So, tell me again that there could not have possibly been black people in Scotland or Britain at that time. I dare you.