Ethnography is. Simply stated, it is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. It's a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study (so says Wiki)
I call myself an ethnographic because I like to observe, talk to, become ffriends with, analyse and strip people bare and look into their souls. Sounds scary right. Well I don't think the results are.
I've been doing it a long time but never heard the word or knew what Etnography was until 2018 when Professor YasminGunaratnam and Dr. Hannah Jones tweeted this
..after I had written an article for the Telegraph, which started thus:
My background is very different to that of the average slinger or sparkie. But our national debate needs to take their suffering more seriously
Last year, at around this time, I was unemployed. Once, I had pursued an adventurous career as a journalist and documentary filmmaker in east Africa. Back in London I'd founded a scrappy, combative media website for emerging black and minority writers, a directory of black and minority experts for other journalists to access and a literary festival. I was going to bed dreaming of endless Twitter fights with columnists and random trolls. And I realised: it was all driving me crazy.
So I was doing it before snd have been doing it since including this wry observation in an essay I called Memoir on masculinity back in 2018. I sent it to my book editor and said could this along with what I had said about Lowkey, Greek Cypriot poet, Anthony Anaxagorou and Akala, plus Turkish Cypriot, film director Martin Read be the makings of my second book... She replied with great advice saying,
So I’d strongly suggest not mentioning any other books besides this one, and not ‘saving’ any good stuff for the second book in the hope and assumption it’ll come off. Getting one book over the line is hard enough. Just focus on making this book as good as it can possibly be would be my advice and then if and when you get to having book 2 convos, which will be at the very minimum at least 12 months from now, likely more, you can cross that bridge when you come to it.
It's a tongue in cheek yet a deadly serious start of something.
There are 3 types of men (that I can remember) that chat me up/chirsp me. All with different styles and ethnicities. That matters less than their class.
Ok maybe one more type; the upper middle class white men. They aren't exactly chirpsing more enjoy having the company of a young(ish) lively woman who maybe has something to teach them but has something in common by virtue of my career experiences.
1. The middle class white/black professional, sometimes an intellectual sometimes not. But they want me to suspend disbelief while they try impress me with their thesis on life, politics, race. These guys will approach me in a number of ways but usually online by either FB/Twitter.
Usually they will come all puffed up with big words, tell me I am 'special' in some way. Ready to throw down whatever gauntlet they have up their sleeve. They have usually either read something I wrote, watched one of my films, know that I used to be a breaking news reporter or know I founded Media Diversified.
These guys are exhausting. They usually have little in the way of achievements outside of their profession. Sometimes they have done some activism but usually they keep their devastating truths to twitter and FB. I call them the Facebook jihadists.
The 'Facebook jihadists' are never Muslim. Muslims probably have better things to do than talk about an imagined pure ideology they want to impart on the world like men from the white left. Muslims talk on Facebook about actual lived experiences of oppression and discrimination. Did you know that even 'equal opportunities' employers give identical CVs with 'white' names more replies than ones with 'black' names
I had already taken it out of Between a Rock, a Hard Place and a Dystopia. As I think it stands alone. But if I am to work on secind book it will be in a year or two. Which will give me time to gain more perspective on the subjects.
I was reminded if this because if something that happend online on Saturday. I dont know what 5he beginning if the row was, I don't really care much but I did wade in with what some call a defence but I call a reality check intervention.
I had seen some grumbling about Lowkey and felt I should say my piece having known him since 2011, but not having been in touch since 2018 & not really followed his work for a while.
📸 Malia Bouttia and me circa 2013
When the White Left were listening to Aaron Bastani on chat s**t FM in 2011, this is what Lowkey was doing:
..and he paid a hefty price for it too. He's not new to this. He's true to this. The white left and the minstrels left and right wing press lot drummed Malia Bouattia out of public life and I decided they won't be drumming out Lowkey. Not on my watch.
You can not separate Lowkey Kareem from Akala and Anthony. They are all working class autodidacts. Autodidacticism or self-education/self-learning is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions).
If you want to criticise Lowkey then criticise Anthony Anaxagorou and Akala aswell. The only criticism can be, is them being autodidacts. They are self taught because they had to self teach. Clever working class men of any colour are routinely hounded out of school at a young age.
Usually it's because they're clever, but that can express itself by being unruly, or being bored. Nonetheless, same outcome. White teachers assume they're stupid. So then comes low paid uninteresting jobs or modelling if they're good looking enough, or music or poetry.
But the latter two only happen if there's an intervention and some support from someone who cares. For Anthony it was Joelle Taylor. She has mentored him since he was around 16. From working as a security guard to being a finalist in the TS Elliot Prize is not too shabby.
📖 Anthony Anaxagorou's Pathology of Like
I don't know who it was for Akala, as we aren't friends, (but have supported each others work) but I am SURE there were mentors along the way. I have five.
🎥 Akala reading Professor Green for filth
And for Lowkey it was filmmaker Pablo Navarette (there maybe be others) but I was only around when Pablo and independent politician Jody Mcintyre were supporting him.
I DJ"d at Pablo"s fundraising event for Hip Hop Revolution, which Lowkey featured in 2012.
Now the thing with autodidacts is that they teach themselves but they don't necessarily know what they should teach themselves. So some things aren't covered, unless there's an intervention.
Autodidacts know A LOT about certain things that interest them. They may not know much outside of that. So could e.g tell you everything about Ancient Mesopotamia if that is of interest to them.
I first knew these 3 guys + Pablo & Jody at the beginning of the nascent anti-imperialist movmemt in 2010, that was spearheaded by Sukant chandan and Carlos Martinez. All of us knew each other, some were friendlier than others. I was friendly with everyone(bar Akala).
There were lots of teach ins at that time. Lots of education. But that education was from other working class autodidacts, again with narrow interests. So when everything is seen through prism of Israel blame that era..
https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/israel-pogroms-zionism/
It's possible that I will accept a job offer that will start in September. I'll know more about remuneration and everything else by the end of next week. The job will open me up to attacks from both the Right wing and Left wing Press (if there is a left wing press anymore) so I am getting ahead of it by posting my co-authored 2012 article 'What Israel’s anti-African pogroms tell us about Zionism'. At the time I and my co-authors Robert Kazandjian and Hocinmen were called ‘rats’ for writing it. But that is far less serious than what lowkey has been called this week and indeed for the best part of two deacdes as he has fought for justice and liberation of the Palestians.
Long Live Palestine. Long Live Gaza.
At this point just about every editor in chief of the mainstream press plus independent media and many many Guardian, Telegraph and Independent journalists plus academics , lawyers, filmmakers and others (Hi Ministry of Justice Press office ) read this newsletter. I would suggest getting to these three men and making a documentary about that period. They have all gone on to build platforms for themselves and others. If you need more material, wait until my book, Between a Rock, a Hard Place and a Dystopia comes out (If I get an agent and a book deal).
Having incited Caitlin Moran and Giles Coren round to my place for dinner (we've out a pin in it until december) I thought of what my ideal dinner companions would be and came up with J Dilla, Orson Wells, Ava Gardener, Toni Morrison, Refaat Alareer and James Baldwin. Plus Charles Bukowski just to see how he would get on with Orson Wells 👀
The last two weeks have been surreal.
Thank you to Symeon Brown for putting this statement together and for always taking my calls. Plus thank you to all the people who have helped rather than harmed me during this time. I appreciate you.
Part II
