Clive,
If that is the case then it is a REAL shame that Arthur didn't express himself more clearly.
Perhaps he should have said something like, 'While modern enslavement is a terrible crime, numerically, it is not on the scale of the enslavement of Africans which dominated the economics of 1600-1860s, on an almost world-wide scale.'
But this ignores that fact that modern slavery has the added abhorrence of continuing even in the light of all that was done to end the aforementioned enslavement of Africans.
Just as the injustices suffered by Palestinians has the added abhorrence of being inflicted by those who, having been victims of injustice, become perpetrators of atrocities.
Angela Allison, Coventry UK
----- Original Message -----
From: Clive Saunders <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 10:05:35 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: Steve McQueen Oscar Acceptance Speech
Hi Angela
Sometimes we create disagreement between ourselves where in substance there is none. The enslavement of Africans was on a scale and a level of brutality that is beyond anything that is experiences today and I have not heard anyone arguing otherwise. In fact, when we consider the continuing impact of that legacy on our people today we should appreciate even more its impact. My reading of Arthur's comment was simply that he was rightly reflecting his disappointment that this reality was not reflected in the sentiments expressed by Steve McQueen either at the BAFTA or the OSCARS. I don't believe that was 'COMPLETELY SICK' but completely right and just particularly when we consider the focus of the film.
Clive
-----Original Message-----
From: The Black and Asian Studies Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angela Allison
Sent: 03 March 2014 22:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Steve McQueen Oscar Acceptance Speech
I, too, was disappointed by McQueen's Oscar acceptance speech re. it's omissions concerning black resistance to slavery.
But, according to Arthur Torrington: "The enslavement of people (so called 'modern slavery') today is mild compared to what our ancestors suffered on European plantations in the West."
Well I see such as attitude as being COMPLETELY SICK!
That's the exact line taken by the contemporary Zionists in what should be Palestine: "Because Jews suffered so much during the Holocaust we are entitled to treat Palestinians as though they are less than nothing because our collective suffering is greater."
I'm sure that any of the enslaved Africans, during the 300 yrs of slavery, would never denigrate the suffering of those enslaved today.
Angela Allison, Coventry UK
----- Original Message -----
From: arthur torrington <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:47:38 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Steve McQueen
Below is a letter I wrote last
month to the Editor of The Voice Newspaper after the BAFTA Awards last month in London. It was published in this week's edition. At the OSCARS last night, McQueen added, and I quote him...' I dedicate this award to all the people who endured slavery, and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today...'
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Congratulations to film director
Steve McQueen whose production 12 Years a Slave won the Best Film Awards at the BAFTA this month. At the ceremony he thanked his mother, film colleagues and others for the unique achievement. He is reported to have said that there were '...21 million people in slavery now as we sit here. I just hope there will not another 150 years of ambivalence that allows another filmmaker to make a film this.' I wish he didn't make such a statement, as it was out-of-place. Not to pay tribute also to his Caribbean ancestors is a dishonour to them.He lost a golden opportunity to briefly say how enslavement over 400 years also adversely affected the lives of millions of Africans, and how, even before Solomon Northup was kidnapped, that Africans like Sam Sharpe (in Jamaica), Quamina (in Guyana), and Bussa (in
Barbados) led important rebellions against the British to hastened Emancipation in the 1830s.
The enslavement of people (so
called 'modern slavery') today is mild compared to what our ancestors suffered on European plantations in the West.
Arthur Torrington
FEB 2014
> Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 07:53:45 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Steve McQueen
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> On a completely different note, I can't begin to tell everyone how proud we are of Steve McQueen, and his work on 12 Years a Slave. The Oscar was well deserved by him, and everyone involved in its production. We also love Lupita.......
>
> Darrell M. Newton, Ph.D.
> Chair and Associate Professor
> The Department of Communication Arts
> Salisbury University
> 260 Fulton Hall
> Salisbury, MD 21801
> (410) 677-5060 Office
> (410) 543-6229 Department
> http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~dmnewton/
> ________________________________________
> From: The Black and Asian Studies Association [[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Susan Bolton / Jeffrey Green [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2014 7:39 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Dictionary of Caribbean and African-Latin American
> Biography
>
> Not sure why the title chosen for a work to be published in the USA and edited largely by people in the USA has created a fuss that ignores the point I was trying to make (that not a British-, German- or French-based scholar is involved), but Latin American does not mean Hispanic/Spanish. Millions of Portuguese speakers in Brazil have a history.
> Jeff
>
>
> ========================================
> Message Received: Mar 03 2014, 08:58 AM
> From: "Simons, Andy"
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: Dictionary of Caribbean and African-Latin American
> Biography
>
> Hi y'all
>
>
>
> What the title means is non-white, including people with origins in the Caribbean and Africa, and Hispanic folks too. Traditionally, New York City has had a large Puerto Rican community (without them we wouldn't have had the disco renaissance and hot mix). I don't think the publisher is referring to Hispanics exclusively of African origin.
>
>
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Black and Asian Studies Association
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fabian Tompsett
> Sent: 02 March 2014 22:15
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Dictionary of Caribbean and African-Latin American
> Biography
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I am not sure what the reason for this stance might be.
>
>
>
> Firstly it is perhaps useful to recall that African Latin refers to the variation of Latin spoken in North Africa prior to the Arab conquest. It may well have been the language of Gormund the African King who helped the English defeat the British. Did any speakers of that language journey to America? Maybe?
>
>
>
> In Latin languages such as Spanish and Portugese, the English term African-American is translated as Afro-Americano I think this is because of the way that adjectives are normally formed in a way a bit different from English.
>
>
>
> Perhaps Latin language speaking Americans of African descent prefer a term which fits better with their mother tongue than importing a linguistic construction from English?
>
>
>
> I think that possibility should be considered before questioning the appropriateness of the books title.
>
>
>
> all the best
>
>
>
> Fabian
>
>
>
> > is Oxford University Press, New York preparing a Dictionary of
>
> > Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography
>
> >
>
> > OR
>
> >
>
> > a Dictionary of Caribbean and African-Latin American Biography?
>
> >
>
> > Can people in the 21st century still be using the term Afro rather
>
> > than African?
>
> >
>
> >
>
> > Angela Allison, Coventry UK
>
> >
>
>
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