George the Poet: I turned down MBE over 'evil' of British Empire

[arista]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50523462



This is Real Shame
he could have taken this award
to show Younger Blacks
they can get awarded...........


[George the Poet, the spoken word artist
and award-winning podcast creator,
has said he turned down an MBE
because of the "pure evil" of
the British Empire.
He made the revelation in the
final episode of his BBC Sounds
series Have You Heard George's Podcast?,
in which he discusses the legacy of colonialism.
A recipient of an MBE becomes
a Member of the Order
of the British Empire.
But George the Poet said the
"colonial trauma inflicted on
the children of Africa" meant
he was unable to accept.]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50523462


Debated today
on Ch5HD Live AM

[Kizzy]

How about we treat all people with respect and not just hand out pointless trinkets to a chosen few?

[arista]

How about we treat all people with respect and not just hand out pointless trinkets to a chosen few?



This could have been a chance
to show younger folks
you can get top respect with a award.

[Crimson Dynamo]

David Cameron's hairdresser got an MBE

[Kizzy]

This could have been a chance
to show younger folks
you can get top respect with a award.

You have to respect the body doling out the awards though... What's to respect there atm?

[arista]

You have to respect the body doling out the awards though... What's to respect there atm?




For George The Poet
it would be a High respect to his words
but he gets Political.

So Sod him , I say.

[bots]

his choice, but if he is that angry at the british empire, why stay here, why take employment from the nasty imperialists

[arista]

his choice, but if he is that angry at the british empire, why stay here, why take employment from the nasty imperialists


He is going on
about Africa being damaged by us
which is Valid

But also France took over nations in Africa,
they damaged Africa as well.

[Kizzy]

For George The Poet
it would be a High respect to his words
but he gets Political.

So Sod him , I say.

God forbid anyone would prefer personal principles to a piece of metal on a ribbon..

[armand.kay]

his choice, but if he is that angry at the british empire, why stay here, why take employment from the nasty imperialists

he was born and raised in London where should he go? Why is it every time someone not white has something to say about this country it’s suggested they should leave?

[bots]

he was born and raised in London where should he go? Why is it every time someone not white has something to say about this country it’s suggested they should leave?

i am saying he is a hypocrite. No one is forcing anything upon him

[MB.]

i am saying he is a hypocrite. No one is forcing anything upon him

Your equation of a royal honour with citizenship is worrying to say the least

[Ammi]

..it’s not being a hypocrite to have beliefs and to have things that we feel strongly about, regarding our birth country...every single one of us is a hypocrite if that’s what defines hypocrite..:laugh:..(..a very overused and misused word on the internet imo...)...he’s made a choice based on his own beliefs, while also making the choice of living where he lives...’just go then, if that’s what you think’...for someone who has expressed a choice and a view..?...is quite immature...

[Ammi]

..just a pointless post but...it’s one of our topics at school atm, well it’s a recurring one...and even primary school children have very firm and very well thought out opinions on the British Empire and ‘power, control and trade....and world domination..’...:laugh:...interesting stuff and something that should always be presented with all balances in the name of history...

[Oliver_W]

Lol bless him.

[Livia]

This isn't a new thing. Benjamin Zephanaya refused an OBE and wrote a poem critical of the queen. And he's allowed to do that because we are in Great Britain. And it's not just recent black poets who have a problem with Empire, poets have been criticising it for centuries... and they can. See Milton's and Wallers' pieces below.... and similar themes exist right up tot he present day.


John Milton - Paradise Regained - 1671

They err who count it glorious to subdue
By conquest far and wide, to overrun
Large countries, and in field great battles win,
Great cities by assault. What do these worthies
But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,
Great benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,
Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice?



Edmund Waller - A Panegyric to my Lord Protector 1655

To dig for wealth we weary not our limbs;
Gold, though the heaviest metal, hither swims;
Ours is the harvest where the Indians mow;
We plough the deep, and reap what others sow.

[Kizzy]

his choice, but if he is that angry at the british empire, why stay here, why take employment from the nasty imperialists

To whom are poets employed?...