> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.changeout.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Racist slurs are never banter - URL: https://www.changeout.org/racist-slurs-are-never-banter/ - Published: 2021-11-19T08:33:35.000Z - Updated: 2025-01-08T14:45:00.000Z - Description: Here's to staying hopeful - Author: Lucy Caldicott - Tags: blog By the time you read this, the almost [total eclipse of the moon](https://moon.nasa.gov/news/168/an-almost-total-lunar-eclipse/?ref=changeout.org) will have passed its peak. Where I am, it's cloudy anyway and the sun will be coming up soon but I know it's happening. The world is turning. It's another day and almost another year. --- I urge all white people to watch [Azeem Rafiq's testimony from the DCMS committee](https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/378/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/158948/azeem-rafiq-witness-statement-published-by-dcms-committee/?ref=changeout.org) this week. Watch it and sit with it all for a bit. Put yourself in his shoes. It’s devastating to watch and a lesson in the difference between banter and racist slurs. The P word is as unacceptable now as it ever was. It's not meant affectionately. It's not reclaimed. And, white people, it's not for you to decide anyway. > ⁦⁦the damning, painfully honest testimony of ⁦[@AzeemRafiq30](https://twitter.com/AzeemRafiq30?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=changeout.org)⁩ should be required viewing for every politician, manager, journalist and sportsperson in the U.K. - and this powerful article from ⁦[@shaistaAziz](https://twitter.com/shaistaAziz?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=changeout.org)⁩ required reading. [https://t.co/Zpkzg1AZde](https://t.co/Zpkzg1AZde?ref=changeout.org) > > — Laura Parker (@ParkerCiccone) [November 17, 2021](https://twitter.com/ParkerCiccone/status/1461029135682359305?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=changeout.org) And do read Shaista Aziz's [article](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/17/azeem-rafiq-racism-workplace-yorkshire-antiracism?ref=changeout.org) and [this one](https://www.rt.com/op-ed/539907-cricket-racism-p-word-colonialism/?ref=changeout.org) by David Matthews. --- **Interesting and useful links** 🖇️ A useful [twitter thread](https://twitter.com/thebrownhijabi/status/1457757519636574212?s=20&ref=changeout.org) about prayer rooms and inclusion in the workplace. [This new animation](https://www.bond.org.uk/news/2021/11/talking-disability-the-new-animation-for-those-who-dare-to-do-it-differently?ref=changeout.org) from [Bond](https://www.bond.org.uk/?ref=changeout.org)’s Disability and Development Group dares us to do things differently when it comes to telling stories about disability. I love [Wanda Traczyk-Stawska](https://news.yahoo.com/still-fighting-wwii-warsaw-uprising-062707290.html?ref=changeout.org), still fighting the far right in Poland at 94-year-old. **Learning points 🎓** I'm often to be found wide awake and anxious at 4am. Thanks to [Emma Mitchell](https://twitter.com/silverpebble?ref=changeout.org), I learned the other day that our levels of dopamine (feel-good) are lower and cortisol (feel-yikes) are higher between 3-6am. I'm still awake but at least I understand better why. [Here's Emma's thread about it.](https://twitter.com/silverpebble/status/1459721637964787713?s=21&ref=changeout.org) **Day of the Week 📆** Appropriately enough it's [Islamophobia awareness month](https://www.islamophobia-awareness.org/?ref=changeout.org) **What am I watching?** 👀 This effective little clip, [All the Little Things](https://www.lbbonline.com/news/lbb-film-club-all-the-little-things?ref=changeout.org), depicts what racist micro aggressions are and their impact on people. **What am I listening to? 👂** [KOKOKO!](https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/779341804/kokoko-tiny-desk-concert?ref=changeout.org) [![Five men, four black, one white dressed in yellow boiler suits stand in front of a grey wall](https://storage.ghost.io/c/57/d9/57d97f92-56a7-4c97-8c12-ac77d809cbf1/content/images/2021/11/4507.jpeg)](https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/779341804/kokoko-tiny-desk-concert?ref=changeout.org) Kokoko!: ‘songs about identity and struggle’ KOKOKO! is a Congolese band I've just discovered. Discover them too 😀 **Joy-giving things 😍** It's been a heavy week. It's also [self care week](https://www.selfcareforum.org/events/self-care-week/?ref=changeout.org) so I've made sure I got myself out of the house and into the light as much as I could. ![a bandstand surrounded by trees, autumn leaves are on the ground and some in the trees, the sky is blue](https://storage.ghost.io/c/57/d9/57d97f92-56a7-4c97-8c12-ac77d809cbf1/content/images/2021/11/IMG_3531.jpeg) Myatt's Fields bandstand by me Have a lovely weekend Lucy PS Here's to staying hopeful. --- If it’s your first time reading this newsletter, find out more [here](https://www.changeout.org/ghost/#/editor/post/60b60fe1b0334f004b3ea73b). 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