Shona S

Albeism is another arm of white supremacy. Stop feeding into it!!

You can't be pro Black if you're excluding disabled Black people.

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

"Colonial Actions have Indigenous Consequences"
Poster in Sydney memorializing the death of British Navy officer, Captain James Cook at the hands of Hawaiian warriors on 14 February 1779.

Today's win on this sunny Sunday involves a bit of lakeside PhDing while my partner fishes because, after two months of recovering from surgery & pregnancy loss, I finally feel more like me again🌞

#SocSky #PhDSky #AcademicSky #BlackStudies #DisabilityStudies #BookSky

'They attack disabled, migrants, travellers, homeless - next they attack you"
Spotted in Liverpool, UK

Navigating Black Irish identity in the music of Phil Lynott Lauren O’Hagan explores the music of Phil Lynott and how his lyrics helped him make sense of his dual identity as Black and Irish.

Lauren O’Hagan explores the music of Phil Lynott, singer and bassist of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, and how his lyrics helped him make sense of his dual identity as Black and Irish.

When asked, "What’s it like to be Black and Irish?” he said “Like a pint of Guinness”

Thank you for your email. As you are likely aware, I am mentally checked out until 2025 and will be unable to provide a response to your inquiry until then. If you have any questions, that’s unfortunate.

Audre Lorde said it best:
'Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare'.

#AcademicSky #Sociology #PhDSky #BlackFeminism #BlackSky #HistSky #BlackStudies #Disability #DisabilityStudies

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do with my PhD & heritage sector work. Rest isn't a reward though;  it's a necessity. And what kind of good or change would I be contributing to if I'm exhausting and neglecting myself in the process?

This year taught me the importance of downtime, of slowing down and coming back to myself. I'm not a cog in these oppressive ass systems, so why am I trying to function like a machine in them? I'm a human and perfectionism is just a leech on my body, mind & spirit. No thanks🙅‍♀️

A small brown rhesus macaque monkey sits on the driver's side wing mirror, leaning against the window and looking in at us.

An illuminated Egyptian pyramid lantern sits under the night sky, with an illuminated palm tree and Sphinx in front of it. A queue of people wait to enter the pyramid. There are Egyptian hieroglyphs bordering the doorway and the sphinx's stand.

Shona, a white skinned mixed race woman, stands in front of Stonehenge. She wears a long black coat, black tights, black boots, and her dark brown curly hair in a messy bun. She stands facing to the left and looking down smiling as she stretches her hand out to make it look like she is resting her hand on top of Stonehenge in the distance. She holds a coffee cup in her other hand.

After a couple of days of having my car climbed on by monkeys, getting lost in christmas light trails and exploring Wiltshire with my partner, I felt refreshed when diving back into my lit review reading today😊

#AcademicSky #Sociology #PhDSky

Dennis Tyler's book, 'Disabilities of the Colour Line: Redressing AntiBlackness from Slavery to the Present', with my left hand on top of it. I have christmas nails, a couple stripey, one white with red candy canes on, one green and one red.

Today's read is brought to you by the hours of excited voice notes shared last night, when my friend told me she's applying to PhD on a similar topic to me🥳 (ft. Christmas nails because it's nearly December!)

#BookSky #Sociology #SocSky #AcademicSky #PhDSky #Disability #BlackStudies

2 million people are on waiting lists for mental health support, 750,000 are waiting for gynaecology care, and 500,000 are waiting for social care assessments or services. This is the real crisis breaking Britain—not people claiming benefits to eat and stay warm.

When Labour talks about sanctioning young people who don’t #work, they’re targeting those more likely to be:

•Disabled
•Racialised
•From poor areas
•Care leavers
•Young parents
•LGBTQ+
•Facing mental health challenges

Not all young people—these young people.

📍

Thank you! I'm a sucker for all things colour-coded😂

My laptop sits open on a soft pink checked blanket. The screen shows my literature reviee spreadsheet, with references for the text I've written alongside the themes I've noted and colour coded. These include themes like black feminism, disability studies, and resistance. On my keyboard rests my notes on bell hooks chapter on self recovery.

One thing about me is I absolutely cannot work in silence so today's antics include turning my R&B playlist up, while I re-visit my literature review notes. They also include forgetting what I've read, but we won't speak about that🤫😂

#SocSky #AcademicSky #PhDSky #Sociology #AcademicChatter

Yes, I believe it.

And Therí A. Pickens writes about thisin "Black Madness : Mad Blackness".

These are really helpful, thank you! Please could I be added?🤞🏼

I've never felt so seen by a post😂 It's something I'm trying to work on more as I write though, especially because I know super long sentences can be inaccessible. People may also zone out while reading because there's so much to digest. Hope my little two pence helps and good luck!🤞🏼

I just did a quick read up on the robodebt scheme in Australia as I'd never heard of it until now (thank you for sharing), and having to disprove the overpayment people were accused of & tactics to prevent people from speaking out in the media, sounds awful. I'm so sorry you went through that.

A person's quality of life shouldn't boil down to whether they can afford to live or whether others can afford to care for them (which could also influence people's decisions), but it seems that could happen in a capitalist society where profit is prioritised over people.

#AssistUsToLive

Also feels super important to note that these cut downs on benefits are arising at the same time as a looming debate on euthanasia and while I see both sides, having cared for a terminally ill relative, I also worry disabled people may face financial pressures to consider euthanasia too🤔

The term 'welfare' feels super ironic these days because what is 'well' and what is 'fair' about the way our society treats some of our most vulnerable people as burdens, liars, cheats, fraudsters, and pawns in a political chess match?

Front page of The Mail newspaper, detailing how the PM is clamping down on benefits, as though all benefits claimants are fraudsters and burdens.

In a human experience where you can very easily wake up disabled after spending your life up until that point as non-disabled, it absolutely blows my mind that even after a largely disabling and fatal pandemic we still live in a world where poverty and disability are used for political entertainment

Optimist: the cup is ½ full

Pessimist: the cup is ½ empty

Sociologist: Whether the glass is perceived as half full or half empty depends on the cultural patterns of interpretation and the underlying power relations.

"Long Covid is a unique example: a term...named by patients rather than science, and significantly by those...who only found support and reassurance by finding others in the same situation...We have seen...how important patient stories and narratives are to medicine and care." 👏🏼

Be aware