Posts tagged Racism

On Tuesday April 20, 2021, a jury issued a verdict all too rare in American history, the jury found former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three charges of killing George Floyd; second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Race hardly came up during the course of Chauvin’s 16-day trial in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The prosecution and the defense focused exclusively on the facts in the case and the testimony of expert witnesses. Blacks have undergone tension, anxiety, fear, retaliation and degradation and the idea that the only off ramp for that is a conviction—is somewhat …

There’s nothing as galling, especially these days, for some white people than seeing and hearing Black people continu-ally — some would say everyday — shouting: “Racist this, racist that… Racism, racism, racism…” ad nauseam. “Stop it already. I’m tired of it, had it up to here with “you people” always crying racism… Get off it and get a life al-ready…” Such are the sentiments of perennial hardcore multi-generational racists who are in perpetual (individual/collective) states of denial, living in their bubble-wrapped, pristine environs (for whatever their worth), and always pushing back, choosing not to see beyond their (im)perfect surroundings and …

Turn on your radio or television any given day since that shocking May 25, 2020 event in America, which was seen around the world and continues to reverberate ever since and there’s invariably some reference to racism. At times, when I’m listening to/watching certain discourses I can’t help thinking I’m so tired of it all; what with all the platitudes and what-nots. But nothing deeply socially meaningful seems to change. Which evokes the old cliché: “The more things change…” So I can imagine practitioners of the bad social practice and behaviour blocking their ears with over-sized Q-Tips out of disgust, …

Long ignited by a passion for resistance, struggle and cultural freedom, the word “canboulay” continues to burn in the belly of a large segment of Trinidadians today. “I think it’s similar to what many of us felt bubbling in us around the time of the George Floyd murder, says Melika Forde, president of West Can Folk Performing Company. “ Knowing that these injustices have been happening to us for so long, and (the awareness) that we’ve be fighting for a long time.” “That’s when canboulay becomes a call to the people… to express ourselves,” adds Chantal Lewis-Agadzi, the group’s musical …

Watching and listening to a Black television host recently, I didn’t feel anyway put off when he said, matter-of-factly (straight up): “The first thing that comes to mind every day I wake up is the reality of my being, my Blackness.” He was hosting a small group of commentators of various ethnic backgrounds partici-pating in what over the past several months has become a regular conversation about the recurring outcome of America’s other (or primary) original sin: race and racism — however defined or categorized. “[…] I’m a Black man…” he affirmed, unabashedly as the tête-à-tête continued. I for one …

Despite receiving two significantly high payouts for the killings of their loved ones, the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor remain focused on securing justice and bringing change to the relationship between Blacks and the police. It was recently announced that Floyd’s family will receive $27 million from the City of Minneapolis for his murder at the hands of the police. It’s the largest such payout in the city’s history. Benjamin Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family sees it as a time of reckoning in the struggle to get justice for Blacks who have been abused by the police …

Many have been talking at all levels, regarding the recent job-posting situation for female orderlies at St-Eustache Hospital that stipulated candidates have “white skin.” At the governmental level the vocal marathon has been accompanied by calls for investigation, into the incident that thus far has evaded the classification of racism. According to Benoit Charette, Quebec’s newly-appointed minister responsible for fighting racism, the hospital “clearly violated the civil rights of employees who could not apply for this job offer.” He added that “we suspect … it is clearly a lack of training at the human resources level” that resulted in the …

Rosie Awori (LJI) A cellphone video shot by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, filming the brutal murder of George Floyd by policemen in Minneapolis, was the matchstick that ignited a worldwide flame and re-igniting debates on police reforms, visual art, reparations, and social justice. It promoted a renewed interest in racism on all levels from reconsidering the effects of racism in South Africa to the heavy hand of the French in post-colonial West Africa to police killings of unarmed black men in the U.S, and even systemic racism and its existence in Quebec. Floyd’s murder sparked uncomfortable and necessary conversations across the …

In the end, it was mostly about Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor (Call him Archie.) The way his parents, Harry and Megan Windsor, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex told it to Oprah Winfrey they were forced to run away from the royal family in order to protect their son, modern history’s first mixed race heir to the British throne from the rampant racism that was pushing his mom to the edge of suicide and his dad to the verge of a mental breakdown. As always, racism is one of the most difficult issues to broach but it was front and centre …

It’s just history, world history, everybody’s history and must be treated as such, a historic norm. Much like “Perennial Philosophy” “European” or other history… there are always lessons to be learned; they are pe-rennial, and always in progress… Black history defies description or interpretation. Naturally, a good part of my 28 days’ season of Black History Month 2021 were spent listening to various radio programs — Canadian and US alike — all of which featured multiple conversations and discussions about the subject of the month. And something dawned on me: the abundance of Black oriented (BHM 2021) talk was exceptional. …