October 30, 2016
from Nat
This week has marked another example of colonial state violence against Indigenous people, enforced by police and driven by corporate interests. At Standing Rock, police attacked water protectors who are standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline. If you’re feeling like you don’t know much about the issue, don’t worry: here is a Standing Rock Syllabus, which gathers together historical, theoretical and activist writing on how we got here.
15 Indigenous women on the frontlines of the #NoDAPL resistance
“It should be clear to everyone that we are not simply here in those rare moments when others bear witness.” How to talk about #NoDAPL, a Native perspective
In Labrador, due to the hard work of land and water protectors, the Canadian government has agreed to make changes to the Muskrat Falls Hydroelectric project that would make the project safer and include more consultation with Indigenous communities.
Our very own editor extraordinaire Rebecca Jade is on Let’s Find out – an Edmonton history podcast – this week, asking about how to best acknowledge and mark the Ku Klux Klan’s history in that city.
Globally, the gender wage gap is growing, and a new study from the World Economic Forum says that it will take 170 years at the current rate to close that gap.
Police in Val D’Or, Quebec have been sexually and physically assaulting Indigenous women in their community for two decades, and now they’re suing Radio-Canada for reporting on it.
This is Canada. 2016. Openly calling for the murder of my sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters. #MMIWG pic.twitter.com/TugkC80THj
— Christi Belcourt (@christibelcourt) October 30, 2016
“Yes, Amy Schumer is racist. Amy. Schumer. is. racist. She’s racist because we live in a society founded on racism that has afforded her racial privilege, and she’s racist because she’s said some racist shit. … And yes, I am white, and yes, I am racist too—because we live in a society founded on racism that affords me racial privilege, and because I haven’t always fully acknowledged how I move through this world differently because of the color of my skin, and I’ve done some racist shit. I’ve thought “that cop was nice!” when I got off without a ticket, instead of “How would that have been different if I wasn’t white?” I’ve viewed black men and white men walking behind me at night differently. I’m trying to be more aware every day, but I fuck up. I’m still racist.” Yes, Amy Schumer is racist
Women in Iceland were striking this week for equal pay
“Colonists envisioned Canada as a nation of white settlers, but they enlisted disposable, cheap, and exploitable labour, often indentured Chinese workers, to do the dangerous and frequently fatal work of creating railways, mines, and other drivers of the burgeoning capitalist economy. The Canadian state was formed from a distinct process of displacing Indigenous peoples from their land and using racialized labour to build infrastructure and to “tame” that land.” A brilliant piece on the politics of extraction: Accumulation by Dispossession
“How many degrees do I need for someone to believe I am an academic?”: Academia, Love Me Back
An interview with Erin Wunker about her new book, Notes from A Feminist Killjoy: “The central claim of my book is that we need feminism, and specifically the figure of the feminist killjoy who calls out the so-called “joys” of patriarchal culture (like sexism, racism, homophobia) if we are to make that more equitable world we keep talking about.”
Sometimes: you need to make a problem bigger because the world has tried to make that problem smaller.
— feministkilljoy (@SaraNAhmed) October 26, 2016
Young workers challenged Justin Trudeau this week, and turned their backs to him over the Liberal government’s broken promises.
Young men who are read as Black or Middle Eastern in Ottawa are stopped by police when driving in much higher numbers than the rest of the population.
In other Ottawa police news, the officer who made hateful and racist comments about the death of Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook will be disciplined.
TRC Calls to Action Status:
✔️ Complete: 5
❌ Incomplete: 86
❓ Uncertain: 3Days since these calls to action were first released: 513
— Ian Mosbγ (@Ian_Mosby) October 26, 2016
This week would have marked the birthday of Holly Woodlawn, trans Latinx trailblazer – learn more about her life and stardom by listening to Morgan M Page’s trans history podcast One from the Vaults!
“When we advocate for people in prison, we try to say the things that will make people sympathetic. We talk about non-violent offenders, people with mental illnesses, first-time offenders. We tell the stories that we think will allow people to see those in prison as human beings, as suffering beings. We say things like, “the majority of people in prison are convicted of non-violent crimes,” or “over 80 per cent of women in prison are victims of sexual and physical abuse.” These things are true. But then, what happens when we are working with the people who have committed violent crimes, the people who are the abusers? Are we saying then that they are not part of our fight against injustice, or that our advocacy doesn’t extend to them? Are we admitting that they are beyond the pale, outside of what is acceptable to care about or speak for or even to just not recoil from?” A nuanced and challenging piece by El Jones on How to be Human
Finally, this is the week that Vine died. It’s important to recognize the ways in which young Black creators are consistently underpaid and underrecognized, even as their work is celebrated and admired (and appropriated). Here are some great Vine roundups – my reccommendation for the rest of your day is to stay in bed and watch them until you’ve laughed so hard you’re crying, but you know what you need right now.
Image: Protectors at Sacred Stone Camp, by Overpass Light Brigade
