February 15, 2015
by GUTS
- A family of three young Muslim students were killed in their home in North Carolina on Tuesday, February 10, 2015. The victims of this terrible tragedy were Deah Shaddy Barakat (aged twenty-three), his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha (aged twenty-one), and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (aged nineteen). Police have charged the family’s neighbour Craig Stephen Hicks, who is responsible for the three murders. An initial police investigation report suggests the fatal shootings were the result of a parking dispute, but police are now investigating whether this attack was a hate crime motivated by anti-Muslim bias. Here are some important links:
- Deah Shaddy Barakat’s sister Suzanne Barakat talks to Anderson Cooper about her lost family members’ lives
- Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha’s best friend Amira Ata writes about Yusor’s life and tries to make sense of the tragedy
- Aaron Bady’s post critiquing the reluctance to call violences perpetrated by a white killers culturally or racially motivated.
- Twelve Aboriginal girls at Winnipeg’s Maples Collegiate Institute participated in a four-day storytelling and photojournalism workshop, Silent No More; all twelve students were given cameras to share their perspectives in a city (and country) where violence against Indigenous women and girls occurs at an alarming rate. Read their stories here.
- “We need to get to the roots of violence against Indigenous women and girls….We need to centre the voices of those who are most vulnerable and experience the highest rates of violence” A two-part roundtable on gendered colonial violence.
- Roxanne Gay’s Black History Month reading list.
- Legendary images of Black History icons: “We aren’t claiming to be the next iteration of these icons, but we do stand on their shoulders.”
- How to ruin Valentine’s Day, by Shulamith Firestone et al.
- On the underlying strength and power of being invisible.
- “I came into the topless bar that you were bouncing.” Listen to all ten of these StoryCorps real-life love stories.
- New reports show that sexual assault reporting on Canadian campuses is shockingly low. Find out how Canadian colleges and universities lack transparency and are able to conceal reports.
- “As long as the marginalized communities I’m writing about don’t think I’m full of shit, that’s success to me.” Don’t miss this Longform podcast with Molly Crabapple.
- In the polarized vaccination debate, essayist Eula Bliss offers refreshing and critical insight into the limitations of prioritizing the “natural” while parenting and the possibilities of immunization. Read this profile on Mutha Magazine and then try to get your hands on Bliss’s brilliant literary essay, “Vampires and Vaccines.”
- Seventy-six interactive short stories on surviving street harassment in Mexico City
- Catch up on your Canadian labour news! GUTS editor Ella Bedard is doing a thorough roundup over at Rabble
- Boyhood star Patricia Arquette talks about feminism and aging as she reflects on how things have changed (and not changed) for women in Hollywood since she started acting.
- The trouble with rape culture and consent in Fifty Shades of Grey.
