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Rebel Commentary: Would You Hire A Racist?

on: June 20, 2018

Rebel Commentary: Would You Hire A Racist?

Rebel is Rebecca Carroll‘s regular column on race and pop culture. You can hear Rebecca talk about these issues with guests on Wednesday mornings on WNYC, or participate in one of Rebel’s monthly conversations in The Greene Space.

This week a white Seattle man, Steven Jay Watts, went on a public tirade, hurling racial slurs at a black man on the street. Last month in Midtown, a safety poster was found at a construction site that showed a black man with a noose around his neck. We’ve seen a steep increase in public displays of racism since President Trump took office, and at least one instance with swift and real consequences, when ABC cancelled Roseanne Barr’s show following her string of racist tweets.

The show’s cancellation marked the first instance of a high profile figure being fired for racism during the #MeToo Movement, when a spate of high-profile figures like Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer have been forced out of their jobs for sexual assault. But what about the racist outbursts that occur outside of someone’s workplace? Watts was arrested for harassment and obstruction, but should he be eligible for a job? Would you hire a racist?

That is the question I asked a panel of critics and thought leaders at a live event I hosted this week at the Jerome L. Greene Space as part of the #RebelConvo series. Kara R. Brown, co-host of the podcast Keep It, writer and comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, and author and activist Mona Eltahawy joined me in a conversation to define the parameters of racism, and to try to establish what concrete repercussions might be. It’s important to define racism, because we can’t tear down racism if we can’t agree what it means. Most of us on the panel agreed that racism is the abuse of systemic power by white people to dehumanize people of color. But things start to get complicated when people, mostly white, co-opt the less blunt term “racial” and turn it into a euphemism for racism.

Discrimination exists in Russia, but it’s nearly impossible to prove in court

on: June 18, 2018

Discrimination exists in Russia, but it’s nearly impossible to prove in court

Russian lawyers and human rights activists who have worked even a single case where they had to prove discrimination by sex, age, sexual orientation, or ethnicity will explain how it’s nearly impossible to win one of these lawsuits in Russia.

Judges usually refuse to go to trial, and the best case scenario is often a ruling that only partially satisfies a claim. Meduza looks at how Russians fight discrimination in court, and why it so rarely ends in anything but defeat.

On June 6, Otkritie Bank vice president and Tochka Bank co-founder Yana Gannik wrote on Facebook about how she hires new staff. In a post that she later deleted, Gannik explained: “I really love interviews. I found and interviewed almost all the guys on the team. It’s very important to me that anyone we invite shares our sense of beauty and strong life philosophy, and isn’t afraid to express his own opinion.”

Gannik said her latest go-to interview question has been: “Is Crimea ours?” In her Facebook post, she explained that it isn’t the substance of job candidates’ answers that interests her, but applicants’ readiness to express their opinions to a potential employer. She emphasized that she regards “over-the-top ultra-patriotic or, conversely, left-wing answers” to be evidence of “brainwashing” and unambiguous grounds for refusing to hire someone. She said she rejects anyone who refuses to answer her Crimea question, and anyone who won’t discuss politics more generally.

Gannik’s post made quite a splash. In comments on Facebook, angry readers reminded her that opinions about Crimea have no bearing on a person’s professional qualifications, and refusing to hire someone because of their political views violates both labor regulations and Russian criminal law. Critics say Gannik not only tarnished her personal reputation, but also disgraced Otkritie and Tochka. Some people even promised to move their money to different banks, in protest.

Two days later, Gannik published a detailed explanation, writing that she “loves her country and recognizes its laws,” and believes that Crimea belongs to Russia “factually and legally.” She also denied that she’s ever refused to hire someone because of their political views, insisting that her Facebook post had been misinterpreted.

Non-Slavic appearance

The second chapter of the Russian Constitution says the state guarantees equal rights and freedoms “regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, property and official status, place of residence, religion, convictions, membership of public associations, and also other circumstances.” A general ban on discrimination is enshrined in Article 5.62 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses and Criminal Code Article 136. Offenders face finesas high as 300,000 rubles ($4,780), professional disqualifications for up to five years, and sometimes even prison sentences. The Labor Code also prohibitsdiscrimination: employers cannot reject or restrict Russians because of their age, sex, ethnicity, religion, or beliefs.

Despite all these protections, many employers wrote explicitly in job postings as recently as a few years ago that they were looking for men, or for women, and indicated that the positions were for people of a “suitable age,” and so on. Between 2009 and 2010, the Center for Social and Labor Rights and the Higher School of Economics conducted several studies in major Russian cities, finding that roughly 70 percent of job vacancy advertisements specified some kind of discriminatory hiring policy. “It never even occurred to anyone that this wasn’t okay,” says Elena Gerasimova, the director of the Center for Social and Labor Rights and an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics. “People were aware that we’ve banned discrimination, but they still wrote these job postings.”

In 2013, lawmakers expressly banned employers from advertising jobs that specify requirements for age, sex, ethnicity, skin color, marital status, membership of public associations, or other qualities with no professional bearing. For the past five years, anyone who indicates discriminatory hiring practices when promoting a job vacancy faces an administrative fine. Mikhail Tarasenko, a member of the State Duma’s Labor Committee and the author of the 2013 amendments, acknowledges that the reforms didn’t eradicate discrimination completely, but he says they have discouraged some companies. “There are unscrupulous employers who want a staff of nothing but salesgirls in their twenties,” Tarasenko explained. “And there are people who are law abiding and simply didn’t know this is against the law. Now they’ll accept applicants from people in their twenties and their thirties.”

Despite the legislative reforms, Russians still encounter job postings today that describe openly discriminatory hiring practices. In May 2018, an ad appeared in an employment group on Facebook promoting a vacancy at the “Kafeterius” cafe at Moscow’s Art. Lebedev Studio. To apply for the job, you needed “at least one year’s experience, a love of people, and a Slavic appearance.” Many Internet users expressed outrage that the company wouldn’t even accept applications from “non-Slavs,” but more than a few defended the discriminatory policy, arguing that employers have the right to make such demands if “clients feel more comfortable” when being served by Slavs, or when the establishment’s “central vision” requires workers who look a certain way.

Baha’i Student Expelled at the Beginning of Final Exams, Barred from Continuing Education

on: June 18, 2018

Baha’i Student Expelled at the Beginning of Final Exams, Barred from Continuing Education

Sadaf Vojdani has been barred from continuing her studies due to her religious beliefs.

Ms. Vojdani, a Baha’i student and 2017 freshman in the field of Architecture at the Razi University of Kermanshah, has been denied education due to her adherence to the Baha’i Faith. Ms. Vojdani was informed of the expulsion, and denial of access to further higher education, prior to the start of final exams.

According to Article 30 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, all Iranian citizens have the right to higher education. Also, according to Article 23 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, “the investigation of individuals’ beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.” Despite the explicit right of the law, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution policy is that Bahá’ís, in addition to being deprived of employment in government offices, are also denied university education.

Every year there are continuing reports of Baha’i citizens being expelled from or denied entry to Iranian universities. Even those on the verge of graduation have been subjected to expulsion from their universities.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Baha’i citizens in Iran have been denied the freedoms associated with religious beliefs. UN human rights reporters on Iranian affairs have repeatedly challenged the Regime’s persecution of Baha’is, especially deprivation of Baha’i students of their right to education. Reports have made it a clear that this indicates Iran’s failure to respect human rights treaties.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of religion and change of religion, as well as the freedom to express it individually or collectively, and openly or in secret.

According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than three hundred thousand Baha’is. The Iranian constitution recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The Regime does not recognize the Baha’i Faith and has used this as justification for the systematic violation Baha’is’ rights in Iran.

Research: Restricting free speech isn’t the solution to violence and hate speech

on: June 16, 2018

Research: Restricting free speech isn’t the solution to violence and hate speech

The fight to protect freedom of speech is ancient and can be traced through history from Socrates, Milton, and Voltaire to Hypatia and Goldman. The issue is currently undergoing a resurgence with figures like Jordan Peterson, Christina Hoff Sommers, Count Dankula, Sarah Silverman, Laci Green, Amy Schumer, and so on.

Whether politics or comedy, left-wing, right-wing, or apolitical, free speech permeates every aspect of life. What’s more is that censorship has led to some of the world’s greatest tragedies and most oppressive authoritarian regimes.

Most people want less violence, racism, sexism, and bigotry. In order to achieve this, we must find the most efficient approach to increasing peace so that we can generate a sustainable social fabric in our shared physical and digital worlds. To this end, we must examine censorship from an empirical and scientific viewpoint in order to establish optimal solutions.

In popular culture, there is a clear split in opinion about the best way to handle this. Major news outlets regularly publish pieces condemning free speech platforms, outlets and individuals they believe are guilty propelling the spread of bigotry. While this solution appears to be obvious, it disregards an existing and growing body of evidence that shows censorship most often backfires.

The Streisand Effect

This phenomenon is called the “Streisand Effect” after a well-documented study by the University of Wollongong. Barbra Streisand attempted to block access to photography of her Malibu mansion in 2003. She sued both the photographer and the photo sales company for violating privacy laws, but the publicity created a frenzy in which the photographs were downloaded 420,000 times within a month.

It completely backfired, as accomplished professor of history, Antoon de Baets, wrote in his book Censorship Backfires: “Censorship may not suppress alternative views but rather generate them, and, by doing so, become counterproductive.” (pp. 223–234).

Indeed, a 2017 study titled, “You Can’t Stay Here: The Efficacy of Reddit’s 2015 Ban Examined Through Hate Speech,” showed that banning hate speech on the website simply pushed people onto other sites. Although banning the hate speech did reduce controversial content on their specific platform, the overarching sentiment of the study is found in its conclusion:

In a sense, Reddit has made these users (from banned subreddits) someone else’s problem. To be clear, from a macro perspective, Reddit’s actions likely did not make the internet safer or less hateful. One possible interpretation, given the evidence at hand, is that the ban drove the users from these banned subreddits to darker corners of the internet.

The Reddit study serves as a focal point for the conclusions we can draw about censorship in the global community. Instead of isolated instances of banning, the world is causally affected by digital book burnings, ubiquitous web censorship, prohibition, and so on.

The constitutional ban on alcohol that took place from 1920 to 1933 is one of the most famous examples. Although it intended to prevent the distribution of alcohol, numerous retrospective studies show that it led to increased crime and consumption.

Studies by Pew Research show that America is the most tolerant country in the world when it comes to free speech. But hate groups do exist, and uncomfortable situations will happen. The most important question is how to deal with these situations.

We may be able to find the answer in the work of Daryl Davis, a famous blues musician with a hobby of befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. According to him: “Once the friendship blossoms, the klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided.” By having dinner with Klansmen, he has inspired over 200 members to give up their robes.

This idea was taken to a broader context by the American Civil Liberties Union. They promoted a powerful advertisement in which a woman wearing a hijab was standing before graffiti that read “Muslims Go Home.” In the following frame, young men held signs proclaiming “Freedom of religion” and “Love thy Neighbor.” The message ends with their ultimatum: “Fight Hate Speech with More Speech”.

Age of the internet trolls

On the internet, the most common abuse happens in the form of trolling. The knee-jerk reaction to simply censor or ban the trolls is commonplace, but just as dangerous as the above-mentioned studies show. A 2014 study from the University of Manitoba shows that many trolls share the trait of sadism. The trouble is that pushing sadistic trolls away from the mainstream is to push them into desolate corners where their desires will intensity.

A Unesco study says that banning trolls is akin to “whack-a-mole” — they’ll just pop up somewhere else. What’s more is that a Brooking’s study concludes that removing accounts will only “increase the speed and intensity of radicalization for those who do manage to enter the network.” In other words, engaging trolls in a discussion will ultimately disarm their greatest weapon of polarization.

This was clearly seen when the United Kingdom heavily censored internet traffic in 2011 as a result of political unrest around the world, including violent uprisings and the Arab Spring. The results of a study from the University of Greenwich concluded that the net result was actually an increase violence and uprisings.

Grouping people of dissenting ideas into one closed group only reinforces their undesirable behavior and entrenches their thought process into an endless loop of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. In a word, it creates an echo-chamber of violence.

A solution

What is the path forward? It likely consists of a hybrid approach including:

An alliance of social networks, thought-leaders, scientists, organizations, corporations, and governments to commit to a macro-global strategy of achieving peace through free speech and open source technology
Technology that helps users control their experience as much as possible through muting, blocking, reporting, and filtering
Human support to those in need, both online and offline
A long-term study on the effects of transforming hateful and violent behavior through free speech, in a context that understands language, humor, etc. — with a combination of human review and AI tools (not without user-consent and fully in line with digital rights practices)
Call for papers to create an archive of all research and studies related to censorship, free speech, hate speech, violence, and above-mentioned topics

It is essential that participants in this project come from across the political spectrum to face these issues head-on create a plan for a successful global initiative. The future of internet freedom and human rights depends on it.

Facebook: We Need to Do More to Tackle Hate Speech in Myanmar

on: June 11, 2018

Facebook: We Need to Do More to Tackle Hate Speech in Myanmar

A soldier stands near the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, near Rakhine state, Myanmar, during a trip by United Nations envoys to the region, April 29, 2018.

Global social media giant Facebook will need to increase its efforts to combat hate speech against the persecuted Rohingya minority, says the company’s top policy official.

Since the outbreak of Rohingya refugee crisis in August 2017, U.N. investigators and human rights groups have criticized Facebook harshly over alleged lack of action against accounts that used its platform to encourage violence against the disfranchised Rohingya Muslims.

Speaking at the New America Foundation, Facebook head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert said the company has made improvements to address the problem in Myanmar, but more action is needed to prevent hate-filled content against the Rohingya population.

“I think one of the biggest things we have to do is to improve our relationships with civil society groups on the ground,” Bickert said. But she admitted that “it is a complicated landscape, and there is a lot more we can do there.”

The Rohingya represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in the west coast state of Rakhine.Their population was estimated to be around one million at the beginning of 2017, but the United Nations says nearly 900,000 have fled into neighboring Bangladesh due to a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s army, which claimed it was targeting terrorists.

Amplifying violence

Rights activists inside the country and out have accused Facebook of amplifying ethnic violence in the country by not taking swift action against extremist Buddhists who use social media to spread anti-Rohingya content, ranging from hate posts to false news articles, photos, and videos.

The U.N. Myanmar investigators last March said they found that social media outlets, particularly Facebook, played a “determining role” in spreading hate speech in the country.

“I’m afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended,” U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee told reporters.

Facebook officials say they do not tolerate hate speech and they will suspend and sometimes remove accounts that consistently shares content promoting hate, despite the difficulties.

Growing up black in America: here’s my story of everyday racism

on: June 08, 2018

Growing up black in America: here’s my story of everyday racism

As a middle-class, light-skinned black man I am ‘better’ by American standards but there is no amount of assimilation that can shield you from racism in the US.

am a black man who has grown up in the United States. I know what it is like to feel the sting of discrimination. As a middle-class, light-skinned black man I also know that many others suffered (and continue to suffer) a lot worse than me. I grew up around a lot of white people. In elementary school, I remember being told that I was one of the “good ones” – not like the “bad ones” I was meant to understand; I was different.

I remember the way this kind of backhanded compliment stung me, but it took me a long time to understand why it hurt. In truth, though, the comment rings true. I am “good” by America’s standards, or at least “better”: my skin is light, most of the time I dress like a middle-class professional and my manner of speech betrays a large degree of assimilation in the white American mainstream (for example, I use phrases like “manner of speech”).

But as many others have learned, there is no amount of assimilation that can shield you from racism in this country. Throughout my life, something – the kink of my hair or my “attitude” – would mark me as inferior, worthy of ridicule, humiliation or ostracism. In elementary school, I got the distinct impression that teachers didn’t like me. I got in trouble a lot, and one teacher actually wrote on my report card that I was “amoral”. In third grade, I had my first black teacher and the whole dynamic changed. Mrs Brooks decided it was OK if I squirmed in my chair. She taught us about discrimination and injustice and taught us to recite and interpret poetry from the black arts movement. (Thank you, Mrs Brooks!)

As I got older, I observed that my mother saw racism around every corner. She assumed that I would be the object of discrimination in school and maintained an intense, vigilant determination to protect me from it. She monitored everything about my treatment in school, ready to leap at the slightest slight. Sometimes I thought she went too far. I wasn’t chosen to give a speech to my middle school’s assembly, and so she inquired as to why I wasn’t chosen, and she insisted that I be given a shot. So, thanks to my mother raising a fuss I had to give a speech to my entire middle school. (Thank you, mom!)

‘Like many young black people, I internalized the idea that I would have be twice as good to get half as much respect.’

In high school I started wondering, as teenagers do, how people go about finding romantic partners. From what I could tell in movies and television shows – my principal sources of information – you had to be a rich and white to be worthy of love. I was neither, so I was worried. Like many young black people, I internalized the idea that I would have be twice as good to get half as much respect. Much to my dismay, my blackness seemed to be the salient thing about me. One of my classmates had a gift for inventing creative ways to make fun of my kinky hair, and he got enough people laughing to send me home in tears for a good part of my freshman and sophomore years of high school.

1 in 3 women experiences violence in their lifetime : UN

on: June 01, 2018

1 in 3 women experiences violence in their lifetime: UN

United Nations has urged the governments to take immediate actions to prevent violence against women as the international women’s day is celebrated across the world on Thursday.

A statement released by the United Nations says 1 in 3 women experiences violence in their lifetime; 830 women die every day from preventable pregnancy-related causes. The reports released by the international human rights organizations show that millions of women are facing various violence especially in the most of the developing and Islamic countries.

Iran and Afghanistan are also among the countries, where women are victims of different types of violence. Few months before the international women’s day, dozens of Iranian women were put to jails for protesting forced hijab in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Human rights organizations express concern that the women are at the risk of being tortured or sexually abused. Iran has more strict laws for women, a country that takes it’s laws from Islam and the women activists call these laws one of the main factors of putting pressure on Iranian women.

For example, Iranian women are not allowed to run presidential election, work in the high-ranking religious positions or enter to the army. Iranian women cannot be singer in profession, they are not allowed to go outside of Iran without having permission from the male members of the family like father or husband.

This is not only for Iran, in the war-torn and improvised country of Afghanistan, neighboring Iran millions women are living under lots of pressure. However the laws have given more freedom for Afghan women comparing the Iranian, but most of the women are facing difficulties and restrictions due to the traditional laws and social constraints.

Taliban presence in the large parts of Afghanistan deprived women to go out of their homes and women in most parts of the country are treated as second or third degree citizens, in a country that millions are dollar is spent in women empowerment projects.

Afghan women are facing sexual harassment in public and even women are stoned for talking to men outside their families in some parts of the country. International women’s day is celebrated while millions of women are struggling to get even their initial rights in a male-dominated world.

source: mikrofonnews

Facts and figures: Ending violence against women

on: June 01, 2018

Various forms of violence

It is estimated that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives. However, some national studies show that up to 70 percent of women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime [1].

Women who have been physically or sexually abused by their partners are more than twice as likely to have an abortion, almost twice as likely to experience depression, and in some regions, 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV, as compared to women who have not experienced partner violence [2].

Violence against women►

Although little data is available—and great variation in how psychological violence is measured across countries and cultures—existing evidence shows high prevalence rates. Forty-three percent of women in the 28 European Union Member States have experienced some form of psychological violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime [3].

It is estimated that of all women who were the victims of homicide globally in 2012, almost half were killed by intimate partners or family members, compared to less than six percent of men killed in the same year [4].

More than 1 in 4 women in Washington DC, United States, have experienced some form of sexual harassment on public transportation, according to a survey conducted in 2016 [5].

Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18^thbirthday. Child marriage is more common in West and Central Africa, where over 4 in 10 girls were married before age 18, and about 1 in 7 were married or in union before age 15. Child marriage often results in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupts schooling, limits the girl’s opportunities and increases her risk of experiencing domestic violence [6].

Around 120 million girls worldwide (slightly more than 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives. By far the most common perpetrators of sexual violence against girls are current or former husbands, partners or boyfriends [7].

At least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in the 30 countries with representative data on prevalence. In most of these countries, the majority of girls were cut before age 5. [8].

Adult women account for 51 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally. Women and girls together account for 71 percent, with girls representing nearly three out of every four child trafficking victims. Nearly three out of every four trafficked women and girls are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation [9].

One in 10 women in the European Union report having experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15 (including having received unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or SMS messages, or offensive, inappropriate advances on social networking sites). The risk is highest among young women between 18 and 29 years of age [10].

An estimated 246 million girls and boys experience school-related violence every year and one in four girls say that they never feel comfortable using school latrines, according to a survey on youth conducted across four regions. The extent and forms of school-related violence that girls and boys experience differ, but evidence suggests that girls are at greater risk of sexual violence, harassment, and exploitation. In addition to the resulting adverse psychological, sexual and reproductive health consequences, school-related gender-based violence is a major obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls [11].

Twenty-three percent of female undergraduate university students reported having experienced sexual assault or sexual misconduct in a survey across 27 universities in the United States in 2015. Rates of reporting to campus officials, law enforcement or others ranged from 5 to 28 percent, depending on the specific type of behavior [12].

Eighty-two percent of women parliamentarians who participated in a study conducted by the Inter-parliamentary Union in 39 countries across 5 regions reported having experienced some form of psychological violence while serving their terms. Psychological violence was defined as remarks, gestures, and images of a sexist or humiliating sexual nature made against them or threats and/or mobbing to which they might have been subjected. They cited social media as the main channel through which such psychological violence is perpetrated; nearly half of those surveyed (44 percent) reported having received death, rape, assault or abduction threats towards them or their families [13].

Measures to address violence

In the majority of countries with available data, less than 40 percent of the women who experience violence seek help of any sort. Among women who do, most look to family and friends and very few look to formal institutions and mechanisms, such as police and health services. Less than 10 percent of those women seeking help for the experience of violence sought help by appealing to the police [14].

At least 140 countries have passed laws on domestic violence, and 144 have laws on sexual harassment. However, even when laws exist, this does not mean they are always compliant with international standards and recommendations or implemented. Still, 37 countries exempt rape perpetrators from prosecution when they are married to or subsequently marry the victim [15].

Availability of data on violence against women has increased significantly in recent years. Since 1995, more than 100 countries have conducted at least one survey addressing the issue. More than 40 countries conducted at least two surveys in the period between 1995 and 2014, which means that, depending on the comparability of the surveys, changes over time could be analyzed [16].

Violence among vulnerable groups

Evidence suggests that certain characteristics of women, such as sexual orientation, disability status or ethnicity, and some contextual factors, such as humanitarian crises, including conflict and post-conflict situations, may increase women’s vulnerability to violence [17].

In 2014, 23 percent of non-heterosexual women (those who identified their sexual orientation as lesbian, bisexual or other) interviewed in the European Union indicated having experienced physical and/or sexual violence by both male and female non-partner perpetrators, compared with five percent of heterosexual women [18].

In a survey of 3,706 primary schoolchildren from Uganda, 24 percent of 11 to 14-year-old girls with disabilities reported sexual violence at school, compared to 12 percent of non-disabled girls [19].

Notes

[1] World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, South African Medical Research Council (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence, p.2. For individual country information, see The World’s Women 2015, Trends and Statistics, Chapter 6, Violence against Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015 and UN Women Global Database on Violence against Women.

[2] Ibid.

[3] European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014). Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, p. 71.

[4] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2014). Global Study on Homicide 2013, p. 14.

[5] Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (2016). Understanding Sexual Harassment on Public Transportation, in UN Women (2017), Corporate Brief Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces.

[6] UNICEF (2017). Is every child counted? Status of Data for Children in the SDGs, p. 54.

[7] UNICEF (2014). Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children, p. 167.

[8] UNICEF (2016). Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A global concern.

[9] UNODC (2016). Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016, p. 7, 28.

[10] See European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014). Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, p. 104.

[11] Data were taken from (i) Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFA GMR), UNESCO, United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) (2015). School-related gender-based violence is preventing the achievement of quality education for all, Policy Paper 17, and (ii) UNGEI (2014). End School-related gender-based violence (SRGBVB) infographic.

[12] Cantor, D., Fisher, B., Chibnall, S., Townsend, R., Lee, H., Bruce, C., and Thomas, G. (2015). Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, p.13, 35.

[13] Inter-Parliamentary Union (2016). Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians, p. 3.

[14] United Nations Economic and Social Affairs (2015). The World’s Women 2015, Trends and Statistics, p. 159.

[15] World Bank Group (2015). Women, Business and the Law 2016, database.

[16] Ibid, p. 140.

[17] See European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014). Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, Annex 3, p. 184-188.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Devries, K., Kyegome, N., Zuurmond, M., Parkes, J., Child, J., Walakira, E. and Naker, D. (2014). Violence against primary school children with disabilities in Uganda: a cross-sectional study, p. 6

source: UN-Women

Master’s Voice: Racism comes in more than one color and is not just skin-deep

on: May 21, 2018

Master’s Voice: Racism comes in more than one color and is not just skin-deep

“The vast and overcrowded peninsula of India […] is in its native condition most miserable and no better in a moral point of view, as exhibited in the picture which Sir Emerson Tennet draws of the Tamils of Ceylon: ‘[…] Sensuality and gain are the two passions of their existence, and in the pursuit of them they exhibit a licentiousness so shocking, and practices so inconceivably vile, as would scarcely obtain credence from those who are familiar with the aspects and usages of civilised life even in its lowest and least attractive forms.’ He is deceitful and always prepared to take advantage of the unaware” -–Louis Antoine de Verteuil

“[T]hese are the brutes with whom I spend my life. If again in contributing to make my life more painful they gave me some hold on their poor souls which have cost the blood of a God and which are blacker than their black faces. I cry in the desert. The majority of my savages are like Jean de Nouille’s dog.”–-Abbé Armand Masse (French Catholic parish priest of Oropouche, South Trinidad), 1880

These distasteful, racist observations will set the tone for my next couple articles. Since February, several articles and memes have appeared which exposed yet again the ugly reality of racism, racist ideas and colorism in this society that many, almost always those who went to the best “educational” institutions, strive to deny.

T&T is a fascinating study of contradictions; through its strong African and Indian diaspora, there is an abundance of raw sexual energy. Yet, daily, people hiding behind bibles, Qu’rans and Gitas, struggle so hard to be distanced from anything resembling open sexuality. The country has given the world some of its deepest thinkers like CLR James, Lloyd Best, Eric Williams and Rudranath Capildeo, Claudia Jones and Vidia Naipaul, yet there’s an equally deep anti-intellectualism.

We are warm and open to people we never even met before, yet we can be callous, xenophobic and spiteful in a heartbeat. All ah we are one but the degree to which white superiority racism is embedded in the fabric of this society is downright shocking.

New Canadian anti-hate network looks to co-ordinate efforts against far-right extremism

on: May 16, 2018

New Canadian anti-hate network looks to co-ordinate efforts against far-right extremism

Public Safety Canada’s annual report on terrorist threats to Canada listed for the first time this year right-wing extremism as “a growing concern.”

Individuals who hold extreme right-wing views are predominantly active online, it said, thriving on a “culture of fear, hatred and mistrust by exploiting real or imagined concerns.”

Public Safety Canada’s annual report on terrorist threats to Canada listed for the first time this year right-wing extremism as “a growing concern.”

Individuals who hold extreme right-wing views are predominantly active online, it said, thriving on a “culture of fear, hatred and mistrust by exploiting real or imagined concerns.”