3 reasons why anti-blackness still exists in multicultural cities like Toronto
After an Ontario human rights tribunal ordered a Chinese restaurant to pay $10,000 to a black customer whose rights were violated, there have been several conversations on social media around anti-blackness in diverse cities like Toronto.
Toronto resident Emile Wickham went to Hong Shing Chinese restaurant with three black friends in May 2014 to celebrate his birthday. Wickham said when the server took their orders, he and his friends were asked to pay for their meals upfront — a policy the restaurant apparently had.
“We were asking them, ‘How could you do this to us? This is not right,’ and we were very clear in that,” he told Global News on Monday. “But even then, we had to watch our responses to them because we are black. We can’t show our frustration as somebody else would because we’re seen as aggressive.”
After an Ontario human rights tribunal ordered a Chinese restaurant to pay $10,000 to a black customer whose rights were violated, there have been several conversations on social media around anti-blackness in diverse cities like Toronto. Toronto resident Emile Wickham went to Hong Shing Chinese restaurant with three black friends in May 2014 to celebrate his birthday. Wickham said when the server took their orders, he and his friends were asked to pay for their meals upfront — a policy the restaurant apparently had. “We were asking them, ‘How could you do this to us? This is not right,’ and we were very clear in that,” he told Global News on Monday. “But even then, we had to watch our responses to them because we are black. We can’t show our frustration as somebody else would because we’re seen as aggressive.” “We were asking them, ‘How could you do this to us? This is not right,’ and we were very clear in that,” he told Global News on Monday. “But even then, we had to watch our responses to them because we are black. We can’t show our frustration as somebody else would because we’re seen as aggressive.”
Bring Back May Day
Most of the world recognizes May 1 — May Day — as International Workers’ Day. Here in one of the few countries that doesn’t, it’s worth pausing to ask how U.S. workers are doing.
At an event last December, Fight for $15 organizer Terrence Wise recalled “going to bed at night, ignoring my own stomach’s rumbling, but having to hear my three little girls’ stomachs rumble. That’s something no parent should have to endure.”
Wise was marking the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Last month, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Poor People’s Campaign released The Souls of Poor Folk, a report on 50 years of change in the issues that affect working people, and particularly those at the bottom. We looked at systemic racism, poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation.
We found some startling and unhappy results. For the most part, workers like Wise are struggling hard to get by.
Palestinians reel from spike in racist ‘price tag’ attacks by settlers
The attack came before dawn prayers. Israeli settlers slipped unseen into the northern occupied West Bank village of Aqraba, broke down the door to the village’s mosque, and set the building on fire.
Before fleeing, they used red paint to spray the words “price tag” and “revenge” on the outside walls of the mosque.
A week after the 13 April attack, Palestinians in the Ramallah-area village of Burqa woke up to find the tyres of dozens of cars slashed and racist anti-Arab graffiti sprayed on the walls of homes and shops and on car doors.
In Beit Iska three days on, the words “death to Arabs” were sprayed across the Jerusalem-area West Bank village of Beit Iksa.
These are just three of the most recent crimes by fundamentalist illegal settlers, who began the attacks in 2008 as the “price tag” for the removal of illegal outposts in the West Bank.
The attack came before dawn prayers. Israeli settlers slipped unseen into the northern occupied West Bank village of Aqraba, broke down the door to the village’s mosque, and set the building on fire. Before fleeing, they used red paint to spray the words “price tag” and “revenge” on the outside walls of the mosque. A week after the 13 April attack, Palestinians in the Ramallah-area village of Burqa woke up to find the tyres of dozens of cars slashed and racist anti-Arab graffiti sprayed on the walls of homes and shops and on car doors. In Beit Iska three days on, the words “death to Arabs” were sprayed across the Jerusalem-area West Bank village of Beit Iksa. These are just three of the most recent crimes by fundamentalist illegal settlers, who began the attacks in 2008 as the “price tag” for the removal of illegal outposts in the West Bank.
German Muslim leader says anti-Semitism is a sin
The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims has said anti-Semitism is sinful and must be tackled. His comments came after Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern about a “new phenomenon” of anti-Jewish sentiment.
Hatred and abuse of Jewish people are against the tenets of Islam, the president of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek (pictured above), said, adding that the Muslim community had work to do in tackling the problem.
“Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred are great sins in Islam, therefore we will also never tolerate that,” Mazyek told the Tuesday edition of the regional newspaper Rheinische Post.
The Muslim leader made his comments in response to remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to an Israeli broadcaster at the weekend. Merkel told Channel 10 News that “refugees and other people of Arab origin are bringing a different form of anti-Semitism into the country.”
The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims has said anti-Semitism is sinful and must be tackled. His comments came after Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern about a “new phenomenon” of anti-Jewish sentiment. Hatred and abuse of Jewish people are against the tenets of Islam, the president of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek (pictured above), said, adding that the Muslim community had work to do in tackling the problem. “Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred are great sins in Islam, therefore we will also never tolerate that,” Mazyek told the Tuesday edition of the regional newspaper Rheinische Post. The Muslim leader made his comments in response to remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to an Israeli broadcaster at the weekend. Merkel told Channel 10 News that “refugees and other people of Arab origin are bringing a different form of anti-Semitism into the country.” Merkel told Channel 10 News that “refugees and other people of Arab origin are bringing a different form of anti-Semitism into the country.”
How Racism Could Drive Support for War With Iran
Over the past several months, the likelihood of the United States’ engaging in military conflict with Iran has increased dramatically. President Donald Trump declared that he would pull of of the Iran deal, despite full compliance from Iran. Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, one of the key supporters of the Iran deal within his cabinet, and ultra-hawk John Bolton will become the president’s new national-security adviser on Monday.
But can Trump actually build public support for another bloody and costly war? Maybe not broadly, but our new research indicates there is a receptive audience for armed conflict with Iran: Americans who are most accepting of racism, and most hostile toward Muslims. Fifteen years after the United States invaded Iraq, there is still limited understanding of the ways that comfort with systemic racial inequalities and racist attitudes toward people of color translate to public support for the war.
The most prominent supporters of the Iraq war, and other interventions in the Middle East have often let their mask slip. Thomas Friedman, for instance, explained that the purpose of the Iraq war was to tell the Arab world to “suck on this.” Christopher Hitchens spent the later years of his life defending the Iraq War on right-wing media and claiming that the term “Islamophobia” was designed to “promote criticism of Islam to the gallery of special offences associated with racism.” In popular culture, an early anthem for the Iraq war came from country musician Clint Black, who sang in “I Raq and I Roll” that “our troops take out the garbage for the good old USA.” Franklin Graham, who swore George W. Bush into office at his first inauguration, denounced Islam as “a very evil and wicked religion” in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
That approach lives on today, and there are many reasons to believe that racial animus underpins the right’s imperialist designs. Bolton, who has openly advocated for war with Iran, also chairs the Gatestone Institute, which falsely claims that Muslims have established “no-go” zones into which non-Muslims cannot enter. Just a few years after maintaining that “Iran Will Cheat on the Nuclear Deal,” National Review is now calling for Trump to do it himself, and unilaterally pull out of the deal. As it happens, National Review is also a frequent promoter of anti-Muslim writing, hypingimaginary “no-go zones,” warning of “sharia supremacism,” and questioning whether religious liberty should even apply to Muslims.
While these pundits and politicians might claim that perpetuating racial hierarchies has nothing to do with their hawkish views, our research disputes this. A new Data For Progress working paper explores how racial attitudes affect attitudes about when our country should send troops abroad. To explore these attitudes, the paper uses an acceptance-of-racism scale, which measures how much a respondent agrees or disagrees with statements like “white people in the United States have certain advantages” and that “racial problems in the United States are rare isolated situations.”
When I got a message from Lumad leader Kerlan Fanagel on April 19 about the arrest and detention of Suara Bangsamoro chair and SANDUGO co-chair, Jerome Aladdin Succor Aba, at the San Francisco International Office, I got fearful and angry. Fearful for what might happen to Jerome at the hands of the agents of US Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security who are in charge of his arrest and detention, angry at the thought that Jerome was ensnared in a US government plot – to present another innocent civilian as a terrorist for their anti-terror war.
Jerome was invited by the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – US to speak in the Ecumenical Advocacy Days in the US to talk about the current human rights situation under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, including the impacts of the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao, the drug war and the new US military policy.
But upon arriving at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on April 18, he was denied entry in the US, immediately arrested by the CBP agents, tortured into admitting he is a terrorist and forced to sign a waiver, detained for 28 hours and deported without seeing the group that invited him or a lawyer to represent his rights.
Jerome was invited by the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – US to speak in the Ecumenical Advocacy Days in the US to talk about the current human rights situation under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, including the impacts of the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao, the drug war and the new US military policy.
Palestinians file complaint at UN accusing Israel of racism
Palestinians diplomats have accused Israel of breaching an anti-racism treaty with policies that are “displacing and replacing the Palestinian people”, according to a 350-page complaint presented to the UN on Monday.
The document, which Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian envoy to the UN in Geneva, handed over to a UN committee on discrimination, accuses Israel of bias against Palestinians through a two-tiered legal system and violating rights to freedom of movement, religion, access to resources and housing.
“The system of racism and discrimination by the Israelis must not be recognised as a legal system,” Khraishi told Middle East Eye on Monday.
He said it was an unprecedented step to make an inter-state claim, but that it was legitimate since both Israel and Palestine are signatories to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Palestinians diplomats have accused Israel of breaching an anti-racism treaty with policies that are “displacing and replacing the Palestinian people”, according to a 350-page complaint presented to the UN on Monday. The document, which Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian envoy to the UN in Geneva, handed over to a UN committee on discrimination, accuses Israel of bias against Palestinians through a two-tiered legal system and violating rights to freedom of movement, religion, access to resources and housing. “The system of racism and discrimination by the Israelis must not be recognised as a legal system,” Khraishi told Middle East Eye on Monday. He said it was an unprecedented step to make an inter-state claim, but that it was legitimate since both Israel and Palestine are signatories to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. He said it was an unprecedented step to make an inter-state claim, but that it was legitimate since both Israel and Palestine are signatories to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Activist Iman Bukhari rages against racism in Canada
In partnership with Mount Royal University’s Bachelor of Communication-Journalism program and the Calgary Journal, CBC Calgary is publishing a series profiling some of the immigrants and refugees who moved here and how they’re helping shape our city.
After moving from Pakistan to Canada, Iman Bukhari experienced racism as an 11-year-old. But that experience contributed to the work she now does as an activist and documentary filmmaker, helping show others the reality of race relations in this country.
Her father chose to move to Canada, as opposed to the United States, because he believed Canada embodied the qualities of diversity and equality.
“The first time racist things were said to me, I was fairly young and didn’t understand why a kid was calling me a terrorist. It was right after 9/11.”
In partnership with Mount Royal University’s Bachelor of Communication-Journalism program and the Calgary Journal, CBC Calgary is publishing a series profiling some of the immigrants and refugees who moved here and how they’re helping shape our city. After moving from Pakistan to Canada, Iman Bukhari experienced racism as an 11-year-old. But that experience contributed to the work she now does as an activist and documentary filmmaker, helping show others the reality of race relations in this country. Her father chose to move to Canada, as opposed to the United States, because he believed Canada embodied the qualities of diversity and equality. “The first time racist things were said to me, I was fairly young and didn’t understand why a kid was calling me a terrorist. It was right after 9/11.” Her father chose to move to Canada, as opposed to the United States, because he believed Canada embodied the qualities of diversity and equality. “The first time racist things were said to me, I was fairly young and didn’t understand why a kid was calling me a terrorist. It was right after 9/11.”
Racism and white privilege in America
I’M A WRITER, which means I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. In fact, I’m writing this column in one right now. I’ve spent a good part of the past 20 years toiling away among other overly caffeinated workers, pecking away at my laptop.
More often than not, I buy a cup of coffee and something to eat. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, particularly when I’m on the road, I sneak in to use the Wi-Fi. That’s especially true when it comes to Starbucks, which is a beacon of free and dependable Wi-Fi, comfortable seating, and a complete lack of scrutiny from its employees as to whether I’ve purchased anything.
My experience is not unusual. Never once have I been asked to leave and I’ve certainly never been arrested for trespassing in a coffee shop.
Last week’s arrest of two black men in a Starbucks in Philadelphia is a reminder not just of the endemic nature of racism in America, but also what the unstated yet sizable advantages of white privilege look like.
The two men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were meeting a friend for an afternoon meeting. Nelson asked to use the bathroom but was told that it was for customers only. So he sat down, without purchasing anything, and waited.
What happened next could only happen to a black man in America. Two minutes after they arrived at the shop, the store manager, who is white, called 911. Six police officers arrived and asked Nelson and Robinson to leave. They refused and were immediately arrested for what the police called, and I’m not making this up, “defiant trespassing.”
This is such a perfect example of how racism works in America that it should be taught as a mandatory lesson in every school in America.
Read more…
THIS NEW RACISM TURNS TO FIRE
Another warning that those pushing the new racism are – literally – playing with fire:
Vision has emerged of the Commonwealth Games surfboard countdown clock being set alight by protesters, over arrests made on the Gold Coast this week.
The footage shows the timer, which is located along Brisbane Streets Beach at South Back, being lit on fire with an accelerant.
The message attached to the video declares the fire was lit in support of the Stolenwealth Games protesters, who were detained by police in the past week.
Then there’s the false suggestion that police actually hurt Dylan Voller, the hero-victim of the ABC. This actually trades on the myth that Aboriginal prisoners face a higher rate of deaths in custody than do white prisoners, thanks to racism:
“Yesterday in Meanjin (Brisbane, so called Australia) we watched on social media as the police brutalised and arrested peaceful Stolenwealth Games protesters on the Gold Coast,” the message reads.
They used excessive force on young people, people with disabilities, and elders. The police also tried to claim one young person self harmed while in their custody.
“Our action is in no way endorsed by Stolenwealth Games organisers and protesters (who have no knowledge of it), but they have our solidarity through this and more practical acts.”