Five centuries of white supremacist terror: not just a past to which we are ineluctably fastened, but a present which produces us, albeit in differing orders of magnitude and vulnerability. The United States has long maintained the fiction that this country had molted its foundational violence, and yet, just as your skin sheds daily only to live dispersed atop your furniture and knick-knacks, so too does the grime of history make up the loam in which a person is destined to flourish, struggle, or wither. The work of Saidiya Hartman has charted a path in and through the social arrangements produced by the sedimented forces of accumulation and dispossession. Her writing, in numerous essays, and in such books as Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth Century America (1997), Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007),and Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (2019) has not only reshaped the contours of scholarly inquiry, but has given form to what she has called the as-yet-incomplete project of freedom. Below, Hartman speaks about the continuity of the Black radical tradition, the insurrectionary qualities of Black life, and the wild exercise of imagination required to challenge the reigning order.

WHAT CONSTITUTES RADICAL THOUGHT? How do we bring into view the constancy of Black radical practicea practice that has overwhelmingly fallen from viewand a certain lexicon of what constitutes the political, or the radical political, or an anarchist tradition, or a history of anti-fascism? In looking at the lives of young women, gender nonconforming and queer folk in Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (2019), one thing was absolutely clear: the practices of refusalshirking, idleness, and strikea critique of the state and what it could afford; and an understanding that the state is present primarily as a punishing force, a force for the brutal containment and violation and regulation and eradication of Black life. In Wayward Lives, I discuss the jump warrant, which enabled police to enter apartments at will. We know that Breonna Taylor was murdered in the contemporary equivalent of that jump warrant, which is the no knock warrant. The police just enter a place and do as they will.

Because the wayward are largely acting in and conceiving of the world in a way that exceeds the boundaries of the normthe legitimate, the respectabletraditional political actors and thinkers have failed to understand their actions as animated and inflected by the spirit of radical refusal. But to me, that was utterly clear. I would like to think of waywardness as prefigurative of todays protests and insurgency and also as a sustained practice. In Frederick Douglasss My Bondage, My Freedom, he describes the plantation as a nation within the nation, as a space of exception outside the embrace of democracy, as an enclosure. Black people have been abandoned by the law, positioned outside the nation, and excluded from the terms of the social contractand this recognition is in fact hundreds of years old. Wayward Lives gives young Black women credit for understanding this, for their acute understanding of relations of power, and the book attends to the ways they tried to live and sustain themselves, never forgetting the structure of enclosure that surrounded them, and the forces intent on conscripting them to servitude.

My work tries to think about the question, the open questionthe almost impossible questionof Black life in this context, and the ways to best convey the rich texture of existence in these circumstances: to render visible the brutal and abstract relations of power that make violent domination and premature death defining characteristics of Black life. How does one push against particular plots or impositions of the subject? Defy the script of managed and regulated life? Persist under the threat of death? One of the things that I love about W.E.B Du Boisand my work is in dialogue with and indebted to hisis his imaginative capacity and commitment to experimentation. To understand the epistemic revolution that takes place in Black Reconstruction (1935) is to understand the abolition of slavery and Reconstruction as the making of American democracy, and to conceive the radical and insurgent political practice of enslaved actors. Even C.L.R. James marvels at Du Boiss ability to conjure that revolutionary consciousness and reflects on his own shortcomings, in comparison, in Lectures on The Black Jacobins(1971).

There is always an open question of form: How does one bring a minor revolution into view? Most often we want to maintain a fiction that desire exists on one hand and violence and coercion on the other, and that these are radically distinct and opposed. We might instead think of sexual violence as a normative condition, not the exception. Under heteropatriarchy, violence and rape are the terms of order, the norm; they are to be expected. So how does one lust after or relate to or want or love another? How does one claim the capacity to touch when touch is, in so many instances, the modality of violence? As I say repeatedly, Wayward Lives is not a text of sexual liberation. But I really wanted to think about sensory experience and inhabiting the body in a way that is not exhausted by the condition of vulnerability and abuse. What does it meanfor those persons whose bodies are most often subjected to the will, desire, and violence of othersto imagine embodiment in a way thats not yoked to servitude or to violence? For me, this was essential to thinking about radical politics: What does it mean to love that body? To love the flesh in a world where it is not loved or regarded? To love Black female flesh. Breonna Taylors murderers have still not been charged.

The possessive investment in whiteness cant be rectified by learning how to be more antiracist. It requires a radical divestment in the project of whiteness and a redistribution of wealth and resources. It requires abolition, the abolition of the carceral world, the abolition of capitalism.

Incredible vulnerability to violence and to abuse is so definitive of the lives of Black femmes. And so, what does it mean to want to imagine and to experience something else? It cant but be politicalsimply to want to free ones body from its conscription to servitude, to no longer be made a servant in the reproductive project of the worldall of this is part of an abolitionist imaginary. We have been assigned a place in the racial capitalist order which is the bottom rung; the bottom rung is the place of the essential worker, the place where all the onerous reproductive labor occurs. Not just reproductive labor in the terms of maintaining and aiding white families so that they might survive and thrive, but the reproductive work that nurtures and supports the psychic life of whiteness: that shores up the inviolability, security, happiness and sovereignty of that master subject, of man. In large measure, this world is maintained by the disposability and the fungibility of Black and brown female lives. Intimacy is a critical feature of this coerced labor and of care. Black intimacy has been shaped by the anomalous social formation produced by slavery, by involuntary servitude, by capitalist extraction, and by antiblackness and yet exceeds these conditions. The intimate realm is an extension of the social worldit is inseparable from the social worldso to create other networks of love and affiliation, to nurture a promiscuous sociality vast enough to embrace strangers, is to be involved in the work of challenging and remaking the terms of sociality.

What we see now is a translation of Black suffering into white pedagogy. In this extreme moment, the casual violence that can result in a loss of lifea police officer literally killing a Black man with the weight of his knees on the others neckbecomes a flash point for a certain kind of white liberal conscience, like: Oh my god! Were living in a racist order! How can I find out more about this? That question is a symptom of the structure that produces Floyds death. Then theres the other set of demands: Educate me about the order in which we live. And its like: Oh, but youve been living in this order. Your security, your wealth, your good life, has depended on it. So, its crazy-making. The largest loss of Black property since the Great Depression was a consequence of the subprime mortgage crisis, and proliferating acts of racist state violence occurred under a Black president. The largest incarcerated population in the world; the election of 2016 and the publicly avowed embrace of white supremacy by 45all of these things we know, right? We know the racially exclusive character of white neighborhoods; how in urban centers upper-class people monopolize public resources to ensure their futures and their childrens futures over and against other children. Im a New Yorkerthe city has the most racially segregated school system in the country. The Obama and Clinton voters are invested in a school system that disadvantages Black and brown children and they resist even the smallest efforts to make it more equitable. The possessive investment in whiteness cant be rectified by learning how to be more antiracist. It requires a radical divestment in the project of whiteness and a redistribution of wealth and resources. It requires abolition, the abolition of the carceral world, the abolition of capitalism. What is required is a remaking of the social order, and nothing short of that is going to make a difference.

Everyone has issued a statementevery elite racist university and cultural institution, every predatory banking and investment companyhas issued a statement about being down with Black Lives Matter. Its beyond hypocrisy. Its utter cynicism. These institutions feel required to take part in this kind of performance and this kind of speech only because of the radically capacious demands of those in the street, those who are demanding abolition, and who have said: We are not a part of the social contract, we will riot, we will loot. These are legitimate political acts. These are ways of addressing the violence of that order at the level of the orderthe police precinct, the bank, the retailer, the corporate headquarters.

Theres a great disparity between whats being articulated by this radical feminist queer trans Black movement and the language of party politics, and the electoral choices, which are so incredibly impoverished theyre not choices at all. The demand to defund the police was taken up because theres been a movement unfolding for decades, an analysis that has been in placebuilding on the work of Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, The Combahee River Collective, Marsha P. Johnson, Audre Lorde, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mariame Kaba, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza, Michelle Alexander, Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor. Its not a surprise that so many of the people in the street are young. Theyre in the streets with these powerful critical and conceptual tools, and theyre not satisfied with reform. They understand reform to be a modality of reproducing the machine, reproducing the ordersustaining it. I do feel that there is a clarity of vision that wont be lost. Thats what has been so inspiring about these protests and uprisingsthe clarity and the capaciousness of the vision.

As told to Catherine Damman

Read the original here:

Saidiya Hartman on insurgent histories and the abolitionist imaginary - Artforum

Over the last several months, Black Lives Matter protestors and activists have led the nation in an overdue reckoning, an excavation of how racism has permeated every aspect of American life: our schools, our policing, our workplaces, our justice system, our housing market, and more. For the young people in this movement, it's a new chapter in a lifelong fight, one that will shape the very world they'll grow up in.

But what does the country these teens envision look like? What would they say to themselves, 10 years from now, about this moment? Here, ELLE.com speaks to three Black Lives Matter activists across the country to ask just that: What would you say in a letter to your future self? What do you want to remember, and what changes do you hope to see? Below, what Thandiwe Abdullah, Anya Dillard, and Sophie Ming had to say.

Thandiwe Abdullah is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard and helped create the Black Lives Matter in Schools program, which was then adopted by the National Education Association. She says her biggest victory was helping to end random searches in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

When Black Lives Matter was founded, I think I was 10 years old. Being in those spaces and having access to all these amazing organizers kickstarted me in this work. It made me want to take it on for myself.

When I think about my future self, I hope that I'm staying in the community. I'm from the Crenshaw District, and we have a community that has been told that in order to be successful, you have to leave. That in order to be successful, you have to distance yourself from the hood, distance yourself from your people. That you have to be a capitalist. You have to be rich. You have to assimilate as much as you can into white supremacy and this white picket fence ideal. But personally, I don't agree with that. For me, success and my work should always be connected to the community. Making sure that I'm continuing to support and uplifteven if it's not my own peopleanyone who is oppressed, anyone who is in need or being subjugated. That's my job.

I want to remember that none of our wins came easy. Showing up at the mayor's office, at the DA's office, pressuring them, writing letters, going to the capitolall of this exhausting work just to get an inch of justice. It sounds corny, but don't give up.

Don't let activist work become something thats about fame, thats about money, thats about clout, thats about recognition. There's a difference between doing the work and subsequently receiving those things, but the way we're moving right now, we're in a dangerous place where people want to turn organizing and activist work into something thats profitable. It's easy to get lost in that, but you might end up forgetting the purpose of why you're doing this work in the first place. I would tell myself: Surround yourself with people who remind you of your duty and remind you why you're doing this work.

When it comes to the future of our country, I want to start from scratch. I want to see a world where folks don't have to worry about not affording basic human needs like food, shelter, education, medical care. I want a world where police arent militarized, where prisons don't essentially look like slavery, where we don't put profits over people. I want to see a redistribution of wealth. I want to see reparations. I want to see the abolition of I.C.E.

I'd want to see a culture shift, getting rid of the idea that in order to make it anywhere and be successful, you're on your own. I want everyone to care about other people. I want people to think that their own success and justice is tied to everyone around them. That's my world.

This June, Anya Dillard was part of a group of West Orange students who organized a Black Lives Matter protest for their community, drawing thousands of people and garnering the attention of their mayor and local officials. She's also the creator of The Next Gen Come Up, a non-profit organization encouraging community service and activism among teens.

George Floyds death emotionally jarred me. I was lucky enough to grow up in a generation that saw the first Black president, but I also live in a time where we constantly see people who look like our best friends, our brothers, our parents being killed every day. You get to a point where it becomes a harsh reality as a person of color. When I saw the video of George Floyd, I didn't feel the way I should've felt. It felt more like, "Oh my gosh, again?" The shock of it becoming so normal in my mind threw me into an emotional whirlwind. I had to shut everything off and reevaluate my purpose.

A lot of the time, people who are faced with the struggle move forward only seeing the struggle. That is the entire mechanism that keeps the system of racism going and keeps it alivethat people who are constantly beaten down are trained to believe that they can't move forward because of every obstacle the oppression builds in our path.

When I think about my future self, I hope I haven't gone through anything that has encouraged me to stop doing what I'm doing or to stop being resilient and unapologetic about starting uncomfortable dialogue. I hope that no matter how progressive the world becomes, I will always make sure that marginalized groups of people and their perspectives are brought to the forefront.

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I want to always be a "soldier of the people," to make a substantial difference in the width of the door of opportunity for people of color. I've always hoped that I grow up to be someone who builds a door where there is no door and advocates for people to accomplish the goals society tells them are impossible.

As for the future of our country, I sincerely hope that people start seeing others as human beings regardless of class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation. People have mastered the art of dehumanizing those who are different than them. Everybody deserves respect, everybody deserves freedom, everybody deserves to be happy, to be successful, to obtain an education, to feel love.

I hope I remember what I've realized about my community. I've always grown up around people of every race, but Ive never seen so many young, Black kids come together to fight for something so important. It wasn't until the protests that I really felt connected to each and every Black kid in my school. That's changed how I, as a person of color, move through my own community. It helped me realize I am so much more connected to all of these people now because I recognize that we can all fall victim to the same system.

To my future self: Don't be so hard on yourself. I've always been a radical personality and passionate about the things that I believe. I often look back and think, Should I have been so serious? Should I have been so passionate about that?"

Dont question yourself. Feel free in being forward. Feel free in your creativity, your ambition. Dont dull yourself down for anybody. Move in your truth.

Most recently, Sophie Ming has organized both large protests in Manhattan as well as smaller gatherings to discuss topics directly affecting Black people. She is the founder of the New York City Youth Collective, which focuses on educating youth on issues related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

I hope my future self knows that everything I'm doing is much bigger than me. I do it now because I'm passionate about it, but it's for my children and their future children and their future children. It's about the Black friends and family that I have. And I hope that, in 10 years, I can look back at the work I'm doing now and appreciate that and understand that. I'm doing this because I love it, but it's also going to help so many more people that aren't me.

Gili Getz

I want to become a doctor. I want to become a physician working with kids and incorporate social justice into medicine. Racial segregation and racial disparities show up in every single field in this country, especially the medical field. One day, ideally, Id run my own hospital as a Black woman and hire more Black physicians and Black nurses and Black healthcare workers. We need more of them. We need people that understand Black health. A hundred years ago, I couldn't have become a Black doctor, and now I can. I want to bring my passion for social justice reform and racial justice reform into that field.

In the future, I hope the NYPD is defunded. I hope that I'm living in a world where I feel safer as a Black woman and my kids feel safer being Black and walking around Black. I hope Im someone whos still confident, who's curious, and always ready to learn new things.

I hope I remember to take breaks, especially when there's a lot of momentum in the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm fighting a fight that I was never meant to fight in the first place. It's not my responsibility to dismantle white supremacy. But I still do it because I'm with millions of other Black people across this country. Whether my future self is fighting for political reform or working in a hospital, I hope I remember to be present and allow myself to rest.

These responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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These Teen Black Lives Matter Activists Are Writing the Future - ELLE.com

*This post was updated on Monday, July 20, at 4:10 p.m.

The recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black individuals during encounters with law enforcement officers sparked protests and renewed calls for police reform in cities throughout the U.S.

Demands to "defund the police" have become part of mainstream discussions about police brutality, with people calling for new ways to protect and defend that don't involve the use of deadly force, especially in communities of color.

Supporters say reallocated funds could go toward improving and expanding social services, thereby relieving pressure on police officers to handle calls that do not immediately require violence.

I think that what I want people to understand is the police don't enact the law. They are trained to do and enforce the law that the government set, said Ron DeLord, attorney and founder of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas.

This reimagining of public safety responsibilities also includes the demilitarization of police departments, updated deescalation practicies and implicit bias training, as well as funding towards services which address the root causes of many crimes poverty, mental illness and addiction.

DeLord said he believes the death of George Floyd has been a tipping point for the defund the police movement.

It's bigger than let's, you know, fire all the Minneapolis police and start over and change their name, he said. That's got the United States to stop and think about the systemic racism that's built into our criminal justice system. It falls so heavily on people of color in poor people in our justice system in our jails.

In June, the City of San Antonio held threelistening sessionsafter hundreds took to the streets for days on end to demand justice for victims of police brutality and advocate for change.

Other Texas cities including Houston and Austin started dialogues about policing amid the social upheaval. There's been some movement on the state level, as well. Will these conversations and proposals amount to real change?

Policy proposals include increasing accountability for officers and taking power back from unions; demilitarizing police departments and prioritizing deescalation over use-of-force tactics; making public safety budgeting a transparent and public process; community policing and more.

What does real police reform look like? What's the difference between abolition and reformation of police? What would San Antonio look like if SAPD was abolished?

How are police departments' budgets allocated and who is involved in the process? How much money usually goes to training officers and to measure improvement?

How integral are police unions to successfully reforming the status quo? What are the justifications for policies and tactics considered problematic by those advocating for change?

What services and departments are being proposed to work in conjunction with law enforcement? How would community policing work in practice? What is the public safety impact of these models?

How have other cities attempted to reform their police departments and what can we learn from the results? What policies are shown to improve police-community relations and reduce the risk of violence against people and communities of color?

Guests:

"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at(210) 615-8982. During the live show, call833-877-8255, emailthesource@tpr.org or tweet@TPRSource.

*This interview was recorded on Monday, July 20.

TPR was founded by and is supported by our community. If you value our commitment to the highest standards of responsible journalism and are able to do so, please consider making yourgift of support today.

Excerpt from:

Is It Time To Rethink Policing In America? - Texas Public Radio

In recognition of Emancipation Day, CBChas announceda series of specials this summer highlighting works by Black Canadians, including an encore presentation of the screen adaptation of the bestselling novelThe Book of Negroes.

Observed in Canada on Aug. 1, Emancipation Day commemorates the abolition of slavery across the British Empire.

The Book of Negroes, a six-part miniseries,will receive an encore broadcast as a three-night special event, Sunday, July 26 through Tuesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem.

Based on the award-winning 2007 novel of the same name by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill,the story is a portrayal of the brutal realities of the slave trade told through one woman's life.

Aminata Diallo is kidnapped from her village in Niger and brought to South Carolina to work as a slave at the age of 11. After eventually winning her freedom, Diallo goes on to face decades of struggle and adversity, but later becomes a driving force in the abolitionist movement in Britain.

The Book of Negroeswon Canada Reads2009, championed by Canadian filmmaker and journalist Avi Lewis. Its French translation version, Aminata, also won the French-language showLe combat national des livres in 2013.

The Book of Negroesreceived the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

The miniseries originally premiered on CBC in January 2015 and went on to win 10 Canadian Screen Awards.

Leading into the first night of The Book of Negroes, CBC will also feature news and arts programming starting at 6:30 p.m. ET (7 NT) with CBC Arts: Exhibitionists Reflection and Resistance hosted by broadcaster and writer Amanda Parris, dedicated to Black artists who are trying to create in the midst of an uprising.

Starting at7 p.m. ET (7:30 NT) on the first night, investigative journalist Asha Tomlinson will present a special hour including theCBC News special, Being Black in Canada, with exclusive new interviews and insights with Hill and the creators and cast of the miniseries.

CBC will also launch a new website called Being Black in Canada, which features the stories and experiences of Black Canadians, on July 26.

The Being Black in Canada website will showcase profiles, opinion pieces, video, audio and a range of work from across the CBC, including news, documentaries and arts.

CBC Arts will partnerwith Torontoactress, writer, director and producer Ngozi Paul and Emancipation Arts to present FREE UP!, the annual youth-led celebration of Emancipation Day featuring music, theatre, spoken word and dance.

Also in the entertainment lineup is Emmy Award-winning documentary series, Jackie Robinson, which tells the story of famed baseball player Jack Roosevelt Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era.

The series will air Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. ET (8:30 NT) on CBCTV and CBC Gem.

The Book of Negroes and Jackie Robinson are featured on the Black Stories Collection, a recently launched page on CBC Gem showcasing Black creators and stories from Canada and around the world.

Read the rest here:

CBC announces The Book of Negroes encore presentation and special programming to mark Emancipation Day - CBC.ca

Since the RCMP's earliest days, it has relied on Indigenous people for survival.

In the North, Canada's project of extending sovereignty over vast northern territories was made possible by the work of the RCMP and its Indigenous "special constables," who acted as guides and interpreters.

"Our special constables turned a lot of those RCMP members into men," said Gerry Kisoun, who joined the RCMP in 1971 as one of the last special constables, and served as a regular officer for more than 20 years.

But that shared history has not resulted in better treatment of Indigenous people.

In the North, critics say, members run out the clock on two-year stints isolated from the communities they serve, policing according to a model that has resulted in a large number of Indigenous people dying at their hands.

Increasingly, top officials, from the RCMP's commissioner to the prime minister, are recognizing the systemic racism that pervades the force.

Now, in the light of nationwide protests for police reform and abolition, pressure is mounting on the RCMP to devolve community safety to Indigenous communities, and reckon with their troubled history in the North.

"The policing [model] in the RCMP and the policing model in our Indigenous communities are diametrically opposed," said Gina Nagano, a Tr'ondk Hwch'in First Nation member who served with the RCMP from 1985 to 2006.

"Indigenous communities across Canada are waking up and saying ... 'We have a choice, and we're going to push back."

In the North, the RCMP has been both a source of pride and an agent of oppression.

As a child, Kisoun remembers hearing stories of RCMP officers' daring exploits on the land of the Mackenzie Delta, enabled by the work of the Indigenous guides who inspired him to first join the force. But he remembers darker stories too.

"Some of the other stories we heard was, you gotta listen to what the RCMP say, because they'll come into your house and scare the living daylights out of you," he said. "That if you don't send your kids to school, the RCMP are going to come along and throw you in jail."

Both Kisoun and Nagano said their own experience with the RCMP, growing up, was largely positive. RCMP officers were either locals, or well-integrated into the community, they said.

"We had great police officers in Dawson City that were posted there, and always participated in community events," said Nagano. "They were great role models."

But the view from inside the force was quite different.

"I grew up in a community where most of my friends were non-[Indigenous]," she said, "and I never really saw discrimination until I joined the RCMP."

"I was surprised to see it internally, and to have it that prevalent."

Nagano's experience was not unique. Margorie Hudson, an Ojibwe officer from Manitoba, has launched a class-action suit against the RCMP, alleging 31 years of discrimination by her colleagues.

Kisoun acknowledged he too experienced discrimination while on the job, but said "right now, that's neither here nor there."

But he did say the organization's history is a factor in the routine mistreatment of Indigenous officers and civilians.

"We're Indigenous, and we're going into something that was brought in by the Europeans," said Kisoun. "And sometimes, it's not an easy transition to go from where we are, to where they are.

"It takes a lot of work."

Both Kisoun and Nagano said that work is not any easier today, as the force has grown more disconnected from the northern communities it serves.

"The posting is two years," said Nagano. "It makes it really challenging for the RCMP officer to want to step out again and engage with the community."

"But vice-versa is, the citizens are seeing that all the time," she said. "They're seeing the change [and] inconsistency."

That affects trust, she said, and forces officers into "reactive policing" the kind of work where violent incidents are more common.

"If you break those barriers down, become part of the community, get to know the citizens. everything becomes proactive because the community wants to work with you."

Kisoun said it's not enough to have better community engagement at the end of the day, more northerners need to join the ranks.

"We have to have our own people involved as well," said Kisoun. "We have to see them out in those RCMP cruisers, doing the work in the community, keeping the peace."

Given several days, none of the northern RCMP detachments provided statistics on how many Indigenous people they employed.

To Nagano, the solution lies outside the RCMP. After leaving the force in 2006, she worked to establish Indigenous-run community safety programs at the Kwanlin Dn and Selkirk First Nations in Yukon.

The programs employ local First Nation members to conduct patrols and intervene in situations where police would normally be called. She said it made a big difference to interactions with police.

"Most of the time, when the community safety officers engaged with an individual, they knew who they were ahead of time," she explained. "They knew what family they belonged to, what clan they belonged to, and they had the ... understanding to approach it differently."

If someone requires intervention, she said, "we don't go to the probation officers. We go to grandma. We go to that elder in the community that will make that person accountable for their actions."

"It's not just a model for First Nations communities, it's a model that can work in any community. Who better to police the community than the citizens themselves?"

Nagano has a vision for rolling out this model across the country, but the barrier is a familiar one funding, and a lack of "political will" to make it happen.

"I think they see it as a threat," said Nagano. "They have already had something for 100 years. It's a challenge for them to see someone coming in with an alternative."

For his part, Kisoun is not holding his breath.

"There's lots of talk in regards to self-government and having your own policing," said Kisoun, "but that might take some time."

"As far as I'm concerned," he said, "I think that the RCMP will be here for a long, long, long time."

Excerpt from:

Former RCMP officers reflect on how to fix policing in the North - CBC.ca

Gerry Kisoun was one of the last special constables in the North, and served 20 years as a regular officer. He said RCMP officers need not be northerners, but must become part of the community. (Kate Kyle/CBC)Since the RCMPs earliest days, it has relied on Indigenous people for survival.

In the North, Canadas project of extending sovereignty over vast northern territories was made possible by the work of the RCMP and its Indigenous special constables, who acted as guides and interpreters.

Our special constables turned a lot of those RCMP members into men, said Gerry Kisoun, who joined the RCMP in 1971 as one of the last special constables, and served as a regular officer for more than 20 years.

But that shared history has not resulted in better treatment of Indigenous people.

In the North, critics say, members run out the clock on two-year stints isolated from the communities they serve, policing according to a model that has resulted in alarge number of Indigenous people dying at their hands.

Increasingly, top officials, fromthe RCMPs commissionertothe prime minister, are recognizing the systemic racism that pervades the force.

Now, in the light of nationwide protests for police reform and abolition, pressure is mounting on the RCMP to devolve community safety to Indigenous communities, and reckon with their troubled history in the North.

The policing [model] in the RCMP and the policing model in our Indigenous communities are diametrically opposed, said Gina Nagano, a Trondk Hwchin First Nation member who served with the RCMP from 1985 to 2006.

Indigenous communities across Canada are waking up and saying We have a choice, and were going to push back.Gina Nagano, former RCMP oficer

In the North, the RCMP has been both a source of pride and an agent of oppression.

As a child, Kisoun remembers hearing stories of RCMP officers daring exploits on the land of the Mackenzie Delta, enabled by the work of the Indigenous guides who inspired him to first join the force. But he remembers darker stories too.

Some of the other stories we heard was, you gotta listen to what the RCMP say, because theyll come into your house and scare the living daylights out of you, he said. That if you dont send your kids to school, the RCMP are going to come along and throw you in jail.

Both Kisoun and Nagano said their own experience with the RCMP, growing up, was largely positive. RCMP officers were either locals, or well-integrated into the community, they said.

We had great police officers in Dawson City that were posted there, and always participated in community events, said Nagano. They were great role models.

But the view from inside the force was quite different.

I grew up in a community where most of my friends were non-[Indigenous], and I never really saw discrimination until I joined the RCMP.Gina Nagano

I was surprised to see it internally, and to have it that prevalent.

Naganos experience was not unique. Margorie Hudson, an Ojibwe officer from Manitoba, haslaunched a class-action suit against the RCMP, alleging 31 years of discrimination by her colleagues.

Kisoun acknowledged he too experienced discrimination while on the job, but said right now, thats neither here nor there.

But he did say the organizations history is a factor in the routine mistreatment of Indigenous officers and civilians.

Were Indigenous, and were going into something that was brought in by the Europeans, said Kisoun. And sometimes, its not an easy transition to go from where we are, to where they are.

It takes a lot of work.

Both Kisoun and Nagano said that work is not any easier today, as the force has grown more disconnected from the northern communities it serves.

The posting is two years, said Nagano. It makes it really challenging for the RCMP officer to want to step out again and engage with the community.

But vice-versa is, the citizens are seeing that all the time, she said. Theyre seeing the change [and] inconsistency.

That affects trust, she said, and forces officers into reactive policing the kind of work where violent incidents are more common.

If you break those barriers down, become part of the community, get to know the citizens. everything becomes proactive because the community wants to work with you.

Kisoun said its not enough to have better community engagement at the end of the day, more northerners need to join the ranks.

We have to have our own people involved as well. We have to see them out in those RCMP cruisers, doing the work in the community, keeping the peace.Gerry Kisoun

Given several days, none of the northern RCMP detachments provided statistics on how many Indigenous people they employed.

To Nagano, the solution lies outside the RCMP. After leaving the force in 2006,she worked to establish Indigenous-run community safety programsat the Kwanlin Dn and Selkirk First Nations in Yukon.

The programs employ local First Nation members to conduct patrols and intervene in situations where police would normally be called. She said it made a big difference to interactions with police.

Most of the time, when the community safety officers engaged with an individual, they knew who they were ahead of time, she explained. They knew what family they belonged to, what clan they belonged to, and they had the understanding to approach it differently.

If someone requires intervention, she said, we dont go to the probation officers. We go to grandma. We go to that elder in the community that will make that person accountable for their actions.

Its not just a model for First Nations communities, its a model that can work in any community. Who better to police the community than the citizens themselves?Gina Nagano

Nagano has a vision for rolling out this model across the country, but the barrier is a familiar one funding, and a lack of political will to make it happen.

I think they see it as a threat, said Nagano. They have already had something for 100 years. Its a challenge for them to see someone coming in with an alternative.

For his part, Kisoun is not holding his breath.

Theres lots of talk in regards to self-government and having your own policing, said Kisoun, but that might take some time.

As far as Im concerned, he said, I think that the RCMP will be here for a long, long, long time.

Canada: Quebec Inuit org. calls lack of police, justice reform ticking catastrophe in modern times, Eye on the Arctic

Finland:Police response times up to an hour slower in Arctic Finland, Yle News

Sweden:Film exploring racism against Sami wins big at Swedish film awards, Radio Sweden

United States:Lack of village police leads to hiring cops with criminal records in Alaska: Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media

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Former officers from Canadian police reflect on how to fix policing in the North - Eye on the Arctic

On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel to invade the fledgling democratic south. Amidst changing borders, victories, and defeats, hundreds of thousands of Koreans from the North escaped to the South in the hopes of finding freedom. Two of these refugees were my grandfathers.

My maternal grandfather grew up in Pyongyang (the modern-day capital of North Korea), during its occupation by Imperial Japan. In his early years, he attended a high school founded by Christian missionaries. At the outbreak of the Korean War, my grandfather and his siblings were forced to flee, leaving their parents behind. During his perilous journey to the South, my maternal grandfather lost contact with his siblings, most of whom he never saw again. Near the end of his life, he was reunited with his sister, from whom he was separated for more than forty years. He was never reunited with any other members of his immediate family. When asked about why he escaped to the South, my grandfather would reply, I wanted to be free to worship God.

My paternal grandfather was an industrious man. Born in the Jeolla province during the Japanese occupation, he traveled to Manchuria to seek work and support his family. After working in manufacturing, he migrated to Russia, Japan, and, eventually, what is now North Korea. During this time, he taught himself to be proficient in Korean, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and English. Just before the war broke out, he worked in a fertilizer factory in the city of Hamhung, which is still in operation today. Having heard that communist troops were approaching, he joined other refugees to escape to South Korea. When asked why he chose to escape, he said, The communists wanted to shut down factories and businesses. I want to live in a capitalist society.

Growing up, I heard my grandfathers escape stories from my parents and grandmothers. My maternal grandfather recounted one time when he was fleeing North Korean troops and heard a voice telling him, Leave the group! Come behind the bushes! Grabbing one of his family members, he ran behind the bush and hid, listening to the shrieks of innocent civilians being slaughtered by communist forces. Another time, my maternal grandfathers life was saved by the thick, family Bible he was carrying. Similar stories of violence and brutality are shared by other refugees, who said that communist soldiers would single out Christians and publicly humiliate, torture, and kill them. These experiences are captured in the 2010 South Korean film, One Step Forward. Even today, according to the non-profit group, OpenDoorsUSA, If North Korean Christians are discovered, they are deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot.

The effects of the proletarian revolution were not limited to the Korean peninsula. Some of Karl Marxs stated goals for the socialist revolution outlined in The Communist Manifesto were to abolish property in land, abolish rights of inheritance, and confiscate the property of rebels or counter-revolutionaries. To realize this massive forced transfer of wealth, socialist revolutionaries often resorted to compulsory re-education and mass executions. In Maoist China, 200,000 to 800,000 farmers were systematically executed, while millions were sent to labor camps, according to Frederic Teiwess book Establishment of the New Regime. In Vietnam, 13,500 farmers were executed from 1954-1956. The number of those executed by the vanguard of the socialist revolution does not even include the 3.2 million people who starved to death during the Ukrainian famine, the 45 million people who died in the famines during Maos Great Leap Forward, and countless millions who perished due to the failure of socialist state policies.

Disturbingly, despite the plethora of historical examples of socialist brutality, similar behaviors and ideologies are emerging in Americas left. Many of our leaders, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), are calling for an unprecedented redistribution of wealth. Others, like media pundit Chris Cuomo, are justifying the immoral theft and anarchic destruction of private property in the name of racial justice. Meanwhile, minority business owners like Lucy Hosley, who worked their whole lives to honestly achieve the American Dream, bear the costs. This past Saturday, Lilith Sinclair, the leader of Portland Black Lives Matter, stated the group was organizing not only for the abolition of the militarized police state but also the abolition of the United States of America as we know it. These Marxists not only demand the abolition of the police whom minorities want to protect their communities, but also wish to erode the protection of private property, freedom of thought, and religious liberty. For centuries, these core values have motivated millions of people to come to America and gave them the security to innovate, work, and prosper.

It is not easy to succeed in a capitalist society. The experiences of my grandfathers demonstrate that, while difficult, achieving this success was possible through determination and ingenuity. After the Korean War, my maternal grandfather started a small business, as a craftsman and mechanic, manufacturing water valves and even making furniture for the Korea University Law School. He also served as an elder at YoungAhm Presbyterian Church. My paternal grandfather took on all sorts of jobs to ensure his family was taken care of. He owned a bicycle shop, made Western clothing as a tailor, and tended his land as a farmer. Neither of my grandfathers retired. Both of them worked hard each day, knowing that capitalism would allow their children and grandchildren to pursue greater ambitions.

There are clear challenges and problems our nation must deal with. And of course, we will have to work to ensure that all Americans have the opportunities to succeed. However, socialism is not the solution. Socialist revolutions have deprived millions of people of their basic freedoms and opportunities to succeed. Capitalism, on the other hand, has allowed me, the grandson of two war refugees, to immigrate to this country, attend Cornell University, and tell the story of two remarkable men who fled murderous oppression in pursuit of freedom.

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My Family Escaped Socialism: Here's Why You Should Be Concerned - The Cornell Review

As people across North America protested police brutality and racism in late May, three nursing PhD candidates at Dalhousie University saw the need for nurses to take a stand.

So, Keisha Jefferies, Leah Carrier, andMartha Paynter came together to write a letter in early June. The letter called on nurses across the country to join the movement for police and prison abolition.

We feel its really necessary for our profession, if we are truly champions for public health, to confirm that by joining the movement, said Paynter in an interview Wednesday.

In the letter, the three friends highlight the ways in which police and prison are harmful.

In prisons, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour are disproportionately incarcerated and consequently bare what the letter refers to as the horror of prisons: isolation, restraints, infection, and injury.

To seek care while in prison requires compliance with traumatizing security protocols strip searching, observation, violations of confidentiality, the letter said.

The three colleagues believe nursing is a trusted and respected profession with a huge platform to advocate for communities experiencing harm.

Paynter said its also in the nature of nurses to intervene for the sake of their patients whether it was by administering medication or IV fluids.

What were saying is nurses need to adopt political interventions to change the course of social harm, she said.

The nurses also touched on the role of the police in the deaths of DAndre Campbell, who was shot by police in April in Ontario, and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who fell from a Toronto balcony in May. The letter said the consequences of policing and prison challenge the efforts of nurses to provide care to their communities.

We will not have our work undone by police and prison systems, the letter reads.

The letter said any investment in reforming the police would be futile. Instead, governments should be investing in areas such as housing, education, and social assistance.

Why arent we deeply troubled by how the tables have turned to frankly dump money into policing, when policing does not work to eliminate harm? said Paynter.It actually creates not just harm but death in our communities.

Nurses are not the answer to the issue of policing, according to Paynter. But they can play a role in building public services that maintain the well-being of communities.

When these services are available, Paynter said policing and prisons would become unnecessary.

This is what she expects would happen if drugs were decriminalized.

Last week, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police released a statement to call on federal lawmakers to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.

Paynter said the police shouldnt be championed for making the move this late. But if drugs were decriminalized nurses can help keep people safe by facilitating access to safe substances and providing all care thats associated with substance use.

While supporting community-based efforts to abolish policing is a priority for the three registered nurses, their letter also urges nurses in North America to start from within.

(We should) simultaneously be looking inward to see how our profession operates in a way that uses punishment and exclusion and discrimination in its operations, said Paynter.

Paynter gave an example for how nurses can be complicit in oppressing Black, Indigenous, and people of colour.

Nurses are taught to have really racist ideas about pain and policing access to pain relief based on those racist assumptions.

After releasing the letter in June, Paynter said about 1,000 people signed it. It was also translated into French, German, and Spanish.

But when she sent the letter to several nursing organizations across Nova Scotia and Canada, Paynter said she received no endorsements.

Our profession really struggles with divorcing itself from policing even though the evidence is clear that police brutality is one of the greatest infrastructures of systemic racism in this country, said Paynter.

She added that nursing organizations can start their fight against racism by increasing representation of Black, Indigenous and people of colour on their boards.

The letter Jefferies, Carrier, and Paynter wrote was published Wednesday in Public Health Nursing, a peer-reviewed journal.

Paynter said change is happening in policing and the nursing practice, but it needs to continue moving.

I envision nurses as really key leaders in a movement forward where police and prison do not exist.

Nebal Snan is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, a positionfunded by the federal government.

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Why nurses are joining the call for policing and prison abolition - Cape Breton Post

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) An exhibit featuring artwork by inmates, some of whom are on death row, opened Saturday at Bopiliao Historic Block in Taipei.

Twenty-two calligraphy works and Chinese paintings produced by 15 inmates are being displayed at the exhibit, titled "Not Who We Were," organized by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP).

TAEDP wants to change the public impression of inmates, which is usually fixed at the moment they committed their crime.

"What this exhibit wants to signify is everyone can change," Lin Hsin-yi (), executive director of TAEDP said during the simple opening ceremony.

"Maybe we can't say every death row convict has become a better person, but the possibility of change is always there," she said, urging the government and the public to consider alternatives to the death penalty.

Guests included Beatrice Latteier, deputy director of the Trade Office of Swiss Industries; Chiu I-ling (), secretary-general of Amnesty International Taiwan; and Chen Chun-hung (), director of the National Human Rights Museum (NHRM).

"No scientific evidence has been produced to date to prove that the death penalty acts as a greater deterrence to potential offenders than other severe punishments," Latteier said in her remarks.

While acknowledging that it is a long process for societies to come to see the death penalty as a violation of human rights, Latteier stressed that educational work, debates and relevant projects are important to raise such awareness.

The exhibit is the brainchild of Cheng Hsing-tse (), who spent 14 years on death row accused of killing a police officer in 2002. He was freed in 2017 after evidence showing his innocence was accepted by the high court.

Aside from artwork, the organizer also recreated in the exhibit site a mock prison cell for death row prisoners, which is usually only 4.5 square meters, with a video projection that shows the daily routine of a prisoner inside the cell.

The exhibit will run until July 26, before moving to Miaoli County from Aug. 1-9 and, Tainan City from Aug. 22 to Sept. 3.

According to data from Taiwan's Ministry of Justice, there are currently 38 death row prisoners awaiting execution, with the most recent execution carried out on April 1.

According to a survey released by National Chung Cheng University's department of criminology in February, 77.4 percent of respondents in Taiwan oppose the abolition of the death penalty.

Most other surveys in Taiwan also show popular support for keeping capital punishment as a way to provide justice for the victims and their families.

However, Lin told CNA that poll results vary depending on how survey questions are asked, citing research titled "For or against abolition of the death penalty: Evidence from Taiwan" by Chiu Hei-yuan (), a member of Taiwan's Academia Sinica, published in 2019.

(By Emerson Lim)

Enditem/AW

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Art exhibition featuring works by death row inmates opens in Taipei - Focus Taiwan News Channel