It begins with the systems the reinforcing systems, such as education, government, law enforcement and media. It begins with these influential institutions oppressing groups of people based on their identity while favoring members of the dominant group. Our systems are broken, still tinted by a painful past that we as a people, as a nation, must address by recognizing inequitable patterns and taking action to undo the systemic racism in our country. To do that, we need to use our voices by protesting and voting.

According to the National Equity Project, systemic oppression and its effects can be undone through recognition of inequitable patterns and intentional action to interrupt inequity and create more democratic processes and systems supported by multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual alliances and partnerships.

The recent protests in response to the death of George Floyd and police brutality have evolved into a nationwide movement against systemic racism. From big cities to small towns across the country and now the world, thousands of people gather and march to fight the broken systems and racial injustice in the United States. An article in the New York Times says these protests have achieved a scale and level of momentum not seen in decades.

Amidst the thousands of protesters, a particular sign stood out to me: The Power of the People is Stronger than the People in Power. The message comes from a memoir written by Wael Ghonim, a key figure behind the Egyptian uprising in 2011, that narrates how the power of crowds can create political change. These encouraging words are a reminder that we have the ability to translate our voices into action. Now more than ever, we must use that power by listening, learning and voting.

Across American streets and plazas, that power is amplified by protesters. During the protest in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, June 6, Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement co-founder and rally leader Mokah Jasmine Johnson brought her 18-year-old daughter, Daelynn White, on stage to speak.

We are one of the most diverse nations, and our government does not look that way, White said. Educate yourself If yall arent voting, how is there going to be any change?

Voices are already being heard as the protests begin to initiate policy changes. House Democrats proposed a police reform package on June 8, which includes banning chokeholds and incentivizing state and local governments to conduct racial bias training for officers. On Monday in Georgia, the General Assembly re-opened with a bipartisan call to pass hate crimes legislation. However, with a president who criticizes protesters on Twitter and exerts control with threatening rhetoric, our country lacks the political leadership we need to change the broken systems.

It changes with the people the people who collectively act to interrupt and undo the systemic oppression in our country by peacefully protesting, listening and voting. We should not live in a system that oppresses people because of their racial identity. Keep lifting your signs and raising your voices because activism is seeping into action, and we as a people have the power to stop the injustice that bleeds from the cracks in our systems.

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OPINION: We need to use our voices to stop systemic oppression - Red and Black

By Roger D. HarrisFrom Corte Madera, California

The police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th was the spark that ignited the tinder of accrued injustice throughout the US and globally. This injustice has deep antecedents in the US and indeed in much of what is now called the Global South. There is a shared history of colonial conquest of the Indigenous and the abominable institution of the enslavement of African peoples.

What happened has its roots in systemic oppression that has resonated internationally. Just as the police suffocated George Floyd, US unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Zimbabwe, and nearly one third of humanity are designed to asphyxiate those nations which aspire to pursue an independent course.

International Movement Erupts

Defying coronavirus restrictions on public assembly, people are amassing in solidarity.

This historic alliance of the Movement for Black Lives with the oppressed abroad goes back to their 2016 founding document, which then characterized Israel as an apartheid state, condemned US backing for the settler genocide against Palestinians, and supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement against Israel.

Linking Home and Abroad

The militarization of the US domestic police is bringing home the practices that the government perfected in suppressing popular expressions for self-determination abroad. The USs closest international partner, Israel, is a master of abusive police practices against its own Palestinian population. Development of those practices, partly funded by the US, are then imported back to the US. Over 100 Minneapolis police received training from Israeli law enforcement officers along with other police departments across the country.

Newsweek describes how Americas police became an army. Under the 1033 Program, military equipment is transferred to the domestic police, who are then mandated to use the equipment as a condition of the program.

While the police have been shooting rubber bullets and teargas at demonstrators in the homeland, the US military deployed a so-called Security Force Assistance Brigade to Colombia. As the worlds policeman, the US has some 800 formal military bases internationally; no other country has more than a handful of foreign bases.

Budgets for both domestic police and the US military are obscenely inflated and continue to grow, receiving bipartisan support. The Black Lives Matter movement questions whether either of these armed forces police and military truly serve or protect us. When Hurricane Katrina flooded poor African American neighborhoods in New Orleans, people were left to die stranded on rooftops while the police and the National Guard guarded private property.

Amid the current pandemic, ordinary people are experiencing punishing austerity with the worst yet to come. While the US Fed is doling out hundreds of billions of dollars daily at a 1/10 of one percent interest rate practically free money to the banks, the average US citizen is saddled with average credit card penalty interest rates of just under 30%. Who is doing the real looting?

Likewise, payments of unjust debt mostly accrued by US-backed military dictatorships to vulture capitalists from the US and other wealthy countries are stealing the livelihoods of the peoples of Argentina and other nations saddled with socially unsustainable debt burdens.

More people are behind bars in the US than anywhere else in the world, largely due to the so-called war on drugs, which in fact is a war on the most vulnerable and a pretext for the deployment of coercive means of social control. Black and brown people are targeted for arrest, adjudication, and imprisoned disproportionately compared to their numbers in the general population. The NAACP reports African Americans are imprisoned at five times the rate of whites. While poor communities in the US, particularly those of color, are suffering from the plague of drugs, the primary world source of cocaine is the US client state of Colombia and the primary world source of heroin is US-occupied Afghanistan.

Delegitimization of American Exceptionalism

President Obama unequivocally exclaimed: I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. In another speech, he proclaimed: [W]hat makes us the envy of the world[is] the fact that weve given everybody a chance to pursue their own true measure of happiness. Thats who we are.

Thats not who we are, and the chant no justice, no peace is exposing that to the world. American exceptionalism is the ideological construct used to extol American world leadership based on the vision that the US is uniquely just and therefore has an obligation to endow the rest of the world with its freedom. As George Floyds niece Brooke Williams asked, when has America ever been great?

The US leads the world in incarceration of its own people, in consumption of addicting illicit drugs, in military and police spending, and in foreign military bases. No one elected the US to impose its full spectrum dominance on the globe. With the internationalization of the Black Lives Matter movement, this justifying ideology is being challenged, delegitimizing the US imperial project.

The internationalization of the protests reflects an understanding that it is the same US imperialist knee on the neck at home and abroad. Martin Luther Kings indictment that the United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, rang true in 1967 and ever more so now. Appropriately, the movement around Black Lives Matter, which has engaged the popular classes in what Che called the belly of the beast, has taken international prominence signifying that where there is oppression, there will be resistance.

As activist and lawyer Mark P. Fancher observes, resistance is global. International solidarity among the oppressed has a long tradition and is gathering momentum based on the understanding there is one struggle for justice with many fronts. No justice, no peace is being heard around the world.

Roger D. Harris is Associate Editor at COHA and also part of the Task Force on the Americas, a human rights group working in solidarity with the social justice movements in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1985.

[Main photo-credit:Patricio Zamorano/COHA.org]

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Black Lives Matter is International: Where there is oppression, there will be resistance - Council On Hemispheric Affairs

In recent weeks, the central messages of the Black Lives Matter movement have been hijacked in mainstream media and political discourse. We're discussing issues that do nothing to address the inequalities that black people have been highlighting; debates have raged following the removal of statues of slave traders and the cancellation of racially offensive television shows; MPs have expressed their indifference towards the global push against anti-blackness.

I welcome discussions about what should and should not occupy our public spaces black Britons should not have to live their lives under the gaze of those who enslaved their ancestors but the focus on individual television shows and statues risks embroiling the Black Lives Matter movement in an unnecessary "culture war", diverting attention away from their central aim: the liberation of black lives through the dismantling of oppressive power structures.

The UK governments response to Black Lives Matter movement has been laughable. Instead of engaging with these issues in sincere ways, it has displayed a distinct lack of sensitivity and urgency.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, and his belief that the Black Lives Matter movement is simply born of "restlessness", or that taking a knee in support of it, is akin to "subjugation", or indeed that the act itself originates from Game of Thrones is just one, thoroughly disappointing example.

Boris Johnson's choice to order yet another commission on racial inequality the announcement of which was buried in a piece for The Telegraph about Winston Churchill and statues, laying bare the prime ministers priorities is another. And that's without mentioning the many other public figures in the UK who have contributed to the deluge of insensitive reactions to this resurgence of anti-racist campaigning.

How many more commissions and inquiries are required before the government takes decisive action? From the Lammy Review, Race Disparity Audit, Baroness McGregor-Smith review and the Independent review of the Windrush Scandal to name a few, we have had so many now that they are beginning to lose meaning. In three years, there have been eight reviews looking at the impact of race or racial inequality the government has created a culture of inquiries and inertia.

Previous reviews have provided a thorough overview of the racial inequalities that exist across various areas of British life. Why not act on those clear recommendations? Systemic racism is a matter of life and death; the governments inaction appears to be an attempt to kick the issue into the long grass.

In what seems to be another cynical ploy to minimise anti-black racism, Johnson has also made clear his intentions for the commission to focus on the disadvantages faced by white working-class boys. While there is no denying the disadvantages white working-class boys face, centring them in an inquiry that was set up to look at the issues of racial inequality at a time when anti-black racism is on the global agenda, will only serve to muddy the waters and conflate the issues faced by the different marginalised groups. There's also the glaring issue of the fact that problems faced by the white working class have very little to do with race, and much more to do with class itself. Nevertheless, it's a common device often framed by politicians and sections of media as the result of increased immigration or diversity, in an attempt to pit groups against each other.

Moreover, the racialisation of the working-class as exclusively white eliminates the experiences of other ethnic minority groups. This was evident during the media coverage and political debates in the lead up to the 2016 EU Referendum where there was a renewed focus on how one part of a cross-section of groups who've been affected by a mixture of austerity, Brexit, the hostile environment and now lockdown, were "left behind". As the Runnymede Trust's "Who Cares About The Working Class?" paper suggests, "By presenting the white working class in ethnic terms, as yet another cultural minority in a (dysfunctional) multicultural Britain, commentators risk giving a cultural reading of inequality, focusing on the distinctive cultural values of disadvantaged groups, rather than looking at the bigger picture of how systematic inequality generates disadvantage."

Protesters confront police in Whitehall near Parliament Square, London. The Democratic Football Lads Alliance and far-right organisations gathered to protect statues following Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Worldwide protests have taken place following the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, who was killed on 25 May after an officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes, while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis.

PA

People threw bottles and other missles at police throughout the protests

AFP via Getty

Reuters

A man kicks a barrier

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PA

Protests took place in other places in the UK, like Bolton

SWNS

PA

Getty

Many broke through barriers in attempts to reach Black Lives Matter protesters in Trafalgar Square

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Protesters confront police in Whitehall near Parliament Square, London. The Democratic Football Lads Alliance and far-right organisations gathered to protect statues following Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Worldwide protests have taken place following the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, who was killed on 25 May after an officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes, while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis.

PA

People threw bottles and other missles at police throughout the protests

AFP via Getty

Reuters

A man kicks a barrier

Getty

PA

Protests took place in other places in the UK, like Bolton

SWNS

PA

Getty

Many broke through barriers in attempts to reach Black Lives Matter protesters in Trafalgar Square

Getty

Getty

Including white working boys in a review on racial inequality, therefore, makes absolutely no sense, as they are not discriminated against on the basis of their whiteness. Britains history, let us not forget, is intimately tied to white supremacy and the anti-black systems of oppression that exist today can be traced back centuries to Britain too. Remember, the money borrowed to compensate slave traders for the Slavery Abolition Act was only paid off by taxpayers in 2015.

Worse yet, this new commission will be headed by Munira Mirza, the director of the No 10 Policy Unit, who is sceptical about the existence of structural racism. It will also reportedly be overseen by Kemi Badenoch, who, this month, also dismissed the extent of racism in the UK. But structural racism is not, as Mirza has claimed in the past, a perception more than a reality; it has been evidenced by the various audits and inquiries on racial inequality in recent years and by the lived experiences of ethnic minorities in the UK.

Instead of writing articles eulogising Winston Churchill, the prime minister should come up with a clear policy plan that seeks to make the radical changes we need.

Those on the sharp end of systemic racism and state violence are not concerned with the cancellation of television shows or further inquiries that will at best tell us what we already know. What we really want is the systems of oppression undergirded and sustained by white supremacy to be dismantled. Our lives matter, it cannot be right that black people are still being killed just because of the colour of their skin. We are sick of platitudes and demand action so things can change.

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The government knows exactly what its doing by focusing on white working-class boys instead of anti-black racism - The Independent

I have mentioned before that as my dad was a devout Catholic, we girls were educated at the Bar Convent in York. We were taught how important Mary Ward was in our schools story, but to be honest, back then the teenage me didnt really appreciate just what a brave pioneer she was.

She was born in Ripon in 1585 at a time when girls were not educated and it was extremely dangerous to be a practising Catholic. She wasnt afraid to stand up for what she believed in, a trait which ran in the family. Two of her maternal uncles, John and Christopher Wright, were shot in 1605 for their involvement in the Gunpowder Plot to overthrow Protestant King James I and his government.

Mary has been described as a typical Yorkshire woman, being straight-talking and determined, yet blessed with unshakeable good humour. Her faith meant everything to her, and although she wanted to be a nun, she hated the idea of having to live a quiet, contemplative life, which was the only option available.

She sought the kind of existence enjoyed by her male counterparts which was serving God by travelling the world, teaching and spreading the faith. She entered an enclosed convent in Flanders but within a couple of years the charismatic Ward had gathered round her a supportive band of women and in 1609, at the tender age of 24, she established her own religious institution and began openly teaching local girls.

Her school was immediately popular, and over time Mary established schools and communities all over Europe. The Catholic establishment was outraged and declared her a heretic, and she was even imprisoned for nine weeks, and yet she remained undeterred.

On her release, she secured an audience with the progressive Pope Urban VIII and her impassioned plea to allow nuns to practice the ministry in the open, and to educate girls, won him over. She was cleared of heresy and even allowed to set up a school in Rome itself.

Ill health brought Mary back to York in 1639, and she died in 1645. She left behind a band of followers eager to continue her legacy. Such a person was Frances Bedingfield, another very brave woman who in 1686 built a school on land just outside York city walls.

It was still a very dangerous time to be a Catholic and the house was designed in such a way as to disguise the activities going on within. To blend in outside the convent, instead of wearing habits, the nuns wore plain grey dresses which were the fashion of the day. Nevertheless, the school was raided several times by the authorities, and Frances Bedingfield was even imprisoned for her actions.

The beautiful chapel that lies at the heart of what is now the Bar Convent Museum was built in 1769 at a time when Catholic places of worship were still illegal.

Eight exits were included in the design should the congregation need to flee in a hurry, and its beautiful domed ceiling was hidden by a plain slate roof. From the outside, it was impossible to see that a chapel was there at all.

Another unique feature was a priest hole, hidden under the floor so that the celebrant could hastily conceal himself should it ever be necessary. The priest hole is still there and can be seen by visitors to the chapel.

Priest holes began to appear in the latter part of the 16th century when the penalty for shielding a Catholic priest was death, as my dad mentions in his column from June 21, 1980.

It was an era when many great houses were built, extended or modernised, and wealthy Catholics seized the opportunity to incorporate secret hiding places behind walls, wooden panelling and even within the chimneys of their huge inglenook fireplaces.

There is a priest hole at Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, which has been home to the Catholic Ingilby family for the past 700 years, and yet it was so well concealed that it was only discovered in 1963 while the building was being inspected for death watch beetle.

Id like to give the last word to the courageous lady who sparked this piece, Mary Ward. She was several centuries ahead of her time when she declared in 1617: I hope in God it will be seen that women in time will do much.

Read more at countrymansdaughter.com. Follow me on Twitter @countrymansdaug

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COLUMN: Bravely warding off oppression - Gazette & Herald

Protesters waves flags in a shopping mall during a demonstration in Hong Kong on June 15, 2020.

Vincent Yu/The Associated Press

Robert Falconer is a research associate in immigration and refugee policy at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. Ai-Men Lau is a communications officer at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Canada is limited in the ways it can respond to the bully tactics of larger countries such as the Peoples Republic of China. Yet as it confronts Chinas heavy-handed attempt to quash the autonomy it had promised Hong Kong, Ottawa is not without levers of influence. One policy tool that Canada should immediately deploy is our immigration, refugee and asylum system.

As governments worldwide closed their countries borders, and as the United Nations suspended its refugee program, a more subtle trend emerged: an uptick in the number of Hong Kongers claiming asylum. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 25 Hong Kongers have claimed asylum in the first three months of 2020; unofficial sources suggest the number may be as high as 46. While thats still a relatively small number, it represents a six-year high for Canada in just three months. Regardless of the choices Canada makes, we are likely to see record-high levels of people from Hong Kong fleeing here to seek refuge when international travel fully resumes.

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Our asylum system is particularly well-suited to receiving claims from Hong Kong. It includes the ability to streamline cases from countries with well-established human-rights abuses, where asylum seekers have reliable forms of identification, and where the evidence is not ambiguous regarding the risks they face for holding an adverse political opinion or for opposing the current government.

Choosing to welcome those seeking asylum is not only the right thing to do but has practical benefits as well. It might seem odd to make a utilitarian argument in favour of asylum, and indeed, if all policy-makers and politicians were angels, such a justification would not be necessary. But there is a compelling case to be made for a renewed Canadian foreign policy that considers the role immigration and refugee status plays in our national security and response to foreign competitors. As the Peoples Republic seeks to impose its will on Hong Kong, an open refugee policy is one that permits Hong Kongers to vote with their feet between an oppressive China or an open Canada.

The decision to welcome Hong Kongers as part of a robust foreign policy is not without precedent. Conservative governments in the 1970s and 80s understood that an open-door policy was one that would attract those with the greatest levels of dissatisfaction in the Soviet bloc. The arrival of refugees and immigrants during that time strengthened our economies and added linguistic diversity and cultural understanding to our law enforcement, military and intelligence communities.

The same applies to Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese fleeing oppression. Indeed, combatting the possibility of intellectual-property theft and industrial espionage is far more likely to be aided, rather than hampered, by recruiting from a population that shares similar cultural and linguistic characteristics and understands the methods of potential competitors. Above all, welcoming Hong Kongers aligns with Canadian democratic traditions standing against tyranny and welcoming the oppressed.

Granting asylum to Hong Kongers fleeing persecution from Beijing should not be a difficult task for this government, either. While the Trudeau government has shifted its tone regarding Canadas relationship with China, it has faltered when asked whether Canada will accept refugee claimants from Hong Kong. In contrast, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that Britain will allow 2.8 million Hong Kongers to live and work in Britain if China implements its national-security law on the former British colony. In response, the Chinese Communist Party regime has threatened Britain with vague consequences if it continues to meddle in an internal affair.

Granting asylum to Hong Kongers will force the federal government to recognize the well-established truth that China is a hostile actor, and doing so will signal to both the international community and China that Canada acknowledges that hard truth. Dealing with China is not a risk- or cost-free interaction. There are no other options, aside from total silence, that will not draw retaliation from Beijing, and it should be expected if Canada decides to grant asylum to claimants from Hong Kong. But the government needs to accept this reality, recognize the risks and rethink how to move forward. Granting asylum to Hong Kongers seeking to flee persecution is not only the right thing to do it is the Canadian thing to do.

For a government that prides itself on the principles of championing human rights, our inaction on Hong Kong remains a persistent dark stain.

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday urged opponents of Beijing's plan to impose national security legislation in the financial hub to stop "smearing" the effort, saying those who did were "the enemy of the people". Reuters

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Opinion: Canada has an unused card up its sleeve against China: our immigration system - The Globe and Mail

Recent revelations that the British government has been covertly diffusing its counterterrorism propaganda through the empowerment of women of colour on social mediais yet another reminder of where interests lie when it comes to the state.

When it feigns interest in the liberation of the oppressed, it is always, in one way or another, a ploy to further that oppression in a new way. This is yet another cautionary tale, and a reminder that we can only free ourselves by defeating the structures that oppress us.

Stoosh, an online space with both a Facebook page and Instagram account, was created in March 2017 by the communications company Breakthrough Media. While it presented itself as a social justice-minded platform for women of colour, it was contracted by a unit within the Home Office known as the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT).

Scrolling through and watching some of the short videos uploaded to Stooshs social media platforms, one is overwhelmed by the superficiality of its content. Each discussion that delves into the issues faced by women of colour, and particularly Muslim women, are incredibly shallow. They appear as an attempt at a sort of subconscious civilising mission - reinforcing good behaviour and punishing bad.

Depoliticised, interfaith-esque chat on inter-religious marriages, check! Vacant references to inspiring, good Muslim role models such as Malala Yousafzai, who confront barbaric Islamic terrorism, check! Examples of Western Muslim women taking on brown and Muslim patriarchy across their homelands, from Iran to Afghanistan, check! Calling out explicitly Muslim slut-shaming, check! The list goes on.

The entire set-up is a slick attempt at shaping the so-called ideal British Muslim identity

There is even an attempt to cover rising Islamophobia targeted at women after the Finsbury Park mosque attack, when the far-right inspired Darren Osborne drove a van into worshippers, taking the life of Makram Ali and injuring many more. Absent is any engagement with structural questions, such as the role of government policies in igniting the flames of hatred that embolden fascists and racists to take to the streets, where they physically and verbally attack Muslim women.

The entire set-up is a slick attempt at shaping the so-called ideal British Muslim identity. The diversity of those involved, the co-option of language - including use of the patois word stoosh (meaning superior) - and the use of famous figures from political and cultural platforms could fool anyone into thinking this was a space set up by and for young women of colour.

But thats just it - you would be forgiven for making such an assumption if you avoided delving too deeply into the content, or putting it into context.

The messaging mobilises a superficial language of empowerment. Given the centrality of this vacuous approach to so much media coverage and equality and diversity work that we find plaguing every place of employment, education and public service, it is easy to be taken in by it.

Yet, it is impotent in opposing oppression, because it fails to engage the violent history out of which it emerges - and it silences the necessary rage needed to fight racism, gendered Islamophobia and misogyny. The depoliticised nature of Stoosh is symptomatic of all areas of work delivered by our government in the name of helping the most marginalised.

UK counter-terror programme targeted BAME women using Instagram influencers

More unnerving than the whitewashing of the states own role in the oppression of Muslim women and women of colour, and even the co-option of their struggles, is the Home Office using this group to control expressions of resistance.

It reinforces the old racist trope and colonial strategy of women of colour being merely vessels for the policing of their community, the imposition of state-sanctioned narratives, and the disorganisation of liberation struggles.

Not dissimilar to imperialist white saviour missions across the Middle East, these practices highlight the foundations of the counter-extremism agenda. The state functions with little to no transparency, let alone scrutiny, and defends its interventions as noble, seeking to free Muslim women.

In reality, this is all predicated on the belief - which British imperialism and its institutions, such as the Home Office, accuse backwards Global South nations of having - that Muslim women and women of colour have no agency, and should they attempt to apply any, cannot be left to their own devices.

It flies in the face of the professed goal of the Stoosh Facebook page to promote a safe online environment for young women to tell their stories, taking ownership of their own narrative.

With Black Lives Matter uprisings around the globe, and as calls for justice and reparations against the wealthy and powerful continue to mount, we must be even more vigilant of state attempts to co-opt our movements. Thechallenges for radical anti-racism are also a battle over language, narrative and analysis. Our refusal to let the struggles of the most oppressed be packaged and sold by corporations, or institutionalised and depoliticised by the state, should be total.

As Nisha Kapoor, author of Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism, warned: In a world where politics is increasingly mediated via surveillance technologies, we should be very attentive to the ways in which government is using covert methods to discipline, manipulate and control the behaviour of young black women. Its ultimate intent is to promote ignorance, encourage docility and quash dissent.

This is also yet another reason for social justice movements, groups and individuals to strengthen broad coalitions that allow for the sharing of information, as well as methods of resistance

This is also yet another reason for social justice movements, groups and individuals to strengthen broad coalitions that allow for the sharing of information, as well as methods of resistance - especially given that this is not a first for the Home Office, which also used a platform known as This Is Woke.

The Home Office and its OSCT unit can try to rebrand the face and quotes of Angela Davis, but the very politics that saw her branded a terrorist by the US state, arrested, forced into hunger strike, and attacked throughout her life, teaches us to dismantle the counter-extremism apparatus - and the state that pushes it - in its entirety.

She taught us, and continues to teach us, that our liberation is only delivered through the systematic, difficult and unpopular method of grasping things at the root.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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The state is trying to co-opt Black and Muslim women's struggle - don't be fooled - Middle East Eye

Zoom has reversed its controversial decision to restrict access to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for some users and will now offer the feature to customers of both its free and premium services.

The video conferencing app said it had consulted with rights groups, child safety advocates, government representatives, encryption experts and its own CISO council to gather feedback.

We are also pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform, the firm's CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post yesterday.

This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe free and paid while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform.

Users of the free service will be required to authenticate in a one-off process with information such as their phone number, in order for the platform to reduce the mass creation of abusive accounts, Yuanadded.

The news came as rights groups, tech firms and internet users petitioned the firm to reverse its policy on E2EE.

They argued that E2EE is too important to be a premium feature, especially in the context of global protests against racial injustice and government oppression. The technologyprotects activists, journalists and other vulnerable parts of the population from government repression and surveillance, as well as from cyber-criminals, they said.

The campaigners also argued that want to disguise any malicious intent or illegal activity can simply pay for the premium service.

Yuan was reported saying on an analyst call earlier this month that the firm would not be offering free users E2EE because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose.

Mozilla welcomed the news. The tech non-profit,which wrote an open letter to Zoom earlier in the week signed by tens of thousands of internet users, argued that E2EE should always be the default setting, not a luxury.

We're heartened that Zoom listened to consumers, especially at a time when millions of people are relying on the platform to stay connected amid the pandemic and to organize in support of Black lives, it said in a statement.

Zooms decision is part of an emerging trend: Consumers are demanding more of the technology products and services they use every day. And companies are changing their products to meet these demands.

Link:

Zoom Will Offer End-to-End Encryption for All Users - Infosecurity Magazine

As protests continue across the U.S. in response to the murders of Black Americans, numerous statues and monuments linked to racism or oppression have either been removed by officials or taken a hit by protestors. In Tennessee, as in many other states, residents are currently asking for the removal of several Confederate statues. Some folks are even going as far as to ask for these statues to be replaced with one particular Tennessee icon: Dolly Parton.

A petition circulating on Change.org started by user Alex Parson asks that all Confederate statues in the state be replaced with Dolly Parton statues. The petition, which has almost met its signature goal of 15,000, will be sent to Governor Bill Lee, the Tennessee State House, and the Tennessee State Senate. Parson explains that the state is littered with monuments exalting Confederate officers, noting that "history should not be forgotten, but we need not glamorize those who do not deserve our praise." He suggests that the state swap out these statues in order to "honor a true Tennessee hero," Ms. Dolly Parton. As you may already know, the 74-year-old country singer was born and raised in Tennessee and still currently resides in the state. Tennessee is also home to her highly popular amusement park, Dollywood.

The petition goes on to explain why Parton is the perfect candidate: Parson notes that over the years, Parton has given millions of dollars to charities and organizations alike. Not only that, but her own foundation, the Dollywood Foundation, has provided books and scholarships to millions of American children. Most recently, the crooner donated $1 million to coronavirus research and started reading virtual bedtime stories to kids during the pandemic. "Dolly Parton has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away," the petition reads.

Many folks praised the idea in the petition's comment section. One user wrote "We need more statues of female trailblazers. And Dolly Parton is an incredible person!" Another added, "As a direct descendant of a Confederate general, I feel it's time for a change. We need to put racism behind us." While many seem enthusiastic about the idea, the fate of the statues ultimately lie in the hands of the Tennessee government. Let's hope they're bigger fans of Jolene than the Confederacy.

Want to learn more about statue removal? Read this preservationist's guide here.

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There's a Petition Asking Tennessee Officials to Replace Confederate Monuments With Dolly Parton Statues - HouseBeautiful.com

Hundreds of protesters stand at Daley Plaza to celebrate Juneteenth with live music, speeches and dancing.

Celebratory music from a marching band playing When the Saints Go Marching In could be heard from blocks away while close to a thousand protesters with vibrant signs for the One Million Man March made their way north on Dearborn Street to celebrate Juneteenth.

Ashley Michelle Munson, the lead organizer of the march held Friday, June 19, said she celebrates Juneteenth because it commemorates Black liberation. But she added that there is more work to be done because Black people are only free-ish in America, a reference to the ABC television show, Black-ish.

Today we are here to not only commemorate Juneteenththe day that marks the emancipation of all slaves in the Confederacywe are here to [take] a stand, she said.

The event started from 701 S. State St. and ended at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St. Friday was the official Juneteenth celebration, but other events were held across the city throughout the weekend.

Perla Vargas, an occupational therapy student at Lewis University said growing up in a small town of about 1,200 people, she was not taught Black history and learned about Juneteenth only a few years ago.

Vargas said she wants to be a part of the change in how the country addresses race relations and give a voice to those who could not physically attend the march.

A lot of people see posts and theyre like, Oh, just because I shared it, thats enough, but you have to be able to understand the background of that , Vargas said.

Juneteenthofficially celebrated on June 19celebrates the day the last enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas learned of their liberationmonths after the Civil War ended and two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.

However, Juneteenth is not an official federal holiday, nor is it a state or city holiday in Chicago. Alderperson Maria Hadden (49th Ward) introduced legislation to make it an official holiday in November 2019.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded to the proposal in a virtual Chicago City Council meeting Wednesday, June 17, and said the city could not afford to add an additional paid holiday. Rather, Lightfoot said, the city would honor and recognize the day and celebrate African American freedom and achievement, as reported by WTTW June 17.

In a Friday, June 19 press conference, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would work with the Illinois General Assembly to make Juneteenth an official state holiday. In his Juneteenth proclamation, Pritzker ordered all flags under state jurisdiction to fly at half-staff and urged Illinois residents to reflect on our history and our future.

Also on Friday, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle and other elected officials marched from Roosevelt and Columbus drives to Grant Park to celebrate the day.

In addition to demanding Juneteenth become an official holiday, Munson said she is pushing for equity in the education system and community investments, passing the Civilian Police Accountability Council ordinance and seeking reparations from the federal government among other social justice reforms.

She said the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and its proximity to Juneteenth has pushed Black people to come together to move forward and unite for greater strength.

Black people are tired, quite frankly, and so this is a culmination of people being tired and fed up, Munson said. This is a culmination of people from diverse backgrounds coming together for one simple reasonbecause Black lives matter.

Nadjah McLaurin, a recreational therapist and Naperville resident who attended the march with Vargas, said she attended the march to advocate for herself and the many other Black, Indigenous and people of color, or BIPOC, who continuously face abuse and oppression by the government.

Im fighting for my own life, fighting for my friends life, my familys life, she said. [Im] standing up for people who also dont have a voice that cant speak no more because of police brutality and oppression.

McLaurin said it is not Black peoples duty to educate others about racism. Instead, allies should take initiative and inform themselves. She also said there are many resources like books, podcasts and movies that can help.

Englewood resident Tanisha Peoples, one of the speakers at the march, said true liberation is colorblind, gender blind and label blind. But in order to reach full equality, she said White people need to be willing to sacrifice some of their privileges for Black people.

We got to make Black lives matter, she said. Black lives dont matter in America because talk is cheap, but history got receipts.

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One Million Man March celebrates Juneteenth with marching band and singing - Columbia Chronicle

Through mariachi, old-school cars, food and raffles, a local organization popped up in a West Long Beach neighborhood on Saturday morning to remind residents to fill out the 2020 census.

Dubbed Dads and Grads: Census Caravan, the event drew a few dozen people on Canal Avenue and Summit Street after a brief car caravan nearby Cabrillo High School, an immigrant community that has been historically undercounted.

I know that this area, because of the challenges of poverty and violence and suppression and oppression in this community, they have fear of being counted, they have fear of government, said Jessica Quintana, executive director of Centro CHA.

Organizers of the event, Centro CHA, a non-profit Latino human and social service agency, said that they also wanted to celebrate the Fathers Day weekend and the recent graduates of 2020.

To fill out the census, visit 2020census.gov.

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VIDEO: They have a fear of being counted: Local advocates hope to ease anxiety over Census - Long Beach Post

Encouraged by a decline in COVID-19 cases, governments around the world are starting to restore normalcy after months of lockdown. This emphasis on returning to normal has sparked debate, with some commentators arguing that a simple reset would underestimate the growing economic anxiety and social unrest thats been mounting since the 2008 financial crisis.

In December, a Washington Post piece called 2019 the year of the street protest. A return to normal could lead to further protests against neoliberalism and halt any hopes of near-term economic recovery. More recent protests against racial inequality, which began in the US and quickly prompted global outcries against the oppression of Black communities, further confirm that the old normal isnt enough.

As a result, entire sectors need to reimagine a more equitable post-COVID world order. This includes business schools, which train the very talent required to steward a more inclusive economy.

Business schools are no strangers to adaptation. In 2008, many schools made efforts to revamp the curriculum, most notably by adding courses on ethics, social impact, and sustainability in response to growing speculation about the ideas financial executives involved in the crisis were exposed to at business schools. Still, while well intended, these changes proved insufficient.

Today, the world reconciles with even deeper levels of inequality. Real wage growth has declined since 2008, fueling much discontent with economic elites who have seemingly failed to correct fractured economic systems.

As the world braces for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, business schools must go beyond offering peripheral courses on ethics and sustainability and instead integrate discussions into the curriculum that cut across class lines and examine the limits of shareholder capitalism.

Highlighting issues from unsafe labour practices to the absence of paid sick leave, COVID-19 is exacerbating class inequalities and exposing the deterioration of worker power.

However, business education is almost exclusively couched under the ideals of fiscal conservativism, which favours lower taxes and reduced government expenditure. Studies have found that economics students lean favourably to this world view.

And while graduate classes discuss the inadequate representation of women and minorities on corporate boards, there is little to no mention of issues that cut across class lines. Specifically, there are virtually no discussions related to minimum wage, labour unions, or how declining corporate tax revenue has fed into the decade-long austerity measures that have devastated working class communities in Europe and the US, many of which are still weathering the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. This is in stark contrast to the rising number of global protests, from the yellow vest movement in France to demonstrations across Latin America sustained by a shared sense of worker injustice.

By unwittingly creating parameters around thought and discussions, business schools predictably churn out graduates who lack the critical thinking and creativity required to reimagine fractured economic systemsand who are unable to reconcile with Einsteins famous words: No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.

By unwittingly creating parameters around thought and discussions, business schools predictably churn out graduates who lack the critical thinking and creativity required to reimagine fractured economic systems.

Business schools have long been criticized for promoting shareholder primacy. Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana argues that this problem dates back to the 1970s, when market fundamentalism took hold of business education. He posits that business schools bear responsibility for prioritizing shareholder primacy, arguing that the new logic of shareholder primacy absolved management of any responsibility for anything other than financial results.

A 2011 Brookings survey found that business school graduates are more likely to see shareholder value as the most important goal of the corporation. By perpetuating this viewpoint, business schools inadvertently validated excess greed and misconduct in the minds of budding young students who might not otherwise part ways with the ethical lapses of shareholder primacy.

In 2020, business is shifting away from shareholder primacy toward a more inclusive role in societyor stakeholder capitalism, the theme of the 50th Annual Meeting in Davos. The spread of COVID-19 has led to debates about what the new normal should look like, with some commentators arguing for an entirely new economic system. Sara Pantuliano, who heads the Overseas Development Institute, believes we wont get back to normal because normal was the problem, while UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres argues the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis must lead to a different economy. In perhaps the boldest call to action, the editorial team of the Financial Times pressed for radical reformssuch as basic income and wealth taxes.

This shift in sentiment will inevitably shape the role of business in the years to comeand will require business schools to similarly revamp their teachings to reflect this new world order. This means going beyond merely offering courses on ethics, sustainability, and social impact to integrating stakeholder capitalism principles into the curriculum. And this would require business schools to more openly speak about power, a concept that former U.S. Labour Secretary Robert Reich said business schools typically shy away from.

By shying away from power, business schools shifted the study of economics away from the political economywhich examines how economic principles intersect with government and societyin favor of a more neoclassical form largely divorced from reality and lending itself to highly inequitable outcomes.

Take, for example, the economic crash of 2008, which few economists saw coming and led many to question the substance of neoclassical economics. In the decades leading up to the crisis, the banking and financial sector lobbied the government to water down safeguards that would otherwise limit the impact of risky banking bets. This eventually amounted to millions losing their pensions and homes, with little to no accountability. The lens under which economics is currently studied is simply unable to account for this and is even less adept at fixing it. Mainstream economics is woefully ignorant to the growing influence and power of the private sector in government and how it shapes economic outcomes.

Practically, business schools should emphasize success metrics that span beyond stock prices and profit maximization. Alone, these metrics deflect critical attention away from the adverse implications of tax evasion, government subsidies, and other efforts that might lend to greater stock prices but cripple the capacity of public institutions and exacerbate economic inequity.

Furthermore, these schools can play a critical role in curating success metrics that account for worker rights and protections, such as health insurance, paid sick leave, and childcare, and that identify the misuse of corporate power. There is a clear role for business schools to advance metrics that acknowledge the intimate relationship between business, government, and society.

Following the 2008 financial meltdown, governments around the world sought to introduce regulations to limit the prospect of another crisis. However, these safeguards have since been watered down, leaving the global economy at risk of another shock. Anger toward the political and economic establishment has neared a point of no return, as communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19and racial injusticetake to the streets to demand greater action against centuries-old oppressive structures. Now, the world is facing an even larger economic downturn, the likes of which has not been seen since the Great Depression.

As academics attempt to diagnose the cause of economic anxiety, they are sometimes undermined by business schools, which unwittingly perpetuate the economic anxieties they seek to understand. And as the argument to bulldoze the business school becomes mainstream, now more than ever schools need to reflect on their core tenets. Doing so would acknowledge the societal impacts of business decisions and present measures that could meaningfully save democracies facing existential risks posed by the rise in economic populism.

This article was first published by Harvard Business Publishing.

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Abdullahi Alim, lead for the World Economic Forums Global Shapers community in Africa,

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Why business schools can't return to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic - World Economic Forum

The force that underpins the oppression of African Americans is the same force that underpins the oppression of Mori and Pasifika, writes Laura OConnell Rapira.

In honour of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and every other Black and brown life that has been taken from us by racism and racist institutions, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have taken to the streets to say #BlackLivesMatter.

We grieve for the lives that have been taken from us and we send our karakia and our aroha to their whnau and friends. We also pledge our commitment to do all that we can individually and collectively to build a world where Black and brown people are not killed because of white peoples racism.

A future where every single person regardless of the colour of their skin is safe and free. A future where police if they exist at all help people instead of harming them. A future where every Black person, every indigenous person, every disabled person, every trans person, every Black trans person, every queer person, every poor person, every Muslim, every refugee, every young person, every kaumtua, and every person of colour is honoured, valued, safe and free.

I believe this future is possible but only if people like us continue to use our power, our vision and our courage to make it so.

An armed police officer outside thuhu College on May 11, 2018 (Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Over the last nine months, I have had the good fortune of working with an incredible group of humans to stop the militarisation of police in Aotearoa. Last week the new police commissioner announced that the use of armed police would not continue. I mihi to Andrew Coster for that decision. When that announcement was made, a weight was lifted from our shoulders and hearts.

But I also think its important we acknowledge that decision was the result of months of passionate and dedicated campaigning from everyday people.

People like Josiah, Melissa and Guled, who launched and led a petition opposing armed police because they knew the racist history of policing toward Black, Mori and Pasifika communities, and wanted to prevent harm towards their whnau.

People like South Auckland councillor Efeso Collins who called out the trial immediately because he knew it was the people in his community who were put most at risk of being hurt or killed by police with guns.

Organisations like the Mental Health Foundation and JustSpeak, who published open letters calling for mental health and de-escalation first strategies instead of armed police.

People like the 1,155 Mori and Pasifika people who shared their stories and perspectives with ActionStation on the use of armed police: 78% of whom had experienced or witnessed racism from police and 92% of whom agreed we needed to prioritise mental health and trauma-informed responses over police with guns.

Black Lives Matter March For Solidarity in Auckland on June 1, 2020 (Photo: Jihee Junn)

Journalists like Mihingarangi Forbes and Mni Dunlop, who used their platforms to amplify those voices so that they were heard loud and clear in the halls of power.

People like Emmy Rkete and the Arms Down campaign, who organised over 4,000 people to make submissions or phone calls to stop the trial of armed police.

People like Muslim leader Anjum Rahman, who publicly condemned the use of armed police and the use of the Christchurch terror attack as the rationale for them.

Researchers like Pounamu Jade Aikman, Ngawai McGregor, Anne Waapu and Dr Moana Jackson, who reminded us to remember our history, its impacts on our present and to imagine a better future.

People like Julia Whaipooti and T Kim Workman who took an urgent claim to the Waitangi Tribunal stating that armed police were in breach of Te Tiriti.

Artists like Mori Mermaid who used her talents to create powerful images that showed a different way of policing was possible; images that hundreds of people then crowdfunded into giant street posters near Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch police stations.

Mori Mermaid created powerful images that showed a different way of policing was possible; they were then crowdfunded into street posters

I share these stories because I think its important to remember that social change does not happen on its own. It happens when ordinary people come together to use our power, our networks, our creativity, our talents and our time to pull a more just and beautiful future towards us.

We are gathered here today in honour of every Black and brown life that has been taken from us by racism and racist institutions. We gather because we know that the force that underpins the oppression of Black people in the United States is the same force that underpins the oppression of Mori, Pasifika, and Black folk here.

In colonised countries around the world the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand it is Black, brown and indigenous people who are most likely to be hurt or killed by the police or end up in our prisons.

And so the question cannot be: why are so many Black and brown people going to prison, as if we volunteered to put ourselves there. But instead: why do so many coloniser governments keep locking brown and black people in the cages we call prisons? Why do so many coloniser governments keep employing police officers that hurt and kill Black, brown and indigenous people? And what are we going to do about it?

In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, the government has pledged to defund police and redirect funding to proven, preventative responses and community-led services that invest directly in people and communities.

In New Zealand, where the government spends more money every two years on prisons than it has the entire history of Treaty reparations (not settlements, because treaties are meant to be honoured, not settled) this is an example we need to follow here.

We have the highest incarceration rate of indigenous women in the world. Ngpuhi, the iwi that my koro is from, is the most incarcerated tribe in the world.

Imagine if instead of spending billions locking up Mori, the government gave Mori those billions so we could unlock our own freedom.

Imagine if we collectively decided that the polices slogan, Safer Communities Together, meant that we funded teams of de-escalation specialists, mental health experts and social workers to help people instead of armed police.

Imagine if we collectively decided to prioritise help over handcuffs, prevention over punishment, and life over death.

I believe a world like this is possible. But only if people like us continue to use our collective power to make it so. For some of us that means having courageous conversations with our family members and friends. For some of us, that means donating to kaupapa led by and for Black and indigenous people. For some, that means learning more about our racist history so that were not always asking people of colour to do that work for us. For some of us, it means hiring differently or developing explicitly anti-racist policies for our workplaces, our churches, and our institutions.

For the police commissioner, it means recognising the need for the community to be meaningfully involved in the decisions you make. It means recognising the harm that police have done, and still do, to Black and brown communities and taking reparative action.

For the justice minister, Andrew Little, it means following through on your promise of justice transformation if you are elected again. What you choose to do with your power for my people and my whnau is life or death. I want to see Labour acting like it if they get elected next term.

As Martin Luther King Jr famously said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We must do all we can to stand in solidarity as we work for a future where all people everywhere are honoured, safe, valued and free.

This piece is an adaptation of krero Laura OConnell Rapira delivered at Black Lives Matter rallies and vigils in Wellington recently.

The Bulletin is The Spinoffs acclaimed daily digest of New Zealands most important stories, delivered directly to your inbox each morning.

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Why do we gather? To pull a more just and beautiful future towards us - The Spinoff

Across the country, we are seeing protesters and jurisdictions taking down statues of figures that are racist symbols, everything from confederate generals to Columbus. But the protesters on Saturday at Central Park in Davis, largely from the Sikh community and totaling perhaps 50 or so, acknowledged that the legacy of Gandhi is more complicatedas he is viewed as a human rights symbol.

But to them hes not. As the community learned during the debate over the Central Park Gandhi Statue in 2016, the international symbol of non-violence protest and peace is viewed very differently by the Sikh communityto them he is their tormenter, with a legacy of racism, castes, and even sexual abuse.

American needs to come together, we have seen so much suffering, one of the organizers said. One of the symbols that stands in this park is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi commonly called Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi has never set foot in America. Yet his statues are dawned in every city from San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, you name it. Most prime real estate are lined with the statues of Gandhi.

The mythological Gandhi, propagated by Hollywood and the propaganda by India, is a far cry from the actual Gandhi he explained.

It was four years ago that an effort to bring in the statue produced multiple meetings and countless hours of debate and discussion with the Davis City Council before the majority finally approved it.

Peter Fredrick explained in great detail the actual history of Gandhi. He noted that all over the country, statues that represent the glorification of slaveholders should be taken down. He said, There is at least one useful thing about these statues, at least they stand for what we expect. They symbolize what they are intended to symbolize.

What you see is what you get, he said, a statue of a racist.

But he said we face a more complicated journey when we are confronted by statues of people who, we are told, represent the justice, quality and peace and yet actually and in fact represented the exact opposite.

He noted that for Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, the basis for their non-violent resistance was based on Gandhis ideas and vision.

Thus we are told the face of Black liberation from the United States to South Africa owes its various existence to Gandhi, he said. The 1982 film Gandhi is the vision most people in this country have of him, but he said what is less well known is that the Indian Government funded the film

Fredrick noted that at the same time India was funding these projects and readying to install hundreds of statues of Gandhi around the world, they were supporting genocide and ethnic violence against religious and ethnic minorities in India.

The violent and supremacist rulers of that country today use Gandhi-plomacy or propa-gandhi as a foreign policy weapon to conceal their atrocities and divert attention from their constant and most egregious violations of human rights.

He pondered, What if Gandhi has been able to whitewash the (Indian Government) atrocities because Gandhi himself has been whitewashed?

Fredrick said, The hard fact of the matter is that Gandhi was actually the champion of inequality. He said, Gandhis anti-black racism is widely acknowledged today although rarely closely examined and often quickly excused.

Gandhi as Fredrick explained lived in South Africa for 21 years, spending a huge portion of his professional life there, only returning to India at the age of 45.

When he was there, he said a lot of racist things, Fredrick said. A lot of very racist things.

He referred to Black Africans as savages and said they are very lazy and of no use.

He added, Gandhi didnt just say racist things, Gandhi demanded segregation. He joined the white colonizers in a war to exterminate Black freedom fighters.

Moreover, he argued, Gandhi never changed, saying it was not just a young and immature Gandhi who harbored these thoughts. But Fredrick rejected this, noting this was an extremely well educated man in his thirties and forties. Moreover, he never acknowledged his words and when he returned to India, he continued to push for the caste system.

He said, Gandhi moved back to India and switched from promoting racism to promoting casteism.

Among the other speakers was Dillan Horton, running for the Davis City Council.

He noted that his family members are the decedents of Central Texas slaves, so Juneteenth has a deep meaning in my family.

On the Gandhi issue, he said, This should be an easy issue for the city of Davis. He said, There is a statue right behind me of an anti-black segregationist. He added, He set up multiple systems of oppression in multiple countries.

He noted, Most people in Davis if you ask them will say that doesnt represent my valuesyet the statue is here.

The statue has to come down, its the only thing thats consistent with our values, he said. Obviously we are here today because we dont have the leadership in our city thats given it to us. The statue has been here for four yearswhen the statue was put here in the first place, it was protested by people in the community. Protested by people all across the state. Yet the statue is here.

Leaders of the community have been dismissed and rebuffed when they have tried to have conversations about whether the statue is consistent with our communitys values has arisen.

Obviously this is not going to change with your current city leadership, Horton said. He noted that the city council election will be on the ballot along with the presidential election, and he quipped, We have a mayor right now who is the most unabashedly pro-police person on the current Davis City Council.

He added, He is a person who has been willing to sign a blank check to expanded policing and reduced police accountability every chance they got.

In August of 2016, there was a long contentious council meeting on the issue of the statue. In February that year, the council on consent voted to accept a Gandhi statue, donated from the Indian government for a placement in Central Park.

But it was then-Mayor Robb Davis and Mayor Pro Tem Brett Lee that brought the item back for consideration.

They ended up losing that vote 3-2, where Will Arnold, Lucas Frerichs and Rochelle Swanson voted to oppose reconsideration.

David M. Greenwald reporting

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Sikh Community and Others Push for the City to Remove Gandhi Statue from Central Park - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Across the U.S., state and local governments are lifting restrictions on in-person church meetings sometimes after hard-fought and costly legal battles. But many churches are still choosing not to gather on Sunday mornings.

A survey from Send Institute* finds that although most churches are allowed to meet in person, fully 67% have decided to stay closed. Almost all, according to the survey, are citing continuing health concerns.

Dr. Robert Jeffress is senior pastor of First Baptist-Dallas, which is holding live services. He says he understands the concerns.

"I think we should be careful not to judge any church for not reopening, and understand that given their particular location, the virus may be a real threat," he begins.

He also cautions people not to make this about government oppression. "This is not primarily a government problem, it's a health problem," Jeffress contends. "People are still concerned about the very real threat of the coronavirus.

But attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel has been fighting hard in courtrooms around the country for the rights of churches to open up.

"Jesus mentioned this in John 10. He says he's the Good Shepherd, he's willing to lay down his life for his sheep," Staver notes. "But he also said there's another kind of shepherd, and that's a hired hand and that when the real issues come and the problems come to the flock, they run away."

In late May, President Donald Trump declared churches as "essential" and called on governors to allow them to reopen on May 24. But Staver shares that he is hearing from church members who are frustrated that their pastors are still keeping the doors closed. He predicts a lot of those people will be changing churches.

"Some of these government orders, many of them, did not classify churches as 'essential' and I think we understand why now," the Christian attorney states, "because in many cases, they're frankly not. I think the people are really looking around for a church that is essential."

* The Send Institute a think tank for evangelism and church planting in North America is a partnership between the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

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Many churches remaining closed but at what cost? - OneNewsNow

Young people lucky enough to attend high school and college with relatively little financial hardship for them or their families often never experience the dismantling of the fictional American dream, often experienced at a young age for members of marginalized communities.

Millennials, however, will be the first generation not to exceed the wealth or job status of their parents. They have lower homeownership rates than previous generations, especially Black and Latino Millennials.

David Grusky, a sociology professor at Stanford, argued that the end of generational improvement in living standards is a failure of the American dream. A big part of the American dream is that each generation will do better than the one that preceded it. That has been part of whats supposed to make this country special and distinctive. When its just a coin flip, were not living up to that commitment. Its a pretty fundamental part of what we say this country can deliver, and were not.

I disagree. This is not the death of the American dream, which under capitalism promises Americans they will move up within the existing socio-economic hierarchy, this is an opportunity to create a non-fiction American dream. Socialism, an idea of recent interest to many young Americans, is a system of political economy under which the workers would control the means of production, as opposed to selling their labor to a capitalist class. To embrace socialism in America would allow all citizens to prosper without relying on the oppression of other citizens, and would bypass the major negative externalities of the profit motive--most importantly, climate change.

To clarify: socialism has many different meanings to many different leftists. Since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the left has debated which form of socialism or communism is preferable. Many conservatives critique proponents of socialism by citing examples like Venezuela, Maoist China, or the Soviet Union, saying these failures are evidence that socialism can only lead to little or no economic growth, hunger, authoritarian government, and people risking their lives to flee. In these cases, they confuse state capitalism with democratic socialism. State capitalism is an economic system under which private capitalism is modified by an increased amount of state ownership and control of resources. Simply put, under state capitalism the state owns the means of production. Under socialism, the workers own the means of production. It is true that state-capitalism can lead to tyrannical ends, like private, free capitalism because a small number of powerful individuals control the majority of resources and wealth in the nation. It is exactly this power dynamic that socialism overthrows.

For working-class people, the economic success story of rags to riches or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, was always false. 70% of Americans born into poor families will never make it to the middle class. Less than 10% of people born poor will ever make it into the top economic quantile. Even for middle-class Americans, with more access to basic necessities and adequate schooling, upward mobility is still unlikely. Only 20% of the middle-class economic quantile will make it into the top quantile. This is not a new phenomenon, as Harvard economist Raj Chetty explains social mobility is low and has been for at least thirty or forty years. Real mobility for most Americans can never be a reality under capitalism because the wealthy are invested financially in the oppression of working people. So, its no surprise that cases of mobility are individual incidents of working-class people hitting the jackpot, with an idea, a successful career, or the literal jackpot.

At least, for the working-class white family, a less ambitious version of the American dream might mean freedom from direct government oppression, like obscene restrictions on bodily autonomy or freedom of speech, or uncalled-for violence. For Americans of color, even this marginal freedom was always a myth.

As Black Lives Matter activists repeated for years, Black men in America are 3.5 times more likely than whites to die at the hands of law enforcement, statistically, 1 in every 1,000 black men will die due to police force. Black Americans are not free from direct and violent state oppression.

49.5% of Gen Z and Millennial Americans say they would prefer to live in a socialist country, as opposed to a capitalist one. 73.2% believe the government should provide universal health care, and 67.1% believe the government should provide tuition-free college.

The negative association with the word socialism, which American education and political forces upon young people, is beginning to fail as well. According to a 2019 Harris Poll, 61% of 18 to 24-year-old Americans have a positive association with the word socialism. Of these same respondents, only 58% said they had a positive association with the word capitalism. 39% of the general population support socialism, making Gen Z and Millennials a notable change in attitude towards social democracy and socially democratic policies. This shift in public opinion demonstrates the real possibility of a new American dream, soon we will be the biggest voting bloc in the country.

An Amnesty International survey of 18 to 24-year-olds asked respondents to identify the most important issue from a list, 41% said climate change. The majority of our generation will not be 30 by the time the global temperature rises 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is a figure which scientists estimate is the highest increase in temperature which might not cause ecosystem collapse but will cause severe ocean acidification, mass desertification, and all coastal cities becoming flooded and uninhabitable. Only 100 profit-seeking, corporate or state-owned entities, are responsible for 71% of the devastation we begin to face. There is an absolute tension between short-term profitability, which capitalism encourages us to seek, and the need to reduce emissions. Fossil fuel companies choose profit over the common good every time. This reality is exemplified in the combined 2 trillion dollars these companies have invested in coal, oil, and gas projects which would be worthless if serious international action were taken to combat climate change.

Why are fossil fuel companies so confident their investments will be profitable? Capitalism stunts government action. As Phil McDuff wrote for the Guardian, This is reality v the vested interests of capital. Any meaningful policy has to upset the established power base and the political donor class. In other words, as long as the political class has an interest in fossil fuels, and receives donations, and support from others who are similarly invested in the success of this industry, the crisis will continue.

The end of predictable upward mobility for the abstract middle-class American encourages young people to seek answers beyond capitalism in a system appealing only to those who currently own or are soon to own capital, not to those who remain, workers, all their lives. The climate crisis, by contrast, demands that young people abandon capitalism.

The American dream, for most, was a fiction. Now, many of those who may profit from the system see this future disappear. Maybe, this is the basis for the formation of a real, social-democratic American dream.

Read the original here:

What Does The American Dream Mean to Me? - The Pavlovic Today

Kenan Malik is right (White privilege is a distraction, leaving racism and power untouched, Comment). I agree with him that race and class are not competitive causal categories to be set against each other.

Here is a story of poverty, class and slavery and a statue: the blockade of the Confederacy in the US Civil War meant that cotton could not reach mills in Manchester. Naturally, mill owners were unhappy and many backed the Confederacy.

However, the real sufferers were mill workers and their families, who experienced extreme poverty resulting in many deaths. They could have sided with their bosses in wanting to get back to work but the white, working-class mill workers called a meeting at Manchesters Free Trade Hall on 31 December 1862 and agreed to write to Abraham Lincoln. In their letter, they expressed support for him and the Union, to ensure the erasure of that foul blot on civilisation and Christianity chattel slavery.

On 19 January 1863, Lincoln replied: I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis I cannot but regard your decisive utterances on the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. Which is why there is a statue to Lincoln in the centre of Manchester. I hope that my fellow Mancunians continue to venerate this monument to the need to tackle oppression caused by racism.Dr Ian CunninghamHove

I agree with David Olusoga that heroic figurative statuary can be seen as a dated form of memorial (The statue wars must not distract us from a reckoning with racism, Comment). He cites the Angel of the North as offering a much more meaningful image of our industrial past than a statue of a super-rich Victorian.

Sutton Manor colliery in St Helens in Lancashire was closed in 1991. To commemorate the end of coalmining in the area, the council, in conjunction with a miners focus group, decided on a 20-metre high artwork by Jaume Plensa called Dream. The white structure was cast to resemble the head and neck of a young girl, eyes closed in a dream-like state. She represents hope for the future; a forward-looking piece to inspire future generations. And, unusually for statues, shes female.Marje BeckettParbold, Wigan

Catherine Bennett rightly drew attention to the Douglas-Pennant familys exploitation of slaves that funded the Penrhyn estate in North Wales (As statues of slave traders are torn down, their heirs sit untouched in the Lords, Comment). Pity she did not also chronicle the exploitation of the Welsh miners and quarrymen whose efforts were the main provider for the funds to build their huge gothic castle and fill it with art treasures. Janet Corke Liverpool

A myth is being perpetrated that the government prevented the NHS from being overwhelmed, but we need to be clear: the NHS coped with the first Covid-19 peak by closing its doors to thousands of its usual clients, sometimes with fatal effects (Thousands may die of bowel cancer after Covid halts screening, News)

Hospitals offloaded thousands more patients on to ill-prepared care homes, with frequent fatal effects. The toll from running down the funding, and the resources, of the NHS over the last decade of Conservative rule is enormous.Jeremy CushingTaddyforde, Exeter

We could do with a national youth corps to give more young people a way forward, basic training and an income (Printing money, a new national youth corps time to think the unthinkable, Comment). It could deliver useful work experience, a companionship to bridge social barriers and the respect that public service deserves.

Its clear to me that young people, especially poorer ones, have suffered more than their share of austerity and lockdown. Its bad for them to be locked out of college, work and social life while people like me live comfortably on our pensions. Now that essential jobs need doing and theres little chance of a quick economic rebound in the right direction, its not only young people who need repurposing. But first things first. A national youth corps is a no-brainer and I wish I could join it.Greg WilkinsonSwansea

You report that Three years on, leaders pay tribute to Grenfell victims (News). But if, as Boris Johnson says, we all remember where we were three years ago when we saw this tragedy unfolding, can he and his colleagues remember where they were for the subsequent three years while Grenfells survivors were denied sufficient government help?Francis PrideauxLondon W9

Philip Inman alerts us to the sudden return of air pollution to our cities and towns (Congestion to soar as shoppers and workers get back in the car, News). He points out that this will be worse than before lockdown began because we are being advised not to use public transport.

When we do return to it, it is clear that buses should be used more, be more frequent, and have reasonable fares. People in villages already complain that the aim of private bus companies is to provide transport at times and on routes only where money can be made. Bus companies, and railways, should run for the benefit of people who want to travel in their area.

Another important point is how much travelling is held up by congestion.

Can it be shown that a local authority will save money by having its roads and streets cleaner and clearer? If so, there is a good case for returning bus services to councils and tempting commuters from their cars to use free and frequent buses.Robin MinneyWitton Gilbert, Durham

There has barely been mention of the effect of the lockdown on childrens play, so it was good to read Rowan Moores excellent suggestion to reclaim the streets (Notebook). But why has there been no discussion about how to reopen play and swing parks? In my area, these have been taped off since the start of lockdown. Can it be beyond the wit of grown-ups to devise a way of safely opening up?David LeslieEdinburgh

In Simon Tisdalls article, Biden needs more than virtue to win, the last line reads: With Trump at the wheel, madly careening about like Toad of Toad Hall, fearing jail if hes caught... (World news).

Millions of people keep a special place for Toad in their hearts as one of the most charming and immortal characters in childrens literature and may take offence to see the hallowed name of Toad used in conjunction with that of the less disarming toad in the White House.Jill StaenbergMontreal, Canada

Here is the original post:

Letters: raising statues to those who deserve it - The Guardian

As an election year, Americans will be hitting the voting booths in November to cast their vote for the future U.S. President. More celebrities are becoming vocal about politics than ever before and encouraging their fans to register to vote.One celebrity whos always been vocal about his political views is rapper Snoop Dogg. However, he recently revealed that hed never actually voted before for an understandable reason. This year, however, Snoop Dogg plans for all that to change.

RELATED: Snoop Doggs Criticism of Gayle King Over Kobe Bryants Past Got Him in Trouble With His Mom

Snoop Dogg, along with many other musical artists and celebrities, has always been vocal about how he feels about Trump and the oppression that so many people have to live under his administration. Last year during the government shutdown, Snoop was very clear about his views when speaking directly to his fans on Instagram: Aint no f***ing way in the world yall can vote for Donald Trump when he come back up again. If yall do vote for him, yall some stupid motherf***ers, he said passionately.

He continued to directly address furloughed government workers during that time period: Yall honest, blue-collar, hard-working people and suffering. So if he dont care about yall, he really dont give a f*** about us. So f*** him too, and f*** everybody down with Donald Trump. I said it, he declared. Snoop sure doesnt mince words when it comes to Donald Trump. He even mimicked shooting Trump in his music video for his song, Lavender. Its clear where Snoop stands on this issue.

However, as passionate as he is about getting Trump out, Snoop Dogg revealed that he had never voted before. He had a very good reason for that: he was under the impression that he wasnt allowed to vote because of prior felony convictions, even though his record has been expunged.

Its not surprising that Snoop was under that impression, with racist Jim Crow-era laws frequently allowing the government to charge and even arrest people for voting with a convicted felony. These racist laws, unsurprisingly, mostly affect Black individuals.

In a recent interview, Snoop Dogg shared his past with voting. For many years they had me brainwashed thinking that you couldnt vote because you had a criminal record. I didnt know that. My records been expunged so now I can vote, he stated.

Its wonderful that Snoop Dogg can now take his passion and dedication for a better future for America and turn it into action.

Now that he knows hes eligible to vote, Snoop Dogg says, he will be heading to the polls for the first time come November. He shared that he realizes the importance of walking the talk when it comes to getting Trump out of office. Hes encouraging others to get out and vote, so he wants to do the same to set an example.

We got to make a difference, I cant talk about it and not be about it, he explained in the interview, adding: I cant tell you to do it then you dont go do it. Everybody know Im a front-liner. I aint gonna tell you to do something I didnt do.

If it wasnt obvious enough before, its clear that Snoop Dogg will absolutely not be voting for Trump in November.

I aint never voted a day in my life, but this year I think Im going to get out and vote because I cant stand to see this punk in office one more year, he shared.

See more here:

Why Snoop Dogg Will Vote for the First Time This Year - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

The International Day of Yoga (IDY) is now in its fifth year. But 2020 sees an interesting twist. Due to COVID-19, the theme for this year is Yoga for Health Yoga at Home.

Instead of 50,000 people all coming together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a park or along a boulevard, participants are urged to stay at home. As a result there are countless ways to get involved online and also learn through many instructional videos. One of the more interesting social media hashtags to appear alongside #IDY2020 #StayAtHome this year is #ReturnToNature. The marketing of yoga involves an indelible sentiment that yoga represents the epitome of balance, harmony and sustainability in tune with nature.

In an article published by the Yoga Journal, Puravi Joshi explains the true meaning of yoga, which includes the idea that Yoga is estimated to be at least 5,000 years old, originating in the Indus Valley Civilization in India. Also, True yoga isnt just a workout. It is an ancient Indian philosophy espousing an eight-limbed approach to conscious living.

The problems with these assertions are that they are ultimately articles of faith. They are regrettably intellectually lazy and disingenuous. They also potentially lend support to the Hindu nationalist interpretation of South Asias deeper history. It conflates the idea that Patajalis Ahga Yoga is 5,000 years old and that it originated in the Indus Valley culture. Both are overdetermined and to the best of our knowledge, false.

Yet, through the logic of regressive identitarianism and the fact that it is a woman of Indian origin saying these things then the validity of these truth claims are buttressed through the precepts of Critical Race Theory and its South Asian sub-set, Desi Crit. Yoga is increasingly incorporated into social justice movements. This includes learning about how to become a woke Hindu. Yoga can supposedly assuage the perceived ongoing violence of settler colonialism and White supremacy that leave many wounds and voids.

How can yoga assuage settler colonialism and white supremacy?

One glaring issue is the way in which issues related to caste-based politics and representation are blind sided. The rush to instrumentalise yoga to fight all forms of oppression is seemingly geographically bound along with its promulgators. How can yoga be used to create an egalitarian society where members of marginalised communities in India and amongst the diaspora are not oppressed by those higher up the vara-jt system? The yogic way of life is premised by adhering to vara-rama-dharma.

The traditional concept of a yogic way of life is underwritten by caste-based issues. Surgical removal of this core component while keeping traditional yoga relevant in todays woke economy seems difficult to achieve.

While yoga might help address the settler-colonial issues in North America, how it might be applied in India is often left unsaid. As Melissa Heather explains, the issue is a European theft and biological coercion to create the artifice of a white, fit, flexible, female body as iconic of the yogic body, and that there is a moral imperative to adjust these issues. Yet, when institutionalising a modern yogic way of life it is imagined to be built upon a system that itself, is internalized the value system of settler colonialism also perpetuates this system by branding yoga as a product that if bought will make one feel happy and peaceful, and be a better, more likeable person (in addition to skinnier, flexible and more beautiful). As such, yoga has become a willing accomplice in perpetuating the capitalist consumer culture that is dependent on extracting resources from stolen indigenous land.

Where does fault lie?

It would seem that the Indian government and its local yoga industry is equally complicit in perpetuating capitalist consumer culture through stretching its meaning to capacity. Take, for example, how all ailments are solvable through yoga. How is it possible that yoga (whatever we imagine it to mean) can solve seemingly every problem humanity faces? Yet many people share and support this sentiment, for better or for worse.

For instance, here are a few prime examples: Yoga creates lot of great vibrations in the people to make them to develop and change all their Bad things into the Good things. What, precisely, are great vibrations and what is the difference between Bad and Good things? Who decides what is good and bad? We learn, that Yoga changes the mind of the people to do every good task in the Country and stop every bad activity in the Country. How precisely are minds recalibrated to know what is good for the country?

The irony of this situation is that Joshis version of history is a popular peoples version that has been filtered through so many lenses, beginning with German Romanticism and the colonial era of Indological essentialism, through to the post-colonial, consumerist, popularist imagination that runs on the uncritical idea that Yoga is 5,000 years old.

And since we have a growing body of evidence to show that postural yogas origins do not really go back further than the 11th century, as Jason Birch discusses, asserting a later date can result in simply being labelled, racist, no matter what evidence is available. This is because one might be oppressing anothers lived experience of their cultural heritage. Regardless of whether it is historiographically correct or supported by textual evidence. This is evident in Joshis assertion, that But if Im honest, I sometimes find myself resentful of the fact that yoga is infrequently seen for its original purpose and meaning.

Also read: A Yogis Quest to Popularise Transcendental Meditation

Now, just what is the original purpose and meaning of yoga? While yogas semantic ground zero is popularly considered to be the later upanishadic (from the Brihadrayaka and Kaha Upaniad-s) idea related to the union between the macrocosm and microcosm the earliest attested meaning of yoga is located in the gveda.

Why do many people stop short of using the earliest meaning of yoga? We know that early Vedic life oscillated between periods of seasonal movement (yoga, harnessing) for warfare, cattle raids, and shifts to new pastures and times of settled peace (kema). Jarrod Whitaker explains it best:

Rgvedic poet-priests clearly propagate a violent masculine ideologya Rgvedic warrior ethicwherein all males, whether young or old, become real men by participating in the ritual tradition and by being strong, tough, and dominant. Of course, ritual participants value generosity, protection, benevolence, and poetic knowledge, among other qualities. Nevertheless, we have seen that Rgvedic poets consistently project animage of themselves and their community that is shot through with notions of conflict and competition for resources.

While yoga does refer to uniting or joining things together, this is only one part of the context. Typically, promoters of a monolithic, ahistorical, essentialised idea of yoga are ignorant of the actual daily life of the early Vedic culture. Or they have an agenda to promote an idea that everyone was vegetarian, Hindu, and did yoga, all the time. Why this is important to detail is that they promote a vague enough concept of a Vedic lifestyle, or, at least, a return to an imagined Vedic lifestyle as necessary to solve the problems of the 21st century. One example is the ISKCON guru, Radhanath Swami, who asserts, that The underlying cause of all the pollution in the world is polluted consciousness. And that, the Vedic solution is something very different. And that is to find substantial satisfaction within simple living and high thinking.

When we think or talk about IDY or Yoga more broadly, what exactly are we referring to? One wonders what the early Rigvedic people would have done in the face of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions?

Here we see a curious rhetorical strategy. A Yoga lifestyle, whatever that practicably means, is now spliced within health, development, and sustainability contexts. In 2018, Narendra Modi explained that yoga is a path to wellness and not simply a fitness regime, and that a Yoga lifestyle is the most sustainable way of life that everyone on the planet ought to adopt. This coercion through a perceived moral imperative is fascinating. Especially how it extends through assertions, such that Yoga makes the connection between the Health protection as well as Development of the Sustainable Health.

How does it do this? And what is a Yogic Lifestyle? The answer is seemingly as circular as ones breathing ought to be. Apparently A yogic lifestyle involves consciously shaping our attitudes, habits, and general ways of life to be more congruent with the philosophies, principles, morals, and ethics of yoga.

Of course the concepts of Yoga today have moved on from what they originally were, yet there is often very little appreciation for the imagined pillars of a what many describe as a classical yoga system that underpins many assertions about how to live a supposedly sustainable yogic lifestyle. For instance, we are told that the first two limbs of the eight-limbed (ashtanga) yoga system are the moral/ethical principles otherwise known as the yamas and niyamas. Yet, how are they ethical and moral? These concepts of non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, cleanliness, etc are not offered within the context of being a better person in the world. Or to be involved in somehow making the world a better a place through community service or somehow living a more sustainable lifestyle that only upper-middle class consumers can realistically afford.

It is ironic that the origins of a yoga lifestyle are in effect bereft of any idea of community or sustainability or development or wellness. In some ways, the original proto-yogis were part of a death cult, which had nothing to do with helping the downtrodden. The point is that the yamas and niyamas are part of system that is designed to reduce cognitive distortion and error. In this context error refers to all the ways that one can get distracted. If one is stealing, lying, cheating, living in a cluttered and dirty environment, etc then the chances of being in a mental space free from tension and diversion might be difficult to attain. And since the stated aim of the eight-limbed yoga is isolation (kaivalya) one wonders how that in any way can come to refer to community development or being woke. The classically-imagined concept of yoga that is promoted today as enigmatic of solving the worlds problems is about as opposite to this intention as is possible.

Also read: Why the Prime Minister and I Are Kindred Yoga Spirits

In a similar way, the concept of adopting a vegetarian diet is considered emblematic of an advancement in ones progress. This shared sentiment sees the entanglement of different groups. For example, the Hindu Students Council is a coordinating group for Hindu students in North America. It is a concentrating hub for promoting Hindutva(-lite) ideology and is institutionally linked to the National Volunteer Corps (RSS) through its international branch, the Hindu Volunteer Corps (HSS). Yet, as traditional knowledge keepers and stewards who are equally interested in tackling issues facing humanity environmental protection, vegetarianism and animal rights, interfaith respect, LGBTQA+ rights, and feminism. These topics delved into the unique contributions that Hindu dharma can make in resolving existing fault lines in a progressive, sustainable manner, they have chosen to erase the religiously-sanctioned omnivorous origins by asserting that Hindus have a belief that the killing of any other human or animal is wrong (This information can be found in the Rigveda).

Does being a woke Hindu mean erasing the uncomfortable bits of ones heritage in a similar way to knocking down every statue regardless of who is represented?

Well, there is much to be found in the Rigveda. For instance, verse 10.86.14 has Indra explain to us that 15 to 20 oxen are cooked (pacadaa skam pacanti viatim) for him and that he only likes to eat the fatty meat (utham admi pva id ubh kuk panti). We dont have to dig too far to see that the people, and their gods, who gave us the term yoga were actually very fond of barbecues. Maharishi Yagyavalkya says in the Shatapath Brahmana (3.1.2.21) that, I eat beef because it is very soft and delicious (yjavalkyo nmyevhamasala cedbhavatti). Yet, as the Manu Smriti advises (5.45-50), the violence of killing animals should be avoided at 5.30 and 5.56. However, not only is the consumption of meat (and other items) permissible, these acts are not considered sinful. As Brahma supposedly created both the eaters and the eatables. Also, the Vashistha Dharmasutra (11.34) explains, that one would go to hell for not consuming meat as part of shraddha or worship (tvat narakam).

Yet, it is explained that to Eat like a yogi requires adhering to a vegetarian or vegan diet, which assuredly should be organic, minimally processed, in season, and locally-grown. This is perhaps beyond the price point of many aspiring yogis.

Apparently Yoga makes the people to strengthen the Coordination of the World, and Yoga spreads peace and Honor with better development and Growth of all the activities in the World, and Yoga makes the connection between the Health protection as well as Development of the Sustainable Health. Its about as digestible a word salad as might be offered at the next yoga retreat.

Also read: International Day of Yoga Will Not Solve Climate Change. Heres Why

However, this 21st-century reinterpretation of a Vedic lifestyle seems diametrically opposed to the picture presented in the original texts that are to be completely consumed upon risk of excommunication. The repetitive use of words building from the roots yudh-, yuj, and y (refer to war, movement, etc) and ki (etc) that refers to intervals of settled life (it is not appropriate to translate kema as peace in the way nti means peace) means that in the many couplings of yoga and kema point to the idea that the earliest Vedic lifestyle consisted of performing action to accrue more resources, fighting to protect ones own resources, which was interspersed with intermittent periods of rest and movement that typifies a nomadic lifestyle and the securing of borders. All of which puts an interesting spin on #IDY2020 and its theme of #StayAtHome.

Patrick McCartney, PhD, is a Research Affiliate at the Anthropological Institute at Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan. He is trained in archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and historical linguistics. His research agenda focuses on charting the biographies of Yoga, Sanskrit, and Buddhism through a frame that includes the politics of imagination, the sociology of spirituality, the anthropology of religion, and the economics of desire. His social media handle isPatrick McCartney.

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What it Means to Stay at Home on International Yoga Day 2020 - The Wire

Adam Price. Picture by Danielle Hazell / Plaid Cymru.

Adam Price, Leader of Plaid Cymru

The murder of George Floyd and the desperately unequal burden faced by people of colour in the grip of the global pandemic have placed the question of racial injustice, at the forefront of our politics, in Wales just as in the wider world.

Accepting that to be silent at this time is to be complicit, I have committed to use the platform that I have to call for action: for the Welsh Government to instigate a wide-ranging review into the realities of structural racism, to decolonise the curriculum and to build a National Museum to celebrate the history of people of colour.

In the middle of this global moment of truth some criticism some of it fair and some it not has been levelled at me for some comments that I made about the Welsh colonial experience. I have spoken publicly about this before and I planned to do so again, having discussed it in depth with Plaids BME Section and others. While continuing to reflect on the criticism I have been more interested in listening than defending or explaining myself, not wanting to distract from the bigger issues at hand. But in response to claims that my actions mean Black Lives do not matter in Wales, I feel its now right that I respond.

First, for some context.

In October last year in an article headlined Westminster owes Wales reparations, I wrote:

The Wales Office that colonial outpost of a Westminster Government stands in Whitehall in the building that once housed the Slavery Compensation Commission which infamously paid out to the slave owners after abolition rather than the newly liberated slaves. The argument that the British Empire owes reparations to the people of its former colonies is powerfully well-made by the Indian politician Shashi Tharoor. But Englands first colony should be added to that long list of creditors.

In an interview I gave the following week to Carolyn Hitt I said this:

I feel very strongly that its not possible to understand the predicament were in without acknowledging the centrality of the fact that we had an extractive economy with a political power centre outside of our nation. For most people that is analogous if not identical to the experience of colonialism. The context, of course, is going to be different in every case. The term internal colonialism was invented to describe the experience of African Americans in the United States. In fact, there is a quote from the 19th century where they were referencing our experience the Welsh inside the British Isles in order to explain their own experience of internal colonialism.

My intention throughout in making these comments was to highlight the continuing social and economic injustice that flows from Wales subordinate place in an unequal union.

Much of the criticism has focused on the use of the word reparations. Historically this has been used to denote payment by way of compensation by a State to make amends to those it has wronged e.g. the reparation payments imposed on Germany after the 1914-1918 War.

In recent discourse, however, the word has been more closely associated with the campaign to recognise the financial debt owed to the descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave trade and to the former colonies of Western countries, including Britain, in Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia and elsewhere (a campaign I fully support). In many conversations I have had since I spoke in October Ive come to understand that many people of colour strongly believe that the word reparations should now be reserved exclusively for the context of slavery and western colonialism in acknowledgement of the unique scale of human suffering involved.

I didnt fully appreciate the force of this argument nor the strength of this feeling. I recognise now that this was a mistake. It was wrong to blur this distinction, and I would express myself differently today. If my poor choice of words caused anyone pain then I am profoundly, deeply, genuinely sorry.

Today I would also want to give much greater emphasis than I did to Waless own guilt and complicity in Britains crimes against humanity. The fact that Wales has itself suffered historic injustice at the hands of the British State should not blind us to our own role in one of the most murderous enterprises in human history, the British Empire.

Yes, Wales must liberate itself from its colonial past. But that means not just a liberation from its own history of subjugation, but its history as subjugator too. Wales experience of privilege and powerlessness is not a simple binary but a complex relationship where being the expropriator and being expropriated are subtly intertwined.

Integral

In the debate around my comments, these two narratives of Wales as colony and coloniser are presented as mutually exclusive, as opposite positions. Id argue the contrary, that in this dual experience we have a huge opportunity, as the Iraqi-born, Cardiff-based artist Rabab Ghazoul, has said, because being both victim of colonialism and beneficiary of colonialism, means we in Wales have the capacity for both radical empathy and radical responsibility.

Seizing that opportunity means teaching the next generation of Welsh citizens not just our own history as a nation, but also our own part in the history of slavery and colonialism, as well as the integral importance of people of colour to the history and identity of modern Wales.

In facing up to the responsibilities of our past and the realities of our present then Wales could be a global leader. We could write the rooting out of structural racism into our constitution. And as an independent country, we could join that little band of small nations Norway, Sweden and Luxembourg that commit to the original target of 1% of gross national income spent on overseas aid.

I have always believed that the struggle for Welsh independence is a movement for national liberation in the fullest sense. That the emancipation of the nation is meaningless without the emancipation of all from every form of injustice. That is why I cannot accept the wider charge that some have made against me: that I was deliberately setting out to offend people of colour or to diminish their past or present experience of suffering and injustice. I have seen some allege even that my comments were somehow a dog-whistle, implicitly supporting racism or white supremacism. All those who know me will attest to the fact that this is as unfair as it is untrue. Being the civil partner of a person of colour means for me these issues also have a personal, not just political dimension.

In being gay, working class and Welsh, my politics has always been intersectional, before the term was coined. To compare one movement with another, to draw on anothers experience to highlight a dimension of ones own can carry with it the risk of appropriation of which we must be all mindful. But it is also part of the very way in which we construct our identities and build bridges between them. People from across the world who have resisted assimilation from a dominant culture have turned to each other for support, for strategies of resistance, for inspiration. So it was that the ideas of non-violence espoused by Dr Martin Luther King, Jnr and Mahatma Gandhi were deeply influential for the Welsh language movement.

And similarly, the experience of national minorities like the Welsh influenced the thinking of Martin Delany, the 19th century black emancipationist who referred to Wales, as I mentioned to Carolyn Hitt, along with the Poles in Russia and the Hungarians in Austria as a nation within a nation laying the seeds for the internal colonialism thesis espoused by Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael and later applied by the American academic Michael Hechter back again to Wales.

Iron

The context of oppression is always different in every case and nothing can compare to the scale of suffering involved in the transatlantic slave trade. It is also true, as Albert Memmi says in the 1965 preface to his book The Coloniser and the Colonised, that all oppressed are alike in some ways. The mutual affinity that I as a miners son felt collecting in Brixton during the Miners Strike wasnt because my experience was the same as people of colour, but because I and the people of colour I met at that time could recognise a common sense of powerlessness and marginalisation and agreed collectively, in the words of Martin Luther King, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Im proud of the fact that in Wales the nationalist tradition has sympathised with and supported anti-colonial movements, whether were talking about Emrys ap Iwans critiques of intolerant John Bullism during the heyday of Empire, or Plaid Cymrus opposition to the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars which the major Unionist parties, including Labour, enthusiastically supported.

There could never be a free Wales when others still lie in chains. This is a truth that our history teaches us, for so many of those chains were made with iron forged in Wales.

Excerpt from:

Wales, colonised and coloniser: a reflection - Nation.Cymru

Today, as Palestinians, we are facing a systematic campaign to liquidate our cause - the most recent manifestation being the sweeping land theft that Israel is planning to carry out by annexing 30 percent of the occupied West Bank.

Intensifying aggression against Palestinians in the targeted areas through home demolitions, burning of agricultural lands, settler attacks and land confiscation mark the final stages of Israels settler-colonial project to ethnically cleanse the land and prepare it for annexation.

Israels planned annexation has met widespread condemnation, from United Nations experts demanding effective measures against Israels 21st-century apartheid to the Palestinian Authority opting to freeze all relations, including security coordination, with Israel.

Amid this backdrop, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAEs ambassador to the US, took the unprecedented step of writing an article titled Its either annexation or normalisation in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, violating the longstanding Palestinian and Arab consensus against normalisation with the Israeli regime.

The article was purportedly written to sway the Israeli public against annexation. But did Otaiba really believe that the next day, Israelis would take to the streets to demand their government stop the annexation process? Unlikely. So what was the real purpose of this article?

The article appears to be part of a concerted effort to protect the growing, but still precarious, normalisation project of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a number of other Arab Gulf states

Addressing the Israeli regime as an opportunity, not an enemy, Otaiba appears to be concerned that the annexation will generate Palestinian resistance and lead to an Arab backlash against normalisation with Israel. This would destroy the UAEs long-term efforts, documented by the Intercept a few years ago, to build an anti-Iran alliance with Israel, the US, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Otaibas article was reportedly written with the support of individuals close to the Israeli government, including Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban. Considering Otaibas almost constant phone and email contact with Jared Kushner, it likely also had the blessing of the Trump administration.

The article appears to be part of a concerted effort to protect the growing, but still precarious, normalisation project of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a number of other Arab Gulf states, which stands in flagrant opposition to the historic principles of the Arab League and many Arab states.

Israel was established in 1948 by forcibly evicting the overwhelming majority of Palestinians from their homeland. The Israeli state continues to uproot, dispossess and evict Palestinians, and to appropriate their land.

Israel is based on a three-tiered system of oppression: settler-colonialism, apartheid and occupation. Palestinians reject any treatment of such a regime as a normal state with whom relations and collaboration can be established. For the UAE ambassador, however, Israel is an opportunity - not a state that practices colonisation and apartheid, and places itself above international law.

Otaiba describes the UAE as providing engagement and conflict reduction in the region.

It is worth asking: which peace is the UAE supporting? Is it the peace in Yemen, where the UAE is heavily involved in thedestruction, fragmentation and impoverishment of the country? Or is it in Libya, where the UAE has supported militias and fuelled the war and militarisation that has devastated the country?

In terms of the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine, the UAE has led efforts to normalise apartheid. Otaibas offer of normalisation if Israel halts its annexation project bypasses the fact that the imminent de jure annexation comes on top of the continued oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people. He offers a carrot that Israel is already eating, as both countries have already normalised in various ways.

In February, the UAE aided Israeli efforts to whitewash its violations of Palestinian rights when it warmly welcomed an Israeli team to join a UAE cycling tour. Last year, Israel accepted Dubais invitation to attend Expo 2020.

Other Gulf countries have also strengthened ties with Israel, including Bahrain, which hosted an economic conference tied to the US peace plan in June 2019, and Oman, which welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018.

Otaibas article and the politics it represents warrant outrage and opposition. Normalising apartheid can never be tolerated.

Israeli annexation: If Abbas is serious this time, Palestinians should support the PA's response

Yet, as Palestinians, we trust that the values of freedom, justice and equality will finally prevail over the alliance of regimes fuelling wars, racism and human rights violations. We believe in the power of the people globally, from the Arab streets to the US, the heart of the empire.

Today, amid growing demonstrations in the US and other parts of the world, rulers who trample human rights are standing on shaky ground. People in the Arab world and globally understand the value of our joint struggle.

The Otaibas of this world, more than anything, give us one message: Palestine is a litmus test for human rights in the modern era, and together, we can effectively defend human dignity and self-determination.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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UAE efforts to normalise Israel's apartheid should never be tolerated - Middle East Eye