Monthly Archives: August 2022

Lately it feels like there are just a lot of overlapping crises repeals of civil rights, legislative attacks on trans people, mass shootings, police violence against Black and brown people, the climate catastrophe not to mention the pandemic, which is not at all over. I dont know about you, but its easy to feel exhausted and hopeless, wondering what I can do just as one small person moving through the world.

Brea Baker is a writer and activist whose work is focused on action. For over a decade, Brea has been a student organizer, an activist, and a strategist for national progressive movements. As she tells it, the death of Trayvon Martin when she was graduating high school was the radicalizing event that guided her into organizing. At Yale, Brea created reading lists to help educate her fellow students, and in 2017 she was one of the organizers of the Womens March in Washington, DC.

I wanted to talk to Brea about finding small ways to bring organizing or activism into your life, wherever youre at.

This is a conversation rooted in writing that has come before. It takes lessons from bell hooks about radical love and from Mariame Kaba about digging deep for hope. But fundamentally, the thing I want anyone to take away from it is that there are achievable, concrete things that you can do right now, in the community youre a part of.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and condensed. As always, theres much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow Vox Conversations on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I want to start this conversation by asking you: What have you been doing lately to combat any existential dread you may be feeling about being here in 2022?

I think Ive had a lot of practice feeling a lot of dread over the last 10 years as an activist. To be honest, it just feels like a constant state that has definitely gotten worse.

And it just feels like an onslaught. So, unplugging in general and finding some time in nature and grounding yourself is so important.

Wait, scrolling on your phone 18 or so hours a day thats not recommended? So weird.

Heres the funny part. We convince ourselves that by staying tapped in, we are better serving the movement, and then what is actually happening is that were exhausted, were desensitized, and we know a lot of whats happening, but it doesnt make us any more strategic at disrupting it.

When we think about the state of the world, or we think about the things that are really hard to hold and hard to carry, its very easy to forget about the people who came before us, like for example, bell hooks. Youve written about bell hookss theory on radical love. How do you define radical love and how do you perform it? How do you bring that into your life?

I think for me, radical love gives me something to fight for versus being constantly in opposition to, or in defense against, something. I think that sometimes in being defensive, we have no vision for what we are trying to build.

If I was defining radical love, I would say it is care as a politic; sometimes the word love and the word care can be used so often that it loses its meaning for us. But [bell hooks] really grounds us in the fact that if we lived our lives not in the way that the world and our society looks now, but in the way we want our society and our world to look in the future, then we would have to be more loving.

I love that because that doesnt make me feel jaded. It reminds me that we all have inherent worth and value that is worth loving and caring for, even if that person is not as tapped into that part of themselves.

In reminding yourself that people have the capacity to love and to care for themselves and for their community, how do you connect that to action?

I think that is where a lot of people get lost, because they have these beautiful values that they are espousing, and then their day-to-day lives dont match up with it.

For me, the world that I want to live in requires me to spend my money in certain strategic ways, as a reflection of radical love. So I cant spend money with people and companies that dont match my values and then wonder why companies like that exist. I am keeping them alive, even if I think some people convince themselves, Oh well, my $15 isnt gonna stop anything.

But your $15 is keeping it going. So its not just, Im boycotting Amazon. Its also, I am now spending my money with a bunch of small family-owned businesses that are way more grateful for my little $15 than Jeff Bezos ever would be.

I want to unpack love as a politic. What does that mean?

One example of what love as a politic feels like for me is that even when I dont know enough about an issue, I dont need a masters in environmental justice and climate change to feel love for this planet, to feel awe when I look at nature, and to want better for it than what we are currently doing.

It has freed me a lot to not feel like I need to know everything, but to trust what love is directing me to do. Sometimes Ill get into arguments with people and theyre like, well, you cant even fully explain all of these things to me. And its like, I dont have to. Love is telling me that I shouldnt do that to someone that I love, or something that I love, or some place that I love.

Youre touching on something that I wanted to ask about, because its something that I come up against a lot. And thats the question of how to respond when someone else is judging you, or mocking you for your values. I have someone in my life who loves to push my buttons about the things I believe and the ways in which I aspire to live my life. People can take the fact that you care deeply as an opportunity to belittle you. How do you respond with love to that sort of thing?

I think recently Ive gotten better at sifting through and understanding peoples intentions. My first step: why are you pushing back?

I do think a lot of people do want to debate. Im not here to debate you. I am open to a conversation.

I think its a lot easier when the conversation is happening digitally, because you can quite literally walk away from the phone. And I think that is something that a lot of people lose sight of when they just respond immediately to something. You do not owe that person an immediate response at all, and you dont have to be that keyboard warrior person whos sending paragraphs. It is both that I recognize that persons humanity and that I recognize my own humanity enough to say, I dont have to put up with the way that theyre treating me. I can walk away.

I want to ask one question about how you acknowledge privilege and power as you engage with social justice.

Because sometimes someone arrives in a movement, with all this privilege and power, and they dont know how to recognize it, or they dont know how to bring that context into their struggle. And you dont want to lose them, you know, like their intentions are good. I wonder how you acknowledge privilege and power when youre engaging with social justice.

You just described my entire experience with the Womens March. I was a national organizer with the 2017 Womens March and some of the subsequent actions as well. And I was actually the youngest national organizer.

And that was definitely a description of that moment, not just with the attendees of the march, because there were a lot of people who attended and said, This is my first protest, or This past election was the first time I voted, and they were two and three and four times my age. And I was like, huh?

Youve lived through so many things, and none of that shocked you or enraged you enough?

So, that was one thing. It was mind-blowing to sit in rooms of people who were being elevated and who were being given a lot of microphones to speak and who thought a lot of themselves. And I understood it, because they really felt the need to really affirm and validate themselves after this election where a very sexist man was elected. But at the same time, I think its about welcoming people and not settling for that entry point, because the reality was a lot of those women who we were co-organizing with wanted Womens March to only speak about gender and not touch on race, not touch on ability, not touch on sexuality.

Well, Im a queer Black woman, so I cant be in this space and not talk about sexuality and race. Its not gonna happen, because actually I feel deepest about racism and addressing white supremacy, because if we do that, then wed have to address patriarchy and everything else.

And so, how I deal with it is that I think you cant coddle people. And I think people who want to be coddled are not ready to be in the movement yet. And I think thats important, to recognize that sometimes we need to have prerequisites for the spaces that were coming into, and we need to have a standard of what it means to be in this movement.

The Black Panther Party, for example, is a political organization that I have so much admiration for. I have a tattoo for them on my shoulder, and every single person who entered that organization had to read certain texts, and had to go through certain trainings. And sometimes we want to make things too easy for people, that they come in with all their baggage, with all their preconceived notions. And theyre actually hurting people in spaces theyre supposed to be in. And its like, no, we have to have a higher standard for people and say: Welcome! Im so glad that this activated you. And if you care about feminism, you have to care about these things too.

And you have to be willing to hear that: were willing to let you come as you are, but you cant leave in the same way that you came, you have to be transformed.

And if youre not willing to be transformed, then you are actually only interested in power for you, not redistributing power for all. And thats not okay.

You are an abolitionist and that is a fundamental part of the activism that you do, and it informs all of the values that come before it.

But not everyone who is going to be a part of the movement that youre a part of is a believer in abolition. I wonder, when people have different objectives, but they want to be shoulder to shoulder with you, how do you square that?

This is something I learned from Mariame Kaba, who is the abolitionist I learned the most from. If you have not read We Do This Til We Free Us, you must go get it now.

You gotta.

You have to go get it right now.

One of the best to ever do it.

Oh, like, quite literally. And something that she said a while back Im gonna butcher it, so Im just gonna paraphrase As long as you are not standing in the way of my long-term goals towards abolition, we can still work together.

Right. You dont have to be the perfect organizer, and you dont have to know everything. But it is really important that you acknowledge your privilege and power and think about the ways that what you believe interacts with the things that other people believe.

Yeah, one million percent. And I think sometimes I like to level-set with people and remind them that I also still dont have all the answers, but certainly did not at other points. And so in helping people acknowledge their own privilege, I sometimes start by acknowledging my own, and kind of model for them.

I have a question about the practical things that you recommend people do.

I think its very easy to feel very overwhelmed. There are a lot of different issues that are radicalizing or that are going to push people towards wanting to organize.

Whats one thing that you recommend people do? And, furthermore, how can we think sustainably about the things that were capable of doing?

Yeah. I love that you brought up sustainability already, because I had my one action and it is, in my opinion, what will allow our movements to really be withstanding and to survive the attention span of the media, which is to join a local organization specifically, a local progressive organization.

But Im purposely being vague because I want you to find whatever organization is connected to that issue for you, but a local one. I say that because a lot of people, when they become activated, they go through this phase of wanting to change the world. And they believe that the only way to do that is if they have a huge following, or if they are part of national politics. And it never works that way.

I have to tell you that local organizers get shit done way more frequently than national organizers do. That is not to say that national organizers are not needed, because I do believe that we need people who can focus on national policy and who can thread together the things that are happening across the country. But local organizers do it.

National organizers cannot follow up with every single person who makes one donation and say, Hey, we havent heard from you since. A local organizer will say, Hey, you came to that first meeting. We havent seen you in a while. Were not just planning these activities and these protests and these rallies, which are the exciting and sexy things that people want to be a part of. Were also reading books together. Were planning film screenings together. Were canvassing our community and having conversations with elders. Youre able to have so much more of an impact because you know the community you live in, and youre surrounded by people who also know the community that they live in.

One thing that has really helped me, especially when Ive been feeling overwhelmed and this is something that I learned from my good pal Sally Tamarkin I was feeling really overwhelmed. Then I started delivering meals for the local food collaborative. I started, whenever we went to the grocery store, stocking the community fridge, you know, buying a bunch of perishable food and putting it in the community fridge. I didnt think that it was going to help, and it really helped.

And looking left and right, and seeing who in your community is already doing work that you care about and getting involved in that particular way can be a really helpful first step.

Oh yeah. I think for people who really engage, it becomes way more than their first step. It actually leads to a deeper radicalization.

If you put that same energy into local politics and you got your mayor out of office and got someone new and exciting in office, youd actually feel a huge difference, because it would be more immediate and youd also be able to see on the ground.

So I think it gives people more inspiration when theyre able to have local wins and then they can turn around and be like, wait, this isnt all gloom and doom. Like, we are able to really build the world we want to live in. If I could just leave with a quote: on the note of inspiration, Arundhati Roy said, Another world is not only possible. Shes on her way. On a quiet day. I can hear her breathing.

And I love that quote because it reminds us that it is not inherent, and it is not inevitable, that the world is going to be shitty and difficult and challenging. Weve survived more challenging things in the past. We will continue to survive the challenging moments that were in. And if we think of the world in that personification way, like, shes on her way. Like, shes literally in the Lyft. Were just waiting for her to send the ETA. Lets just prepare for her arrival. When this other world gets here, lets be ready.

And if everyone acted like that and spoke to their family members and their colleagues and their neighbors in that way and organized locally in that way, by the time she got here, wed realized she arrived because we had prepared for her, not the other way around.

To hear the rest of the conversation, click here, and be sure to subscribe to Vox Conversations on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

See the original post:

How to get started with activism when you dont know how - Vox.com

A new storm is brewing in Telangana. The state governments ambitious New Revenue Act, passed in 2020, faces an acid test. The Act abolished the decades-old Village Revenue Officers (VROs) system. The state government recently issued a government order that all the VROs, who did not have specific responsibilities after the Act abolished their jobs, would now be accommodated in other departments in the rank of junior assistants. There are currently 5,088 VROs, without work attached to Tahasildar offices against the sanctioned strength of 7,039 posts.

After the late NTR took over as chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1983, he scrapped the then-existing Patel Patwari system in 1985 in the wake of several allegations. In its place came the Village Revenue Assistants mechanism. In 1990, the then government created Village Revenue Officers for land administration.

In 2020, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao brought in the New Revenue Act to make land administration hassle-free. The intention is honourable as the VRO system was breeding corruption. The government also introduced several other reforms, including digitising land maps and launching Dharani,a portal to end land disputes and land grabbing.

The revenue employees unions now threaten to paralyse the land administration if the government does not withdraw it within a fortnight. They want the VROs to be accommodated in the revenue department itself by creating five posts of revenue inspectors for each Mandal, in the rank of junior assistants. There is no denying the fact that the Act aims to introduce reforms to end the agonising ordeal of people in the villages in resolving land disputes.

As the intention is noble, the revenue staff should also cooperate. The employees cannot take the government over a barrel, whatever their grouse. The government may consult them before implementing the GO, perhaps, giving them some say. But, it must stand firm. The issue at stake is not only much-needed reform but also optimum utilisation of manpower. As per law, the government has every right and reason to stay the course.

Read the original here:

Government in bind over VROs abolition - The New Indian Express

Canada is celebrating Emancipation Day, the anniversary of the Aug. 1, 1833, Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire in 1834. Though informally celebrated for generations, the occasion has only recently become a federal holiday in the country. In doing so, the holiday highlights the little-known history of slavery in Canada and has stirred up calls for greater efforts to address the lingering effects of such oppression.

Canada is often remembered as a haven for Black people fleeing slavery and oppression in the United States, a story that is true but obscures Canadas history. Slavery was practiced in colonial Canada for 200 years before it was abolished. French colonists primarily enslaved Indigenous Canadians, while the English imported enslaved Black people from Africa and continued to enslave their descendants.

Though the scale was much smaller than in the United States, thousands of Canadians suffered enslavement before the institution was abolished. Even when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed, only children under six were immediately liberated. Others had to work for several years before gaining their freedom.

Black people throughout the English-speaking diaspora have been celebrating Emancipation Day since gaining their freedom almost 200 years ago. For years or sometimes decades, Emancipation Day has been celebrated as a holiday in several Caribbean and Central American countries, such as Belize and Trinidad & Tobago, that were formerly British colonies. The holiday had also long been celebrated by African Canadians. However, it was only during the racial reckoning that emerged after the death of George Floyd that Canada declared Emancipation Day an official holiday in 2021.

In his announcement commemorating Emancipation Day 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the ugly history of slavery in the country and the reality that the legacy of systemic anti-Black racism is still embedded throughout our society, including in our institutions. At the same time, Trudeau assured Canadians that the government was already working to address the lingering impact of slavery.

Story continues

He referenced Canadas Anti-Racism Strategy, a 2019-2022 plan to fight discrimination against Black, Indigenous and other marginalized Canadians. The prime minister specifically highlighted the plans Black Justice Strategy to undo systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system.

Scholars and activists have argued that simply celebrating Emancipation Day isnt enough. Several scholars have called for the Canadian government to formally apologize for slavery. Even though slavery was abolished before Canada gained independence, they argued, the country was still built on the foundation of slave labor.

Apologizing, they argue, would move toward reconciling the countrys slaveholding history, a history that many Canadians do not even know existed. Many of these scholars are additionally calling for greater education about Canadas past. Nova Scotia Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard has also joined the movement for a federal apology for slavery, saying that it would signal to African Canadians a recognition that our presence and our contributions and the harms that weve experienced over the years, that theres some ownership theres some responsibility taken for that.

Beyond apologies and education, some advocates have demanded that Canada pay reparations to help repair the continuing damage of slavery. Historians have pointed out that Canada did previously pay reparations. Much like in the United States, the largest federal reparations program in Canada compensated former slaveholders.

The British newspaper Daily Mirror reported that the UK continued to pay off debt from that compensation until 2015, yet formerly enslaved people and their descendants have not been compensated. However, Canada has in recent years agreed to pay compensation to Indigenous Canadians for abuses committed against them, raising the possibility that further payments could be made to victims of oppression, including the countrys Black population.

A move toward reparations or a greater acknowledgment of Canadas history with slavery may take years to implement. Yet, the continuing official acknowledgment of Emancipation Day is a useful step in the process as the country confronts the worst parts of its history with the hope of creating a better future for all Canadians.

Read the original post:

Canada Celebrates Emancipation Day, Highlighting History Of Slavery In The Country - Yahoo News

Members of the Black community need to embrace each other as a way to make and maintain a deeper connection to their past, a historian and longtime Hamilton resident said Monday during an Emancipation Day event.

Evelyn 'Evie' Auchinvolewas one of three panelists at an Afro Canadian Caribbean Association (ACCA)event to mark the day.

"I think from the get-go we have not really totally embraced each other," Auchinvolesaid.

"For some reason or another, whether it's because this group has come up from the Underground Railroad or this group has come over from England in the immigration, we haven't totally gelled together and accepted each other and had each other's backs.

"So, I think that that is a barrier that each one of us has to get over," she added.

MPs in the House of Commonsvoted last yearto recognize Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day the day in 1834 that theSlavery Abolition Act came into effect, freeing about 800,000 enslaved people in most British colonies.

During the Monday panel, Auchinvole said the things that disconnect Black Canadians are the things that they can work on to connect with each other.

"That is to really value each other, to value these stories, to value the ordinary things that would happen in our lives, that came to us through Black advice or Black hands," she said.

"I remember TillyJohnson and her stall at the market, and she did a lot to try and keep her name up there. She had a very famous fight with city hall and her story should never be forgotten. So, those kinds of stories keeping, recording them, gathering up all of the papers that are connected to them and archiving them so that they're available, so that people can see what it took for her to win her battle against city hall."

Artist and scholar Camille Turner, who was also on the panel, says Black people need to value themselves.

"I think that is one of the most important things that needs to happen, because it's not just for us, it's for the future," she said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gary Warner, who in the past taught courses at McMaster University onfrancophone literature and international development, said despite the valuable historical work that has been done by numerous scholars, and the stories that have been preserved by many people and groups, African-Canadian history is not fully integrated into mainstream Canadian history.

"I think that that is something that needs attention at different levels," said Warner, who has been active in the Hamilton community for more than 45 years on issues related to international development, poverty, human rights, immigration and social justice.

"For example, it seems to me that the curriculum for the K to 12 level, that it's really critical to have Black educators involved at a decision-making capacity at the school boards and at the ministry level to be able to influence the curriculum so that Black history is not Black History Month."

Monday's event, held virtually under the themeWhen The Lion Tell The Story, previewed a documentary being produced by the ACCA chronicling its 43-year history and some of its major achievements over the years.

According to the ACCA, the event was held "to inform the public of the vital role that Black Hamiltonians have played in shaping the community while revealing the truths of a history fraught with violence, racism, hardship, and perseverance."

ACCA president Evelyn Myrie paid homage to the more than 1.8 million Africans who died through the transatlantic slave trade.

"How can we not reflect on those individuals who have fought so vigilantly? They've foughtin the Caribbean.They've foughtin Haiti.They've fought in Canada.They've foughtin the United States for our freedom," she said.

"It is befitting that we take a moment, not only today, but really as we traverse this journey we're on, to remember those people on whose shoulders we stand."

In his Emancipation Day message Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that even though slavery was abolished nearly 200 years ago, its effects continue to live on today.

"The legacy of systemic anti-Black racism is still embedded throughout our society, including in our institutions," he said.

"That's why today, on Emancipation Day, we pay tribute to the countless changemakers who have worked hard to ensure all members of Black communities in Canada can fully participate in society it's thanks to their perseverance and resolve that we have made real progress toward creating a better future for all."

See more here:

Black people in Hamilton need to embrace and accept each other, historian says on Emancipation Day - CBC.ca

Bramptons Dixie 407 Sports Park has a new name, one that honours the abolition of slavery.

Located south of Highway 407 at Dixie Road, the 100-acre green space, which has both minor and major soccer pitches as well as cricket grounds, is now known as Emancipation Park.

The parks new name sign is set to be unveiled sometime this month.

"We are proud to be hosting the first-ever Emancipation Day in Canada's only Emacipation Park, and just one of a few in North America," Dewitt Lee III, the founder of the organization Emancipation Month and one of the main advocates for the parks re-naming, told CP24 Monday morning.

"This is a very special space of healing. and community, and fellowship."

Lee along with several others is also hosting a soccer tournament Monday at the newly-renamed park.

Back on July 8, Brampton City Council unanimously passed a motion to rename Dixie 407 Sports Park as Emancipation Park.

As the first Black woman elected to city council in the history of Brampton, I was proud to move the motion to create a recognition of Emancipation in October of 2019. The recent events that have elevated our understanding of anti-Black racism could not have been foreseen when I brought this initiative forward, Coun. Charmaine Williams said in an Aug. 1 news release.

However, I am so proud to say that Brampton is home to Emancipation Park. To the best of my knowledge it is the first Emancipation Park anywhere in Canada. I look forward to seeing more initiatives that increase our historical understanding of the roots of anti Black racism as we work to tear down the barriers that hold back human potential.

Brampton City Council has also proclaimed Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day, and August as Emancipation Month in that city. Several online events will be held throughout the month to celebrate Bramptons diversity and honour this important observance.

Virtual flag raisings will also be held today for Emancipation Day as well as on August 6 for Jamaican Independence Day, August 22 for Dominican Republic Restoration Day, and August 31 for Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day. All flag raising ceremonies can be viewed online here.

Around the world, we are witnessing a historic moment in time. People of all backgrounds are coming together to collectively confront systemic anti-Black racism. Here in Brampton, honouring Emancipation Month and naming a City park Emancipation Park is a powerful way for us to acknowledge the past and reiterate that we stand with Bramptons Black community, Mayor Patrick Brown said.

In June 2020, city council also approved a Black African and Caribbean Social, Cultural and Economic Empowerment and Anti-Black Racism Unit. Lead by Senior Advisor, Gwyneth Chapman, it aims to develop an action plan to eradicate systemic anti-Black racism in Brampton by uplifting the social, cultural, and economic position of that citys Black community.

Honouring Emancipation Month and renaming a part of Brampton Emancipation Park are significant steps forward for Brampton, Chapman said.

It is important for people to know the history and understand that we had slavery in Canada. Movements like the park renaming give me great confidence that we will make immense progress in Brampton.

Read the original here:

Brampton, Ont., park renamed in honour of the abolition of slavery - iHeartRadio.ca