Category Archives: Government Oppression

Susan Montoya Bryan| Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday formally declared "squaw" a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names.

Haaland is ordering a federal panel tasked with naming geographic places to implement procedures to eliminate what she called racist terms from federal use. The decision provides momentum to a movement that has included the dismantling of other historical markers and monuments considered offensive across the country.

"Our nation's lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression," Haaland said in a statement. "Today's actions will accelerate an important process to reconcile derogatory place names and mark a significant step in honoring the ancestors who have stewarded our lands since time immemorial."

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The first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency, Haaland is from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Oregon resident and tribal citizen Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III as head of the National Park Service, making him the first Native American to hold the position.

Haaland said previously that Sams, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, would be an asset as the administration works to make national parks more accessible to everyone.

The Native American Rights Fund applauded Haaland's move to address derogatory place names, saying action by the federal government is long overdue.

"Names that still use derogatory terms are an embarrassing legacy of this country's colonialist and racist past," said John Echohawk, the group's executive director. "It is well past time for us, as a nation, to move forward, beyond these derogatory terms, and show Native people and all people equal respect."

Environmentalists also praised the action, saying it marked a step toward reconciliation.

Under Haaland's order, a federal task force will find replacement names for geographic features on federal lands bearing the term "squaw," which has been used as a slur, particularly for Indigenous women. A database maintained by the Board on Geographic Names shows there are more than 650 federal sites with names that contain the term.

The task force will be made up of representatives from federal land management agencies and experts with the Interior Department. Tribal consultation and public feedback will be part of the process.

The process for changing U.S. place names can take years, and federal officials said there are currently hundreds of proposed name changes pending before the board.

Haaland also called for the creation of an advisory committee to solicit, review and recommend changes to other derogatory geographic and federal place names. That panel will be made up of tribal representatives and civil rights, anthropology and history experts.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Board on Geographic Names took action to eliminate the use of derogatory terms for Black and Japanese people.

The board also voted in 2008 to change the name of a prominent Phoenix mountain from Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak to honor Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.

In California, the Squaw Valley Ski Resort changed its name to Palisades Tahoe earlier this year. The resort is in Olympic Valley, which was known as Squaw Valley until it hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Tribes in the region had been asking the resort for a name change for decades.

Colorado's advisory naming panel also has recommended renaming Squaw Mountain near Denver in honor of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century. Northern Cheyenne tribal members also filed an application with the federal naming board in October to change the mountain's name.

There is also legislation pending in Congress to address derogatory names on geographic features on public lands. States from Oregon to Maine have passed laws prohibiting the use of the word "squaw" in place names.

Continued here:

Interior seeks to remove derogatory place names that perpetuate 'legacies of oppression' - USA TODAY

Oberlin College is defending one of its professors, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a former Iranian diplomat. He stands accused of helping to cover up the mass killings of thousands of dissidents and members of the Baha'i faith at a notorious prison massacre that took place in Iran in 1988.

In the face of protests, petitions, and letters from the families of the victims of these mass killings, who assert Mahallati used his position as an Iranian diplomat at the United Nations to help cover up the atrocities, Oberlin has stuck by its professor, stating there is no evidence that he had any direct knowledge of the prison massacre, which was declared a crime against humanity by the Canadian Parliament in 2013.

In October 2020, Mahallati declared he had no knowledge of the atrocity he is accused of helping to cover up. In November 2020, he declared he was only doing his job when he said what he said at the UN. (More about that below.)

On Oct. 12, 2021, the school issued the following statement: "After consulting a number of sources, and evaluating the public record, the College could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against Professor Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place in Iran."

The school further stated: "Since coming to Oberlin in 2007, Professor Mahallati has become a tenured professor of religion. Over the years, as a scholar and a teacher, he has developed a reputation for espousing religious tolerance and seeking peace and understanding between all people. His record at Oberlin includes no instances of the anti-Semitic behavior of which has been accused."

According to Oberlin's Communications Director Scott Wargo, Mahallati is still on the faculty and still teaching at Oberlin College.

Here are five things that people need to know about Iran's man at Oberlin.

If administrators, faculty members, and students at Oberlin are interested in assessing the Mahallati's role in covering up the hostility and violence against the Baha'is in Iran, they should consult Human Rights, the UN and the Bahai's in Iran, a text written by Nazilea Ghanea and published by George Ronald in 2002.

Chapter four of this text provides extensive detail of the UN's efforts to prevent the mistreatment and oppression of Baha'is in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution which ended with the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The text quotes, without mentioning by name, numerous statements made by Mahallati at UN bodies.

This text, which acknowledges that Baha'is were often brutally mistreated under the Shah who was ousted in 1979, also documents the acceleration of hostility toward this community which took place once Ayatollah Khoemeni became supreme leader of the country. In 1978, a year before the revolution, Khomeini himself told a reporter in France that the Baha'is were "a political faction; they are harmful. They will not be accepted."

Ghanea reports that "Khomeini continuously asserted his claim that the Baha'is in Iran acted as agents of Jews and Israel. He also made passionate appeals such as, "The Koran and Islam are in danger. The independence of the state and the economy are threatened by a take-over by the Zionists, who in Iran have appeared in the guise of Baha'is.'"

Ghanea writes:

The period of 1979 to 1988 witnessed the start of the Islamic Revolution, its establishment and internal consolidation, and ended with the death of Khomeini and the ensuing change of leadership. During period religious minorities suffered greatly as symbols of foreign interference in Iran. Religious minorities in Iran have long been portrayed as being foreign puppets and symbols of Western interference. It is therefore not surprising that they became the conspicuous victims of mass hatred during this period.

During this time, Baha'is in Iran were forced out of their jobs, denied their pensions (and even forced to pay their salaries back), and witnessed the destruction of their central place of worship in Iran, the House of Bab, located in Shiraz Mahallati' s hometown in 1979. In the early 1980s they also witnessed the kidnapping and forced disappearance of many of their leaders at the hands of the regime Mahallati represented at the United Nations.

Despite all this, Mahallati would have his students and colleagues at Oberlin believe that he knew nothing about the mass killing of Baha'is and political prisoners in 1988. These killings were an extension of a campaign of state-sponsored propaganda, oppression, and violence that had been going on for a decade during which Mahallati worked for the regime. Anti-Baha'i propaganda and violence were part and parcel of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the revolution that established this republic. Given the nature of the regime that Mahallati represented at the UN, it beggars belief that he was not aware of mass killings perpetrated by the regime in 1988.

Oberlin Review's Take

Oberlin's school newspaper, The Oberlin Review, which has done heroic work highlighting Mahallati's background, responds to the notion that Mahallati did not know about the mass killings in Iran as follows:

Mahallati was Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations between 1987 and 1989. Mahallati claims that, since he was in New York during that summer, he did not know about the killings as they were happening. This could very well be true. However, within a few months of the executions, there were several instances where Mahallati was confronted about the killings. Instead of publicly calling for a detailed investigation or speaking out against his own government, he insisted on an alternate narrative of events and denied that the executions took place. This is not the conduct of an innocent or ignorant official rather, it points to deliberate actions taken to hide the atrocities committed by Iran from the world.

Even if Mahallati did not hear from his own government about the executions, he could not have remained ignorant for long. Between August and December 1988, Amnesty International sent 16 Urgent Action notices, calling for activists to protest the unjust executions of political dissidents. These activists relentlessly sent letters to the head of Iran's Supreme Court, Iran's Minister of Justice, and diplomatic representatives of Iran, demanding that Iran cease the executions.

Furthermore, on Nov. 9, 1988, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions S. Amos Wako wrote and published reports of Iranian prisoners being executed, detailing the transfer of their corpses. Similar reports were sent by Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, U.N. special representative on the human rights situation in Iran. Mahallati met with Pohl on Nov. 29, 1988.

This Editorial Board believes the evidence proves that, within a matter of months, Mahallati was aware of the killings.

And yet, in his Nov. 29 meeting with Pohl, he claimed that the victims were killed in battle, rather than executed. In his official capacity as ambassador, he never backtracked this claim, even though human rights agencies have proven it to be false.

The notion that Mahallati remained ignorant of the 1988 mass killings while at the UN is simply untenable in light of the evidence.

When the controversy surrounding Mahallati's presence at Oberlin first erupted, he said he knew nothing about the 1988 mass killings in Iran. In October 2020, he declared, "I categorically deny any knowledge and therefore responsibility regarding mass executions in Iran when I was serving at the United Nations."

After a year of withering controversy, he changed his story. In a statement issued through his lawyer on Nov. 5, 2021, he declared, "The official positions I took at the United Nations during the time I served do not portray my personal views. I was doing my job, delivering the official statements of Iran to the U.N."

Here are a few questions Oberlin students should ask of their professor:

So which is it?

Did you not know of the killings as they were taking place or were you just doing your job when you defended your government against the allegations of mass killings that you had every good reason to believe were taking place given the nature of the regime you represented at the UN? Do you really expect us to believe that you never attempted "to conceal the facts once they were revealed" as stated by your lawyer?

In the early 1980s, after the oppression of the Baha'is in Iran began to accelerate under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, Mahallati enjoyed observer status at UN human rights bodies. In this capacity Mahallati responded to many allegations leveled against Iran at the UN's Commission on Human Rights and the commission's Subcommittee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

A review of the historical record at the United Nations indicates that Mahallati asserted the Baha'is were somehow in cahoots with Israel and seeking to undermine Iranian society. This was a central theme in the statements made by Ayatollah Khoemeni before and during his time in power. In sum, Mahallati deployed the arguments used to promote mass hatred against the Baha'is in Iran at the United Nations.

(To see how this plays out, please see Appendix A below.)

Mahallati, who used to post his students' work on a blog, has since deleted these essays, and with good reason: they reveal the misinformation broadcast in his classroom. For example, one of Mahallati's students describes Israel as having "cut off" negotiations with the Palestinians in 2001, when in reality it was Arafat who said no to the Clinton Parameters.

Another paper prepared for one of Mahallati's classes portrays Israel, which treats its religious and ethnic minorities better than any other country in the Middle East, as oppressing Arabs and Muslims within its borders. This same paper portrays antisemitism solely as a result of nationalism, without acknowledging the role anti-Jewish polemics inherent in Christianity and Islam have played in fomenting Jew-hatred in Europe and the Middle East.

And another paper falsely reports that under Islam, "Jews were a protected class, and all people of the book were granted religious liberty and legal equality." The notion that the Jews were a "protected" class and granted equality and liberty is simply false. As documented in numerous texts, enmity toward non-Muslims, Jews and Christians especially, is explicit in the canonical sources of Islam. The Koran, the Hadiths, and the biography of Muhammad, all authoritative sources for Muslims, call for the conquest and conversion of non-Muslims into the faith. Christians and Jews have not historically been a "protected" class, but a targeted class, subject to terrible violence in Muslim-majority environments whenever they have agitated for equality and freedom. Expressions of tolerance as enunciated by the Abraham Accords and the Marrakesh Declaration are great signs of hope, but history must not be distorted.

The text 111 Questions on Islam: Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. on Islam and the West, co-authored by Giorgio Paolucci and Camille Eid reveals that sharia, or Islamic law, enshrines Muslim dominance over non-Muslims and male dominance over women in Muslim-majority environments. This reality should not be ignored.

In his 2016 book Ethics of War and Peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam published by the University of Toronto, Mahallati tells us that the intellectual undercurrents in Iran are about peace and pluralism, but these messages are undermined by the Iranian government, which keeps sending contradictory messages about its role in the international system. For example, the Iranian people condemned the violent attacks on 9/11, Mahallati claims, before he admits that it is "difficult to reconcile the compassionate and sympathetic Iranian public with images of Iranians marching by the hundreds and burning flags on the anniversary of the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979."

While we're on the topic of contradictory messaging, Mahallati reports that numerous religious leaders in Iran have issued rulings (fatwas) against possessing and using nuclear weapons. But for some reason, Mahallati fails to inform his readers that Iranian leaders have regularly called for Israel's destruction. Mahallati reports that some leaders in Iran are even considering the possibility of making peace with Israel, if, of course, Israelis "get rid of their dangerous objectives and beliefs."

Again, who has the dangerous objectives and beliefs? Israel or Iran, whose leaders have been calling for Israel's destruction for decades?

The way Mahallati describes it, Iran's bad actions are the result of clumsiness and ineptitude, not willful hostility. The actions of other actors in the region are the result of evil intentions. A close reading of the text reveals it is more of an effort to exculpate Iran and Shi'i Muslims for their bad acts while highlighting the actions of Sunni and Arab Muslims as great sins. Mahallati condemns ISIS, a Sunni terrorist organization, but makes no reference to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed organization which has been terrorizing people throughout the world since its founding in the early 1980s.

And of course, there's not one word about the persecution of the Baha'i community in his book, which gives very soft treatment to the killings of numerous Iranian citizens at the hands of the government in the aftermath of the 2009 election in Iran. Mahallati describes the huge protests as "street clashes."

Given his soft treatment of the well-documented human rights abuses in Iran, it seems reasonable to ask just how free Mahallati is to condemn the government for which he worked. In a Nov. 5, 2021 letter to an Oberlin dean, Mahallati stated "I firmly believe in the liberties granted by the U.S. Constitution, including freedom of religion, speech and academic liberties. By the same token, I believe that no people or state should be exempt from academic criticism."

That's all well and good, but what would happen if Professor Mahallati were to exercise the right to free speech acknowledged (not "granted") by the U.S. Constitution and offer a full-throated condemnation of the regime that he represented at the UN?

Students at Oberlin might want to ask Mahallati, who promotes the values of forgiveness and friendship (citing, for example, the writings of Hannah Arendt), if he has ever publicly expressed remorse for broadcasting anti-Baha'i propaganda at the UN while members of this community were being forcibly disappeared in Iran.

What has he done to bridge the chasm between the Baha'is and the Iranian government, which continues to oppress this community?

Appendix A

Below is a non-exhaustive account of how Mohammad Jafar Mahallati downplayed human rights abuses in Iran while representing that country in the UN. For more information, please consult The Oberlin Review.

Aug. 25, 1982

Mahallati portrayed the Baha'i in Iran as Zionist traitors in league with the Iranian secret service during the 35th session of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on Aug. 25, 1982. "With regard to the Baha'is," Mahallati said,

a set of documents had been discovered in a former Savak centre providing irrefutable evidence of the connection between the Baha'is and the Zionist regime. It would be recalled that Mr. Hoveida, who had long been Prime Minister under the Shah, had been a Baha'i. There was evidence that in 1967 the Baha'is had provided the Israelis with help amounting to millions of dollars; on [t]hat occasion, Iran had publicly shown its gratitude to Mr. Hoveida for the great services he had rendered to the Zionist cause.

In Human rights, the UN, and the Baha'is, Nazila Ghanea reports "none of these documents were reproduced at the Sub-Commision as might be expected." She continues: "If an overt link between the Baha'i Faith and either Zionism or the Shah's secret police SAVAK could have been 'irrefutably' proved, it would have most certainly been decisive in dropping the Baha'i issue from the Commission [on Human Rights] and Subcommission's Agenda." (It wasn't.)

She also adds, "Perhaps the alleged Iranian government documents demonstrated that the Baha'i community in Iran had been sent financial donations to their 'World Centre' in Haifa? If so, it would not be surprising that this 'evidence' was not shared."

To give some context, the author adds that the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief affirms the freedom to "establish and maintain appropriate charitable or humanitarian institutions" and to "solicit and receive" contributions. In other words, the Baha'is in Iran were fully within their rights to send funds to support the faith's World Center in Haifa.

The author also reports that the Baha'is were regular victims of oppression at the hands of the Savak under the Shah, indicating that the link between the Baha'is and the Shah's secret police "cannot be taken at face value."

And Ghanea also declares that while Hoveida was not necessarily a member of the Baha'i faith, his father was, but the Prime Minister himself had never claimed to be a member of the faith, nor had he ever been registered as a member by the Iranian Baha'i community. "In any case," she writes, "even if he had been a Baha'i, this cannot in itself criminalize the rest of the Baha'i community in Iran, nor should it make Baha'is in general less deserving of being granted their human rights."

February 18, 1983

Mahallati offered similar testimony on February 18, 1983 when he spoke before the UN Commission on Human Rights responding to a representative of the Baha'i community who spoke about the plight of the community in Iran. Mahallati declared that other religious groups in Iran were not complaining about life under the Islamic Republic, only the Baha'is. "If this country had displayed intolerance against political and religious groups, it was surprising that they too had not come to make complaints to the Commission. That fact clearly revealed that the allegations of the Baha'is were a pretext to enable that non-governmental organization to wage a propaganda war against his country."

Balderdash.

In his 2000 book A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i Faith, Peter Smith recounts the long history of persecution endured by the adherents of the Baha'i faith in Iran. Smith writes of a "'culture of hatred' whereby the Baha'i's are demonized and dehumanized by their opponents" in Iran. While adherents of the faith have been oppressed in Nazi Germany, Egypt, and the Soviet Union, Smith declares that "Nowhere has the same 'culture of hatred' developed against the Baha'is as in Iran."

Smith writes that things were never very good for the Baha'is in Iran, but that the oppression really took off in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in 1979, when anti-Baha'i groups "enjoyed political influence."

"Thus, there was a systematic endeavor to destroy all Baha'i organization (including the judicial murder of many Baha'i leaders) as well as to pressurize the rank-and file to apostatize: Bahai's were arrested, dismissed from their jobs, and not allowed to attend school or university," Smith wrote. "Baha'i sacred sites and burial grounds were also destroyed," Smith reported, adding that Baha'i marriages and divorces are not recognized by the state, and murderers of a Baha'i adherent were allowed to walk free "because their victim was an 'unprotected infidel.'"

After falsely accusing the Baha'i in Iran of a propaganda war, Mahallati went on to state that

... nobody, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, was exempted from the application of the laws concerning espionage, terrorism, drug-trafficking and other inhuman activities; on the other hand, faith and belief were not subjected to any persecution in Iran.

The implication is clear the Baha'is in Iran were spies, terrorists, drug traffickers, and prostitutes and the summary arrests and executions that they endured under Khomeini were legitimate.

Ghanea responds to these allegations as follows:

Had the Iranian delegate first brought evidence that: 1) membership of the Baha'i community necessarily involved the promotion of prostitution and drug abuse, 2) these activities were prohibited by law in Iran and 3) officially proclaimed, he might have been able to demonstrate the legality of his government's action in restricting this aspect of the 'manifestation' of Baha'i beliefs. However, his government would still have not legitimately been able to: 1) generally behave in a discriminatory manner toward all Baha'is, whether as individuals or as a community, 2) to justify any coercion in the freedom of individuals to adopt Baha'i beliefs, 3) to restrict the right of Baha'i parents to bring up their children with a Baha'i education or 4) limit in any way the right to believe for Baha'is. Whether in Iran or Europe, restrictions on the right to work, the right to education, the right to freedom of movement and certainly restrictions on the right to life on the basis of religion or belief cannot be justified.

March 7, 1983

Another example of this type of demonization came on March 7, 1983, when Mahallati condemned a delegate from the Netherlands for expressing concern over the welfare of the Baha'is under the rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sepaking before the 39th session of the 50th meeting of the UN's Commission on Human Rights, Mahallati stated:

It was not for the delegation of the Netherlands to consider the Baha'i group as a religious minority. The problem was not religious but political; the Baha'i community conducted immoral activities under the cover of religion.

One question Oberlin students and professors at Oberlin might want to ask Professor Mahallati is if "conducting immoral activities under the cover of religion" might be a better description of the Iranian backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, whose leaders have been credibly accused of running prostitution and drug-trafficking rings.

The upshot is that during his time at the UN, Mahallati repeated the lies his government told to justify violence against Baha'is in Iran to a global audience. A straight causal line cannot be drawn between Mahallati's statements at the UN in the early 1980s and the prison massacre in Iran in 1988, but his statements did demonize the Baha'i community in Iran on a global stage and helped to obscure the suffering this community suffered under the regime he represented.

Read more here:

Five Things Oberlin Students Need To Know About Professor Mahallati - Middle East Forum

Louisville Courier Journal

The weather's turning cold and it's the perfect time to curl up with a good book. Whatbooks cometo mind when you think of racial reckoning?What book wouldyourecommend to friendsinterested in learning more about systemicinequities those whowant to become better allies and advocates in our community?

We asked some community members for their recommendations.

Whether you buy them from your favorite local bookstore or check them out at the Louisville Free Public Library, wehopethese booksinspire compassion, knowledge and solidaritythis holiday season.

Race.

Its a polarizing topic that has pushed and pulled so many families and communities apart. In Ijeoma Oluos book, "So You Want to Talk about Race," topics like racism, privilegeand intersectionality are addressed. Oluo writes in a way that is easy to understand and decipher. Her comedic and thought-provoking book does not let readers off the hook. Instead, it is a discomforting read that leads the reader to question the state of humanity and how one views the world.

If you have gotten upset when someone has said to you, "check your privilege,"this is the book for you. You will not be spoon-fed to make the topics palatable, but educated on what its like as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) navigating a world of people who do not recognize the privileges that they have. Oluo writes that a privilege has to come with somebody elses disadvantages otherwise, its not a privilege. With each chapter, the reader will walk away with knowledge that they didnt have before.

Ijeoma Oluos website describes her as a writer, speaker and internet yeller (www.ijeomaoluo.com). Oluo is not going to teach you everything there is to know about racial inequities, but her book is a helpful tool for becoming a better ally. With that being said, youalso have to do the work.

Damera Blincoe is the manager of equity assessment for the Louisville Free Public Library.

How can an attorney practice real estate law for almost 30 years and not understand redlining and its impact on homeownership? Thats the question I kept asking myself after I read Richard Rothsteins "The Color of Law." I have personally closed hundreds of FHA and VA loans, and I never knew that both government agencies once purposefully discriminated against Black borrowers, actually requiring deed restrictions excluding African Americans in subdivisions before agreeing to insure a loan in that neighborhood.

Rothsteins Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America has awakened many of us to the reality that, because our own government systematically worked to keep Black families from accumulating wealth, we have a responsibility to work to redress the economic disparities that logically followed. As Rothstein reveals, all three branches of government in local, state and federal governments actively discriminated against Black individuals. This begs a different response than when racism was practiced by private individuals or companies for whom we might feel no responsibility. As a white citizen, my family benefited from these practices while my Black neighbors were harmed. How can I not care about that? If youre having trouble understanding how systemic racism works, start with this book.

John D. Borders, Jr. is an attorney with the family real estate law practice of Borders & Borders, PLC. He serves currently on the board of directors of the Louisville Urban League as the Development Chair.

Long before the grand jury debacle regarding the circumstances of Breonna Taylors death, I remember another case that etched in my brain how little value some of society held for the life of a Black female. Latasha Harlins was a 15-year-old Black girlwho had been shot in the back of the head by a store owner whohad accused her of shoplifting. As she lay bleeding on the store floor, the money she was going to use to pay for the beverage she had been accused of trying to shoplift was still in her hand. Latashas killer was convicted by a jury, but the judge when handing down her sentence blamed Latasha for her own demise.

Latashas killer was given probation, community service and a fine. In "The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins," you can see how justice is far from blind and how the intersectionality of gender, race and class play out. Until our society gets to a place where all life is seen as sacred, justice and peace as a whole is out of reach. Brenda Stevenson does a great job of laying out the facts and presenting the perspectives from various angles.

Iris Jasmin is a native Louisvillian. She has worked as a health insurance professional for over three decades. She is a graduate of Florida A&M University and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in education and social change at Bellarmine University.

The legacy of the United States of America is equal parts ennobling and abominable, with the grand character of our formation as a nation and citizenry always on prominent public display. The uncomplimentary truths about the making and meaning of America have never been so readily expressed. Racial reckoning is at the heart of our sojourn as a republic, unable to come fully to terms with itself.

In the expectant spirit of advent, readings on the theme range from Howard Thurmans "Jesus and the Disinherited" to James Cones "The Cross and the Lynching Tree," Toni Morrisons "Beloved" to NikoleHannah-Jones "1619 Project," Ibram Kendis "How to be Anti-Racist," and Alicia Garzas "The Purpose of Power" are among my essential reads. However, the book I highlight here is Derrick Bells "And We Are Not Saved." Bell, a towering legal scholar, social justice activistand seminal author, came to an unsettling conclusion decades ago: Racism is so deeply entrenched in the DNA of our society that it has successfully reasserted itself after each successive reform effort seeking its elimination. His writings were foundational to critical race theory. May we honor one another with our own commitments to be anti-racist.

Alton B. Pollard, III is Seminary President and Professor of Religion and Culture at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

This book argues that the ongoing war on drugs and the resulting mass incarceration of African Americans is the moral equivalent of Jim Crow a system of laws and policies that enforced and legitimized racism and segregation in the 1960s. Alexander explains how drug policies in the United States disproportionately affect African Americans, building on a pervasive legacy of discrimination. Democratic and Republican governments have contributed to this legacy.

Drug-related mass incarceration obscures its inherent racist nature by underscoring the notion of a colorblind criminal justice system. As racism remains in our public consciousness and the opioid epidemic decimates under-resourced communities in Kentucky, this book inspires us to be actively anti-racist and end the new Jim Crow.

"The New Jim Crow" makes limited mention to other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Other books I enjoy representing diverse perspectives include: On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Voung; Brother, I am Dying, Edwidge Danticat; and When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago.

Dr. Rafael E. Prez-Figueroa is anassistant professor of Health, Behaviorand Society at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health. The opinions are his own, not those of the University of Kentucky.

Justice work comes in many different forms, one which often goes unnoticed, linguistic justice. In April Baker-Bell's bookshe introduces us to white mainstream language "calling out" its perpetuation of white supremacy. In this moment of racial reckoning, understanding that there has been and always will be a need of racial reckoning, this book helps us to think about Black language fully.

For people who are willing to be allies, this book will take them on a journey to learn, unlearnand relearn perpetuated white linguistic hegemony and supremacy. This book sheds light on how the educational system, curriculum, communityand schools uphold white cultural hegemony, anti-Blackness and white linguistics. Black language has a history full of brilliance, skill, quickness and wit. Instead of calling Black language ghetto, slangor street talk, "Linguistic Justice" acknowledges the rhetorical features showing us thebrilliant way Black language signifies, uses semantics, syntaxand phonology in modes of discourse each and every day.

Many of our Black students describe experiences with schools where the Black Language they speak is deemed unintelligent and incorrect. I am reminded by the great writer and activist Audre Lorde's well-known declaration that the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house. If we are really about the work of racial reckoning, stop using the master's tools.

Shashray McCormack, M.Ed is a cultural humility coach at Grace James Academy of Excellence.

It has been said that the greatest tool of the oppressor is the ability to convince the oppressed to hate themselves and others that look like them. Due to the experience of microinvalidations, denial of systematic oppressionand the tension between privileged guilt and oppressed victimization, many BIPOC individuals have internalized a belief in inherent cultural deficits. This belief system has manifested in the form of colorism, hair texture prejudiceand respectability politics. However, how can BIPOC individuals be responsible for a system that they did not build and blamed for their discrepant lived experience when they have been knocking at the door of opportunity for hundreds of years with no answer? Furthermore, how can BIPOC individuals regain their voice and choice in the face of legal, culturaland institutional oppression? The book, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire" (1970), explores the ways in which oppressed individuals have been robbed of their humanity as well regulated to being the perpetual other. Additionally, Freireoffers a blueprint for how a movement for liberation can be created to reclaim ones humanity as an oppressed individual. Specifically, Freirehighlights the importance of re-education, reconstruction of identityand the importance of liberation movements being led by oppressed individuals. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is an important read for allies wanting to learn more about how to support liberation movements as well as for oppressed individuals seeking education on how to reclaim and affirm their humanity.

Steven D. Kniffley Jr., PsyD MPA ABPPis Spalding Universitys Chief Diversity Officer, an Associate Professor in Spalding Universitys School of Professional Psychologyand Coordinator for the Collective Care Center Racial Trauma Clinic. Dr. Kniffley's area of expertise is research and clinical work with Black males and the treatment of race-based stress and trauma.

Since its 2018 release, Robin DiAngelos New York Times Best Seller "White Fragility: Why its so hard for white people to talk about racism" has seen its fair share of detractors and supporters. Some aspects of the book I love while others make me cringe. Overall, its a book worth wrestling with.

For me, this book is a literary microcosm of our racist American society in that:

1. Racism is presented as systematic and not indicative of bad people

2. White people are positioned as the default race

3. Systematic solutions do not rise above their individual parts

DiAngelo presents an America I know. An America that I must make comfortable with my Black existential existence in every step of my life. However, this is an America largely unfamiliar to many white people as expressed in a quote by DiAngelo herself: I wasnt raised to see my race as saying anything relevant about me. As a Black man, I was raised to combat the ways that race will speak for me in every way possible.

Herein lies the significance in White Fragility racial empathy. This lies at the heart of DiAngelos efforts, moving white people from a position of sympathy to empathy. Going from I know how you feel to I feel how you feel. DiAngelos relentlessness is found in not allowing her audience to turn away when their fragility arises. For the learning, understanding, and accepting that must take place is found in this discomfort. At the other end of that discomfort is the pot of gold that is allyship.

John Blackwell is theassociate vice president for Enrollment Management for Simmons College of Kentucky.

See the original post here:

Opinion: Want to understand what it means to be anti-racist? Read these books. - Courier Journal

Widespread recognition that the American political system needs reform is driving serious criticisms of our constitutional order. Often these conversations are fueled by partisanship rather than principle. The Electoral College, for instance, is increasingly under suspicion, and a number of steps have been taken and advocated to undermine the efficacy of this constitutional structure.

The Supreme Court, too, is coming under increasing scrutiny. A new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center indicates that widespread dissatisfaction with the court system is significant, and there is even some substantial support for radical changes. More than one third of those polled say they might be willing to abolish the Supreme Court or have Congress limit its jurisdiction if the court were to make decisions they or Congress disagreed with.

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States continues to deliberate over potential changes to the court. The next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, by which time a new draft report is due. Discussions thus far have examined several possibilities for changes, including the possibility of expanding the number of justices on the court.

The history of this idea, known informally as court packing, is fascinating, but what advocacy for such change so often amounts to is that the Supreme Court, made up of unelected judges, is somehow unaccountable and undemocratic.

Limitations on the courts jurisdiction or the expansion of the number of justices are different ways of addressing perceived anti-democratic shortcomings of the court. That our judicial system is not subject to the will of the majority, however, is an intended feature of our constitutional systemthe very means by which we preserve judicial independence.

The Constitution of the United States was born into a world of ongoing controversy, and after its ratification, some elements have undergone significant transformation. Senators, for instance, were originally elected by state legislatures. This changed with the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.

In general, though, the American constitutional system was designed to prevent the tyranny of the majority, and those provisions (including the equal number of senators from each state and the institution of the Electoral College) are purposeful and critical to the integrity of the entire system and the defense of our freedoms. As the 19th-century historian Lord Acton observed, It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. In the latter case, the avenues for redress are limited, and the strength of majority opinion can be overpowering.

Fundamental to the American system is a balance of powers between the branches of the federal government. We have a Supreme Court at least in part to guarantee that the majority view will not crowd out or unduly burden minority groups and individuals. Our system recognizes the importance of self-government and the rule of the people, but it also provides checks on the passions of the peopleeven a majority of the people. Providing for judicial independence is essential to the preservation of our civil liberties.

Demands to expand the number of justices as a more democratic dimension of representation on the Supreme Court confuses justice with the simple will of the people. Such proposals ignore the wisdom of the founders, who drew on classical and Christian insights into the nature of humanity and the political order to craft a system intended to minimize the possibilities for one groupwhether a majority or a minorityto predominate.

The 16th-century Genevan reformer John Calvin, for instance, examined the classical forms of governmentrule by one, a few, or manyand argued that a mixed regime has the best potential to promote human justice: mens fault or failing causes it to be safer and more bearable for a number to exercise government, so that they may help one another, teach and admonish one another; and, if one asserts himself unfairly, there may be a number of censors and masters to restrain his willfulness. In the same way, the American founders sought to balance powers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, giving voice to the people while protecting minorities from oppression.

To the extent that the will of the people is not adequately represented in our American political system today, the fault lies with the decadence and impotence of the legislative branch rather than with the structure and makeup of the Supreme Court.

If we need more democracy in our democratic republic, then we need to hold our democratically elected representatives to their sworn responsibilities. And we must protect those structural aspects of our constitutional orderincluding the Supreme Courtfrom destruction.

Continue reading here:

Saving the Supreme Courtand America's constitutional order - WORLD News Group

Leading academics have written strongly-worded letters to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, urging him to help Anupama Chandran get her child back after it was given for adoption by her parents without her consent.

Anupama, 22, has been on a hunger strike at Thiruvananthapuram since October 23, demanding action against the police and Kerala Council for Child Welfare.

Economist Padmini Swaminathan, in her letter, stated that social scientists have always held Kerala as a beacon of social development, but she was left numb and shattered after reading about the incident.

That the entire state machinery, ostensibly at the behest of parents who are important functionaries in the ruling party, has been deployed to not only keep the baby, mother and father apart but hem them in such a way that redressal will require untangling of very many complex issues that have deliberately been tied together, reveals the deep and destructive patriarchal underpinnings of the party and family. It is clear there is connivance all round so that deviants like Anupama and Ajith are taught a lesson and the honour of Anupamas natal family is restored, she wrote.

She said the child's biological parents are not minors. On what basis then, and, on whose complaint has the state set in motion this complex multi-agency operation? Needless to state, it is not only the honour of the ruling party that is at stake here; this is a clear case of a criminal offence involving kidnapping, stealing and abduction of a child from its lawful guardians, she said.

She concluded the letter asking Vijayan whether she could expect him to exercise his authority. As the head of the countrys most progressive state may we expect, sir, that you will exercise your authority and end this mothers search and restore her child to her.

ShockingMohan Rao, a former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Universitys Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, said in his letter that he is an admirer of Keralas vast achievements in social development, but the news of the forcible removal of a young infant for adoption shocked him.

That this has been done at the behest of the grandparents of the infant seeking to protect their family honour, in Kerala, is even more shocking. While I am aware that patriarchy is strongly embedded in the social fabric of Kerala, it is in Kerala that we expect the fight against entrenched patriarchy to begin, led by progressive forces that believe in equality and justice that includes gender equality and gender justice, he wrote.

He stated that there can be no justification at all for the acts of the parents of the young mother. The perversion of the state machinery to help them under the watch of a left government must be speedily remedied. The officials of the Child Welfare Committee who have obviously connived in this matter must be removed from their positions until the inquiry is complete. Indeed, letting them stay in their positions only allows the injustice to be perpetrated, he wrote.

Rao pointed out that the issue is not merely one of restoring a child to its true parents. It is about the misuse of government machinery to achieve a socially-regressive end and about the use of misinformation and sheer bureaucratic delay to slow down and thereby deny justice to the aggrieved. The prospect of tyranny is thereby advanced and this is no honour for a communist government that holds out the hope of redemption from right-wing oppression, he stated.

He appealed to Vijayan to restore the confidence of the aggrieved couple by taking necessary steps to prevent manipulation of the reversal of adoption proceedings by the suspect officials and to ensure transparent procedures and speedy justice.

Read more from the original source:

Give the child back to Anupama: Indias top academics write to Pinarayi Vijayan | Onmanorama - Onmanorama

I have lived in Mathare since I was four years old and I have seen it grow from a slum with a medium population density to become Kenyas most densely populated area with over 68,000 people per square kilometre.

I began my schooling in the early 2000s at Action Child Mobilization Centre, a local private school that was nothing more than a shack built of iron sheets where we were taught by form four school leavers. In this part of Nairobi, qualifications did not matter and anybody could be a teacher as long as they had an average command of English. This was the best we could get. The different classes were scattered all over the neighbourhood, as it was not possible to find space for all the classrooms to be in one place. We became accustomed to learning while listening to loud music from neighbours houses and we sometimes did our exams while a couple was quarrelling and fighting next door. That was the environment we learned in.

As a resident since childhood, I can attest that despite the sad, depressing stories that come out of my Mathare, it is also a place of beautiful stories. Some of our best footballers and sports people honed their talents while training on our soil, people like football international Dennis Oliech and famed female boxer Conjestina Achieng. Mathare has also produced great musicians like Bahati, Willy Paul and Eko Dydda.

But the world does not get to hear about our success stories, knowing only about our struggles and the challenges we go through. When you mention Mathare to a random Kenyan, what comes to their mind is the Mathari Mental Hospital, Kenyas only national and public psychiatric referral hospital that was established in 1901. Due to its close proximity to Mathare Valley, some people even have the audacity to ask why we live with mad people; they believe Mathare is for the mentally challenged and escapees from the hospital. I once tried to explain to a friend in high school that, just like anywhere else, only a few people in Mathare are mentally challenged. But he said, Yes, every market has its own mad man, but Mathare is a market where all are mad. I stopped talking to him. I was very angry and bitter about the picture painted of my home, the place that has nurtured me since I was four.

The stigma of coming from Mathare was so acute that, while in high school, I stopped telling other students where I grew up to avoid ridicule. Any wrong or weird answer would be attributed to my so-called upbringing with mentally challenged people. Most of them would back their highly opinionated statements with references to the violence witnessed during any general election, where Mathare youths are hired by rogue politicians to die for them on the streets.

Today I am writing the story of Mathare, the untold story that is unknown to many. Not out of anger or bitterness, but as a counter-narrative about the place I call home from a proud insiders perspective. It is the beautiful story of a former quarry that became an urban bastion against oppression by the colonial government, and by the four regimes we have had in Kenya since independence.

I am writing this piece because only we can tell our story to the outside world. The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting, as Comrade Gacheke Gachihi of Mathare Social Justice Centre puts it.

Mathare did not start as a settlement for mental hospital escapees as some claim. Mathare emerged from what had been a stone quarry during the early years of colonial rule in the Pre-World War 1 (WW1) period. Most of the building stones and ballast used in the construction of the Eastleigh and Muthaiga residential areas and the Nairobi Central Business District were extracted from this big quarry. It is only after the First World War, in the early 1920s, that people started settling in Mathare. Some of the early settlers were from the areas around todays City Park and Muthaiga that were then part of the larger Karura Forest, from where they were evicted by the colonial government. These prime areas were reserved for the white colonial elite and the former inhabitants were rounded up and concentrated in the low-laying areas, leading to the birth of Mathare and the mushrooming of the many slums in Nairobis Eastlands area.

The first evictees settled in the lower Pangani area that is separated from Mathari Hospital by River Mathare. This area that is today part of Mlango Kubwa and Lower Pangani was known as Kiamutisya. The different sections of Mathare were named after the headmen or leaders controlling them, like Kiamutisya and Kwa Kariuki. From there, the slum began to spread eastwards to Bondeni, then known as Kiandururu. Other areas such as Gitathuru, Mashimoni and Mathare 4A emerged gradually as the population burgeoned.

Mathare is now one of the most congested slums in Nairobi with over 500,000 residents concentrated in a mere 7.25 square kilometres. It is home to diverse ethnicities from all over the country, from as far away as Turkana in northern Kenya, and to foreign nationals from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Mathare is 8km from Nairobi CBD. This proximity, and its closeness to Eastleigh to the southwest and Muthaiga and Karura to the West, attracted Kenyans, particularly those from eastern and central Kenya, who came in search of jobs and settled in the area. This rural-urban migration created a cheap labour pool for the upmarket areas occupied by the settlers, as well as for the Asian community that resided in Eastleigh and Pangani. By the late 1920s, Mathare was home to several thousand Africans living in temporary makeshift houses made of wood, mud and other materials and working in the surrounding areas.

As the struggle against colonial rule began, Mathare emerged as the hub of anti-colonial organizing because of its strategic location. It slowly became the urban vanguard against the colonial government. Meetings to strategize how to disrupt the peaceful stay of the settlers in the country were planned in Mathare.

The agitation was amplified by the presence in their midst of radical elements who had fought alongside whites in both world wars. Residents started protesting against the punitive measures imposed on Africans, such as the hut tax, the kipande (identity document) and unfair urban zoning. The British felt threatened by the continued agitation and in 1952, at the start of the State of Emergency which was declared by the then Governor Sir Evelyn Baring, the colonial government razed down many houses in Mathare. Baring was reacting to intelligence that Mathare residents were supporting the Mau Mau, the nationalist movement fighting for Kenyas independence. This did not deter Mathare residents; it only emboldened them to push further and Mathare continued to be the planning ground for Mau Mau activities.

It is during the active years of the Mau Mau (The Kenya Land and Freedom Army) struggle that Mathare became the crucible of anti-colonial action with the help of people like Pio Gama Pinto, who played a key role in uniting the different factions agitating for independence. Pinto was a Kenyan-born Goan who had studied in both Kenya and in Goa in India. After completing his studies in India, Pinto joined movements against Portuguese rule in Goa, which placed his life in danger and so he fled back to Kenya for his safety. In Kenya, he was the link between trade unions, the Mau Mau, lawyers and others involved in the fight against British rule in Kenya.

Workers from Karura and other areas would steal arms and other supplies from their white employers, which would be gathered and smuggled to the Aberdare and Mt. Kenya forests from where Mau Mau guerrillas were waging their war against the British.

After Kenya gained independence in 1963, the population of Mathare grew exponentially as more people flocked to the city. The first government of Jomo Kenyatta did not undertake any measures to improve the dire living conditions of the people of Mathare. The residents continued to live under the poor conditions that had existed since the colonial period. As the slum expanded, the residents were abandoned to their fate, despite the active and largely undocumented role they had played towards the attainment of Kenyas independence.

This neglect of the people of Mathare continued under the Moi regime. During his 24 years in power, nothing was done to ensure planning, access to water and other basic services. In 1982, the residents of Mathare bore the brunt of the failed Kenya Air Force coup. The Moi government turned its anger on helpless and defenceless citizens, the majority of whom had no idea what was happening in the country. The military were unleashed on the residents like bloodthirsty dogs and houses were ransacked under the guise of searching for soldiers who had participated in the failed coup and whom it was alleged were being harboured in Mathare. The crackdown that followed in the wake of the failed coup left more than 200 civilians dead, the majority from Mathare, which is just across the road from Moi Air Base, the epicentre of the aborted coup attempt. Bodies were left lying in the streets and hundreds were maimed and injured. The damage was enormous, and the trauma would last peoples lifetimes.

The oppression has continued, but has never broken the resilience of the residents of Mathare, forged from a legacy of resistance. The neglect continued unabated under the Kibaki regime, and together with it, oppression from law enforcement agencies. An example that stands out is the infamous crackdown on Mungiki in Kosovo and other parts of Mathare between 6 and 9 June 2007. Those were tension-filled days as officers of the feared General Service Unit unleashed violence, rounded up citizens and demolished tens of shacks. The crackdown came after two police officers were killed and their guns stolen on the night of 4 June 2007. It was a terrible time to be a young man in the valley. Wearing dreadlocks only made things worse as they would use that to profile members of the banned Mungiki Sect. Young men were rounded up, made to lie on the streets, beaten and then forced to wade in the filthy and murky Mathare River in search of the arms that were supposedly dumped there. As though the demolitions and brutality meted on them was not enough, the police then executed more than 30 young men, some in broad daylight. The executions were carried out under the orders of the former Minister of Interior Security John Michuki and the former Inspector General of Police Gen. Muhammed Ali.

One day during that terrible week, shortly after our mid-morning break, the sound of gunshots reverberated around us. The police were firing tear gas grenades and our school was soon engulfed in smoke. With no water available, we washed our faces with the porridge in our mugs and as panic spread, some of my class six classmates tore through the iron sheets and scampered to the safety of their homes.

It is during this time that I witnessed a scene that has never left my mind. It is still as vivid as though it happened yesterday. A man was lying face down on the ground with some officers poking his back with their bayonets, those sharp knives fixed to the muzzles of their guns. The man was crying and pleading with the police and after a few minutes, gunshots rung through the air scattering the crowd that was watching from afar. I went back to the scene late in the afternoon and what I found was only blood-soaked soil. I have lived with that memory my whole life.

That same afternoon, I saw the Inspector General of Police criss-crossing the alleys and open trenches in the valley. It was very unusual to find a high-ranking government official in the deepest parts of Mathare. He was escorted by a contingent of heavily armed officers. Even at my young age, I knew that the next few days were going to be hell, and they were. The people of Mathare endured nights of violence at the hands of state agents and more people died. My two cousins, who had come to the city in search of jobs after finishing high school, had to be sneaked out before the door-to-door search that started with the start of the dusk to dawn curfew that had been imposed. The operation left more than 30 people dead, hundreds injured, demolished shanties, displaced people, and trauma. This kind of reaction by so-called law enforcers has also been witnessed during election times, where police officers act without regard for the sanctity and dignity of human life.

Uhuru Kenyattas Jubilee government has exacerbated the already precarious situation in Mathare. As poor youth, we have been criminalised by the same system that oppressed our grandfathers and our fathers. Young men spotting dreadlocks like those worn by Kenyas freedom fighters are targeted for arbitrary arrest, extortion, killings and, as is the trend nowadays, enforced disappearances. According to Missing Voices, an organization that documents cases of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, 105 people were killed or disappeared by police between January and July 2021. The majority of these killings and disappearances occurred in the low income neighbourhoods of Nairobi such as Mathare. It is quite common for a youth to be framed and accused of being in possession of marijuana it is planted in their pockets during arrest and end up disappearing at the hands of the police, only for their lifeless bodies to be found in the city morgue or dumped somewhere else.

I see the youth being terrorized every day in this valley. I have also been a victim of arbitrary arrest several times by the same officers who swore to protect us and uphold the constitution. I have lost classmates and friends to police bullets; the trend of extra-judicial executions continues unabated.

It is this injustice that led me to join the Ruaraka Social Justice Centre immediately after graduating from college instead of looking for an internship or finding a job.

A systematic approach is needed to deal with this systematic oppression of generations of Kenyans, first by the colonial government and the African Home Guards, and by their allies in the four post-independence regimes. One of the founders of the Mathare Social Justice Centre, Gacheke Gachihi saw this need and collaboratively established this community justice centre in the heart of Mathare, on the same grounds where the anti-colonial struggle was planned. As a visionary leader, Gachihi saw the need to form a network of social justice centres in the country that would coalesce around issues of social justice. The reactionary approach of one-day demonstrations has been replaced with a systematic approach: that of organizing the community, educating it and allowing the same community to liberate itself from the shackles of exploitation and oppression. Through this community organizing, of which I have been a part since 2019, the residents of Mathare are now cognizant of the power of a united people with a common goal.

With my pen and paper, I shall live to protect Mathare and its rich history and heritage that derives from the critical role it has played in organizing the masses and as a revolutionary bulwark against oppression in the colonial era and during successive regimes. The onus is now on my generation not to betray the struggle but to bring it to fruition.

Mathare is now home to various progressive groups such as the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), Mathare Roots, Mathare Green Movement and the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), the mother centre of the social justice centres movement in Kenya. Mathare is once again leading the struggle against oppression and it continues to play this role faithfully. The blood of our freedom fighters that was shed on our soil will continue to water the seeds of our freedom. Every time I walk along Mau Mau Road, from Mabatini to Mlango Kubwa in Mathare, I walk with my head held high knowing that I am walking on fertile ground, the home of past, current and future revolutionaries. The name Mathare is no longer a source of shame for me but a beacon of hope for the future for I now know that it means resilience. From Mathare to the world, the social justice movement is born. May the sacred torch of freedom fighters never dim but light the way to a socially just nation.

This article would not have been complete without contributions from Comrade Kimani Antony of Kiamaiko Community Social Justice Centre, Comrade Samuel Kiriro of Ghetto Foundation, Mr Zaangi of Muungano wa Wanavijiji and Comrade Gacheke Gachihi of Mathare Social Justice Centre

Read more from the original source:

CATHERINE MAINA - Breast Cancer: The Weight of Waiting - The Elephant

I have lived in Mathare since I was four years old and I have seen it grow from a slum with a medium population density to become Kenyas most densely populated area with over 68,000 people per square kilometre.

I began my schooling in the early 2000s at Action Child Mobilization Centre, a local private school that was nothing more than a shack built of iron sheets where we were taught by form four school leavers. In this part of Nairobi, qualifications did not matter and anybody could be a teacher as long as they had an average command of English. This was the best we could get. The different classes were scattered all over the neighbourhood, as it was not possible to find space for all the classrooms to be in one place. We became accustomed to learning while listening to loud music from neighbours houses and we sometimes did our exams while a couple was quarrelling and fighting next door. That was the environment we learned in.

As a resident since childhood, I can attest that despite the sad, depressing stories that come out of my Mathare, it is also a place of beautiful stories. Some of our best footballers and sports people honed their talents while training on our soil, people like football international Dennis Oliech and famed female boxer Conjestina Achieng. Mathare has also produced great musicians like Bahati, Willy Paul and Eko Dydda.

But the world does not get to hear about our success stories, knowing only about our struggles and the challenges we go through. When you mention Mathare to a random Kenyan, what comes to their mind is the Mathari Mental Hospital, Kenyas only national and public psychiatric referral hospital that was established in 1901. Due to its close proximity to Mathare Valley, some people even have the audacity to ask why we live with mad people; they believe Mathare is for the mentally challenged and escapees from the hospital. I once tried to explain to a friend in high school that, just like anywhere else, only a few people in Mathare are mentally challenged. But he said, Yes, every market has its own mad man, but Mathare is a market where all are mad. I stopped talking to him. I was very angry and bitter about the picture painted of my home, the place that has nurtured me since I was four.

The stigma of coming from Mathare was so acute that, while in high school, I stopped telling other students where I grew up to avoid ridicule. Any wrong or weird answer would be attributed to my so-called upbringing with mentally challenged people. Most of them would back their highly opinionated statements with references to the violence witnessed during any general election, where Mathare youths are hired by rogue politicians to die for them on the streets.

Today I am writing the story of Mathare, the untold story that is unknown to many. Not out of anger or bitterness, but as a counter-narrative about the place I call home from a proud insiders perspective. It is the beautiful story of a former quarry that became an urban bastion against oppression by the colonial government, and by the four regimes we have had in Kenya since independence.

I am writing this piece because only we can tell our story to the outside world. The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting, as Comrade Gacheke Gachihi of Mathare Social Justice Centre puts it.

Mathare did not start as a settlement for mental hospital escapees as some claim. Mathare emerged from what had been a stone quarry during the early years of colonial rule in the Pre-World War 1 (WW1) period. Most of the building stones and ballast used in the construction of the Eastleigh and Muthaiga residential areas and the Nairobi Central Business District were extracted from this big quarry. It is only after the First World War, in the early 1920s, that people started settling in Mathare. Some of the early settlers were from the areas around todays City Park and Muthaiga that were then part of the larger Karura Forest, from where they were evicted by the colonial government. These prime areas were reserved for the white colonial elite and the former inhabitants were rounded up and concentrated in the low-laying areas, leading to the birth of Mathare and the mushrooming of the many slums in Nairobis Eastlands area.

The first evictees settled in the lower Pangani area that is separated from Mathari Hospital by River Mathare. This area that is today part of Mlango Kubwa and Lower Pangani was known as Kiamutisya. The different sections of Mathare were named after the headmen or leaders controlling them, like Kiamutisya and Kwa Kariuki. From there, the slum began to spread eastwards to Bondeni, then known as Kiandururu. Other areas such as Gitathuru, Mashimoni and Mathare 4A emerged gradually as the population burgeoned.

Mathare is now one of the most congested slums in Nairobi with over 500,000 residents concentrated in a mere 7.25 square kilometres. It is home to diverse ethnicities from all over the country, from as far away as Turkana in northern Kenya, and to foreign nationals from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Mathare is 8km from Nairobi CBD. This proximity, and its closeness to Eastleigh to the southwest and Muthaiga and Karura to the West, attracted Kenyans, particularly those from eastern and central Kenya, who came in search of jobs and settled in the area. This rural-urban migration created a cheap labour pool for the upmarket areas occupied by the settlers, as well as for the Asian community that resided in Eastleigh and Pangani. By the late 1920s, Mathare was home to several thousand Africans living in temporary makeshift houses made of wood, mud and other materials and working in the surrounding areas.

As the struggle against colonial rule began, Mathare emerged as the hub of anti-colonial organizing because of its strategic location. It slowly became the urban vanguard against the colonial government. Meetings to strategize how to disrupt the peaceful stay of the settlers in the country were planned in Mathare.

The agitation was amplified by the presence in their midst of radical elements who had fought alongside whites in both world wars. Residents started protesting against the punitive measures imposed on Africans, such as the hut tax, the kipande (identity document) and unfair urban zoning. The British felt threatened by the continued agitation and in 1952, at the start of the State of Emergency which was declared by the then Governor Sir Evelyn Baring, the colonial government razed down many houses in Mathare. Baring was reacting to intelligence that Mathare residents were supporting the Mau Mau, the nationalist movement fighting for Kenyas independence. This did not deter Mathare residents; it only emboldened them to push further and Mathare continued to be the planning ground for Mau Mau activities.

It is during the active years of the Mau Mau (The Kenya Land and Freedom Army) struggle that Mathare became the crucible of anti-colonial action with the help of people like Pio Gama Pinto, who played a key role in uniting the different factions agitating for independence. Pinto was a Kenyan-born Goan who had studied in both Kenya and in Goa in India. After completing his studies in India, Pinto joined movements against Portuguese rule in Goa, which placed his life in danger and so he fled back to Kenya for his safety. In Kenya, he was the link between trade unions, the Mau Mau, lawyers and others involved in the fight against British rule in Kenya.

Workers from Karura and other areas would steal arms and other supplies from their white employers, which would be gathered and smuggled to the Aberdare and Mt. Kenya forests from where Mau Mau guerrillas were waging their war against the British.

After Kenya gained independence in 1963, the population of Mathare grew exponentially as more people flocked to the city. The first government of Jomo Kenyatta did not undertake any measures to improve the dire living conditions of the people of Mathare. The residents continued to live under the poor conditions that had existed since the colonial period. As the slum expanded, the residents were abandoned to their fate, despite the active and largely undocumented role they had played towards the attainment of Kenyas independence.

This neglect of the people of Mathare continued under the Moi regime. During his 24 years in power, nothing was done to ensure planning, access to water and other basic services. In 1982, the residents of Mathare bore the brunt of the failed Kenya Air Force coup. The Moi government turned its anger on helpless and defenceless citizens, the majority of whom had no idea what was happening in the country. The military were unleashed on the residents like bloodthirsty dogs and houses were ransacked under the guise of searching for soldiers who had participated in the failed coup and whom it was alleged were being harboured in Mathare. The crackdown that followed in the wake of the failed coup left more than 200 civilians dead, the majority from Mathare, which is just across the road from Moi Air Base, the epicentre of the aborted coup attempt. Bodies were left lying in the streets and hundreds were maimed and injured. The damage was enormous, and the trauma would last peoples lifetimes.

The oppression has continued, but has never broken the resilience of the residents of Mathare, forged from a legacy of resistance. The neglect continued unabated under the Kibaki regime, and together with it, oppression from law enforcement agencies. An example that stands out is the infamous crackdown on Mungiki in Kosovo and other parts of Mathare between 6 and 9 June 2007. Those were tension-filled days as officers of the feared General Service Unit unleashed violence, rounded up citizens and demolished tens of shacks. The crackdown came after two police officers were killed and their guns stolen on the night of 4 June 2007. It was a terrible time to be a young man in the valley. Wearing dreadlocks only made things worse as they would use that to profile members of the banned Mungiki Sect. Young men were rounded up, made to lie on the streets, beaten and then forced to wade in the filthy and murky Mathare River in search of the arms that were supposedly dumped there. As though the demolitions and brutality meted on them was not enough, the police then executed more than 30 young men, some in broad daylight. The executions were carried out under the orders of the former Minister of Interior Security John Michuki and the former Inspector General of Police Gen. Muhammed Ali.

One day during that terrible week, shortly after our mid-morning break, the sound of gunshots reverberated around us. The police were firing tear gas grenades and our school was soon engulfed in smoke. With no water available, we washed our faces with the porridge in our mugs and as panic spread, some of my class six classmates tore through the iron sheets and scampered to the safety of their homes.

It is during this time that I witnessed a scene that has never left my mind. It is still as vivid as though it happened yesterday. A man was lying face down on the ground with some officers poking his back with their bayonets, those sharp knives fixed to the muzzles of their guns. The man was crying and pleading with the police and after a few minutes, gunshots rung through the air scattering the crowd that was watching from afar. I went back to the scene late in the afternoon and what I found was only blood-soaked soil. I have lived with that memory my whole life.

That same afternoon, I saw the Inspector General of Police criss-crossing the alleys and open trenches in the valley. It was very unusual to find a high-ranking government official in the deepest parts of Mathare. He was escorted by a contingent of heavily armed officers. Even at my young age, I knew that the next few days were going to be hell, and they were. The people of Mathare endured nights of violence at the hands of state agents and more people died. My two cousins, who had come to the city in search of jobs after finishing high school, had to be sneaked out before the door-to-door search that started with the start of the dusk to dawn curfew that had been imposed. The operation left more than 30 people dead, hundreds injured, demolished shanties, displaced people, and trauma. This kind of reaction by so-called law enforcers has also been witnessed during election times, where police officers act without regard for the sanctity and dignity of human life.

Uhuru Kenyattas Jubilee government has exacerbated the already precarious situation in Mathare. As poor youth, we have been criminalised by the same system that oppressed our grandfathers and our fathers. Young men spotting dreadlocks like those worn by Kenyas freedom fighters are targeted for arbitrary arrest, extortion, killings and, as is the trend nowadays, enforced disappearances. According to Missing Voices, an organization that documents cases of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, 105 people were killed or disappeared by police between January and July 2021. The majority of these killings and disappearances occurred in the low income neighbourhoods of Nairobi such as Mathare. It is quite common for a youth to be framed and accused of being in possession of marijuana it is planted in their pockets during arrest and end up disappearing at the hands of the police, only for their lifeless bodies to be found in the city morgue or dumped somewhere else.

I see the youth being terrorized every day in this valley. I have also been a victim of arbitrary arrest several times by the same officers who swore to protect us and uphold the constitution. I have lost classmates and friends to police bullets; the trend of extra-judicial executions continues unabated.

It is this injustice that led me to join the Ruaraka Social Justice Centre immediately after graduating from college instead of looking for an internship or finding a job.

A systematic approach is needed to deal with this systematic oppression of generations of Kenyans, first by the colonial government and the African Home Guards, and by their allies in the four post-independence regimes. One of the founders of the Mathare Social Justice Centre, Gacheke Gachihi saw this need and collaboratively established this community justice centre in the heart of Mathare, on the same grounds where the anti-colonial struggle was planned. As a visionary leader, Gachihi saw the need to form a network of social justice centres in the country that would coalesce around issues of social justice. The reactionary approach of one-day demonstrations has been replaced with a systematic approach: that of organizing the community, educating it and allowing the same community to liberate itself from the shackles of exploitation and oppression. Through this community organizing, of which I have been a part since 2019, the residents of Mathare are now cognizant of the power of a united people with a common goal.

With my pen and paper, I shall live to protect Mathare and its rich history and heritage that derives from the critical role it has played in organizing the masses and as a revolutionary bulwark against oppression in the colonial era and during successive regimes. The onus is now on my generation not to betray the struggle but to bring it to fruition.

Mathare is now home to various progressive groups such as the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), Mathare Roots, Mathare Green Movement and the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), the mother centre of the social justice centres movement in Kenya. Mathare is once again leading the struggle against oppression and it continues to play this role faithfully. The blood of our freedom fighters that was shed on our soil will continue to water the seeds of our freedom. Every time I walk along Mau Mau Road, from Mabatini to Mlango Kubwa in Mathare, I walk with my head held high knowing that I am walking on fertile ground, the home of past, current and future revolutionaries. The name Mathare is no longer a source of shame for me but a beacon of hope for the future for I now know that it means resilience. From Mathare to the world, the social justice movement is born. May the sacred torch of freedom fighters never dim but light the way to a socially just nation.

This article would not have been complete without contributions from Comrade Kimani Antony of Kiamaiko Community Social Justice Centre, Comrade Samuel Kiriro of Ghetto Foundation, Mr Zaangi of Muungano wa Wanavijiji and Comrade Gacheke Gachihi of Mathare Social Justice Centre

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OYUNGA PALA - The Hidden Lives of the Trees of Amsterdam - The Elephant

Fifth in a series.

During his long career in public service, which includes stints at the federal, state and local levels, Tom Perez has seen government do consequential work. And there have been times when he has been in the thick of major policy debates.

The lesson for Perez is that government works best when there are strong leaders articulating ambitious policies and then following through to ensure that they are enacted.

Thats the message Perez is amplifying on the campaign trail, as he seeks the Democratic nomination for governor.

Maryland needs sustained executive leadership, and the ability not just to articulate a vision, but to sustain and execute a vision, he said in a recent interview. Doing things isnt sexy, but its what people are looking for the capacity to get things done.

Perez, who is 60, began his government service as a civil rights attorney and the Justice Department and then as an aide to the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He later spent four years on the Montgomery County Council.

Next, Perez worked as Maryland secretary of labor under Gov. Martin J. OMalley (D). Then he headed the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under President Obama, and went on to become U.S. Labor secretary during Obamas second term.

For the past four years, Perez was chair of the Democratic National Committee, a high-profile if thankless job. Perhaps as a result, he sees the failures of government or at least the perceived failures through a partisan lens.

People have lost faith in government, he said, lamenting the whole government is the problem narrative that took off with Ronald Reagan.

It hurts Democrats more than it hurts Republicans, he said.

But thats also why Perez wants Maryland government to do big things. He says the state is at a critical juncture but has an opportunity to address some of its most pressing problems including racial and economic inequities, criminal justice reform, funding shortfalls, and climate change. To properly confront these challenges, Perez believes, Maryland needs a strong governor who will lay out a bold agenda.

The priorities that a leader sets can really move the needle, he said.

Perez has never worked directly in the climate space, but he often opens his speeches with a climate joke or at least a weather joke. He teases that his parents, fleeing oppression in the Dominican Republic, immigrated to Buffalo, N.Y., because the weather was so similar.

But Perez is not joking about climate change. He views the imperatives facing state government with a certain solemnity and he argues that the Hogan administration hasnt shown the requisite urgency when it comes to confronting climate change. Hes especially critical about the administrations record on green energy.

We havent led, he said. Weve punched below our weight on offshore wind. The notion that Massachusetts is ahead of Maryland on offshore wind when they have a Republican governor too, is frankly galling to me.

Like some other Democratic candidates for governor, Perez says he would appoint a climate czar to help coordinate his administrations efforts to prepare for the ravages of climate change. But he concedes hes uncomfortable with the word and is searching for an alternative.

This person is going to be a convener, someone who is going to be a silo buster in state government, he said.

Like John B. King Jr., another Democratic candidate for governor who served in Obamas cabinet, Perez name-checks Gina McCarthy who was Obamas Environmental Protection Agency administrator and now is serving as an in-house coordinator of domestic climate policy for President Biden.

Gina McCarthy is a traffic cop for a sustained federal approach, he said.

At the state level, Perez credits Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) for the same approach which he describes as a comprehensive vision and a cross-cutting government agenda. And theyre getting things done.

On his campaign web page, Perezs plans for confronting the environmental crisis are broken into five categories: climate change, renewable energy, environmental justice, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and stormwater management.

Befitting a man who has headed the state and federal governments top labor agencies, Perez thinks a lot about climate change in the context of the economic opportunities not just the policy challenges. A flourishing green economy, he said will boost the entire economy and, if done properly, will provide opportunities for communities of color that have largely been shut out of the economic revival of the past decade. He argues that these opportunities will inevitably unite environmentalists and organized labor.

I give so much credit to Joe Biden on that, Perez said. When I think of climate change, I think of jobs. And when I think of jobs, I think of jobs.

But Perez is taking lessons from the recent past to chart a course for the future.

One thing we learned from 2009 and the Great Recession, we had great hopes that the stimulus bill would create a great number of jobs in the clean energy industry, he recalled. When you look back at it, we didnt meet those goals. Weatherization was talked about as this huge job creator and while there was some job growth there, it wasnt enough. I think were in a great moment now because the attention is being paid [to climate change] nationally, and the infusion of resources at a national level gives us these opportunities.

As two major offshore wind companies stand up businesses in Maryland, Perez is excited by the potential.

We have an opportunity for a 50-year job cycle, a multi-generational job cycle of $30 an hour jobs, he said. And one of things we have to make sure we do is ensure that the job creation includes every community.

Perez said that when it comes to boosting solar energy generation in the state, the government is well-positioned to take the lead.

We have a lot of leverage points whether its school construction, whether its state-owned property, he said. The state has so many buildings where we can put our priorities into practice.

We cant pave our way out of gridlock

Perez is reluctant to embrace the idea of imposing a carbon tax or pollution fee in Maryland, and feels thats more appropriate at the federal level. But he wont rule it out, either.

I havent seen a state thats been able to do this effectively yet, he said. But I do think we have to put everything on the table.

Perez also believes that nuclear energy and even natural gas must be a part of Marylands clean energy portfolio for now.

Nuclear is certainly part of our future here in Maryland, he said. And natural gas right now is an indispensable part of what were doing. So we have to recognize the realities of the moment.

Perez is highly critical of some of Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.s transportation decisions. He recalled a recent conversation with former U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), a leading Senate appropriator, and said she remains outraged that Hogan canceled the Red Line east-west transit project that would have run in Baltimore City and through parts of Baltimore County.

It still sticks in her craw no end that we gave $800 million back to the federal government, he said.

Perez wants to do more than just revive some iteration of that proposal, as most of his Democratic opponents do. He said he wants to set up a regional transit authority for the Baltimore area, which he said would also improve bus service and commuter rail. Perez also supports other proposed transit lines in the state and suggests they can be paid for, in part, by the anticipated influx of federal infrastructure funding.

Perez also said the state needs to do more to promote hiker and biker paths, faulting the Hogan administration for eliminating in the cover of night a proposed walking path across the new Nice/Middleton Bridge now under construction in Charles County. He notes that the hiker-biker path of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) insisted upon, has more volume than a lot of roads in Maryland.

Perez said he is strongly opposed to the Hogan plan to widen sections of Interstate 270 and the Capital Beltway and notes that when he served on the Montgomery County Council, he was a skeptic of the Intercounty Connector Highway, which was just being revived at the time after Glendening had paused it.

We cant pave our way out of gridlock, Perez said. Im always struck, when Im on the ICC, by how few cars are on it. It definitely did not deliver on its promise.

Perezs personal climate hero is

Asked to name his personal climate hero a question Maryland Matters posed to all the Democratic contenders for governor Perez cited a high-profile member of the Clinton administration with whom he served. Former Vice President Al Gore, he said, put climate on the map before anybody else did.

When he first started talking about it people were laughing at him, Perez said. He was just 20 years ahead of his time and now the nation has caught up to Al Gore. Its unfortunate that we had to catch up.

Coming Thursday: An interview with Rushern L. Baker III.Click herefor other stories in the Climate Voters Guide series.

[emailprotected]

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Perez Sees the Good in Government and Imagines Big Things on Climate Change Maryland Matters - Josh Kurtz

Americans are again battling over history.

Is the year 1619 as important as 1776? Shall we tear down statues of Robert E. Lee or go further and topple Thomas Jefferson too? Is the left telling a twisted web of lies (as President Trump put it) about Americas magnificent history, or was the U.S. indeed built on a rotten foundation of genocide, disenfranchisement, bigotry and oppression?

Angry debates have spread from social media to school board meetings to state capitols to the White House, as Americans haggle over who we really are and the past that formed us.

But lets not be myopic. The United States is not alone in this. History is being rethought, reinterpreted, relitigated and, all too often, cynically manipulated around the world.

Opinion Columnist

Nicholas Goldberg

Nicholas Goldberg served 11 years as editor of the editorial page and is a former editor of the Op-Ed page and Sunday Opinion section.

Just last week, Xi Jinping, Chinas paramount leader, wrote himself into that countrys history books on a par with the 20th century giants Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. The Chinese Communist Partys newest official history devotes more than a quarter of its 500-plus pages to Xis nine years in office, according to the New York Times, and a recent party resolution dictates how he will be portrayed in textbooks, classrooms, movies and TV shows.

In Israel, historians are pressing the government to release documents about a massacre of civilian Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin during the creation of the state in 1948. Historians want the documents as they study the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the government is stonewalling to protect the countrys image.

Meanwhile, a shocking 56% of Russians said in May that the monstrous, murderous dictator Joseph Stalin was, in fact, a great leader. Stalins rapidly rising favorability reflects nostalgia for a dimly remembered Soviet past and pride in Russias victory over fascism in World War II, but it is also the result of an effort by President Vladimir Putin to rehabilitate Stalins reputation for his own political purposes. Statues to Stalin were dismantled in previous generations but are now being re-erected in some cities.

The point is this: History is fraught, everywhere.

Thats because it is more than just a collection of old harmless stories; its actually about national identity, about how nations and citizens define themselves. Where do we come from? What do we stand for? Who are our heroes, and who are our villains?

For the most part, its good to debate history. People should know their past and engage with it. Its healthy to reconsider it every generation or so through the lens of an evolving present and newly uncovered facts.

But history can also be manipulated for power, for ideology, for votes, for factional advantage or simply to justify one policy or another. Thats what Xi and Putin appear to be doing. The past can be used to stoke enmity or a sense of injustice and grievance. That happened in the Balkans in the 1990s. It happens today in China, where the Communist Party has long emphasized the so-called century of humiliation by outside powers, beginning with Britain and the Opium Wars in 1839.

Trump, too, was a deft manipulator of historical narratives. As president, he began an overwrought campaign against the New York Times 1619 Project (which has received some pushback from historians on issues of accuracy and interpretation) and established his own 1776 Commission to encourage patriotic history about our magnificent country.

That wasnt a serious proposal. It was politics and marketing that played conveniently into his Make America Great Again propaganda, riling up disaffected voters.

The reality is that history whether at home or abroad is rarely black and white, as Trump and other political leaders might have you believe. Countries arent good, evil or magnificent, but complicated.

Whats more, history is full of contradictions. Stalin was an egregious mass murderer, but he was also our wartime ally who sat beside Churchill and Roosevelt as they worked to defeat the Nazis.

Jefferson was the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, but he also owned more than 600 slaves. (The New York City Council recently voted unanimously to remove a statue of him from their City Hall.)

Israel created a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust in Europe, yet its establishment also began a new odyssey of displacement, dispossession and conflict.

Real historians need to labor in that murky nuance, wrestling with that cognitive dissonance.

To fight false narratives, they need to be intellectually honest, not polemicists or partisans or propagandists.

As we rethink our history periodically, we need to view it from a range of perspectives and in all its ugly accuracy, without whitewashing. To do otherwise is self-defeating, because we study the past in part to learn from our mistakes.

Inevitably, there will be clashing interpretations. Here at home, some historians portray U.S. history as an uplifting story of the slow but steady expansion of rights and liberties to more and more Americans, while others emphasize the mistreatment of Indigenous people, the horrors of slavery, the denial of rights to immigrants and people of color.

The study of history is fuller and richer because of these competing points of view.

As the British historian Christopher Hill said: History has to be rewritten in every generation, because although the past doesnt change, the present does; each generation asks new questions of the past and finds new areas of sympathy as it re-lives different aspects of the experiences of its predecessors.

Thats a positive process as long as the rewriting wherever in the world it takes place adheres to basic standards of honest scholarship, rather than power politics and gamesmanship.

@Nick_Goldberg

Original post:

Column: History is being rethought around the world - Los Angeles Times

The federal government wants to know what Canadians think about five potential designs for a new monument in Ottawa to honour victims of its LGBTQ2+ purge.

The LGBTQ2+ National Monument is a partnership between the federal government and the LGBT Purge Fund created from the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the government.

The monument will be placedin a grassy area on the Ottawa end of the Portage Bridge, just west of Parliament Hill.

The goal, according toa federal news release sent Monday, is to choose a winning design early in 2022 and have the monument completed by2025. The selection team will weigh several considerations, includingpublic feedback, which is open until Nov. 28, and not limited to onlyLGBTQ2+ people or Ottawa residents.

Below are the five designs, in alphabetical order. More information about the proposals can be found in the individual hyperlinks.

This design is a pearl ring that "bonds us together, to share experiences, celebrate, and commemorate, holding space for all who enter."

It would be surrounded by seven landscaped zones inspired by the seven grandparent teachings of First Nations peopleincluding the Anishinaabe and Mi'kmaq.

Its pitch has two main parts:a bowl holding a sunken garden with a waterfall offone lip, and a plaza.

"Our vision combines the intimacy of a singular portal, as a place of transition where we move from who we were, who we are, and who we can become."

It sees a monument with an outer concrete wall representing government oppression, with a small passage "with visceral reminders of the pain of LGBTQ2+ discrimination."

Inside, there would be a central sculpture, garden and event space, with the government's apology for the purge etched on its inner walls.

This space would have a meadow and lawn surrounding hundreds of stainless steel wands and, in the middle, a heated communal table.

A sound installation would play recordings from "fruit machine" tests, which tried to determine if someone was gayso they could be fired from their government jobs.

This team's idea hasa mirrored thunderhead in a large column at its centre, with space for larger events outside and smaller gatherings inside.

"It rises up as our community has risen up to say, 'We demand change.'"

Link:

Here are the 5 candidates for the LGBTQ2+ National Monument in Ottawa - CBC.ca