News 1. Dalhousie report on its racist past released The Dalhousie panel appointed to look into the attitudes and actions of the school’s founder has published its report, writes Frances Willick for the CBC. In an opening note, the report’s lead author and panel chair Dr. Afua Cooper ties the historical findings to current day […]
Afua Cooper: “We need to smash those [racist] stereotypes and see the humanity in each and every one of us”
Morning File, Wednesday, May 22, 2019
News 1. Bank of Canada acknowledges that climate change will impact the economy “For the first time ever, the Bank of Canada has released a report examining the threat climate change poses to the country’s financial system,” reports Karina Roman for the CBC. The report in question is the Bank’s annual Fiscal System Review, which […]
“Do right by me”: by not addressing the systematic racism of street checks, the white power structure is doubling down on Nova Scotia’s well-earned reputation for ignorance, stigma, and stench
“Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crumble.” Voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in her role as Celie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple, the line has recently wafted, repeatedly, through my mind. To be sure, the thought has been prompted by the magnificent production of The Color Purple […]
Poo in the water, and other calamities
Morning File, Friday, August 24, 2018
Good morning, folks. Erica Butler here at the Morningfile keyboard today. News 1. Burnside jail “The prisoner protest at the Burnside jail is in part sparked by the move to the direct supervision model,” reports El Jones: Both staff and prisoners say that the change to new day rooms has been disorganized, that there is […]
Justin Trudeau smoked weed and went on to become Prime Minister, so why can’t Tyrell find a legit job?
Legalization of cannabis could have been used as an opportunity to help Black people; instead, past cannabis-related convictions will not be pardoned and will be used to deny Black people job opportunities, and Black people will continue to be racially profiled and harassed.
Tyrell [not his real name] is an African Nova Scotian man in his 20s. For obvious reasons Tyrell doesn’t want to be identified for this story, and while he spoke about his life, he did not want to be directly quoted. Some details have been changed to protect his identity. Growing up in housing with […]
The city sells naming rights to dog-awful corporations so you can save… two dollars
Morning File, Tuesday, April 24, 2018
1. “Privacy breaches” continue
Working While Black: Founders Square tenant Robert Wright says firing of Black janitors is a “travesty of racial injustice”
An apology: The Halifax Examiner acknowledges that the Armour Group Limited neither hired, nor fired, the janitors previously employed to clean Founder’s Square. Further, The Halifax Examiner retracts, and apologizes for the allegation that Armour Group engaged in racial discrimination in determining to no longer engage with GDI Integrated Facility Services. On Friday morning, the janitors […]
Of The Sorrow Songs
My mother’s stories all had happy endings. “And then I went back years later,” she would conclude triumphantly, “and waved my degree and said who’s the nigger now?” As a young child, this Black version of happily ever after did not strike me as improbable. Stories of a great uncle, studying medicine in Edinburgh while […]
Reparations raises the racism disconnect
"I wasn’t around when slavery existed and I’m not responsible for it, so why should I have to pay reparations? The past is past, things are better now, so let’s just move on…" It’s a comforting argument, but it pre-supposes we, as whites, haven’t benefited from centuries of slavery and racism, or that our black fellow citizens aren’t still suffering its after-effects. It also assumes the economic, educational, judicial, and social scales are now in perfect colour-blind balance. Neither notion is correct.
On Sept. 25, the United Nations Human Rights Council discussed a report on Canada by its Working Group of Experts on Peoples of African Descent. The report, which shone its white-hot light on our country’s sordid history of slavery and racism in virtually every sphere of life — from education to justice to the environment...
Examineradio 125: Rally ‘Round The Statues
Historian Afua Cooper is on the show this week to talk about racism, slavery and Lord Dalhousie, the university’s namesake. She’s the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dal. She has a few things to say about the statues coming down. Plus, Tim and Terra discuss the latest rally at the Cornwallis […]