controversies
It seems every time one racially-charged incident ends, a gender or religious controversy takes its place; Ruminate on the issues dividing our nation and world.
Dear South Asian People: We (Black People) Are NOT The Problem.
It is only Thursday, and yet this week alone has felt like a lifetime. Between the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old unarmed Black father who was shot in front of his kids 7 times in the back on Sunday, or the Republican National Convention which started on Monday and has spewed hatred and fear of Black people to their primarily white Anglo base all week, this week has been soul-suckingly long already. There have been protests raging in the United States, NBA players have announced they are boycotting (striking technically) the games that were scheduled to be played and MLB and MLS teams are following suit, standing in solidarity with their athletic colleagues. And in the midst of all of this, Black people are facing another all-too familiar attack from another marginalized and racialized group of people, who have suffered similar traumas due to colonialism, white supremacy, racism and the class system. As some of you in the Black community have heard, there is a popular Indo-Caribbean restaurant that is frequented by us and recently, the manager of one of the locations who happens to be a family member of the owner of the restaurant made some extremely racist and ignorant comments on social media regarding the current state of affairs between law enforcement and the Black community. His comments have caused backlash and quite a stir, some calling for complete boycotts of their businesses both here in Toronto and in Trinidad & Tobago. As someone who has Indo-Caribbean friends, I really wanted to take a moment to address some of the history and foundation of where this stems from. It’s roots are deep in the very white supremacist, racist and anti-Black rhetoric we are currently witnessing.
By Whitney Smart6 years ago in The Swamp
The Baalei Teshuva Project: Finally Breathing
I was raised in a very secular Soviet household. I went to a Jewish day school for about three years, where I never had help with my homework. My grandma barely remembered Yiddish. Even though she’d speak to me in Yiddish and I understood fluently, my mom didn’t want her to speak to me in Yiddish. She didn’t want me going back to the roots.
By Naomi Grant6 years ago in The Swamp
Thug(s)
I remember very distinctly the first time a white person used the term "thug" to me and I knew they really meant "N*****." I was working for a Fortune 500 company in their Supply Chain division as a budding manager. I had built out and ran a home delivery program for this company and managed a P&L of about $30 million dollars annually. It was the most stressful yet rewarding time of my life. I had received Executive Leadership awards from my senior leadership team and had been recognize company wide for my contributions. Exceptional customer service skills have always been one of my strongest attributes and I prided myself on being able to negotiate and manage tough customer service situations. There were many a time where my company president sent me issues to resolve and trusted me implicitly to make decisions on what the right course of action was. I said all this not to brag in any way, but more to provide context of my work ethic and standing at this particular point in time at this company. I was well respected and had worked my ass off to be so.
By Whitney Smart6 years ago in The Swamp
WAP vs. You Shook Me All Night Song
I absolutely love music. From the moment I was born, I was unknowingly being trained in good music. Funny (and true) sidebar story: My mom was terrified of SIDS. If you are old enough to know or remember anything about the 80's, there was a period of time were there was an increase of infants dying in their sleep. They sometimes called it "crib death," but it was SIDS which stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. My mom had this idea that if she played music to me on the radio when I was sleeping, that somehow the music would call me back from the Light if my little baby Spirit decided it had had enough of this planet already. Irrational, I know. Makes no scientific sense, I know. Totally a mom-logic thing? Absolutely. And really kinda sweet in an odd way! But in reality, all that happened was that I was being subliminally programmed to good ass 70's and 80's music!
By Whitney Smart6 years ago in The Swamp
White Privilege is Not Just a White Thing
When I first started talking about writing this article, I was immediately hit with several white people wanting to argue that there is no such thing as white privilege, even questioning what its definition is. This piece is not about whether or what it is, but the fact that Non Black People of Color (NB POC) often are recipients of it, whether they want to be, or not. Often without even realizing it.
By Lisa LaRue-Baker6 years ago in The Swamp
ADF India Hosts Religious Freedom Conference With UN Special Rapporteur
The citizens of India have the right to practice and preach which ever religion they choose to follow. The country. The country has an estimated 1,380,004,385 people at mid year according to UN data. These people habitate a large country which has many, many religions which are practised in it. While 94% of the world's Hindus live in India, there also are substantial populations of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and adherents of folk religions.
By Ashish Prabhu6 years ago in The Swamp
The decline in fact based knowledge is harming governance
The decline in fact based knowledge. The more we are told, the less we know. Many decisions are now made based on the prevalent opinion, rather than scientific fact and this is harmful to world wide governance. It allows manipulation of both public and authority perceptions.
By Peter Rose6 years ago in The Swamp
I’m all in on Reparations and you Should be Too
Photo by Fibonacci Blue Reparations - some people get so upset at the mere mention. You need to calm down. I think it provides an excellent discussion point to delve into our past and possibly come to understand each other better. But I’m starting to think that there’s more here than just a theoretical conversation, and the check actually made out would serve us all. That’s right “some people,” I’m talking to you.
By Rich Monetti6 years ago in The Swamp
The African American Addict
The African American Addict Is it still easier find dope, than it is to get a job? Langston Hughes was an American poet, but he was also a social activist, among other things. The most fascinating thing about his work perhaps, is that it is still as relevant today as it was the day he wrote “Junior Addict”; the problems posing African Americans due to their marginalization by a social hierarchal system deep-rooted in sympathies to slavery have never gone away. In fact, one could argue that the problems have increased exponentially. In America today, there are more African Americans under correctional control—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
By Jonathan Mosby6 years ago in The Swamp
Homelessness
“All right reserved."No part of Homeless Blog publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded, scanning, displaying, modifying, republication, republishing, posting on any website, platform, social media, RSS feeds or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher or author Fatma Robinson@copyright. [email protected].
By Fatma M Robinson6 years ago in The Swamp
