radiofree.asia

Category: Race

  • Meet Wawa Gatheru, the climate activist creating spaces for Black women

    “Wanjiku Gatheru, who goes by the name ‘Wawa’, is an environmental justice trailblazer. After founding the grassroots platform Black Girl Environmentalist, an intergenerational community of Black girls, women and non-binary environmentalists, she aims to use climate activism to help pave the way for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities in the environmental movement.

    Gatheru is making space for underrepresented voices in climate conversations but also campaigns for BIPOC to be included in the environmental decision-making process.

    Growing up in the US, she took environmental studies at the University of Connecticut before becoming a prestigious Rhodes Scholar, and student at Oxford University, UK.

    Now Gatheru’s started a new initiative called Reclaiming Our Time to “promote and solidify visibility for Black climate activists”. In collaboration with Pass the Mic Climate and Generation Green, the campaign matches 30+ activists worldwide with organisations like Greenpeace UK, Sierra Club, and Earthrise. In a series of Instagram live takeovers, activists educate followers about the intersections between social justice, environmentalism, and groundwork. Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway are among those involved.

    Running throughout February and March, founders hope to continue the discussions in the lead up to International Mother Earth Day on 22 April.

    Gatheru spoke to The Canary’s Aaliyah Harris about all things climate, race and politics.

    Why climate activism?

    A lot of my interest has come from understanding my family’s history, as well as the experiences of Black communities in the US. My parents are both immigrants from Kenya which is a frontline country experiencing climate change. The environmental movement is overwhelmingly white-led and as an organiser at university, I have been the only person of colour, not just the only Black person, in most environmental spaces.

    You tweeted about Black youth being erased/ignored/side-lined in the climate and environmental movement. How is the environmental movement’s history racist?

    It’s an issue with the environmental movement at large and the media. The environmental movement has been historically white-led and has a very troubled racist history, which led to the intentional exclusion of poor people and people of colour. Especially people who live at the intersection of both of those demographics. A lot of the founding fathers of the environmental movement were racist. They conceptualised definitions to accommodate racialised environments that essentially crafted environments worth protecting, and those that weren’t. Those racialised conceptions of nature and wilderness were used to accommodate the white elite, at the very intentional exclusion of poor people and people of colour. This past year, with the world’s reckoning with anti-black racism, [we’ve seen] the environmental movement at large, non-profits, the private sector and academia begin to reckon with this racist history. But [they’re doing it] without exploring the way that history continues to inform the present: from who’s represented in the green workforce to which voices are understood and articulated as those capable of being leaders, particularly when it comes to youth climate activism.

    Why is youth climate activism significant for environmental change?

    Youth climate activism hit the mainstream around 2019 with Greta Thunberg gaining international attention. However, something we’ve seen since and before, is that many youths of colour who also participated in doing great organising work in their communities don’t get the same airtime or credibility. We often aren’t distinguished as being leaders within the environmental movement and sometimes in response it’s, ‘Oh, well, that’s all ego why should you get recognition?’. But it’s much bigger than that because particularly for youth of colour, black youth and indigenous youth, our communities are already experiencing climate change first and worse. A huge concern is, if the media and environmental movement are ignoring our voices now on how climate change is impacting our lives, then what does that mean when it gets worse? Our narratives need to be incorporated within climate policies.

    What environmental issues must be addressed?

    Understanding the intersectionality of environmentalism, and the social dimensions that take a central role in the way that people experience environmental harm and climate change. This will allow us as a global community to be better equipped to deal with the climate crisis and environmental degradation. COP 2021 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference) need to integrate youth voices at the decision-making table, have more women, indigenous and Black participation. COP set a huge precedent for how the folks that do gather engage with environmental decision-making in countries. If a top environmental body doesn’t articulate indigenous or Black women’s voices to be important, what’s there to say about the rest of the world does.

    Any upcoming plans to tackle the climate crisis?

    Black Girl Environmentalists has exciting mentorship opportunities, book clubs and video calls to discuss environmental hazards that exist such as those in skin lightening creams. Studies show that lighter skin tones are considered to be more desirable which has led to disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards through skin lightening creams detrimental to overall health. Yet, online there aren’t many resources for information, nor has the environmental movement ever really centred on those things which are part of the lived experiences for many people of colour. Particularly in Nigeria, India and China. We deliberately create space to discuss hazards and we’ll be providing educational resources filling the gaps in the mainstream environmental movement.

    Check out Black Girl Environmentalists next live panel and IG takeover here.

    Featured image via Wikimedia and Kevin Gill

    By Aaliyah Harris

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Western Sydney mayor uses casting vote to defeat anti-racism motion following death threat

    Steve Christou argues ‘we do not need signs to tell us what kind of behaviour is expected by our residents’

    The mayor of a western Sydney council has used his casting vote in a late-night meeting to defeat a motion that said racism was “not welcome” in the area.

    Mayor Steve Christou of the Cumberland City Council broke the 7-7 tie on Wednesday night to defeat the motion and later told Guardian Australia he voted against “political grandstanding”. He said there was no “racism problem” in his council.

    Related: Australia urged to adopt plan to fight ‘resurgence of racism’

    Related: RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under contestant apologises for past performances in blackface

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Australia urged to adopt plan to fight ‘resurgence of racism’

    Discrimination commissioner says rise in racism against Asian Australians, Muslims and others is ‘significant’ threat to society and economy

    Australia needs a new national anti-racism framework to address prejudice against Asian Australians due to the coronavirus pandemic and the legacy of “hatred” towards Muslims following the Christchurch attacks, the race discrimination commissioner says.

    Chin Tan will on Wednesday launch a concept paper for the framework ahead of Harmony Day on 21 March. In a speech, he warns that racism is a “significant economic, social and national security threat”.

    Related: Death threats, distrust and racism: how anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia ‘seeped into the mainstream’

    Related: Christchurch shooter was active with Australian far-right groups online but escaped police attention

    Related: Indigenous inequality in spotlight as Australia faces reckoning on race

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • A new book is aiming to show how we can have ‘life-changing’ conversations about race

    Confer Books publishes material that’s “designed to deepen our understanding of psychological, relational and emotional processes”. And on 4 March, it released a new title named, The Race Conversation: An essential guide to creating life-changing dialogue.

    This fascinating read dives into a world of new vocabulary coined to initiate conversations around race. And it seeks to discuss “the race construct” which keeps “the discomfort of race oppression out of white people’s minds and bodies”.

    Author Eugene Ellis is the director and founder of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN). It’s the UK’s largest independent organisation of its kind. Trained as a psychotherapist, Ellis focuses on “body-orientated therapies” such as body awareness, mindfulness, and healing. Narratives in the book explore “race and mental wellbeing” through an alternative non-verbal lens which doesn’t always involve speaking.

    Credit: Confer Books

    Ellis told The Canary:

    Since George Floyd’s killing, people with mixed families have been pressured to have [race] conversations they might not necessarily have had as a family before. A lot of people feel an ethical pull towards dismantling racism in their workplaces or institutions.

    Just last week, the reaction to Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Meghan Markle showed how rife racism is in Britain.

    “Being colour conscious”

    Opening the discussion with everyday racism, Ellis shows how today’s political and social climate has forced race conversations to the forefront. Whether we like it not, topics of race have become unavoidable as the media has suddenly taken an interest in pursuing race-related coverage.

    Ellis wrote:

    Talking about race had always been hard work, but, after George Floyd’s killing, it had somehow become hard work not to.

    Black Lives Matter protests took place across the world in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer. Millions gathered to protest for justice, with 15-26 million people in the US alone according to the New York Times.

    On 13 March, CNN reported that Floyd’s family accepted $27m after Minneapolis city council voted to settle the lawsuit.

    The report also said:

    Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. He has also pleaded not guilty to third-degree murder, which was reinstated in the case on Thursday.

    For many People of Colour (POC), the global shift to support anti-racism has been a confusing time of feeling both liberated and overwhelmed. Ellis wrote:

    I went through a phase of dislocation and mourning, even paranoia as these narratives played out on the world stage

    Credit: Confer Books
    Mindfulness

    Examining the impacts of racism, the book talks about how trauma can occur “on a mental and physical level due to just existing in a racialised society”.

    Mindfulness is a technique that involves a “body-mind” connection. Ellis said it can be used as a way to “almost retune your body” to lessen the fear that arises when speaking in race conversations.

    And in this race conversation, he wants to include everyone’s experiences. He wrote:

    I also experienced first-hand that, even though white people embody conscious and unconscious race privileges, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are free from pain and suffering.

    White guilt and suffering from racism are often shunned, but Ellis said:

    That’s a taboo area you can’t talk about but why? I genuinely believe that suffering is across the board. You can’t talk about it because the race construct says you can’t. For it [the race conversation] to move [forward] that aspect needs to come in.

    Another concept deployed in the book is how “the race construct” influences individuals to “attend to white people’s hurt and pain before the hurt and pain in people of colour”.

    “It was whiteness on display”

    It’s natural that frustration weaves its way into these conversations. In comparing ‘black rage’ and ‘white rage’, Ellis wrote:

    White rage steps forward when people of colour step forward to take control of their lives and their financial circumstances. It is predictable, brutal and unforgiving.

    People of colour understand that if they put their foot on the accelerator of their lives, they can only get so far before they run the risk of losing their reputation, their possessions or even their lives.

    The recent increase in news outlets covering topics of race has put a spotlight on racism in the US. This has also sparked people in Britain to dig deeper into racism here.

    Ellis said:

    The storming of the Capitol and the US elections… I was absolutely gripped by the whole thing. It was whiteness on display. It’s easy for us in the UK to say, ‘oh it’s not like that over here’. In the US racism is brash, big, bold and the UK is a little more subdued. There’s more of a conscious effort in the UK to keep it hidden.

    Some institutions have put in place initiatives at certain times to speak about race. In the book, Ellis refers to the “dreaded race day”. He said:

    For race or any oppression there should be conversations around that all the time. It shouldn’t be for one day; you need to reflect about it and that’s not enough time.

    Mental health services have a responsibility to engage in race conversations

    Mental health services that work with Black, Asian, Ethnic Minority and POC also have a responsibility to actively engage in race conversations.

    An article written for the Guardian addresses the problem that Black and Ethnic Minority communities “are more likely to develop mental health conditions but less likely to access counselling – or find it fit for purpose”.

    Ellis wrote about his thoughts on the problem which is “the internal discomfort of mental health professionals, and their profound feelings of not feeling safe during the race conversation”.

    In the book he mentions that POC who then seek mental health services notice this discomfort. He said:

    For a lot of people of colour, a big part of their mental health experiences are not necessarily [impacted by] their families but in society by political structures and systems of oppression. This needs to be included as a part of psychotherapy, training and counselling.

    Then if their client wants to talk about race, they will feel that the therapist is available for it and most of the time, that’s not how it feels.

    PAUSE … and breathe

    If creative language, thought-provoking theories, and an honest breakdown of how we can all participate in race conversations is what you’re after, then this is the read for you. Its forward-thinking narrative aims to normalise conversations about race, highlights the significance of historical oppression, and proposes different solutions to healing from race-related trauma.

    “PAUSE … and breathe” is noted throughout the chapters and is a respectful reminder to all that taking a break from race conversations is ok; in fact it’s healthy.

    Confer UK and Ellis are holding a live webinar specifically for psychotherapists to talk about “racial divides in our society” on 20 March, and they’ll be running another event in June as a part of their Summer Programme 2021.

    You can find other publications from this author here.

    Featured image Confer Books / Thomas Allsop via Unsplash

    By Aaliyah Harris

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Let’s be honest about whose free speech Gavin Williamson’s new policy is protecting

    Over the last few years debate has raged on social media about ‘cancel culture‘ and no-platforming. Often, these debates have centred on freedom of speech. More often, however, these debates have been about racism, sexism, and transphobia.

    As part of our #FactOfTheMatter series, The Canary has been investigating if the UK really has a freedom of speech problem. We’ve spoken to a number of academics who are on the frontlines of these debates. We’ve also spoken to union leaders to find out the scale of the problem. The question we have is this: whose voices are really being silenced?

    Enter the government

    Secretary of state for education Gavin Williamson recently unveiled a policy document that claims to tackle the problem of free speech in relation to academic freedom:

    The rise of intolerance and ‘cancel culture’ upon our campuses is one that directly affects individuals and their livelihoods. Students have been expelled from their courses, academics fired and others who have been forced to live under the threat of violence

    The document has a number of proposals to address this problem of ‘cancel culture’:

    • Appoint a “Free Speech and Academic Freedom Champion”.
    • Extend legal powers to require the Office for Students to regulate and sanction possible breaches of freedom of speech.
    • Strengthen the free speech section of the Education Act, and apply this to Student Unions.
    • Provide a way for individuals to seek out legal options if freedom of speech codes are breached.

    Broadly speaking, then, these proposals see freedom of speech in academic spaces as under threat. They seek to equip both the government and universities to keep a tighter grip on any suspected breaches.

    At this stage the questions are: is freedom of speech under threat? Who’s threatening it? And is this a widespread problem on UK campuses?

    Political motivations

    The document doesn’t name specific instances, but does say that:

    These high profile incidents are but the tip of the iceberg. For every Ngole, Carl or Todd whose story is known, evidence suggests there are many more who have felt they had to keep silent

    The Canary spoke to Jo Grady, the University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, who said:

    Mr Williamson’s proposals are based on an assumption that students and staff – eager to shut down and stifle dissent – are causing a free speech crisis on university campuses. These assumptions rely almost entirely on a survey from the opaquely funded, right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange, which has been criticised for methodological flaws and “basic statistical errors”

    These robust recommendations for policy change come from a right-wing think tank – so it’s clear that there are questions to ask of Williamson and his department.

    As the types of debate which have made headlines for cancel culture show, the issue is very polarising. Clearly, cancel culture is not separate from political opinion. And as Grady argues, Williamson’s proposals themselves are actually shutting down freedom of speech.

    Are there credible threats?

    Grady went on to explain how the increasing norm of short-term academic contracts is a threat to freedom of speech:

    More than two thirds of researchers and almost half of teaching-only staff in the sector are on fixed term contracts. This proliferation of precarious contracts is closely linked to marketisation and the volatility it causes in undergraduate recruitment.

    Here, Grady argues that job instability means academic staff are not free to express their views openly. Grady continues:

    Academic freedom is not just about the right to voice unpopular opinions, but the freedom to choose and shape research and teaching without pressure from managers or the government.

    As our disability investigations show in the #OurLivesOurStories series, the impact of research on policy, and then on real people and communities, is huge.

    If academics can’t speak openly for fear of losing their short-term and precarious jobs, that’s a restriction on freedom of speech.

    ‘Woke culture’?

    However, the problem goes deeper. In order to understand Williamson’s proposals in context, we need to know whose speech is being restricted.

    Senior lecturer in sociology at the University of York Dr Katy Sian told us:

    Cancel culture and current freedom of speech debates are just another reiteration or reconfiguration of ‘political correctness gone mad’ – and no matter [how] it’s branded, it leads us to the same objective: a demand for racists, homophobes, and transphobes to be given the green light to spiel out toxic narratives that are both dangerous and harmful.

    Bad faith readings of ‘woke culture‘ are, as Sian argues, the latest version of ‘political correctness’. This, of course, begs the question: what culture is being cancelled?

    Do Williamson’s policies protect a culture of racism and transphobia?

    According to Sian, the claim that freedom of speech is under threat is itself wrong:

    Whose speech is actually free? When we unpick that, we can see that the speech that wants to be protected and platformed, is often that of a white conservative, right wing, fascist, politics. Whereas those whose free speech is stifled tends to be the critical voices – voices of colour

    Platforming racists

    Indeed, Sian points to the example of Katie Hopkins or Tommy Robinson being de-platformed:

    people get annoyed when students demonstrate against particular problematic speakers like Katie Hopkins or Tommy Robinson, or whoever, there’s uproar against that, but those people are clearly inciting hatred, racism, xenophobia

    Williamson’s proposal carefully decries cancel culture. It also discourages de-platforming. But it begs the question, as Sian argues, who do we platform? Is there a pattern of groups whose voices are shut down?  Sian argues that is the case:

    Those people on the receiving end of Prevent are not being given any space for freedom of speech whatsoever. Conferences on Palestine for example are immediately shut down. So you can see that when we’re talking about freedom of speech, it’s not an equal playing field at all.

    In other words, Sian goes on to say, the work of claiming a threat to freedom of speech is actually:

    a very clear white supremacist right wing agenda

    Bigotry

    Senior fellow at the University of Sussex professor Alison Phipps has been on the receiving end of accusations of cancel culture. Her support of trans communities has attracted the continual attention of trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs).

    The Canary spoke to Phipps to get an inside take on whether cancel culture is a real problem:

    My experience of this is that these people are incredibly well protected by institutions to say whatever they want. And actually, some of these letters aren’t even calling for them to be fired. They’re just critiques of their position, which are experienced as censorship.

    Phipps clarifies that under these proposals:

    Bigotry is freedom of speech, but criticism of bigotry is censorship

    Phipps echoes both Grady and Sian’s concerns about who is actually being silenced, as Phipps says:

    The most devastating thing about the whole affair is that the people who claim to be being silenced, are themselves the ones that are doing the silencing

    Once again, the facts of ‘cancel culture’ depend on politics. Here, Phipps argues that the threat to freedom of speech comes with the silencing of dissent. She goes on to say that:

    You only have to take a look at the history of our country and our empire to be immediately skeptical about the government as a guarantor of free speech. 

    The idea that the government is protecting free speech by silencing dissent…they’re not speaking truth to power, they’re speaking for power. 

    Lest we forget, repressing dissent and repressing criticisms of power are hallmarks of fascism.

    It’s not creeping, it’s here

    The very fact that the government has chosen to produce a policy document on freedom of speech, with the knowledge that the majority of these debates have been around racism and transphobia, points to an attempt to quash dissent.

    As Grady, Sian, and Phipps argue, we can see that freedom of speech is under threat on UK campuses. It’s not under threat, however, from cancel culture or no-platforming. It’s under threat from racists, transphobes, and other bigots who wish to express their opinions without censorship.

    The Department for Education had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

    Featured image via UK Parliament 

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Dan Hodges sent the tw*t-o-meter nuclear on Question Time

    A Mail on Sunday columnist was talking about racism in the UK media on BBC Question Time. Predictably, when it came to his own newspaper, he denied ever seeing any. Please pick your jaw up off the floor and continue reading.

    Cuckoo on Question Time

    Dan Hodges is a controversial figure. He had a  left-wing upbringing, being the son of former Labour MP Glenda Jackson. But Hodges writes a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday. The Canary‘s Kerry-Anne Mendoza wrote in 2018 that:

    Hodges used to describe himself as the “Blairite cuckoo in the Labour nest”

    She added:

    By the 2017 general election, he was writing for The Mail on Sunday and finally switched his vote to Conservative.

    His political predictions are legendary. Who knew one man could be so wrong, so consistently? He confidently predicted the victories of both David Miliband and Hillary Clinton.

    On Thursday 11 March, Hodges was back making confident statements of fact. This time, it was about racism in the UK establishment corporate media.

    Nothing to see here

    The situation has been in the spotlight recently. As The Canary previously reported, prince Harry accused the UK press of “racism”. It was in the context of coverage of his wife Meghan Markle This led to a backlash from the media establishment. The now ex-boss of industry body the Society of Editors claimed the UK media doesn’t have a racism problem. He then quit following a backlash from members of his own organisation.

    So, on Question Time Hodges seemed to agree that the UK media has a problem. He said:

    Let’s be absolutely clear about this. There is racism in the British media.

    But then host Fiona Bruce asked if there was racism at the Mail On Sunday. Suddenly, Hodges took a different tone. He said:

    Look, I’ll be honest with you. I can’t say that I’ve experienced or seen any racism at my own newspaper.

    He also denied that the coverage of Markle had been racist.

    Oh, Dan. Let’s help you out a bit here.

    Just some of the evidence

    In 2003, people were accusing the Mail on Sunday of xenophobia. Just last December it was inciting hate against German people. A Mail on Sunday article about Marcus Rashford was described as. It lost a defamation case against a man of Pakistani heritage. And with Markle, the paper has also been accused of racism. For example, compare and contrast the same stories on the duchess of Cambridge and her. They appeared in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday:

    Kate Meghan Mail

    And it’s front pages are often tinged with racism and xenophobia:

    Not to mention transphobia and trash about social security claimants:

    Oh, and some casual homophobia too:

    Mail on Sunday HL

    Of course, the Daily Mail and Mail Online are just as bad. But yet, Hodges was still claiming after Question Time that there’s ‘nothing to see here’.

    White cishet mansplaining, Hodges-style

    He was basically saying that the Mail on Sunday wasn’t racist. And that while people think the Daily Mail and Mail Online might be, that’s nothing to do with him:

    Hodges does, of course, ultimately work for DMG Media; a subsidiary of Associated Newspapers – which owns all three outlets. But hey! If a white, straight, male, middle-class and privileged member of the establishment corporate media says the Mail on Sunday isn’t racist – what do the rest of us know?

    Featured image via BBC iPlayer 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • BBC attempts to ‘modernise’ leads to all white news board

    As part of our #FactOfTheMatter series, The Canary can show that the BBC has appointed an all-white News Board. Director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth appointed the new board as part of the BBCs plan to ‘modernise’ the organisation. Not only does this break the BBC‘s own policy on representing ethnic minorities, but the BBC won’t admit to any wrongdoing. In fact, it claims it’s not broken any policy because two are only ‘acting’ members.

    A source at BBC News sent The Canary the image below of the new board as they were concerned with its lack of diversity. And we understand why.

    Introducing the ‘modern’ BBC:

    Unsworth has cut the number of board positions from 11 to eight, and in the process removed one of two BAME representatives at the time. Former editorial director Kamal Ahmed was made redundant in the restructure and as a result the board is not represented by anyone from communities of colour.

    Staff questioned whether ethnicity stopped their progression

    The BBC‘s own report into its diversity found that not only was there a lack of representation of BAME employees, but that staff questioned whether their ethnicity was the reason they hadn’t progressed.

    The report found:

    • The absence of a robust and targeted programme to track and progress high potential BAME talent across the business.
    • A comprehensive and detailed leadership Development and training programme that fully supports the progression of BAME talent.
    • An inconsistent approach across the BBC’s policy and procedures, which permits non- compliance – without compliance, action cannot be taken. Action needs to be taken to ensure greater accountability and to tackle perceptions of favouritism.
    • Inconsistent approach to recruitment protocols which result in restricted pockets of excellence.
    • ƒIn the absence of a consistent constructive and meaningful feedback system BAME employees are left questioning if their ethnicity is the real barrier to their progression.
    The BBC broke its own policy

    When the report was published, nine recommendations were made, which the BBC said that it had accepted “unconditionally”.

    The report recommended that:

    • By the end of 2020 the executive committee and divisional senior leadership teams should each have at least two BAME members.
    • The BBC would introduce a policy that ensures shortlists for all jobs at band E and above to include at least one BAME person.
    • Dramatically increase BAME representation across our interview panels backed by performance monitoring.
    • All development and leadership programmes to have significant BAME representation as part of their overall cohort. Inclusive leadership should be added to part of all leadership programmes.
    • Accountability for Diversity and Inclusion targets and BAME career progression should be incorporated into senior leadership team objectives and progression reviews. Progress should be outlined as part of future annual reports. Build a solid and sustainable BAME mid and senior leadership pipeline. As part of this, there should be development programmes for candidates, backed by robust succession planning across the BBC. This should be in place by the end of the financial year.
    • The Executive Committee should undertake a review of staff rotation to broaden the experience and knowledge base and explore what else can be done to make the BBC workforce more agile.
    • Develop specific action plans based on further analysis of all divisions with less than 10% BAME representation or below par employee survey results including, Radio, Newsrooms, Newsgathering, English Regions and the World Service.
    • Cultural awareness training should be compulsory for all team managers. This should be in addition to the current mandated Unconscious Bias training programme.
    • The BBC should introduce a ‘Statement of Intent’ on Diversity and Inclusion. All staff would be required to abide by it. The statement should be published alongside the BBC’s Annual Report.

    By appointing the new board, the BBC has broken its own policy, as it doesn’t have a minimum of two BAME members – or any for that matter.

    The Canary contacted the BBC for comment and received the following response:

    The final membership of the BBC News Board has not been announced. Two out of the eight posts – a quarter – are currently vacant.

    The ‘vacant’ positions the BBC is referring to are acting HR director Kirsty Lee and acting senior controller, news international services Mary Hockaday. The BBC has confirmed that they’re ‘acting’ members of the board but has not confirmed if it’s actively recruiting for these roles. Because of this, it’s not clear when the BBC will be able to finalise the News Board.

    Regardless of whether the board has ‘acting’ members is not the point. The point is that the BBC has not only failed to implement the recommendations from its own investigation but that in the process it’s cultivating an environment that its staff are concerned about.

    Featured Image Tara Hunt – Flickr

    By Emma Guy

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • ‘Colour-blind’ coronavirus vaccine distribution is putting ethnic minorities at risk

    Doctors have warned that the UK’s “colour-blind” vaccine distribution strategy is putting ethnic minority communities at higher risk of falling ill and dying with coronavirus (Covid-19).

    “Unequal impact”

    Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they say the current prioritisation “disregards the unequal impact of the pandemic on minority ethnic groups”. And it’s worsening racial inequalities that the pandemic has exposed.

    The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has largely recommended an age-based approach, saying age is the single biggest risk factor for coronavirus. It recently considered but rejected a move to prioritise people in higher-risk occupations, saying this may slow down the rollout.

    Different ethnic groups are not specifically mentioned in this list. But the JCVI said there should be “flexibility” at a local level. And attention should be given to “mitigating health inequalities, such as might occur in relation to access to healthcare and ethnicity”.

    Higher risk

    People from minority ethnic communities are more likely to live in multigenerational, crowded households, where transmission may be higher. They also make up a higher proportion of those working in high-risk, low-paid occupations. These workers are less likely to be able to work from home and are exposed to more people, meaning they have a higher risk of infection.

    The authors write:

    The invisibility of these vulnerable groups from the priority list and the worsening healthcare inequities and inequalities are putting ethnic minorities at a significantly higher risk of Covid-19 illness and death.

    The UK’s colour-blind vaccination model disregards the unequal impact of the pandemic on minority ethnic groups, rendering it an enabler of structures that are known to systematically disadvantage BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) communities.

    Lead author professor Azeem Majeed of the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London said:

    Prioritising essential workers for vaccination will preserve the healthcare system, accelerate reopening of society, help revive the economy and enable the operation of essential community services.

    A targeted approach

    The authors say ineffective vaccine allocation strategies “likely play a role in the high levels of vaccine hesitancy observed across ethnic minorities”. Strategies that could alleviate barriers to getting the vaccine could include ensuring people do not experience financial loss by taking time off work and travelling to get a jab, and administering the vaccine in easily accessible community settings.

    Majeed added:

    Dismissing the racial and socioeconomic disadvantages that ethnic groups face may result in devastating impacts lasting far beyond the end of the pandemic.

    Controlling further outbreaks and, ultimately, ending the pandemic will require implementation of approaches that target ethnic minorities as well as ensuring vaccine allocation strategies are effective, fair and justifiable for all.

    Dr Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said:

    We have sadly witnessed the consequence of not acting on early evidence presented into Covid-19 ethnicity and health inequalities.

    The impact of the virus on BME communities has been disproportionate and bleak.

    Now is the time to urgently learn from recent lessons, and act on improved granular data, including a clear focus on localised approaches with resources and support which both engage and tackle lower levels of trust and confidence in the vaccine programme across diverse communities.

    Disparities

    A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:

    The independent JCVI’s advice on Covid-19 vaccine prioritisation was developed with the aim of preventing as many deaths as possible, with older age being the single greatest risk of death. We are following the JCVI recommendations so that we save lives.

    We have invested millions into research into ethnic disparities and Covid-19 and established a new NHS Race and Health Observatory to tackle the specific health challenges facing people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Trinity College reckons with slavery links as Ireland confronts collusion with empire

    White supremacists spread a myth of the plight of ‘Irish slaves’. Now academics and authors are bringing the true history to light

    It was one of the most shocking chapters in Britain’s long, bloody subjugation of Ireland: the buying, selling and transportation of Irish chattel slaves to the colonies in America.

    Manacled and brutalised, they filled the bellies of ships that crossed the Atlantic and were put to work on plantations in the Caribbean and North America, sweating till they died in service of empire and profits.

    Related: Activists target removal of statues including Columbus and King Leopold II

    I don’t really know what to say. An “Irish slaves” meme posted on Facebook on the 21 June by a member of the Norristown Republican Committee has racked up almost 900,000 shares in less than a week thus potentially appearing on approx 300 million timelines. pic.twitter.com/7NhD6B3MSj

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Protesters just brought the hellish conditions at Penally to the Home Office’s front door

    The Home Office has had the situation for refugees in the UK brought directly to its door. Because protesters have blockaded the entrance to one of its offices. It was over the appalling conditions in a Home Office-run refugee camp.

    Hell on earth in Penally

    As The Canary previously reported, in September 2020 the Home Office controversially began housing refugees at two disused army barracks in Kent and Wales. The latter is a facility at Penally, just outside Tenby on the Pembrokeshire coast. Penally has been leased from the Ministry of Defence by the Home Office, and could be used to house 250 people. At one point the Home Office was holding 150 people there.

    People have protested about the Penally facility. And The Canary has reported on the appalling conditions in the camp. As Tom Anderson wrote:

    Conditions at Penally are hellish. Camp residents complain of inadequate and poorly cooked food, no privacy, and inadequate shower and toilet facilities. They are unable to socially distance, or to take proper precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19).

    Residents told The Canary about conditions in the camp. They have to brave the outdoors to access the toilets; measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus are poor, and the camp is cramped. But now, people who have been campaigning against the forced housing of refugees in Penally have taken further action.

    Blockading the Home Office

    Anti-racist protesters blockaded the Home Office in Cardiff on Friday 5 March:

    A protest over the Penally refugee camp

    They said in a statement that:

    The Home Office has a duty of care to all those who arrive in the UK seeking sanctuary. People staying in the Penally ex-military training camp, run by Clearsprings on behalf of the Government, are experiencing:

    Lack of drinking water and hygienically prepared food;

    Failing plumbing and heating systems leading to cold and unsanitary conditions;

    Lack of access to phones and internet, meaning they cannot communicate with family or legal support;

    Overcrowded conditions, making it impossible to comply with Covid social distancing rules;

    No provision of health or mental health services;

    Inadequate provision of toilets and showers.

    ‘Trauma’ and ‘purgatory’

    Protestor Lois Davis said:

    Wales has a proud culture of welcoming guests. These people seek only the opportunity to live a normal life and contribute to our society. This is being denied to them by the Home Office, which prefers to keep them in a state of purgatory, not knowing if and when they can begin to study, work and get on with their lives. This further compounds the trauma they have been trying to escape.

    Another, Jenny Roberts, said:

    Penally Camp must be shut down immediately, and suitable accommodation and support provided to help new migrants integrate and become active citizens. Not to do this is a failure in the statutory duty on the part of the Home Office. This concept of using ex military camps to house refugees is a proven failure. No more camps!

    But the story of Penally may not be coming to an end any time soon.

    Homes not camps

    As Davis and Roberts said in a statement:

    We now understand that, rather than reducing numbers and eventually closing the camp, as announced by Immigration Minister Chris Philps in January, the Home Office is sending even more refugees to this dysfunctional facility. Residents and volunteers risk prosecution under the Official Secrets Act for speaking out about the conditions.

    It’s a damning indictment of the Tory government that it considers refugees’ lives so worthless it houses them in appalling facilities. In fact, as The Canary previously reported, there’s an outrageous reason why refugees are being forced to endure these appalling conditions. The Home Office is housing refugees in barracks because of concern about confidence in the asylum system with internal documents saying “the need to control immigration” justified the provision of “less generous” housing for refugees.

    Yet perhaps more damning is that it intends to continue with this potential breach of human rights. It is heartening to see people showing love and solidarity for the residents of the camps. But more still needs to be done. And the drive to have these camps permanently shut needs to continue.

    Featured image via Homes Not Military Camps

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • As Senedd elections approach in Wales, ‘institutional racism’ is discouraging people from entering public life

    The Canary‘s #Independence2021 series explores issues relevant to independence in Scotland and Wales in the run up to May’s elections. And this week it’s exploring racial diversity in Wales.

    So, we spoke to Niki Jones, the founder of YesCymruBAME, and Leila Usmani, a development worker with Race Alliance Wales (RAW). Usmani is also the lead researcher and author of RAW’s report Do the Right Thing.

    Among the many takeaways in this feature is the need to prioritise racial equality in this May’s elections. Because based on the findings below, we’ve got a lot to do in very little time.

    Racial inequality in Wales

    Jones told The Canary that YesCymruBAME is about “opening conversations between communities”. She believes this means everybody can feel more comfortable discussing independence in an “open and safe way”. In terms of the upcoming election Jones said, personally speaking, she’d like to see political parties “take racism and racial inequality seriously”. And she’d like to see them “take a proactive approach”.

    In particular Jones drew attention to the fact that Black people in Wales and England are more likely to be arrested than white people. They are also more likely to be stopped and searched by the police.

    Deaths of young Black men

    And indeed the picture could be even bleaker. Because as reported by The Canary on 12 January this year, Mohamud Mohammed Hassan died after being released from police custody in Cardiff. Police released Hassan without charge, and witnesses claim he’d been severely beaten.

    Then, on 17 February in Newport, Moyied Bashir died after police officers were called to his home. While Bashir was not under arrest, police handcuffed him and applied leg restraints. He died shortly after going to hospital.

    Bashir’s death is currently being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Campaign groups are calling for justice.

    Christopher Kapessa drowned in Rhondda Cynon Taff in July 2019. And when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it wouldn’t bring manslaughter charges against a 14-year old suspect, his mother accused it and the police of institutional racism.

    Education

    Jones also claims:

    Black men are more likely to drop out of higher education courses than white men

    This is borne out by 2017 research. The University Partnerships Programme (UPP) funded research showed:

    10.3% of Black students drop out of university, compared to 6.9% for the whole student population

    RAW’s research published in January 2021 revealed:

    experiences of overt racism, bias and active exclusion in professional and educational settings, including evidence of unequal pay

    Its research also highlights the importance of education. It recommends:

    To combat lack of understanding of public and political life, education in Wales must improve its provision of socio-political education, via formal as well as informal means such as community-led education.

    Doing the right thing

    In January this year, RAW:

    conducted research concerning Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME*) representation in public and political Life in Wales, aiming to explore the experiences and views of racially diverse individuals living in Wales.

    That report – Do The Right Thing: achieving equity in racialised representation in public and political life in Wales – highlighted:

    significant and complex barriers which racialised people in Wales have faced when considering or seeking public or political roles.

    This included a number of respondents reporting institutional racism and discrimination in employment. Some even felt undervalued by the public and political realms in Wales. Others “lacked confidence, encouragement and networks to pursue public and political life”.

    Additionally, a lot of respondents referred to the:

    toxicity of racism discouraging aspirations to enter public or political life, with over 60% of survey respondents viewing institutional racism as actively discouraging them from entering public or political life.

    And discrimination isn’t always so overt. Because respondents have also experienced:

    stereotypes, assumptions and tropes, particularly in the form of microaggressions. One respondent was told ‘[you’re] not like others – why can’t others be like you?’

    Respondents reported:

    they had changed their appearance [29%], with many censoring opinions and hiding elements of their personal life when pursuing professional opportunities (47%), in order to fit and belong in Wales, for example females actively deciding to not wear traditional clothing.

    Others spoke of dumbing themselves down, of not wanting to upset white people, and of being left feeling ‘whitewashed because of … what I’ve had to do to fit in’. 69% reported discrimination due to their name or background, with 46% saying they had changed the way they speak.

    A better way forward

    So to address these issues and “to increase representation in an anti-racist Wales”, the report calls for societal changes. It also wants to see encouragement of racialised communities to participate in public life. To do so, Usmani told The Canary we need to:

    decolonise these institutions and systems. And one of the key elements of that decolonisation is a recognition that we shouldn’t have to just fit the mould, that shouldn’t be the only way that racialised people should be able to enter these spaces safely.

    So, she added, we need:

    more active sanctions to be in place for breaches of equality law…although some elements of it [the Equality Act] can be robust in terms of preventing discrimination…people get away with it with a simple apology and pledg[ing] to do better, but clear sanctions are in place as would be if someone broke other laws.

    Additionally, Usmani said:

    Political parties themselves need to start utilising positive action…to drive quotas for racialised people…to drive targets where quotas may not be legally plausible because there is a caveat in [the Equality Act] that you can only have quotas for gender but not for any other protected characteristic.

    She reiterated the point made in the report’s recommendations that:

    People in public and political life in Wales must embody the fight for the rights of racialised people, as well as the rights for people of different genders, trans rights, LGBTQIA+ rights and rights for socially disabled people, moving away from single strand approaches to genuine intersectional equality.

    Elections can shape a discourse

    While the fast approaching elections might not change the racial landscape in Wales, it is an opportunity to change the discourse. And as the next elections in Wales take place in May 2022, that discourse could get more time to develop.

    Featured image via Unsplash/Element5 Digital & Unsplash – Clay Banks

    *The authors of the report “have moved away from using this term due to it not sitting comfortably with most people and have instead opted to use the term ‘racialised’, acknowledging the process of active racialisation by the perceived White majority in the world. More explanation is given in the full report“.

    By Peadar O'Cearnaigh

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Police forces are still unable to explain why they’re so racist

    According to a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), “forces still do not fully understand the impact on individuals and communities of the use of police powers”. The report examined police use of force and stop and search against people from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

    The report highlights that:

    Over 35 years on from the introduction of stop and search legislation, no force fully understands the impact of the use of these powers. Disproportionality persists and no force can satisfactorily explain why.

    The MacPherson report 22 years on

    The people at Black Lives Matter UK shared their views on Twitter. They said that they – and the police – already know exactly why police disproportionately use their powers on people from BAME backgrounds. It’s because of institutional racism:

    The MacPherson report was published in 1999 following the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and police mishandling of the case. It found the Met police to be institutionally racist and set out 70 recommendations on how they should tackle this. Institutional racism, as set out in the MacPherson report, is defined as:

    The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.

    It’s appalling that over 20 years after the MacPherson report was published, forces across the UK are still unwilling and unable to recognise the realities of institutional racism and disproportionate policing, let alone start tackling them.

    More recent interventions

    In response to the HMICFRS report, shadow justice secretary David Lammy pointed to an independent review which he led. It looked into the treatment of, and outcomes for, BAME people in the criminal justice system:

    Lammy’s 2017 review found that very little had changed since the MacPherson report. And in some cases, things had regressed. Despite making up 14% of the UK population, people from BAME backgrounds made up 25% of prisoners. Meanwhile, the BAME proportion of youth prisoners rose from 25% to 41% between 2006 and 2016. And while Black people make up just 3% of the population, they “accounted for 12% of adult prisoners” and “more than 20% of children in custody”.

    In spite of these high profile calls for institutional reform, we’ve seen little positive change in policing and the justice system. Black people continue to bear the brunt of racist policing. According to 2019/20 data, officers are:

    • 9 times more likely to stop and search Black people – 18 times more likely to do so using section 60 powers.
    • “5.7 times more likely to use force against Black people than white people”.
    • 8 times more likely to handcuff Black people.
    • 9 times more likely to draw tasers on Black people.
    • 3 times more likely to use spithoods on Black people.

    Today, Black people account for 8% of deaths in police custody. It’s been over 50 years since Yorkshire police murdered David Oluwale. But since then, not one officer has been successfully prosecuted for killing a Black person in police custody. The joint enterprise doctrine and gang databases continue to target and criminalise young Black men. Meanwhile, forces continue to surveil and criminalise Muslim communities as a result of Prevent and the war on terror.

    Institutional racism bolstered by the state

    Racist policing doesn’t take place in a vacuum. The structural racism of the state bolsters institutional racism in the police. Here, it’s useful to refer to the Institute of Race Relations’ 1998 definition of institutional racism as:

    that which, covertly or overtly, resides in the policies, procedures, operations and culture of public or private institutions – reinforcing individual prejudices and being reinforced by them in turn.

    We see this manifested in the government’s racist immigration laws, border control practices, and the hostile environment. It’s in a civil service with a culture of racism and exclusion. Resistance to acknowledging the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and empire in schools, universities, and beyond. And failures to protect the human rights of Black people in the UK. Furthermore, the government is responsible for prison and police expansion.

    We have ample evidence to suggest that Britain’s police are institutionally racist. Forces should be beyond getting to grips with the basics of racism and disproportionality. They should have been doing serious work to tackle it for decades. We don’t need any more reviews – we need action.

    Featured image via Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona/Unsplash

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Mainstream media says there’s ‘BAME vaccine hesitancy’, but the experts tell a different story

    The last few months has seen a narrative from mainstream media outlets about “BAME vaccine hesitancy”. However, a new survey from the Muslim Census adds more colour to this picture.

    As the vaccine rollout continues, there have been targeted campaigns that use trusted community leaders. The higher number of coronavirus (covid-19) deaths among BAME people is an extremely concerning fact.

    What does the data say?

    The Canary has already covered the severe impact of communities of colour being left out of data or ignored by researchers. BAME people aren’t fully included in data collection. That means we can’t be certain about the depth of these studies.

    Some studies that track vaccine hesitancy paint a stark picture as to who would take a coronavirus vaccine.

    Royal Society for Public Health

    The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) carried out a poll of 2,076 adults. It found that 79% of white respondents would take the vaccine and 57% of BAME respondents.

    The problem comes, however, when we see that of those 2,076 adults, only 199 were BAME. It’s misleading to compare these percentages when such a small number of BAME people were polled. This is especially the case when we consider that “BAME” is a rather large term which doesn’t capture the depth of experiences of communities of colour.

    SAGE

    A study from SAGE involved 9,981 people. Of these, according to our calculations, there were 897 BAME participants. So a better pool of people than the RSPH study, but that still means 87% of respondents were white.

    This same study has been cited by the Guardian as it “raised fresh concerns over Covid vaccine uptake among black, Asian and minority ethnic communities”.

    Cambridge University Press

    The Cambridge University Press also published a large-scale study featuring 5,114 adults. The Canary’s own calculations have the number of people falling under the BAME category as 763.

    However, in this study, the researchers state that:

    Hesitancy was associated with younger age, female gender, lower income, and ethnicity

    Which means vaccine hesitancy does not only belong to BAME communities. Evidently, other groupings also come into play.

    Weak data

    Data collection that only polls a relatively small number of BAME people is data that is weak. This has not gone unnoticed online. Areeq Chowdhury, senior policy advisor at The Royal Society, tweeted:

    Small sample sizes require caution. And any data or media reports that suggest BAME people are significantly more likely to be hesitant about the vaccine than any other group are on shaky ground.

    Alternative polls

    It’s for this reason that Muslim Census undertook its own poll of 1,026 Muslims. Of these 1,026 people, all were BAME. The poll found that 71% would take the vaccine. In other words, 7 in 10 BAME Muslim people have either already taken, or are willing to take, the vaccine.

    This is, at least, a similar figure to white respondents cited in the studies above.

    The Canary spoke to Muslim census co-founder Sadiq Dorasat. He told us that he found problems with the “actual number of ethnic minorities” surveyed about vaccine hesitancy. But moreover, he also found a problem with the use of ‘BAME’:

    the umbrella is so large that to say ‘a statistic for BAME’ is such a confusing statistic. For example, a Bengali Muslim is completely different to an Indian Sikh or an Indian Hindu or a Nigerian Christian. It’s completely different in terms of our experiences in life. And when you bundle it all together under Whites think this and BAME think this, it’s confusing. And it doesn’t help BAME communities to tackle the issue, and that is my biggest bugbear and that’s why I believe organizations such as Muslim Census are here to tackle and provide a bit more help for individual communities to tackle vaccine hesitancy

    Dorasat went on to say that because the term ‘BAME’ is so broad, Muslim Census:

    decided to provide a much larger sample of Muslims, which includes ethnic minorities from the South Asian background, Black background, Arab background and collate our own findings and publish those to update the narrative.

    Why would people be hesitant about the vaccine?

    Dorasat explained why, despite the broad categorisation, BAME groups may have more hesitancy about the vaccine than white groups:

    the reasons why Muslims and ethnic minorities have this hesitancy that white people probably do not experience is this huge lack of trust amongst governmental policies, health care, inequality, and actually socioeconomic policy as well.

    White vaccine hesitancy, according to Dorasat, could be missed. If data samples don’t represent a full picture, there are problems ahead:

    if you ask white people from certain areas, such as impoverished areas in London, in Birmingham, in Manchester, you might actually see the vaccine hesitancy to be at a worrying level. And I actually believe and this is something that I truly, truly think is that this focus from the media narrative on BAME, instead of a holistic view of socio-economic discrepancies amongst the population, actually neglects white people, actually neglects poorer white people that have that same level of hesitancy, and they’re not actually being catered for, what campaigns are happening for them? 

    Mistrust

    Access to healthcare, medical racism and mistrust of the government are all issues that play a part in vaccine hesitancy.

    The Canary also spoke to the Runnymede Trust. Its spokesperson Rohini Kahrs told us:

    We have stated since March 2020 that, unless we focus on innovative ways to improve access to health services and the fast rollout of the vaccine, this divide between vaccine rich and vaccine poor will increase and spread across racial grooves. Everyone has assumed that because we have a universal health system in the UK, access to the vaccine is presumed as a given. But what people don’t see is what we see, which is the unequal access to health services which have led to less take-up of health services in deprived communities and areas across the UK.

    Practical steps

    Kahrs continued to outline the practical steps central to making sure vaccines are available to all groups:

    We need to consider practical ways of getting the jab to people’s doors in the inner cities at scale and think bigger. What a lot of people don’t understand is that, although there are a lot of vaccination centres in inner cities, a lot of elderly and immobile people are simply unable to get there – so we would urge the government to take the jab door to door where necessary. We have parts of East London that need mobile vaccination buses or trusted GPs working in the front line in the estates to deliver the jab.

    A fair vaccine rollout is crucial to stopping a pandemic that has shown the gulf in inequalities across the country.

    Kahrs also pointed out another risk at play here:

    Unless we can level up the huge inequities in health access, including access to the vaccine, we stand the risk that our BME communities will be blamed for not playing their part in the national COVID recovery.

    Media misinformation

    The Canary reached out to the chair of Muslim Doctors Association Dr Hina Shahid. She expressed concern about how the term “vaccine hesitancy” has been used:

    we are still seeing the term “vaccine hesitancy” being applied almost exclusively to ethnic minorities which creates stigma and risks disengagement. Additionally, there is little context being provided around years of marginalisation, socioeconomic and health inequalities, pre-existing barriers to accessing healthcare services and information, and lower satisfaction, discrimination, and racism that minority ethnic groups report.

    We already know that BAME people are dying in high numbers from coronavirus. It’s clear that we need better polling practices, better rollout of the vaccines, and more attention to health inequalities.

    Dr Shahid continued that:

    These avoidable factors have contributed to a climate of fear and mistrust and created a vacuum that is being exploited by misinformation.

    Not only is the category ‘BAME’ both broad and vague, it’s also far from the only factor affecting vaccine uptake. Misinformation harms communities who are already being forgotten. We need narratives that paint an accurate picture.

    Featured image via Unsplash/National Cancer Institute

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Shamima Begum loses British citizenship in landmark test case

    Shamima Begum has failed to restore her British citizenship after the Supreme Court ruling that she’d lost her case.

    21-year-old Begum was infamously groomed as a 15-year-old child. She was a minor when she entered Syria and also when she married an ISIS fighter. All three of her children have since died.

    Begum was born in the UK. The government has cited her Bangladeshi heritage as proof of her claim to statehood in Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refused entry and citizenship for Begum.

    Begum hasn’t been allowed to return to the UK over the course of the trial. According to the Guardian:

    Lord Pannick QC, representing Begum, said [he] was unable to put her side of the case properly from al-Roj detention camp where she is held. He told the court she would be at risk of physical harm if she spoke by mobile phone to her British lawyers.

    This latest ruling has sparked concerns of civil liberty and human rights.

    Threat to democracy

    The Canary reached out for comment to civil rights organisation Liberty. Liberty lawyer Rosie Brighouse said:

    The right to a fair trial is not something democratic Governments should take away on a whim, and nor is someone’s British citizenship. If a Government is allowed to wield extreme powers like banishment without the basic safeguards of a fair trial it sets an extremely dangerous precedent.

    The threat to democracy is apparent in this case, as Brighouse continued:

    The security services have safely managed the returns of hundreds of people from Syria, but the Government has chosen to target Shamima Begum. This approach does not serve justice, it’s a cynical distraction from a failed counter-terror strategy and another example of this Government’s disregard for access to justice and the rule of law.

    National security

    The Canary also spoke to Muhammad Rubbani, managing director of advocacy organisation CAGE, who said:

    The Home Office deliberately circumvents the right to a fair trial for those exiled and stripped of their citizenship by only doing so when they are not in the country. National security is used as a ruse to suspend long established legal norms.

    Rubbani pointed to politically motivated decisions as the reason for Begum’s treatment:

    The Supreme Court has not only upheld the Home Office’s politically motivated decision to deny a girl who was groomed as a child the right to return home but has provided cover for the deeply racist citizenship deprivation policy, and failed to address how the secret SIAC [Special Immigration Appeals Commission] fundamentally upend any semblance of a fair trial.

    Concerns for the future

    Several commenters also considered the implications of the case:

    Labour councillor Shaista Aziz asked who was responsible for Begum:

    Others drew comparisons to cases that didn’t see defendants stripped of citizenship.

    Precedent

    Stripping Begum’s citizenship is yet another sign that Britain won’t allow international condemnation to stop it from behaving callously. If some people – in this case UK-born citizens with dual citizenship – can have their citizenship revoked, ‘citizenship’ itself is under attack.

    Conditional citizenship for some is conditional citizenship for all.

    We should all be gravely concerned.

    Featured image via PA

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Tories investigating councillor for ‘life time criminal, high on drugs’ comments disparaging Black Lives Matter

    A Tory councillor is being investigated by his party over his comments on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

    Portsmouth’s The News reported on 25 February that online comments by local councillor Ken Smith were being scrutinised.

    Smith is said to have posted a comment in relations to athletes taking a knee during a recent England Vs Scotland Rugby match. The Conservative politician posted:

    Why are all the Scottish players taking the knee? Can it really be to commemorate the life time criminal, high on drugs, who was inadvertently killed four thousand miles away in America?

    Smith appears to have been referring to George Floyd, the African-American man whose police killing sparked global protests against state violence and structural racism in 2020.

    “I get Christmas cards from Muslims”.

    Smith has since expanded his criticisms of BLM, telling The News that the practice of kneeling in solidarity

    was all motivated by the Black Lives Matter organisation. It’s not just a means of paying homage to the person who died, it’s actually a nasty group of left-wing extremists who are exploiting this, and a lot of people are doing the taking-the-knee thing and they don’t know what it’s about.

    People have jumped on the bandwagon – troublemakers, I’m talking about – and are using the kneeling as way of causing alarm and dissent, I really believe that I truly believe that sports and politics should not go together.

    He also denied being a racist, citing past business dealings and Christmas cards as evidence:

    No one has any grounds to call me colour prejudiced in any way. In 30 years of business I have visited and done business with every country in the world, except China, South America, and Myanmar. I get Christmas cards from Muslims, and Buddhists, and Jewish people, because I am never, ever racial or critical of other nations.

    It is not clear if Smith comprehends that South America is not itself a country.

    Dreadful protests?

    There has been resistance to the BLM movement at all levels of the Conservative Party.

    Only recently, home secretary Priti Patel told LBC Radio she had been appalled at the 2020 protests.

    Last summer was quite a moment actually with all the protests that we saw taking place. You saw policing coming under a great deal of pressure through some of the protests… those protests were dreadful

    Asked if she would take a knee in solidarity, Patel said:

    No I would not, I would not have at the time either. There are other ways in which people can express their opinions.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Kwh1050

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Here’s how you can support the campaign to stop the deportation of Osime Brown

    Osime Brown – a Black 21-year-old autistic man with learning disabilities – is facing deportation from his home in Britain to Jamaica. He was imprisoned in 2018 under the joint enterprise act for the theft of a mobile phone, and lost his leave to remain. The Home Office now intends to deport Brown from his home in Britain to Jamaica, a country he left when he was four years old.

    Throughout his tumultuous life, Brown has been systematically failed by the services that were supposed to protect him – the education, health and social care, and criminal justice systems. Brown has a learning disability, has high support needs, and now suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his distress. Regarding the Home Office’s plan to deport her son to Jamaica, Brown’s mother said:

    He doesn’t have anybody there. He hasn’t been back to Jamaica, he doesn’t know Jamaica. When he found out the Home Office wanted to remove him he said: “Mum, is there a bus that I can come back on?” His removal would be a death sentence.

    She told the Independent:

    He wouldn’t cope. If he can’t even cope here, how is he going to cope in a environment and a culture he doesn’t know? He would be exploited because of his vulnerability.

    34 MPs have signed a letter calling on home secretary Priti Patel to halt the planned deportation of Brown, saying:

    If Osime is deported, it is our and his mother’s belief that he will die.

    #StopTheDeportation

    Brown’s family have taken to social media to call for a twitterstorm at 7pm on 25 February to raise awareness about his case and stop the planned deportation:

    They have shared a useful thread on how people can get involved in the online campaign:

    They encourage those taking part to tag the official @FreeOsimeBrown page and to use hashtags to ensure the campaign is impactful:

    Who will be joining?

    Emma Taylor shared some information about Brown’s case and how to get involved in the twitterstorm:

    One Twitter user has shared a reminder for those taking part in the twitterstorm to tag their MPs to make sure the word gets out:

    Another user has shared graphics that people can use to draw attention to the cause:

    Bill Ward shared a helpful reminder that users can schedule tweets using sites such as Tweetdeck:

    How else can I help?

    As Aimee-Nicole has highlighted, people can sign the petition to halt the deportation:

    Another Twitter user has shared the template people can use to write to the Home Office and their MP, calling on them to end the injustice:

    Supporters can also donate to the campaign fundraiser.

    However we choose to support the campaign, we must use our collective voice to demand justice for Brown and send a loud, clear message that we do not accept the Home Office’s plans to put a vulnerable young man into an extremely dangerous situation.

    Featured image via @FreeOsimeBrown/Twitter

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Lib Dem leader caught-up in racism ‘cover up’ scandal

    The Lib Dem leader Ed Davey is at the centre of a growing storm. It involves a councillor for his party accused of racially abusing a child. Residents of the Lib Dem-led council have accused it of ‘covering up‘ its investigation into the incident. And so far, the councillor in question, who works alongside Davey’s wife in his own constituency, has kept her job and party membership.

    Meanwhile, a Lib Dem spokesperson told The Canary that the case is subject to an “internal investigation”. However, residents said that the party had not responded to them and they were not aware this investigation was taking place.

    But what’s not in question is the racist abuse. Because an independent investigation by the ombudsman found that the councillor “did not dispute” the alleged racism.

    Meet Lesley Heap

    Lesley Heap is a Lib Dem councillor. She sits on Beverley Ward in Kingston upon Thames. In 2019, she also taught swimming at a local leisure centre. It was there that the incident in question took place.

    But SWLondoner reported on 24 May 2019 that:

    Reports emerged on Monday that Liberal Democrat Councillor Lesley Heap was suspended from her job as a swimming teacher at the Malden Centre after a parent made a formal complaint that she verbally and physically abused a child whilst in her care.

    Former Kingston deputy mayor and Kingston Independent Group (KIG) affiliate Mary Clark announced… that she wrote to the Kingston Council demanding Councillor Heap is also suspended from her role as councillor while the investigation is ongoing.

    It also noted that at the time Heap was:

    council ‘mental health champion’ for housing and a member of the reserve committee dealing with child safeguarding issues.

    The verbal abuse was racist in nature. Mrs B [the mother] alleged the physical abuse was as follows:

    the swimming teacher [Heap] had pressed her fingers into both sides of her daughter to straighten her legs.

    She provided the leisure centre with a photo of the resulting scratch. So far, no one has made public the exact details of the racist abuse.

    “Data protection” = no recourse?

    Places Leisure, the company that ran the leisure centre launched an investigation. But at the time, the council did not act. The Surrey Comet reported that it ‘dismissed’ people’s calls for it to investigate. It cited a ‘lack of evidence’ as the reason. But from here onward, the situation escalated.

    The company held an investigation into the incident. The result of this did not uphold Mrs B’s allegation of physical abuse. But Places Leisure also refused to let her see the results of its investigation. It cited ‘data protection concerns’. So, Mrs B complained to the council.

    It effectively did nothing. The council said what the leisure centre did: that it couldn’t show her the investigation. It too claimed this was because of data protection. So, Mrs B then went to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. It’s an independent body that looks into complaints against councils. It investigated the situation. And it found multiple faults with both the leisure centre and council’s conduct.

    Fault after fault

    The ombudsman found that overall:

    There is no fault in the investigation but there is fault in some procedural matters, failing to keep proper records and failing to tell Mrs B the outcome of the investigation.

    Specifically, it noted that faults occurred because:

    • The leisure centre did not promptly tell the council about the incident.
    • It did speak with the council but kept no record of the phone conversation.
    • The leisure centre did not give the council the photo of the child’s scratch at first. But it told it of the photo’s existence, yet the council didn’t consider it as evidence.
    • The council sent a document for the leisure centre to complete to the wrong email address.

    But the ombudsman’s report contained two other major concerns.

    The start of a cover up?

    Firstly, it said that both the leisure centre and council were at fault for not telling Mrs B the outcome of the investigation. It wrote that:

    Mrs B had raised a serious concern about safeguarding issues relating to her daughter. She therefore had a reasonable expectation both the leisure centre and Council would tell her the outcome of its investigation. I see no reason the Council could not have done that without breaching data protection regulations.

    It added:

    Failure to tell Mrs B the outcome of the investigation, even if it had to be in vague terms, is fault. It is unsurprising in those circumstances Mrs B does not believe the Council and leisure centre have dealt with her concerns properly and is not reassured they have followed the correct procedure.

    But moreover, one section in the ombudsman’s report raises serious issues. These are not only with the council but also the Lib Dems.

    Admitting to racism?

    The report states:

    The leisure centre manager finished the investigation on 3 June. I do not have a formal record of the decision but other documentary evidence suggests the manager decided the evidence on physical harm was inconclusive. Based on the fact staff at the centre have received antiracist/equalities training I have taken it the second part of the complaint about what the swimming teacher said to Mrs B’s daughter was upheld, given the swimming teacher did not dispute it.

    In other words, Heap did not deny that she was racist towards the child in question. It’s this which has now brought the incident back to the spotlight.

    Residents get involved

    The Kingston Independent Residents’ Group (KIRG) has got involved. It said in a statement that it’s:

    calling for Councillor Heap to come clean and admit any involvement and… to resign. They are also writing to Liberal Democrat Leader, Sir Edward Davey, calling on him to take action and for the Lib Dem group to undergo training in issues of equalities and diversity if, as it would seem almost certain, one of their number was involved in racial abuse.

    In a statement seen by The Canary, KIRG said the council and leisure centre had:

    covered up the results of the investigation and did not reveal the results to the mother.

    It’s contacted Davey twice via email. The emails were sent to two of his email addresses. KIRG sent the first email on Monday 8 February. It sent the second on Tuesday 9 February. And so far, he has not responded to either. The Canary has copies of the emails. Due to the sender’s tracking app, you can see that the emails have been read by someone with access to Davey’s emails. Someone has read the first email 13 times; the second six times.

    Serious concerns

    KIRG’s equalities officer Deepa Veneik said:

    If the Liberal Democrats have been sheltering Cllr Heap for nearly two years their silence would make them complicit in this racist act.

    James Giles from KIRG also has serious concerns. He said in a statement:

    Davey made great noise last year in the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd to stamp out racism in British society. The fact that he has failed to address this serious issue in his own constituency is of very grave concern indeed. He must now take immediate action, if indeed he is serious about tackling the cancer of racism in his party.

    Meanwhile, community activist Struan Dudman said in a statement:

    I am utterly shocked at the behaviour of this councillor and the council. The council said two years ago that there was nothing to see. Now we find out from the Ombudsman that Cllr Heap admitted racially abusing the child, that the council failed to record evidence properly and when they did review the evidence they attempted to sweep it under the carpet. Anyone who admits racial abuse would be disciplined at work – and it should be no different for elected representatives. She must now resign.

    What do the council, the leisure centre, the Lib Dems, and Heap say?

    The Canary contacted Kingston council, Places Leisure, the Lib Dems, and Heap for comment.

    We asked the council for a response to allegations that it covered up its investigation. We also asked it why Heap has not faced action in her role as a councillor (the investigation was based around her role in leisure). It acknowledged our request, but had not provided answers or a response at the time of publication.

    We asked the Lib Dems if Davey is aware of the incident and subsequent communication from the residents group; why Heap has not faced disciplinary action from the party, and also its response to allegations of a cover up. A Lib Dem spokesperson told The Canary:

    Both Ed Davey and the local party take these allegations extremely seriously. An internal party process is still ongoing and until it is fully concluded it is not possible to comment any further.

    We also asked Places Leisure for a response into allegations that it covered up its investigation, and the criticism into the leisure centre’s handling of the situation made by the ombudsman. It had not responded at the time of publication.

    The Canary asked Heap for comment regarding the incident and her conduct; whether or not she considers it appropriate that she has kept her position as a councillor, and also as a member of the Lib Dems. She had not responded at the time of publication.

    What a mess

    The ombudsman’s report was released a year ago, in February 2020. The original incident took place in April 2019. So if, as the Lib Dem’s claim, the investigation is “still ongoing”, there are serious questions over what KIRG referred to as ‘complicity in inaction’. Meanwhile, the fact that local people’s complaints haven’t been answered by the party and its internal investigation not revealed to them before this article, gives weight to their belief that it looks very much like a ‘cover up’.

    The Lib Dems and Kingston council should now act swiftly. Both need to provide full disclosure over the incident. And if Heap is guilty, both need to address her continuing roles in their respective organisations.

    Featured image via Keith Edkins – Wikimedia, Eugenio Hansen – Wikimedia and pixy

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Two Black trans women have been murdered. Where’s the outrage?

    Two Black transgender women – Alexus Braxton and Fifty Bandz – have been violently killed in the past two weeks. Their tragic deaths are part of a rising “epidemic” of transphobic violence which disproportionately affects Black trans women. In spite of this, mainstream media outlets have remained conspicuously quiet regarding the deaths of both trans women.

    Say their names

    Miami police found Alexus “Kimmy Icon” Braxton on 4 February. They haven’t released details of the suspected murder case on the grounds that it would “jeopardise the case”. According to friends and family, Braxton was the “beloved daughter” of a Hollywood LGBTQ Council board member.

    A week before on 28 January, 21-year-old Fifty Bandz was shot and killed in Louisiana. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), her death is “at least the fifth violent death of a transgender person in 2021” – four of which have been Black trans women. Police have arrested 20-year-old Michael Joshua Brooks for murder. Bandz had been in a relationship with Brooks, who had threatened her life before. According to reports, the pair had a “volatile” relationship. Brooks allegedly shot and killed Bandz during an argument.

    Black trans lives at risk

    Tori Cooper, HRC director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative, said:

    In just one month, multiple transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed, four of whom were Black trans women. This level of violence is infuriating and heartbreaking.

    They added:

    This is an epidemic of violence that must be stopped. We will continue to affirm that Black Trans Lives Matter and say the names of those we have lost, including Fifty Bandz, but we must do more. Fifty was killed by someone she knew – if we can’t trust the people we know, who can we trust? We need everyone to take action to bring this horrific violence to an end.

    Bandz was a victim of “intimate partner violence“, which massively impacts trans and non-binary people. According to HRC:

     In 2020, approximately seven in ten transgender and gender non-conforming people killed as a result of fatal violence were killed by an acquaintance, friend, family member or intimate partner. Unfortunately, the relationship of the victim to the killer is still unknown for close to one-third (30%) of all known cases. This means that anywhere from 44% to 74% of victims since 2013 were violently killed by someone they knew, including intimate partners, family members, friends, peers and acquaintances.

    Most of them were Black or Latinx trans women.

    Where’s the outrage?

    Media and police misgendering and deadnaming Bandz in reports is a further injustice, one that trans and gender non-conforming victims of violence experience all too often. This works to deny and stigmatise the victim’s identity, and mask the transphobic nature of the violence.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, mainstream media outlets are more concerned about whether maternity wards should adopt trans-inclusive language or not (the short answer is yes). But where are the headlines saying Braxton and Bandz’s names? Where are the articles telling us that their lives were valuable and meaningful? And where is the outrage against the violence that killed them? Where was the international outrage when white police officers shot and killed Black trans man Tony McDade days after protesters first took to the streets following the killing of George Floyd?

    It’s outrageous that Black trans people continue to be denied respect and dignity in life and in death. The persistent erasure of Black trans lives sends a message to the perpetrators of transphobic violence that their heinous crimes are acceptable.

    If we are sincerely committed to bringing about positive change, we must centre the voices of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people of colour, and challenge transphobic violence in all its forms. We must consistently demonstrate that Black trans lives matter through our words and actions, and work to protect those most in danger. Only then will we be able to start building a world in which everyone has the opportunity to survive and thrive.

    Featured image via Obi Onyeador/Unsplash

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • UK government accused of ‘dragging heels’ on racism

    Rejection of select committee’s recommendations on Black people and human rights prompts criticism

    The government is still “dragging its heels” on racism, according to MPs and race equality campaigners critical of its response to a damning parliamentary report on Black people and human rights.

    The government’s official response to the human rights select committee’s report was published on Thursday and rejected the majority of the parliamentarians’ 22 recommendations.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • KKK member jailed for driving into crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters

    A member of the Ku Klux Klan has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison on charges of driving his pickup truck through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Virginia.

    KKK

    Harry Rogers, 37, of Hanover County, was convicted of three counts of assault and battery, one count of destruction of property, and one count of failure to stop at the scene of an accident in connection with the attack last June in Henrico County near Richmond, the state capital, news outlets reported.

    Rogers pleaded guilty on 5 February and had three felony charges and a fourth misdemeanour assault count dropped. He was originally sentenced to six years in jail in August, but he appealed that conviction.

    The authorities said Rogers struck at least two people after driving over a strip of land near a Confederate monument and then through a group of protesters in the road. Nobody was seriously injured, although officials said he ran over a man’s toe and twice hit a woman who stepped in front of the truck.

    Defence attorney George Townsend argued that the protesters who were struck put themselves in the vehicle’s way. Townsend had previously said Rogers was a member of the KKK.

    “Cockroaches”

    Before he was arrested, Rogers boasted about the incident on social media. He said on a Facebook live video played in court:

    This Chevrolet 2500 went up on the curb and through the protest. They started scattering like (expletive) cockroaches … It’s kind of funny if you ask me.”

    He told the court on 9 February that he was sorry for his actions, and said he “didn’t make the right decisions that day”. The incident came last year amid nationwide protests against racial injustice and law enforcement treatment of minorities after the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Learn lessons from lack of diversity in pandemic messaging, says Black professor

    A more diverse line-up of experts should have been prominent throughout the pandemic to help promote coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines, a professor has said.

    Shift

    Professor Geoff Palmer, of Heriot-Watt University, said Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) experts should have been standing alongside prime minister Boris Johnson to speak about the virus from the beginning, and insisted lessons must be learned. Palmer, Scotland’s first Black professor, said that while there has been a “slight shift” in the right direction, he thinks “it’s a little bit late”.

    The professor emeritus in the School of Life Sciences told Sky News:

    I think what people tend to forget – we are a diverse society, and a diverse society needs diverse management.

    And especially with regard to health. We should have had, at the beginning of this, diverse voices from experts, meaning that we should have BAME experts on the virus speaking, standing next to the Prime Minister, next to our First Minister in Scotland.

    And I think there’s been a slight shift to that, but I think it’s a little bit late.

    The professor said he and his wife have both had the vaccine, as have friends who are almost 80.

    He added:

    More BAME people are taking the vaccine, because BAME people are being seen promoting it and I think that this is a lesson we should learn. We are a diverse society. It needs diverse management and it needs diverse experts in order to assure the people that what they are being told is true.

    “Too slow”

    It comes after Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said health and community leaders have been “too slow” to react to anti-vax messages circulating on social media. She said there has been a “real distrust” around the coronavirus vaccination programme in some communities – particularly in those from African, Caribbean, and Asian backgrounds.

    Last week leading surgeon Martin Griffiths, who works at Barts Health NHS Trust in London and is also NHS England’s national clinical director for violence reduction, urged people with BAME backgrounds to get the jab, after suffering from coronavirus and receiving the vaccination himself.

    UK researchers are looking at the reasons why people from BAME backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic through four new projects funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Previous research has found that Black people are nearly four times as likely to die from coronavirus as white people, while data suggests that people from Asian backgrounds are up to two-and-a-half times more likely to die.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Australia faces calls to cut military ties with Myanmar after coup

    Canberra is understood to fear that isolating country risks driving junta into China’s embrace

    Australia is facing growing calls to suspend military cooperation with Myanmar and impose targeted sanctions on top military generals after its army seized power in a coup and detained civilian leaders.

    Labor joined calls on Tuesday for the Morrison government to review Australia’s military links and send a “clear signal to Myanmar’s military leaders that their actions are a direct attack on Myanmar’s democratic transition and stability”.

    Related: Fears army will tighten grip in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi detained

    Related: Exercise instructor appears to unwittingly capture Myanmar coup in dance video

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • 14 Books to Read During Black History Month and Beyond

    February is Black History Month, and so we asked the Innocence Project’s staff to share books that have inspired them to reflect on Black history. The powerful books they selected below touch on everything from how the legacy of slavery in the U.S. has contributed to mass incarceration to exploring what it means to be a young Black person in America today — plus some interesting reads by talented Black authors touching on other forms of injustice.

    Throughout this month, we’ll be highlighting the disproportionate impact of mass incarceration on Black people, including on death row, and honoring icons of the civil rights movement and pioneers of change. These essential reads get to the heart of many of these issues, so if you’re looking for a way to learn more this month check our recommendations. And tell us what you’re adding to your reading list in the comments below. 

    1.  The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

    Over 30 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne spoke to anyone he could find who knew Malcolm X. What resulted is this incredible biography of the civil rights leader, which paints a portrait of Malcolm X unlike any other. The winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Non-Fiction, this biography is a must-read. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    2. Heavy by Kiese Laymon

    In this memoir, Mr. Laymon writes about growing up in Jackson, Mississippi. He poignantly discusses his struggles with his weight, abuse and family, and contemplates the dynamics of race and America’s fraught racial history on his life and the lives of those around him. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    3. Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and activist Yusef Salaam

    Co-authored by Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five and the Innocence Project’s board of directors, this moving young adult novel tells the story of a wrongly convicted boy. Ms. Zoboi told NPR that the main character is inspired by Mr. Salaam because, “I write books for children, and I wanted the world to remember that Yusef was a child when this happened to him and I was a child as well.”

    Innocence Project supporters will receive a free shipping discount when they purchase Punching the Air with this link.

    4. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Dr. Monique Morris

    While arrests of girls between the ages of 13 and 17 have declined overall, Black girls are coming into contact with the juvenile justice system at disproportionately high rates. That has to do with the way society treats young Black girls, Dr. Morris argues. In this work of nonfiction, she examines the unique experiences of young Black girls in school, interrogating the ways in which today’s schools and systems dehumanize and criminalize Black girls from an early age, leaving life-long impacts. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    5. All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

    Celebrated Black feminist writer and professor bell hooks frequently writes on the intersection of race, gender and society. But in All About Love: New Visions, hooks examines the foundation of love and the ways in which cultural norms have shaped how we love one another. In less than 200 pages, hooks lays out her framework for understanding love and becoming more open to giving and receiving love, and in doing so advancing justice and humanity. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    6. Another Country by James Baldwin

    No list of great Black literature would be complete without Mr. Baldwin’s work. In this 1962 novel, Mr. Baldwin paints a portrait of New York City’s Greenwich Village and Harlem neighborhoods as he saw them. He challenges the characterization of New York City as a harmonious “melting pot,” and instead highlights the ways in which continued racism can become internalized and affect interpersonal relationships. Another Country was criticized by many and banned in some places, including New Orleans and Australia, at the time of publishing. But, today, is considered an important and influential writing. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    7. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

    In her first novel, Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi traces the details the slave trade’s impact on two continents over eight generations. Focusing on two half sisters and their descendants, Homegoing highlights the ways in which the legacy of slavery has shaped race dynamics and changed lives over hundreds of years, and still does to this day. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    8. Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State by Garrett Felber

    Garrett Felber examines the history of the Nation of Islam, a Black political and religious movement, and its struggle against policing and prisons as part of the Black Freedom Movement. The book also looks at the ways in which the Muslim community’s organizing during the civil rights era paved the way for the modern-day prison abolition movement. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    9. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

    “I am invisible because people refuse to see me … When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination — indeed, everything and anything except me,” Mr. Ellison wrote in Invisible Man. 

    The novel follows the life of an unnamed narrator, a Black man who grows up in a small Southern town, attends a Black college, and moves to New York where his life takes a turn. The celebrated work of fiction considers issues of race and social structures still relevant today. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    10. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

    Ms. Wilkerson’s book draws its title from a poem by celebrated author Richard Wright, in which he wrote that he had left the South and moved to Chicago in the hopes of feeling “the warmth of other suns.”

    In Ms. Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, she tells the powerful, true stories of three Black Americans who, like Mr. Wright and millions of others, left the South between 1915 and 1970 to seek opportunity and freedom from Jim Crow rule elsewhere in the U.S. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    11–13. The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

    In the first installment of Jemisin’s sci-fi trilogy, Essun, the protagonist, must hide her supernatural abilities as she searches for her kidnapped daughter in an apocalyptic world where natural disasters occur regularly and without warning. If her abilities are discovered, she risks discrimination and even death. The three books in the series deal with themes of oppression, power and revolution. Ms. Jemisin became the first Black woman to win the Hugo Award, the most prestigious award for science fiction and fantasy writing, in 2016. She went on to win the prize the following two years for the subsequent installments of the trilogy. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    14. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

    Ms. Ward’s novel is set in a fictional town in Mississippi, but much of it takes place in the very real Mississippi State Penitentiary, modeled after a slavery era plantation, and tells the story of a family impacted by mass incarceration, racism, drugs and poverty. Ms. Ward won the National Book Award for her moving book. Get it here or at your local bookstore.

    What’s on your reading list? Let us know in the comments below. 

    The post 14 Books to Read During Black History Month and Beyond appeared first on Innocence Project.

    This post was originally published on Innocence Project.

  • Hackney Council rejects petition from charity supporting Black domestic abuse survivors

    On 27 January, Hackney council held a debate to discuss the future of Sistah Space. It’s a charity that works with Black women and girls who’re at risk of, or have experienced, domestic or sexual abuse. Most councillors voted against the charity’s request for the council to provide suitable, affordable premises.

    Save Sistah Space

    Sistah Space founder Ngozi Fulani brought a petition to a remote Hackney council meeting, asking councillors to provide suitable premises for the charity. The petition is supported by Hackney’s Green Party, Liberal Democrats, and Women’s Equality Party. And it calls for the council to provide a minimum five year lease for new premises, or provide a voluntary and community sector (VCS) building at charity rate for Sistah Space.

    This was following another petition, with over 25k signatures, asking the council to provide a suitable space for the charity. There was a temporary agreement that the council would provide premises for the charity which expired on 17 January. In his response to the petition, Hackney mayor Philip Glanville highlighted this agreement, saying “Sistah Space has not been evicted. They agreed to leave on that date and they have done so”.

    Fulani began by saying that the council has held Sistah Space “in high esteem” for its work, having received Hackney’s citizens award. She continued:

    But the moment we said: ‘Please sir, can we have some more?’ You said: ‘More?’.

    She told councillors:

    We provide a service that you can’t or won’t. And instead of using us as a resource, because we’re the experts on us, you fight us with every corporate tool at your disposal, spending thousands on legal fees… We’re a very small charity, and our only crime, it seems, was asking for safety.

    Fulani asked councillors to remember Valerie Forde and her baby who were violently killed by Forde’s ex-partner in Hackney. She added that the charity’s client base has increased by 500% over the course of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

    The charity leader concluded:

    Hackney councillors, will you please provide proof to us that to you, Black lives do matter.

    Hackney council debate

    Many councillors praised Sistah Space’s important work, and others expressed their desire to continue working with the charity, but most voted against the petition. According to the mayor, none of the council’s VCS buildings meet the specifications set out in Sistah Space’s petition. He argued that the charity is asking the council for a space which “simply does not exist”.

    Councillors Sade Etti and Sophie Conway highlighted their experiences as survivors of domestic abuse. Highlighting that one in three women will have experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime, Conway said:

    The work that Sistah Space does resonates with me. … I sincerely hope that they will secure a suitable space within the borough so that they can continue their invaluable work.

    In his response to the petition, Glanville said:

    This petition sets out that Sistah Space would like us to hand over a property to them. An action that would not only be in breach of our own VCS policy, but be unfair to other charities that follow fair and transparent policy and bid for spaces.

    He concluded:

    I hope we can move on and continue to fight against both racism and that terrible scourge of domestic violence and abuse. Sadly, we cannot do so in the way set out in the petition.

    The fight for a safe space continues

    The charity organisers are disappointed by this outcome. The Save Sistah Space campaign to help the charity secure suitable, affordable premises is ongoing.

    Featured image via Hackney Council/YouTube

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Black Lives Matter movement nominated for Nobel peace prize

    Norwegian MP cites global impact of BLM in raising awareness and consciousness of racial injustice

    The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel peace prize for the way its call for systemic change has spread around the world.

    In his nomination papers, the Norwegian MP Petter Eide said the movement had forced countries outside the US to grapple with racism within their own societies.

    Related: Tributes to slave traders and colonialists removed across UK

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘Hell scared’: how a terrified homeless boy found himself locked up alone in the ‘hole’

    The child’s story: Louie has been in and out of juvenile detention most of his young adult life. He tells of how he’d pretend to be on the phone to family just to stay a few minutes longer out of solitary

    Shortly after Louie turned 15, he was standing in front of a shop window late at night with his friend Joe, who was holding a stolen hammer.

    For weeks they had been sleeping on the streets of Perth. At night they would fall asleep sitting in front of hot air vents to keep warm, using a rolled-up jumper for a pillow, lying against each other, Louie’s head on Joe’s shoulder.

    Related: Australia’s anguish: the Indigenous kids trapped behind bars

    It’s called the ‘back’ or the ‘hole’. It’s like sitting in the back of a police van. I could touch both sides

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • The Uprising

    As Americans take to the streets, we hear from the person prosecuting the police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing. We also hear from protesters around the country and remember the history of policing in black communities. 

    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Containing the Coronavirus

    As the new coronavirus spreads through the U.S., we chronicle how it came to California, with the voices of first responders, experts and passengers quarantined on a cruise ship docked in San Francisco Bay. 

    Plus, we hear the story of an African American man who decades ago was shot and killed by a police officer who later became leader of the Ku Klux Klan. 

    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • The Lynching of Thomas Finch

    In 1936, an unarmed black man was killed by an Atlanta police officer who later became leader of the Ku Klux Klan. We explore why the city doesn’t recognize the case as a lynching.


    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Losing ground (rebroadcast)

    In 1996, Eddie Wise, the son of a sharecropper, purchased a farm with a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Twenty years later, the USDA foreclosed on the property and evicted him. Reveal investigates his claim that he was discriminated against because of his race.

    *
    *    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.