La radicalisation des intellectuels noirs

2015/07/20 1 Comment

Interesting piece on how the views of prominent Black intellectuels have become more radical and challenging, citing Ta-Nehisi Coates as an example:

L’insistance de Ta-Nehisi Coates à parler des sujets qui fâchent le distingue nettement de la génération précédente. Les identités étaient alors pensées dans leur pluralité, et non dans leur singularité, et le multiculturalisme devait pouvoir les réconcilier. Un nouvel ordre politique devait naître de la collaboration entre minorités par la défense d’intérêts communs. La large coalition qui permit l’élection de Barack Obama, en novembre 2008, confirmait cette thèse et signait l’entrée des États-Unis dans une ère postraciale où les discriminations, sans être tout à fait vaincues, étaient du moins significativement atténuées.

Hélas, le multiculturalisme, s’il a banalisé l’idée de diversité, n’a pas mis fin au racisme. Et c’est ce que Ta-Nehisi Coates estime nécessaire de rappeler à la majorité blanche. L’égalité devant la loi, obtenue dans les années 1960 par le mouvement des droits civiques, ne suffit pas. Le rappel de cette triste vérité est au coeur du nouveau radicalisme noir. Sur le plan des idées, l’intégration politique des descendants d’esclaves passe au second plan pour revenir à une question primordiale : la dignité des personnes noires. Ta-Nehisi Coates et plusieurs intellectuels interpellent donc aujourd’hui directement l’Amérique blanche pour lui demander une pleine reconnaissance des violences subies hier comme aujourd’hui. Le philosophe Chris Lebron et le politologue Fredrick C. Harris ont tenu des positions similaires dans le New York Times et la revue Dissent. La juriste Michelle Alexander avait en quelque sorte préparé le terrain, il y a deux ans, en publiant un livre dénonçant l’incarcération massive des hommes noirs, qu’elle assimilait à une nouvelle ségrégation.

La radicalisation des intellectuels noirs | Le Devoir.

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Emma Teitel’s advice to gropers and the Washington Redskins

2015/07/18 Leave a comment

On those who feel the need to cling to racist symbols and labels (Confederate flag, Washington Redskins), good piece by Teitel:

But team owners, convinced of their moral superiority, intend to appeal the decision right away. In fact, they maintain, in the words of team president Bruce Allen, “the facts and the law” are on the side of their franchise, which “has proudly used the name Redskins for more than 80 years.” Team owner Dan Snyder, employing the logic of the party-groping apologist above, argues that the Redskins name is complimentary to Native Americans. “The Washington Redskins fan base represents honour, represents respect, represents pride,” he said last year. To illustrate this point, Snyder has pointed repeatedly to Native Americans who are linked, positively, to the team’s history: The franchise was named after William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, its first head coach, who claimed he was of Native American descent. (Some contest his claim.) And Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a former president of the National Congress of American Indians, helped to develop the Redskins logo.

Snyder’s historical justification for the team’s name, applied to the groping scenario described above, amounts to this: “You may not be happy that I groped your rear end, but I assure you that my grope was a compliment, justified by the long and storied history of groping—one full of women who are reported to have relished the occasional uninvited pinch on the tush.”

It takes a special kind of ethical blind spot to dismiss the feelings of a present-day offended party because someone else, long dead, saw it your way. “Redskins” is, plain and simple, a racist term, as racist as any ethnic slur under the sun. If we wouldn’t celebrate a sports team called the (insert bigoted, derogatory term here), we should not celebrate this one. But it appears that slurs used to denigrate certain groups (see Native Americans) are taken less seriously when white nostalgic pride is at stake.

Snyder and company would do well to follow the lead of the white Texan man who reportedly had his Confederate flag tattoo removed when, in the wake of the Charleston shootings, he saw an elderly black woman grimace at the sight of it.

When faced with the distress the symbol on his arm caused another human being, nostalgic pride seemed suddenly crude and insignificant. This is the reaction of a normal, compassionate person. Worshipping a controversial flag or insignia doesn’t make one automatically bad or bigoted. People make mistakes; nobody is born enlightened. But continuing to worship such a symbol despite the harm it causes others? Clinging to your racist flag or jersey with a passion and intensity most people reserve for their loved ones? That’s more than a little weird. It’s scary.

Emma Teitel’s advice to gropers and the Washington Redskins.

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A New Satirical Ad Goes Viral With a Controversial Jab at White Privilege | TIME

2015/07/17 Leave a comment

Worth watching and makes the point:

https://youtu.be/U6JrJFJs0GA

A New Satirical Ad Goes Viral With a Controversial Jab at White Privilege | TIME.

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Certifying imams as a security measure: An imam’s response

2015/07/17 Leave a comment

Sensible and effective counterpoint to Senator Lang’s op-ed (Daniel Lang: The Senate did not call for imams to be ‘licensed.’ Nor were we fretting about nothing):

Imams, who are usually hired by mosque boards, are often overworked and underpaid. They are expected to preach, lead daily prayers, teach children, conduct outreach, do interfaith work, handle media requests, engage youth and offer religious guidance. In short, it’s a tough job.

Although no standard certification process exists, most mosques require imams to be trained in matters of faith, have memorized the Koran, be fluent in English and be familiar with Canadian culture. In the past, most imams were trained overseas, but that is changing. A desire is growing for imams to present faith in a way that is relevant to the Canadian context. The overwhelming majority of Muslim communities have no appetite for imams or preachers who spew hate and harbour animosity, let alone encourage violence.

The ethnic and cultural diversity of Muslims worldwide is reflected in Canada’s Muslim communities. As in any other group, there is a wide spectrum of religious views and adherence, often shaped by cultural background. Consequently, some are more open to integration than others. The best way to help those who lag is engagement, which fosters understanding and respect. Alienation leads to the opposite. For the few who harbour animosity, we are ready to co-operate with authorities to ensure that they are not breaking any laws.

Regardless of background, all Canadian imams agree that attacking Canada and its citizens is Islamically forbidden, as is joining terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, whose depraved actions are so unequivocally un-Islamic that supporting them is widely seen as a sign of religious ignorance. If a self-proclaimed imam preaches the opposite, he is an outlier who holds no influence in the mainstream Muslim community. Parliamentarians who have trouble believing this should speak to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP, who appear to have a good grasp of who’s who in Canadian Muslim communities.

The Senate report comes across as patronizing to minority groups. This is not helpful. The best way forward is for parliamentarians to engage with Canadian Muslims through meetings and get their input on how to address violent radicalization. The Canadian Council of Imams, local imam groups and mosques look forward to hosting anyone who is interested in a good chat over coffee or dinner. Let’s work together to make our country safer, fairer and more prosperous for all.

Certifying imams as a security measure: An imam’s response – The Globe and Mail.

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Why I didn’t endorse the Senate report on terrorism: Senator Mitchell

2015/07/17 Leave a comment

Liberal senator Grant Mitchell’s reasons for not supporting the Senate report, Countering the Terrorist Threat in Canada, countering Senator Lang’s op-ed (Daniel Lang: The Senate did not call for imams to be ‘licensed.’ Nor were we fretting about nothing):

If what the report contains is problematic, what is left out is every bit as worrying.

We heard from police, intelligence and security officials that their budgets were strained, even as they transferred scarce resources from other major criminal investigations to the fight against terrorism. We also heard about the need for community policing and outreach programs in the “pre-criminal” space; the need for additional research to understand the various pathways to radicalization; and the requirement for rigorous review and oversight mechanisms for the 17 intelligence and enforcement agencies that deal with national security.

These are essential measures if we’re going to deal effectively with this issue, but not one of them is discussed in any serious way in the report.

Clearly, it is important that Canadians understand that we face risks from terrorist threats and that those risks are evolving and changing. However, poorly considered ideas can create division that has adverse effects in our society. This can also make it harder for law enforcement agencies to do their job because the communities they work with may feel alienated and targeted. What we need now, more than anything, are balanced ideas, a smart approach to the threats facing Canada, and for all Canadians to work together.

Why I didn’t endorse the Senate report on terrorism | Toronto Star.

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‘Cultural gap’ not a reason for lighter sentence for Iranian immigrant guilt of raping wife, beating children: court

2015/07/17 Leave a comment

Good correction of the original court decision and reminder that multiculturalism and “cultural practices” are within the context of Canadian laws and rights:

In doing so, the Court of Appeal said the lower court judge who handed the man an 18-month term was wrong to assume cultural differences were a mitigating factor — even though the defence never raised the issue.

The man, who cannot be identified by court order to protect his now ex-wife and children, will instead have to serve a four-year term, the Appeal Court decided.

“Cultural norms that condone or tolerate conduct contrary to Canadian criminal law must not be considered a mitigating factor on sentencing,” the Appeal Court ruled. “To hold otherwise undermines the equality of all individuals before and under the law.”

In fact, the higher court said, cultural beliefs may even be an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing.

‘Cultural gap’ not a reason for lighter sentence for Iranian immigrant guilt of raping wife, beating children: court

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Douglas Todd: MP’s church comments not out of the ordinary

2015/07/17 Leave a comment

More on background and issues behind her remarks:

Vancouver South Conservative MP Wai Young’s contentious political remarks about Jesus and the Air India bombing are not out of the ordinary in some Canadian churches, says a specialist on evangelicals and Chinese Christians.

“They’re remarkably fascinating comments, but they’re not sensational,” said Justin Tse, a post-doctoral student at the University of Washington who earned his UBC PhD studying religion and trans-national migrants.

The evangelical pastors who head Harvest City Church in East Vancouver, where Wai spoke in late June, “felt her talk was so uncontroversial that they posted it on their website,” said Tse.

The national media is buzzing over comments Wai made during the service, in which she linked the federal Conservative party’s decision to launch anti-terrorist Bill C51 to the courage of Jesus Christ, “who served and acted to always do the right thing, not the most popular thing.”

Young, one of about 100,000 Chinese evangelical Christians in Metro Vancouver, also defended Bill C-51 by telling the Pentecostal congregation that Canada’s spy agency knew there was a bomb on the Air India flight that exploded over the coast of Ireland in 1985, killing 329 people, mostly Canadians. Young has retracted that statement. Her constituency office sent out a statement in which Young says she “misspoke,” adding “I regret this error.”

Tse said Young’s talk, one of others that she has made at Vancouver churches in recent months, was designed to appeal to evangelicals by portraying Jesus as a leader who “built community” — particularly one who did so within the framework of a “Conservative party ideology.”

Young’s talk at the church, Tse said, equated community and nationhood “with strong security.” The MP, a former provider of services to immigrants, stressed the importance of anti-terrorist legislation, firm borders, fighting crime and lowering taxes.

… Debra Bowman, the minister of Vancouver’s Ryerson United Church, echoed the views of many of Young’s critics when she urged the federal Conservatives to put as much effort into probing the charitable tax status of Tory-friendly churches as it does to auditing environmental and other non-profit groups.

“The thing I find really upsetting isn’t so much (Young’s) dreadful Christological claims for Harper’s Conservatives,” said Bowman. She was more concerned about the way the backbench MP appears to be flouting Canada Revenue rules on politically partisan activity by religious groups.

“I really hope someone will track whether (such churches) come under the same financial scrutiny that many justice-environment-church groups have been experiencing,” said Bowman.

Harvest City Church released a statement late Wednesday saying Young’s “comments were her own and Harvest City Church does not endorse her comments, nor any political party, nor does it endorse the use of its facility as a political platform.”

…Former federal Liberal cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh, who lost the predominantly Asian-immigrant riding to Young in 2011, said the Hong-Kong-born politician is a “well-meaning” backbench MP who would not have access to high-level information about Canada’s spy service or the Air India bombing.

While commenting that Young’s comparison of Jesus to the federal Tories amounts to “political pandering” that is “pretty far out,” Dosanjh focused on how he believes the Vancouver South MP made key mistakes in her analysis of the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182.

… Dosanjh said he cannot imagine any way that CSIS knew there was a bomb on the Air India plane. He also said the laws that existed in the mid-1980s did not bar CSIS from sharing such crucial security information.

With the rise of Sikh extremism in the 1980s, in which “Sikh temples in B.C. were used as bully pulpits by politicians and others,” Dosanjh said he became more and more convinced that no religious organization should be used for partisan political speeches.

Dosanjh said that period of time, in which he was severely beaten by Sikh extremists, “taught me that the separation of religion and state is very important. One should never make politically partisan statements in a religious institution. From my perspective she (Young) crossed the line. But I’m not picking on her. She’s not the only one. It happens frequently.”

Douglas Todd: MP’s church comments not out of the ordinary.

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2014 Citizenship Test Pass Rate Compared to Earlier Years – Making it Easier

2015/07/16 Leave a comment

Citizenship Test Pass Results Comparisons.001Further to my earlier post (CIC Analysis of Citizenship Test Pass Results), the full 2014 citizenship test pass results show a significant improvement in the average pass rate (from 82.7 percent 2010-13 to 90.3 percent in 2014) and consequently reduced differences between visible minorities and non-visible minorities.

The changes made to test questions and administration appear to have resulted in better outcomes for some visible minority groups (i.e., Central and West African, Latin American and North African, all groups with a higher percentage of francophone applicants, in contrast to others).

Not clear from what I have seen is whether 90 percent represents the new target pass rate, or an over-correction to the 2012 decline to 70-75 percent.

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Race Affects How Media Cover Canadian Political Candidates – New Canadian Media

2015/07/16 Leave a comment

Some good research and insights (disclosure: I know Erin from our time at CIC):

Where Tolley also finds stark differences in coverage is in the types of issues visible minorities seem to be most connected to. While they are often quoted in stories on immigration policy, multiculturalism or poverty – all “so-called minority issues,” as Tolley refers to them – their voices are often absent from stories about more “pressing” issues like the economy and the environment.

“Some people said to me, ‘Well, that makes sense because probably visible minorities don’t care as much about those issues,’” recalls Tolley. “[But] when I talked to visible-minority candidates about their issue priorities, many of them talked about the economy – things like taxes, finding good jobs, having credentials recognized, that sort of thing – and that doesn’t come out in their media coverage.”

Tolley finds the notions of visible-minority candidates only being able to serve people from their own ethnic group and unable to understand the issues of other Canadians concerning. White candidates, she says, don’t face this challenge, as they are often positioned as having broad reach and the ability to “woo” or “court” the ethnic vote.

“No one ever talks about the fact that white candidates also appeal to white voters. I mean, no one would write that,” Tolley says. “No one even describes white candidates as ‘white candidates’ or really talks about where they were born. Whiteness is basically put forward as the default and therefore not worthy of being mentioned, whereas minority or immigrant background is something that is covered because it is seen to be outside the norm or atypical, and therefore newsworthy.”

With the upcoming elections, there is still time for media outlets to consider Tolley’s research in their approach to the stories that they run. Everything from picture and headline choice to inclusion of socio-demographic background and whether a “diversity” angle is relevant to a story or not should be considered, she advises.

But most importantly, Tolley says, people – not just the media, but all Canadians – need to be open to the idea of talking about race, a subject she found during her research many are still uncomfortable with.

“Some of my interviewees talked about the fact that they are colour-blind – they don’t see colour,” she explains. “I said instead of talking about ‘colour-blindness,’ we should think more about the fact that we’ve been mute in conversations about race. We haven’t had mature discussions about it.”

Race Affects How Media Cover Canadian Political Candidates – New Canadian Media.

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6 ridings where Stephen Harper’s trade deal with Ukraine gets noticed

2015/07/16 Leave a comment

Diaspora politics in action (but do not believe that the Canadian government position on Ukraine is driven only by electoral considerations, ideology also plays a role):

While getting photos of themselves with foreign leaders who have strong diaspora communities in Canada is a key part of every candidate’s toolbox, some critics argue that the Conservatives’ entire foreign policy approach to Ukraine is connected to courting voters among the 1.2 million people who identify as Ukrainian in Canada.

Leaked campaign documents ahead of the 2011 election suggested the Conservatives were actively courting the Ukrainian-Canadian vote and to some extent, that may still be the case.

A riding explicitly targeted by the Conservatives in 2011 was Etobicoke-Centre, which they won from the Liberals after a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

In a recent interview with the Ukrainian publication Meest, the Tory MP for the riding Ted Opitz used a discussion of his party’s policy on Ukraine to make a dig at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau was forced to apologize last year after making a joke that appeared to make light of Russia’s activities.

But many of the ridings that are home to significant Ukrainian-Canadian communities were Conservative strongholds long before the Russian annexation of Crimea last year kickstarted a global response that included Canadian military and aid support.

And in others, it’s not the Liberals in second place but the New Democrats.

6 ridings where Stephen Harper’s trade deal with Ukraine gets noticed – Politics – CBC News.

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