I was vilified for telling the truth about racism in Toronto: Yusra Khogali 

2016/04/12 Leave a comment

In her own words:

As the movement gained traction, I became increasingly visible and increasingly the target of those who oppose our cause. Jerry Agar, a Toronto Sun columnist with a long, well-documented record of enmity to our anti-racist goals, attempted to use my visibility to discredit me. A day after the conclusion of #BLMTOtentcity, he cited the aforementioned tweet in an attempt to delegitimize an entire movement, and to position my community as undeserving of justice.

I am not a public official. I am not a police officer. The state does not entrust me with violent weaponry. I have never contributed to the mass targeting of a community. All I have done is used a turn of phrase, a rhetorical flourish, to voice my frustration and dared to be a person calling for justice.

To date, I have directly received many disturbing death threats from white supremacists across the country. Somehow a tweet I wrote out of anger months before our protest began has become a bigger media story than our protest’s many and profound accomplishments. The noise surrounding this tweet has also drowned out the discussion we sought to spark about the black lives of those who have died at the guns of police in this country. Journalists have incessantly harassed me, desperate to get a comment on the tweet. Where were they during the entire two weeks of #BLMTOtentcity? The media is part and parcel of how anti-black racism works. Too often black people are ignored or vilified when we speak the truth about our condition.

To be black in Toronto is to have been or know somebody who has been brutalized, violated or battered by the Toronto police. Our lives are plagued by institutional and individual anti-black racism that compromises our access to safety, economic freedom, proper health care, food, housing, employment, education and culturally restorative support services. To be black in this city is to fight to survive.

Mayor John Tory responded to reports of my tweet less than 24 hours after they emerged. Yet for the more than two weeks black people fought for our humanity in protest outside of police headquarters, he ignored us. That is something everyone in this city should be concerned about. Despite all the violence we endure when we resist, we can never lose sight of the issues; we must continue to seek justice and accountability for our community. We only have more work to do, and this is only the beginning. Black lives matter, here as everywhere, and they always will.

Words and turns of phrase matter. Being in the political arena and pushing for change means greater care in language in order to gain support in the broader community.
A better approach would have been a simple apology for her words, rather than politician-style avoidance, to allow discussion to move on to valid substantive issues she raises.

Source: I was vilified for telling the truth about racism in Toronto | Toronto Star

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with ,

Robyn Urback: On that contentious Black Lives Matter tweet…

2016/04/11 5 Comments

One of the better commentaries:

…. I sort of understand why members of the Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) group all but shrugged this week in response to a controversial tweet put out by one of its co-founders. The tweet was originally posted back in February, but only came to light this week after Jerry Agar, a local Toronto radio host, reported on it on his show. In the tweet, BLMTO co-founder Yusra Khogali wrote, “Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. Plz plz plz.”

It was a dumb thing to post, especially for a leader of movement that — one would think — would want to covet potential allies rather than ostracize them. And it shouldn’t be surprising that some people found it offensive. But rather than acknowledge the inappropriateness of the tweet, apologize for it and move on, BLMTO members dug in their heels and went on the defence: the group’s other co-founder, Sandy Hudson, refused to comment on it during an interview with a local television station, and instead criticized the reporter for focusing on the tweet, rather than the issues about which BLMTO was trying to get attention. In the Toronto Star, journalist and activist Desmond Cole explained Khogali’s tweet as a “common response to violence and injustice,” “an honest appeal to restraint and wisdom in the face of violence, racism and misogyny.” And Khogali herself refused to comment on the issue altogether.

Meanwhile, critics of the BLMTO movement latched onto the tweet as a sort of “smoking gun,” which supposedly proved the violent intentions of the group. But to make that assertion is a pretty remarkable stretch: people say and post all sorts of hyperbolic things when they’re angry — and despite some progress in recent years, black Canadians still have plenty to be angry about — but that doesn’t mean they actually intend to act on it. And it also doesn’t mean that the group’s core message should be wholly discredited because its co-founder posted one thoughtless, offensive tweet.

None of this is to say that Khogali’s tweet was in any way acceptable, though her defenders have demonstrated some phenomenal mental gymnastics in attempting to explain why it’s somehow OK to post a prayer to God, asking for the strength not to kill people of a certain group and gender. It’s not. The impulse to hunker down in this case is understandable, especially as BLMTO is slammed with criticism, seemingly from all sides. But it’s ultimately disingenuous: no group is, or should be, above criticism — not Black Lives Matter, not Orthodox rabbis in New York, not National Post columnists who, perhaps unwisely, wade into the most contentious of social issues.

BLMTO representatives say they would prefer we talk about carding, or wage discrepancies, or violence against blacks at the hands of police — which are all worthy topics of discussion. But at the same time, there is no better way to get people interested in a tweet than insisting that the media stop talking about it. Had BLMTO led the discussion, and heard the criticism, I suspect the conversation would have been over by now.

Source: Robyn Urback: On that contentious Black Lives Matter tweet…

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Black Lives Matter co-founder called out for tweet deemed racist

2016/04/06 Leave a comment

Legitimate to call out someone for using such language. There are other ways to express anger and advocate for justice and incendiary language does not help build support and consensus on needed change:

After the end of the Black Lives Matter occupation at police headquarters, the rhetoric of one of the group’s co-founders is causing a social media kerfuffle.

On Monday the two-week protest came to an end with a march on Queen’s Park, a brief meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne, and a rally in the streets. But it’s a tweet from two months ago that has people talking.

On Tuesday, Newstalk 1010 host Jerry Agar posted online a photograph of a printout of a tweet from the account of Yusra Khogali.

“Plz Allah give me strength not to cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. Plz plz plz,” read the tweet from February.

The Star could not independently confirm the tweet’s veracity; it is not publicly available, as her account is set to private.

Neither Khogali nor other organizers of the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter responded to repeated requests for comment on Tuesday.

In his initial post and later tweets, Agar called the sentiment racist.

Reaction online was mixed, with many calling Agar out for antagonizing the protest movement while others sympathized with his position.

Public relations consultant Marjorie Wallens suspects the general public is willing to forgive the group’s missteps given it’s a “not a professionally organized group that has sophisticated messaging.”

“Their passion is there and I think in the court of public opinion people would look at it and say, ‘Well, there’s an issue,’ ” she said. “It might be a bit more disorganized or some people may say inappropriate or incendiary things, but . . . they have gotten the attention of the various governments and the police.”

She added the Toronto demonstrations should “get points” for being relatively calm and contained.

“It’s a volatile situation and issue that could be incendiary as it has been shown in the U.S. to be,” she said.

Source: Black Lives Matter co-founder called out for tweet deemed racist | Toronto Star

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