For anyone who doesn’t know what this days means to women in Canada.

Today, I just read the list of the women who were killed at École Polytechnique on this day in 1989. Rather than their ages, this list was of their birth years.

They were my contemporaries. I don’t know why I never realized this until today. They would be in their 40s today.

My age.

In 1989 I was studying for my undergraduate degree at York University. I was in school part time and working full time.

I’d like to share a story of something that happened to me while studying and commuting to York once or twice a week.

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I seem to have a theme going on these days.

First, the bad news.

From Jezebel.com: Can You Tell the Difference Between a Men’s Magazine and a Rapist?

According to a new study, people can’t tell the difference between quotes from British “lad mags” and interviews with convicted rapists. And given the choice, men are actually more likely to agree with the rapists.

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I never heard of Dennis Prager until an article of his popped up in my Facebook feed last week.

He has a lot of opinions and thoughts about schools and the education system. Hey, so do I!

I’m going to reproduce his article from July 2010, found here, and intersperse it with my commentary. This should be FUN!

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A good friend of mine has a blog at blackcoffeepoet.com.

Today he posted a piece called Stepping Out From Behind the Wall: Acknowledging Male Privilege & its connection to violence against women

I’m going to post a few exerpts here, but please go to his blog to read the entire article. And bookmark his blog too!

Privilege is unearned power which gives certain groups economic, social and political advantages.  In our society white males benefit from this the most but all males benefit from this just by being born.

Stoh:lo feminist, activist, and acclaimed writer Lee Maracle defines male privilege as, “A head start, a larger entitlement in the social, economic, and personal arena.”

He lists a “male privilege checklist” that is worth a look, and something I’ll be using in workshops and trainings.

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This post has been a long time in the making.

This post is about a personal experience I had with a so-called progressive employer.

But I’m an anti-oppression educator. Silence doesn’t protect me. (that’s from a quote by Audre Lorde)

My realization that I needed to make my story (more) public happened while reading this lengthy article called White feminist privilege and feminist organizations. I had an epiphany of sorts.

Please read it. It’s a bit longer than most online articles but well worth it.

Sections of that blog speak directly to an experience I had a few months ago. I had been volunteering with a well-known leftist/progressive organization for years, then was a staff/employee/independent contractor person for about a year.

Then I was fired.

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