From the “Wahoo there’s a study to back up stuff we know already!!” files.
First of all, skin colour isn’t the problem. RACISM is the problem.
The article in the Toronto Star
(Don’t, I beg of you and impore you, read the comments. Just don’t.)
A “colour code” is keeping visible minorities out of good jobs in the Canadian labour market, a new study says.
Um, that colour code (it sounds almost nice doesn’t it, like organizing your files in a Virgo-like manner. Ahem.) is called RACISM!!
Researchers compared earnings of first-generation immigrants of visible minority and Caucasian backgrounds and found that earnings by male newcomers from visible minorities were just 68.7 per cent of those who were white males. Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto has just elected Rob Ford to be the mayor for the NEXT FOUR YEARS.
It’s the morning after and my blood is still boiling.
Here are the final results as published on the City of Toronto website this morning. Read ‘em and weep. And rage.
Rob Ford 383501 47.114% George Smitherman 289832 35.607% Joe Pantalone 95482 11.73%
383, 501 people voted for Ford. Which represents almost half of everyone who voted, even though of course, 383,501 is only 15% of Toronto’s entire population of 2,503,281 (from trueknowledge.com)
But here’s the thing, and I’ve talked about this to a few friends, and this is going to be very difficult to talk about in a reasonable, calm and anti-racist fashion.
Lots and LOTS of people of colour voted for Ford. Some immigrants. Some not. Some lower income, some not.
There, I said it.
And the question now is, why? The answer, or answers needs to be looked at carefully. To stop this from happening again. In four years.
Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto Star article, June 18, 2010
Her death sent shock waves through the city — and across the world — prompting heated debate on the hijab, the challenges of integration for newcomers, and whether her death was Toronto’s first crime of honour or a horrible case of domestic violence. …. Media in Toronto and around the world immediately reported and continues to report that Aqsa was killed because she refused to wear the hijab. But it was much more complicated than that.
Her death sent shock waves through the city — and across the world — prompting heated debate on the hijab, the challenges of integration for newcomers, and whether her death was Toronto’s first crime of honour or a horrible case of domestic violence.
….
Media in Toronto and around the world immediately reported and continues to report that Aqsa was killed because she refused to wear the hijab. But it was much more complicated than that.
You know, if one were to never pay attention to feminists, including Muslim feminists, one would be rather perplexed about the horror, fear and isolation that Aqsa had in the last moments of her life, being killed by her father and brother. Nobody in any of the regular state intervention machines (her school, CAS, the police) did much of anything to help her, to listen to her about what she needed.
And since her murder (why the media keeps calling it her “death” is beyond me) the white establishment has been desperately trying to “understand”, from the mealy-center of the Toronto Star to the hard-core right of the Globe and Mail.
Dear god why do I glance at the newspaper headlines, why?
So I’m out and about yesterday, just living my life, happy, and I come upon a Toronto Star newspaper box with the headline above. Full article here.
DO NOT under any circumstances read the comments. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
There’s also a snarky column by Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun (I KNOW), and an equally unhelpful column by Marcus Gee in the Globe and Mail.
A sweeping year-long probe into racism at Ryerson University has found a staggeringly diverse campus where some visible minority students say they feel harassed and excluded, where profs don’t always deal with offensive comments made in class and some non-white staff report a “chill” that shuts them out of the power loop.
A year-long probe, that’s great. Good opportunity to be thorough and non-superficial.
I need to state once again for the record that I HATE the term visible minority. Hate it hate it hate it. Almost as much as I hate the term non-white.
Talk about a chill.
I met Uzma several years ago, at a pan-asian conference in Vancouver. At the time she was the ED of CASSA, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians and I was on the board of CCNC-TO (Chinese Canadian National Council- Toronto Chapter). She was funny, she was smart as hell, and she didn’t put up with any guff.
Uzma recently wrote an article for the Toronto Star entitled “Immigration’s Tough New Face”.
Now, I write a lot of critiques (that’s a nice way to put it) about the corporate media, including the Toronto Star. Here is a rare chance to see me say something nice about the Star. Enjoy this moment. It won’t last long.
