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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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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Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game that They are Losing.

So. A study came out recently saying that white folks in the US felt that anti-white discrimination was a huge problem and that anti-Black racism is hardly a problem at all anymore. While I understand that people do all sorts of studies on topics that I don’t give a shit about, my only question is was this a slow news day or something?

So white people minimize racism experienced by Black folks? Wow, stop the presses. And white folks still frame race issues in the US as Black/white? Sounds like some people don’t want to join the 21st century, which is well underway people, get with the program. Read the rest of this entry »

I know I’ve blogged about this before, but recently a friend, Steve K, informed me about a TED talk by Courtney Martin, the editor of feministing.com, the largest feminist blog in the world.

I rarely read feministing, mostly because I prefer the lens of anti-racism/anti-oppression to the lens of white feminists, but I enjoyed her talk. I found the three paradoxes that she framed her talk around, interesting.

1. Rejecting the past, then promptly reclaiming it

2. Sobering up about our smallness and maintaining faith in our greatness

3. Aiming to succeed wildly and being fulfilled by failing really well

I wholeheartedly agree with #1 and #2.

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