Author: Glenn (Freedom of Movement) Robinson

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Hate Crimes Are An Affront To Us All

Hate crimes are an affront to us all as Americans and to this nation, declared Attorney General Eric Holder, as he noted America stands with the mourners of three people killed at Jewish community sites in suburban Kansas City.

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

There is something wrong with U.S. culture when we allow avowed racists to walk freely as if they are not a threat.

 

Racists are terrorists.

See on www.usaonrace.com

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This is a Stereotype: Support Cannupa Hanska’s film

 

“Last year at Santa Fe Indian Market, I had the pleasure of seeing Cannupa Hanska’s work at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art. I wandered around his exhibit, and was beyond excited by the pieces–I remarked to my friend that it was “like my blog in art form!” His exhibition was a series of handmade ceramic boomboxes, each representing a stereotypical trope of Native peoples–such as the plastic shaman, the Indian princess, the Barrymore (pictured at the top of this post, and based off this image of Drew Barrymore). The detail that went into each piece was incredible, and there were also didactic panels that went along with each trope to describe the origins and contemporary examples. Here are a few of the other (poor quality, sorry!) cell phone pictures I took”

 
See on nativeappropriations.com

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Killing With Impunity on the U.S.-Mexico Border: The Global Color Line

 

“As the philosopher Anarchasis observed in the 6th century B.C. in comparing laws to spider webs, laws catch the weak and poor, while the rich and powerful tear them to pieces. Although not always the case, the ancient philosopher has shown himself to be prophetic in both the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and in the area of contemporary international affairs, a profoundly undemocratic arena in which the powerful demand accountability of their weaker enemies, while insulating themselves and their allies from prosecution.”

 
See on nacla.org

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Thirty Seven: Life Expectancy for Onkwehón:we in Toronto

 

“I was interested in what their life was like,” Shah says. So in addition to the quantitative chart, they also did a qualitative analysis interviewing 20 people close to the deceased.

 

“I went to a residential school and the things that happened there – I can’t even talk about…that’s why I drank so much. I just couldn’t be a father,” said one of the people interviewed about what a deceased said.

“I really think it’s like a broken heart syndrome. It was [the deceased’s] loneliness for his true identity, like not knowing anything about who his people are because his family and his parents and his traditions were all lost,” said another.

 

The report shows much of the causes lie in the history of colonization, marginalization, discrimination and racism. Shah adds everything from treaties to the Indian Act result in losing cultures, languages and a way of living. Many of the deceased had a lack of housing, education and stable employment. This manifests in different ways such as finding happiness elsewhere such as drugs and alcohol.

 

“I call this a delayed tsunami effect,” says Shah. He suggests the only way to solve the problem is with an upstream approach of more housing and employment opportunities. “People have to have a sense of identity and empowerment.”

 

The report also suggests an increase in partnerships with the Aboriginal community and cultural competency training.

 

He says our policies are “screwed up” because most of us non-Aboriginals don’t know anything about Aboriginal issues and as a result there is no empathy. A lot of people don’t understand how some people can’t get a job or rent an apartment and this creates an empathy gap.“

 

 

Community Village‘s insight:

See on onkwehonwerising.wordpress.com