{"id":128,"date":"2023-07-01T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/?p=128"},"modified":"2023-07-31T13:37:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T18:37:33","slug":"august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/august-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2023: Unspeakable: The violence(s) of disavowal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201c\u2026how people get mad, how that escalation from prejudice, to hate, to violence occurs, what and who is hated, and how it is expressed, is not unrelated to the world around us.\u201d<\/p>Ursula Franklin, 1991, p. 9. <\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Delia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Where we live now: Racial realities<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 9 2023, we learned of that a young female employee at the Olive Garden restaurant in Transcona, MB was stabbed multiple times by a customer – a young white male. The Winnipeg police subsequently described the attack as \u201crandom\u201d and \u201cunprovoked.\u201d Police Chief Danny Smyth later stated that the use of the word random was meant to indicate that the perpetrator did not know his target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack was not random for the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 weeks later we learned the identity of the target of the attack \u2013 an 18 year-old Black Muslim woman – she was wearing an hijab. We learned of her identity because members of the Muslim community challenged police claims of the random nature of the attack. They called for an investigation into the stabbing – they wanted to know why it had not been identified as a hate crime, and why the perpetrator was charged with aggravated assault, and not attempted murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Police Chief Smyth, \u201cThere is no evidence that supports it being motivated by a hate crime\u2026. That being said, this is a very serious crime, the individual was charged with aggravated assault, which is a very serious charge. People go to jail for that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charges were laid prior to the victim issuing a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No evidence to support the motivation of hate\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what would evidence of a hate crime look like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correspondingly what exactly counts as evidence? And\u2026Who is qualified to make that determination?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victim, a young Somali woman, does not wish to be identified.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was able to speak, she explained that she was the only racialized minority person in the restaurant, and the only person wearing an hijab. She described how the perpetrator watched her for 30 minutes before the attack. In her words: \u201cHe didn’t go on a random stabbing spree. He went straight for me. I know I could have died.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She understood and experienced her attack as an expression of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Black Muslim woman, in defense of herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes courage to speak publicly about experiences of violence. It is another form of trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intentional erasures and purposeful interventions<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose view counts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming is a mechanism of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it isn\u2019t named, then it doesn\u2019t exist\u2026it is not in the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where the guiding principles of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are indispensable. To recap, CRT is a framework that recognizes that racism is pervasive and not an aberration. It is a lens that recognizes that the violence is already here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Canadian context CRT allows us to critically assess how the historical construction of Canada as a white settler colonial society has been, and continues to be, protected and sustained. CRT recognizes that current inequalities, institutional arrangements, and practices are tied to past and present systems of racial exclusion, hostility, and violence such as dispossession, genocide, enslavement, settler colonial projects, and immigration laws. It is a lens that sees link between racism(s) and mass incarceration, housing education, health, and income inequalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRT is a framework whose guiding principles are integrative, recognizing that other forms of inequality intersect and animate each other. It positions the elimination of racial oppression as part of the broader project of eliminating all manifestations of oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And crucially, CRT recognizes the experiential knowledge of Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority peoples and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When and where race enters conversations of justice matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to deny, obscure downplay the relevance of race are productive; they facilitate the conditions which preclude the likelihood\/probability of racism, as well as the contemplation of the existence of racism, in Canada\u2019s multicultural, multiracial society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism is (re)produced through silence, invisibility, and exclusion, as well as through covert, entrenched, and cumulative actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disavowal is violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing can be changed unless it is acknowledged\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed. The very definition of racism remains a site of struggle. As Dr. Wahneema Lubiano (1997) asserts, \u201ccentral to the existence of racism, is the politics of its denial\u201d (p. viii).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018disappearing\u2019 of racism is an all too familiar tactic. Racism persists alongside its denial\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so it goes\u2026. Anything. But. Racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rejection of racism \u2013 of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia \u2013 to be precise, is significant because it obscures the unmarked white Western settler colonial arrangements, relationships, and practices that pervade all of our systems, while simultaneously reinforcing the national narrative that manifestations of racism in Canada are unusual. These disavowals do not exist in isolation, they are part of social relations, organizational cultures and institutional structures that work to maintain the status quo of inequality and the normalization of racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we respond to violence has an impact on an individual\u2019s health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026the \u201cescalation from prejudice, to hate, to violence\u201d – \u201cwho is hated and how it is expressed\u201d is inextricably linked to the legacies of violence to legacies which shape where we live now\u2026. (Franklin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racial matters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the reality and character of racism(s) are defined by the dominant, members of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities will continue to suffer trauma and harm in a host of ways, some of which will include death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-racism work involves the active process of acting to challenge not only one\u2019s own biases and prejudices, this work also involves the dismantling of the policies\/social relations\/attitudes\/practices that promote and\/or sustain racial inequality and racial oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bold solidarity and courageous collaboration are acts of radical resistance \u2013creating spaces that recognize the humanity, diversity, and complexity of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to the targets of violence\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As bell hooks (1996) reminds us: \u201cThe oppressed struggle in language<\/strong> <\/strong>to recover ourselves, to reconcile, to reunite, to renew. Our words are not without meaning, they are an action, a resistance\u201d (p. 146).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need language that is expansive, disruptive, and ultimately transformative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bigotry and hate crimes directed against Muslims are on the rise in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recall\u2026Quebec City, London, Ontario, Edmonton, AB, \u2026Winnipeg, MB\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-Black gendered Islamophobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hear her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Resources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernhardt, Darren. (18, July 2023). Muslim community suggests Olive Garden attack on Black woman motivated by hate<\/a>. CBC News.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canadian Council of Muslim Women<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas, Delia. D. (2020). Un\/Covering white lies: Exposing racism in the era of racelessness. Journal of Critical Race Inquiry<\/em>, 7(2), 22-45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essed, Philomena. (2002). Everyday racism. In D. T. Goldberg & J. Solomos (Eds.), A companion to racial and ethnic studies<\/em> (pp. 202-216). London, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin, Ursula. (1991). Commemoration for the Montreal massacre victims. Canadian Woman<\/em> Studies<\/em>, 11(4), 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenslade, Brittany. (9, June 2023). Olive Garden employee repeatedly stabbed in \u2018unprovoked and random\u2019 attack at restaurant: Police<\/a>. CBC News<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

hooks, bell. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics<\/em>. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lubiano, Wahneema. (Ed.). Introduction. The house that race built<\/em> (pp. vii- ix). New York, NY: Pantheon Books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson, Sam. (18, July 2023). Winnipeg\u2019s Muslim community calls for investigation into Olive Garden stabbing of hijabi woman<\/a>. Global News<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026how people get mad, how that escalation from prejudice, to hate, to violence occurs, what and who is hated, and how it is expressed, is not unrelated to the world around us.\u201d Ursula Franklin, 1991, p. 9.  Delia Where we live now: Racial realities On June 9 2023, we learned of that a young female … Continue reading “August 2023: Unspeakable: The violence(s) of disavowal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,22,30,31],"tags":[6,8,12,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/anti-racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}