Long Road To Justice

This historical event, may not appear very important to some, but to many thousands, it is a valuable historical lesson. Canada did have her own Rosa Parks, and it happened 9 years before the Rosa Parks incident in the US, her name is Viola Desmond.

Viola Davis Desmond was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The beautiful and elegant African-Canadian woman owned and operated a successful beauty parlour and beauty college in Halifax. She led a relatively unassuming life until one particular day when she held on tight to her convictions and stood up to the world. What she did became one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history.

On a cold and blustery day, November 8, 1946, as Viola Desmond drove from Sydney to Halifax for a meeting, the weather worsened until it became a full-blown Canadian blizzard. As if the weather wasn't enough, her car broke down in town called New Glasgow.

The local mechanic took a look at her car and shook his head. He told her he could not repair it until the next day. A resourceful woman, Rosa booked herself into a local inn and looked around. What better way to wait out a blizzard than to catch a flick at the local movie house! Her decision was to alter the course of her life forever.

Viola made her way to the Roseland Theatre, stepped up to the wicket, and asked to purchase a ticket for house seats. Instead, the teller sold her a ticket for the balcony. Unbeknownst to Viola, the house seats were designated for whites only. The balcony was where blacks were to sit.

Viola made her way into the theatre and settled into a seat on the main floor. Before long, the manager approached and ordered her to move to the balcony.

Indignant, Viola refused. Outraged, the manager called the police who immediately arrested her, dragged her from the theatre, and placed her in a jail cell to spend the night.

Bruised and enraged, with her immaculate elbow-length white gloves on herhands, Viola sat primly upright on the hard bench in her cold jail cell the entire night, a total of 12 grueling hours.

I plead with the visitors to this blog, to take the time to read about it in this publication.

Here is a re-enactment of the racist treatment of Viola Desmond (it is long, but shows the strength and character of Viola)



AH SAH
WALK GOOD

The Audacity of Racism

This came across my desk and I though I would share it with whoever reads this blog.
It is a bit long, but please read it, whether you agree or not.
This was written by a white American...read on.

Arrogance of being President while being Black
I don't think anyone was under some real illusion that the election of Barack Obama actually means the end of racism in America . I'm pretty sure that the president-elect knew it better than anyone. After all, he saw it every day, from the moment he announced his candidacy. To some degree, he saw it within his own party during the primaries. And he saw it in all ugliness during the general election. For half of this country, he was "That One". No matter how big and clear his victory was. No matter how smart he is. No matter how decent he is. No matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America was. All that didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, he was still black.

I'm quite old. I remember, vaguely, where my parents were on November 22, 1963. I've seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some were hated, some were adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserving the office of the president of the United States .

That is until a black man won the right to occupy this office. It's been 13 months now, and in the eyes of so many, Barack Obama is still that one. He is being disrespected and at the same time being held to the highest standard of any president I've ever seen – and not just by the Republican side! He has to perform three times better than any president in history, and even that may not be enough.

For the media, he is many more times just "Obama" than "President Obama". They create scandals out of nothing issues. It took them at least 6 years to start giving Bush a small part of the shit he deserved. It took them 6 months to begin crap all over Obama because he's yet to fix the catastrophe that was left for him.

They use condescending tones when they talk about him, and only mildly less condescending when they talk TO him. With anyone else, CNN wouldn't dare go to commercials every time the president speaks, like they did during that summit on Thursday. They wouldn't dare be counting how many minutes George Bush or Bill Clinton were talking. Chris Mathews wouldn't dare make an issue out of Ronald Regan calling members of congress by their first name, like he is not actually the president. They fully cooperate with the Right-Wing smear machine when it comes to president Obama's national security performance – even if almost every independent and military expert actually thinks that he's a terrific Commander-in-Chief. You'll never see them on TV, and virtually no one from the Left, in congress and outside, defend the president on this matter.

I don't care about the Far-Right. They're just crazy ignorant Neanderthals. It's the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this president that is shocking. On Thursday, almost every Republican had no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. They looked like they're going to vomit every time they had to say "Mr. president". They all had this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he spoke. Then they went out and started to spit their stupid talking points, to the delight of the media. Sarah Palin, a woman who can hardly read, thinks that he was "arrogant" towards John McCain, and somehow this is an important news. Because you see, "Obama's Arrogance" is the talking point of the day.

Oh, those talking points. He is arrogant (because he knows the facts better than all of them combined). He is an elitist (because he uses big words that they don't understand). He is weak on national security (because he actually thinks about the consequences). He divides the country (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he's the president. He even dared to say so on Thursday. How arrogant of him. You'd think that previous presidents didn't have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one president who treats even his biggest opponents with the utmost respect – is the arrogant one. I wonder why?

I expected that his winning the Presidency would bring out some ugliness, but it's been far worse than I imagined. The racism coming from the Right is obviously clear and shameless, but there's also some hidden and maybe subconscious and disturbing underline tone behind some of the things that I read here and throughout the Left blogosphere, even before the end of Obama's first year - 'He's weak, he's spineless, he's got no balls, primary him in 2012'. It'll be dishonest to deny that.

The fact is that for millions in America, Barack Obama is this uppity black man (Not even a "real" black), who received good education only due to affirmative action, and has no right to litter the sacred Oval Office with his skin color. They just can't accept the fact that the president is a black man, who unlike his predecessor, was actually legally elected. But what's really sad is that it's not just the fringe, its deep deep in mainstream America .

Barack Obama's ability to remain above all this slob, to keep his optimism and his strange and mostly unjustified faith in people, while continuing to gracefully deal with an endless shitstorm – is one of the most inspiring displays of human quality I have ever seen. And I can only hope that the Cosmos is on his side because God is and He never makes a mistake.

Sometimes, they make me feel ashamed to be a white man!!

AH SAH
WALK GOOD

But unu see mi dying trial - Part III

Young Gifted and ...........

What is good for the goose is not good for the gander.

Casuistry, cloaked in bigotry. What else is new.

Walk Good.

The Sheer Stupidity

This is from an article written by Andrew Manis, an associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia

Source Shreve Port Times

"For much of the last 40 years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African-Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African-Americans finally going to get over it?" Now I want to ask "When are we white Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?"


"Until this past Nov. 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African-American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan during the Obama administration: First, every day that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people."

It makes an interesting read together with the comments.
Enjoy

Walk Good

Black Focused Schools in Toronto

This proposal brdges a great divide.

"After a heated but civil debate, Canada's largest school board voted 11-9 last night to open an alternative Africentric school to help fight a 40 per cent dropout rate among Toronto's black teens. "

An Africentric School, in Ontario?

The question that should be asked "Is this segregation"?

According to the article, they are trying to stem the tide of the high dropout rates amoung "black" children, and I quote:
"The Toronto District School Board says 40 per cent of Caribbean-born students drop out, and 32 per cent from east Africa."

Lets call a spade a spade (pardon the pun) ..... is there a better way to curtail the droput rate?

If the statistics were reflective of "white children", would they have created a distinct and separate school for them?

Is this promoting integration and the often touted "mosaic" of the Canadian Society?

What are the parents role in this "drop out" ?

Are they expecting me (as a taxpayer) to foot the bill for their inadequate parenting?

This is a slippery slope with no fine tuned results. It will come back to bite those who insist on establishing such a distinct, separate and segregated class of students, at my expense.

This is insane.

Distorted Justice

There are many forms of communication in this city of Ottawa.
One of the monthly newspapers is called "The Spectrum", and it is created and published to reflect the visible minorities (notice I am being politically correct) in the city of Ottawa.
It is not available online, as it can only be had at certain outlets in paper format, however, I managed to locate a "pdf" format, which I will share and ask that you read it.

"
What Hyacinth has
been through for the
last 12 months was more
than enough to make anyone
angry."

Here is a synopsis
-she worked at the Peter Clarke Institute (home for the aged) for 20 yrs.
-she had numerous written commendations
-she was reported, by a co-worker, that she molested a patient (untrue)
-she was investigated and charged (wrongly)
-her union did NOTHING
-when it went to trial, she was acquited and exonerated. When you read the reports, there are instances of the "N" word being used and directed towards her.
-she has not had any income for a year, while this is going on, she was fired.
-her employers, the union and police saw her as "guilty until proven innocent"

This is disgusting. Let me make this clear ...... I have lived in this country for 40years and this type of treatment and attitude towards visible minorities is common, but it is NOT acceptable. If you are of "black" origin, be prepared to be stopped on the street for no just cause (against the Charter of Rights) and to be fired because you are "NON white"

In a previous post I have touched on the intolerance within the Canadian society, but it must be understood that racisim in this country is systemic and one has to be careful what you need to fight for and when avoidance is the better approach

Yes, I am angry and hurt.

Can I do anything to help her cause, yes I have.
Can I do anything to stop this travesty happening in the future, no, but I will fight for it to be stopped.

The travails of this worker is NOT isolated, and I will close with this phrase.

"But for the Grace of God, go I"

Peace