Daily Archives: August 2, 2021

How did the Home Office get so out of control? How did a major department of state become so radicalised by the authoritarian right that it treats migrants like animals, expels British citizens, wastes public money on trying to defend these actions through the courts, and shows no apparent remorse over any of it?

The most obvious answer is that it's learned behaviour: the department wins applause, from right-wing newspapers and politicians who seek those papers'approval, every time it does something awful; it faces few consequences when it turns out that its got somethinglife-ruiningly wrong, again. Unsurprisingly, with those incentives, the department has become increasingly hard-line.

[see also:Is Priti Patel making it illegal in the UK to rescue asylum seekers?]

So a few months ago I came up with a plan. To drag the Home Office back to the realm of sanity and decency, we should call for its abolition every time it does something terrible. By increasing the pain of doing racist things, we would give it an incentive to become less racist.

As it turned out, there were two problems with this plan. One is that shifting the Overton Window, by balancing existing extremism on one side with extremism at theother end of the spectrum, was pretty much my plan for fixing the housing markettoo, and look how well thats gone. The other is that, the longer you look, and the more stories about Home Office cruelty and incompetence you read, the less salvageable it seems. Forget the rhetorical nonsense about incentives and the Overton Window: we actually need to abolish the whole bloody thing.

Here are some terrible things the Home Office has done over the past few months.

It cancelled the UK passport of a 22-year-old cellist from Nottingham, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding, has appeared on Britain's Got Talent, and in 2016 become the first black winner of the BBCs Young Musician award, without bothering to explain to him why. (Both his parents are, in what Im sure is a coincidence, immigrants.) It subsequently apologised.

It refused to allow EU citizens travelling to job interviews to enter the UK, diverting them to immigration removal centres and then deporting them. A Home Office spokesman told the Guardian that We require evidence of an individuals right to live and work in the UK, in direct contradiction of the departments own advice that visitors without work visas may attend meetings, conferences, seminars, interviews and negotiate and sign deals and contracts.

It told a man who was stranded in Jamaica for several years due to the Windrush scandal that, although his absence from the country was the governments own fault, it would not be able to grant him citizenship because he hadnt been in the UK for five years before his application.

It has been so slow to process applications for EU settled status that half a million European citizens have been left in limbo, uncertain whether they will be granted the right to remain in Britain or not. These include a 45-year-old Spanish-born woman, who has been here since before her first birthday and has lost her job because the Home Office has left her unable to prove she has the right to work in Britain,and one of Britains last Holocaust survivors, who has been here for 73 years.

It refused settled status to a ten-year-old girl, whose parents and brother have been granted it, due to a lack of evidence she was in the UK with them.

It has repeatedly refused British citizenship to, and threatened the deportation of, a woman whose father came to Britain as part of the Windrush generation. The Home Office argues that she is not British, despite having a British father and five British siblings, on the grounds that she was born outside the UK to be specific, on an RAF base in Germany during her fathers 13 years of service with the RAF.

Every one of these stories, incidentally, is from the past five months.Even Dominic Cummings, hardly free of authoritarian right-wingery himself, has come out in favour of Home Office abolition although this also chimes withthe tear it all down and start again agenda hes followed for much of his career.

Anyway. The problem is not merely that the Home Office is cruel. Cruelty, to the sort of fundamentally amoral people that tend to become home secretary, clearly has a purpose, as a deterrent. No: the problem is that the Home Office pairs its cruelty with incompetence. Its cruelty is so scattershot that its often aimed at people who have a perfect legal right to be here and havent broken the rules in any way. If you can do everything right, and the Home Office might come for you anyway, then why bother sticking to the rules? Even from an amoral authoritarian point of view, it doesnt stack up.

New leadership might help. Reform might help. But its hard to wade through that many stories of malice and incompetence and consistent inhumanity towards other human beings and conclude that anything less than a completely new institutional culture will be enough.

Abolish the Home Office; break it up for parts, transfer its functions to a new department or perform them elsewhere; then hold an inquiry into how a major civil service department became quite so in thrall to hard-right politics. By doing so, well be creating a better country with a more competently administered immigration policy. And, perhaps, well visit just a tiny fraction of the pain that the Home Office has caused other people upon the people who caused that suffering.

Follow this link:

Why it's time to abolish the Home Office New Statesman - New Statesman

When the Biden administration retreated twice this month from its attempts to shoehorn critical race theory into K-12 classrooms, it showed two things: The first is that a strategy of exposure and pressure works, the second is that the American people can never let up.

The second is particularly vital. President Joe Biden has surrounded himself with committed ideologues who themselves have appointed mid-level managers devoted to far-leftist causes, and they are determined to impose these ideas on the rest of us.

If anything, this is a "teachable moment." Conservatives often remind themselves that personnel is policy, but when it comes to filling out administrations, they sometimes buckle under to the wishes of the left-of-center entrenched federal bureaucracy.

Example A is the Department of Educations hasty decision to eliminate a radical CRT outfit from its recommendations to schools on how to open up in the fall after the lengthy COVID-19 shutdown, and how to spend moneys allocated in the American Rescue Plan.

>>>Most Parents and Teachers Are Done With Critical Race Theory

The guidance, called the "Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting all Students Needs," had promoted the Abolitionist Teaching Network, a grifting outfit that (sadly) is fairly typical of companies that offer "anti-racist" trainings programs or curricula.

The network itself says it is gearing toward building "abolitionist teachers requires students, families, and educators who disrupt Whiteness and other forms of oppression."

The "roadmap" called for the elimination of "all punitive or disciplinary practices that spirit murder Black, Brown, and Indigenous children." And it included calls to "remove any and all police and policing from schools" and institute "reparations for children of color stolen by the school-to-prison pipeline."

According to Fox News, Bettina Love, co-founder of ATN and chair of its board, said during a welcome webinar, "If you dont recognize that White supremacy is in everything we do, then we got a problem." Love added, "I want us to be feared."

All of this is ugly stuff, but average fare for the outfits that suck tax dollars out of hard-strapped communities with their "Social Emotional Learning" (SEL) programs. The outrageous posturing of these trainers and "educators" has helped convinced parents across the country to resist CRT.

The thinking is also classic critical race theoryeven though now that a natural resistance to CRT has built up, those practicing these divisive concepts deny that they are part of CRT. They cant hide, however; defining deviancy down, and decriminalizing crime, is at the heart of the writings of Regina Austin, Angela Harris and Paul Butler, undeniable CRT academics

And, it is important to note as well that the use of the term "abolitionist" is not meant to associate this effort with the actual abolition of slavery, the work of Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, or the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

No, abolition in this sense is a Marxist term.

In his book, "The Devil and Karl Marx," Grove City Colleges Paul Kengor reminds us that, "The word abolition is omnipresent throughout Marxs writings. As [Marx scholar] Robert Payne noted, the word almost seems to jump off every page of the Manifesto. And after he has "abolished" property, family, and nations, and all existing societies, Marx shows little interest in creating a new society on the ruins of the old."

In fact, in a video that Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors cut in February, she praised her intellectual guru, Angela Davis, as one of her "favorite abolitionists." Lest we forget, Davis ran twice for VP on the Communist Party ticket and received the Lenin Peace Prize from the ruthless East German leader Erich Honnecker. She fills auditoriums at universities today where she informs her clueless audience that "I am now and have always been a Marxist."

So its not really surprising that almost as soon as Fox News had reported that the administration was recommending ATN materials, a spokesperson said the whole thing had been "an error." A rushed-out statement said, "The Department does not endorse the recommendation of this group, nor do they reflect our policy positions."

The department may not officially endorse the abolitionist teaching network, but some of its top appointees already know the network well.

Cindy Marten, newly appointed Deputy Secretary at education, hosted Love when she was superintendent of the San Diego unified public school system, where Love conducted SEL trainings in 2020, according to investigative journalist and Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo. Love was paid $11,000 for her work, according to Fox News.

And Love spoke at a national education association event last year when Donna Harris-Aikens, now an acting assistant secretary, was senior director at the far-left teachers union.

>>>Institutionalizing Racial Fanaticism Across American Society

The episode over the abolitionist teaching network was but the second time the Department of Education leads with its CRT fist, and then folds when America punches back.

Earlier this year, Secretary Miguel Cardona recommended a rule that would prioritize grants to educational institutions that practiced CRT. Over 30,000 Americans wrote mostly negative comments on the departments website, including The Heritage Foundation. Cardona appears to have folded. He said in a statement last week that "this program, however, has not, does not, and will not dictate or recommend specific curriculum be introduced or taught in classrooms."

Americans are faced with an administration that pretends to be moderate, and which a fawning media portrays as moderate, but which appoints people who attempt to impose fringe ideas onto impressionable minds. Parents and taxpayers must remain vigilant.

View original post here:

Critical Race Theory, Team Biden and Our Schools2 Big Lessons Conservatives Must Learn - Heritage.org

The voters of Minneapolis face a big decision in November now that the City Council has finalized language for the Yes 4 Minneapolis-sponsored ballot question.

As a longtime resident and involved citizen, there are several reasons I plan to vote no.

No chief Medaria Arradondo is a Minneapolis kid who puts his heart and soul into keeping our city safe for everyone. Years ago, he had the fortitude to sue his own department for discriminatory practices. More recently he showed the world how an ethical police leader tears down the "blue wall of silence" when an officer crosses the line of acceptable conduct during the trial of Derek Chauvin.

Arradondo's commitment to transform the Minneapolis Police Department into a more effective, just and trusted force in our city should be upheld and supported. Instead, the Yes 4 Minneapolis amendment eliminates his job.

To me, with crime rising throughout Minneapolis and the imperative to reform policing a top priority, it seems like a terrible time not to have a chief of police in Minneapolis.

No reform The organizations behind Yes 4 Minneapolis aren't for reforming policing. They want it abolished. Their own leaders say so. On July 15, Miski Noor and Kandace Montgomery, speaking for Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block in the publication "In These Times," wrote, "We understand that abolition is the long game. We're in it for as long as it takes."

If the real long-term goal is abolition, we can't look to the leaders of Yes 4 Minneapolis to help now with the hard work of reform. That's just not what they are interested in. Why work to improve something you fundamentally don't believe in?

For voters who think no police department is better than a transformed one, this amendment is for you. But if that is your view, please read my next point.

No plan There is no plan for what comes next should the Yes 4 Minneapolis amendment pass. None. To give a hint of what they might think is sufficient to provide for safety in Minneapolis, on their resource page the groups advocating for this change identify the city's 311 line, United Way 211, Minnesota's poison control system, references to Narcan and CPR training and other like responses. All these are helpful in their own way but hardly what is required to deal with the spike in gun violence, homicides, domestic assaults, property crimes and civil unrest across the community, especially areas where our Black and brown neighbors live.

A degree of denial about the seriousness of the safety situation, and about the need for professional law enforcement to respond, investigate, and hold offenders responsible, pervades the arguments in favor of the Yes 4 Minneapolis ballot question. Hope for a utopian future isn't a plan for dealing with today's reality.

No need One argument made is that this amendment is necessary to add non-policing strategies to the overall approach to safety in Minneapolis. Not true. Community Crime Prevention staff have been part of MPD for decades. More recently, violence prevention and mental health focused interventions have been funded and are underway across the city.

These newer initiatives, in my view, have not been adequately integrated with law enforcement to create a seamless continuum of safety strategies. That work lies ahead for those truly interested in creating a multifaceted approach to keeping all of us safe. The Yes 4 Minneapolis amendment is not necessary for this work to occur, and in fact would make things harder by adding bureaucracy and confusion about who is in charge.

No safety Add it all up and a vote for the Yes 4 Minneapolis amendment would make Minneapolis less safe. We can't successfully build MPD into the department our chief envisions with him gone. Reform efforts will be stalled by creating a bureaucracy from scratch with no guiding plan, and too many people with conflicting views in charge.

If the amendment passes, the influence of those promoting it will be significant, and they don't believe in policing at all. Minneapolis will become an outlier at a time when other major cities are finding their way to "both/and" improving public safety for their citizens by insisting on transformational law enforcement while embracing complementary, non-policing approaches at the same time.

No transparency I find it ironic that the promoters of Yes 4 Minneapolis now object to a straightforward, accurate portrayal of what they have in mind for our city. Could it be that obfuscation is their only path to pulling one over on the voters? Most people don't like to be misled, yet that appears to be the emerging campaign tactic for passage of this amendment. The antidote? Vigorous, factual debate about the most serious issue facing Minneapolis in this year's election.

I often think about how much more productive it would have been had City Council members, in early June of last year when speaking at Powderhorn Park, identified both/and as their rallying cry for all of us to work together, rather than unfurl the polarizing "defund the police" banner.

Too late now, but not too late to turn away the byproduct of that bumper sticker philosophy and reject the Yes 4 Minneapolis charter amendment.

Steve Cramer is president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

The rest is here:

OPINION EXCHANGE | Why the defund amendment must be defeated - Minneapolis Star Tribune

This year, as Nova Scotiansofficially observeEmancipation Dayfor the first time, there are calls to not onlyrecognizethisprovince's brutal history of slavery butto makereparations for it.

"You can't talk about emancipation without talking about reparations," community leader and activist Lynn Jones told CBC Radio's Mainstreet during a special hour-long program for Emancipation Day that airedFriday.

Aug. 1 marks the day 187years ago when the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect, freeing about 800,000 enslaved people in most British colonies.

Jones said Emancipation Day is about takingaction to address the legacy of slavery and the anti-Black racism thatpersists today.

"We aren't truly liberated," she said. "Canada has never offered an apology, nor have they sat at the table to talk about reparations."

Governor Edward Cornwallisis known to have arrivedin Halifax in 1749 with about 400enslaved people, according to the Nova Scotia Archives.

There were less than 3,000 people in the city around thattime, meaning enslaved people made up 18 per cent of the population. In contrast, there were just 17 free Black people.

In places like Nova Scotia and Quebec, slave owners largely lived in urban areas, with enslaved peopleforced to do both domestic and agricultural labour, said Charmaine Nelson, the founding director of the new Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Slaverylooked different here than it did on plantations in the U.S. south, but it was no less brutal, she said.

"We have to think about the types of psychological surveillance and control and terror, quite frankly, to which enslaved people in Canada were subjected," she said.

Nelson, a professor of art history, has studied transatlantic slavery through the ads used to sell, auction and recapture enslaved people.

Sometimes they include very personal details that can help create an "unauthorized visual portrait" of someone who lived more than a hundred years ago.Through these ads Nelson has learned how enslaved people resisted slavery by holding on to their cultural practices,and how they risked their lives to reunite with their loved ones.

"We're in a sad situation where most of us don't even know that slavery transpired in Canada ... and how could we? Because it's nowhere in the curriculum from kindergarten to where I teach in university," Nelson said.

Even though the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect on Aug. 1, 1834, it didn't mean people were suddenly free. The act only freed children under the age of six, and everyone else was forced to work as apprentices without pay for several years.

The push for abolition alsodidn't come from people within what would become Canada, Nelson said. Many of them "were quite angry and horrified at the loss of their so-called property in that moment."

In fact, several years before abolition, a group of 27 people from Digby County,including several prominent Acadians, petitioned the British government to strengthen their right to own slaves.

Listen to CBC Radio Mainstreet'shour-long special for Emancipation Day:

Mainstreet NS44:27Slavery, Resistance & Emancipation, episode 5: The meaning of Emancipation Day

The Britishgovernment alsocompensated some slave owners after slavery was outlawed, Nelson said.

"You were able to count up how many enslaved people you were going tolose and then file a formal document with the British government saying compensate me for these people, so that today would be billions of dollars and enslaved people got nothing," Nelson said.

For author Sharon Robart-Johnson, finally marking Emancipation Day nationwide feels like too little, too late.

"That anger will be there for a long time, I guess, because racism is still quite strong in Nova Scotia, it's just more subtle," said Robart-Johnson, a descendant of Black Loyalists from Yarmouth County.

Many years ago, shecame across a 220-year-oldcourt recordabouta young enslaved woman named Jude who was beaten to deathby her owner's sons for taking food from the pantry. The men responsiblewere charged for murder, but acquitted.

"I was extremely surprised and then I was angry and then I was outraged," said Robart-Johnson, who has written about Jude's life and death, including in her new book of historical fiction, Jude and Diana.

Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard, who spent many years pushing to make Emancipation Day a realityin Canada, doesn't want Nova Scotians to turn away from the brutal way enslaved people, like Jude, were treated.

"We don't own the shame of the past, butwe have to own the present and the future," she said.

"The erasure of our full history, the denial of that full history causes tremendous pain, trauma and in essence, a sense of not belonging, not truly belonging to this country."

She sees Aug. 1 as an opportunityto start the next chapter in the Black Lives Matter movement, which galvanized people across the globe to stand up to anti-Black racism.

"Guilt and shame can really immobilize you, but if we could take those feelings and turn them into actions, you know, I think that's one of the most important things that we can do," she said.

FreeUp! Emancipation Day 2021 is a youth-led celebration of spoken word, dance, theatre and music, as we gather together to celebrate freedom. Join CBC Arts on Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. ET on CBC Gem and YouTube.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.

See the original post here:

Nova Scotia's history of slavery is marked by brutality, but it has been largely erased: scholar - CBC.ca

Pitts 2021 Diversity Forum spanned more than 80 workshops and featured events over four days this week covering everything from ableism and anti-racism in academia to transgender issues and empowering change.

In welcoming those attending the morning session on July 28, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said: The Pitt community knows that achieving a more just and inclusive environment wont just happen because we want it to happen, it takes intention and personal reflection, and it takes work.

My hope is that the discussions we engage in generate concrete actual ideas for making the spaces where we live and work more equitable, where everyone is welcome and everyone has an opportunity to thrive.

Below find short synopses of several of the featured events at the forum. For more information, go to the Pitt Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion website. Videos of many of the events can be found on the Pitt Diversity YouTube page.

Speakers:

Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row in Alabama for a crime for he didnt commit.

Candi Castleberry Singleton, vice president of Diversity Partnership Strategy & Engagement at Twitter

ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU Racial Justice Project

Sheila Velez Martinez, director of the Immigration Law Clinic, co-director of the Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice at Pitt.

Tomar Pierson-Brown, moderator of the session and the associate dean for Equity and Inclusive Excellence at the School of Law.

Key takeaways

Hinton kicked off the 2021 Diversity Forum by sharing his story about how he became one of the longest-serving death row prisoners in Alabama and how he gained his freedom.

You dont know how bad I want to say that the state made an honest mistake, Hinton said. But the state of Alabama didnt make no mistake. The state of Alabama knew from day one, I was not the person who had committed the crime.

Hinton spent 30 years in solitary confinement until he was exonerated in 2015. Bryan Stevenson, attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, reviewed his case and secured his release

And I never will forget, Hinton said. The judge proudly stood up that day and said Anthony Ray Hinton, you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers. And it is the order of this court that I sentence you to death. That judge had the audacity to say, May God have mercy on your soul. The prosecution that prosecuted me could be overheard saying we didnt get the right n***er today, but at least we got a n***er off the street. That is your justice.

Since his release, Hinton has been advocating for the abolition of the death penalty and working to end mass incarceration in the U.S. as a community educator with the Equal Justice Initiative.

I hear people often say that we are dealing with mass incarceration. But Im here this evening to tell you, were not dealing with mass incarceration, were dealing with a new form of slavery. And we must call it what it is.

Hinton still hasnt received an apology or any form of compensation from the state of Alabama.

Donovan Harrell

Speakers:

Valerie Kinloch, (moderator) dean of the Pitt School of Education

Charlene Dukes, principal of The Dukes Group LLC and interim president of Montgomery College

Jason Irizarry, dean of the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut

Tyrone Howard, professor of education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA

Erika Gold Kestenberg, a diversity, inclusion, equity and justice consultant and former associate director of educator development and practice and community engagement at the Center for Urban Education

Christy McGuire, doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the Center for Urban Education.

Shallegra Moye, director of the Center for Urban Education

Key takeaways:

In her opening statements, Dukes said the work of building a just education system depends on collaboration between businesses and industries, community-based organizations, local and state governments.

Howard added that higher education must play a leading role in building a more equitable and just education system by collaborating with community stakeholders to create loving systems that see the best in young people. We have to make sure we are very intentional and making sure that our most vulnerable and historically harmed groups are always going to be prioritized, Howard said. If we can create systems that are just in caring and loving and affirming that prioritizes those populations, I think were on track.

Irizarry commented on the current wave of conservative criticism against teaching critical race theory, calling it a catch-all for any justice-oriented work that addresses race or other marginalized identities. This criticism mirrors similar criticism following the Civil Rights Movement, he said.

Moore said that the dismantling of oppressive systems cannot happen without people recognizing that the systems exist in the first place. And this work shouldve been done a long time ago. We have got to dismantle oppression and get these equitable systems and just communities built like yesterday because theres no more time, Moore said.

Dukes said the key to ensuring that efforts towards improving the state of education in the U.S. are more than just symbolic is not looking for symbolic people, and for University leaders to openly acknowledge the psychological harm caused by placement and standardized tests.

Howard said the work of creating a just education system can be done, but dont expect the work to come without conflict and backlash. The bottom line is, I mean, we cant do this work in a way that is nice, Howard said. We cant do this work in a way thats always going to sort of cater to the status quo. We cant do this work in a way thats going to continue to reinforce the existing systems that we have.

Donovan Harrell

Speakers:

Jacqueline Patterson, founder and head of The Chisholm Legacy Project

Kyle Whyte, an indigenous philosopher and faculty member at the University of Michigans School for Environment and Sustainability

Allison Acevedo, director of the states Office of Environmental Justice

Ali Aslam, an undergraduate member of Fossil-Free Pitt

Jamil Bey, founder and president of PittsburghsUrbanKind Institute

Aurora Sharrard (moderator), Pitts director of sustainability

Key takeaways:

If the world is ever to move away from energy extraction and exploitation, and address the degradation these efforts have caused the planet and its most vulnerable people, were going to need more than a tweak to the system, Jacqueline Patterson said at the Combating Environmental Racism and Injustice session of Pitts Diversity Forum on July 29.

Its not that the system is broken, its that the system is really doing exactly what it was designed to do, she said. The solutions are going to have to go beyond the kinds of solutions that are considered progressive now.

Patterson outlined how BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color) communities face environmental injustices: from polluting industrial plants, which are disproportionately located in BIPOC neighborhoods, to living near roadway-area pollution, which affects BIPOC people disproportionately as well; from not having access to healthier food at grocery stores (as opposed to corner stores) to being cut off from energys benefits literally, in the case of disproportionate threats of utility shut offs.

The disasters themselves dont discriminate, she said, but the vulnerabilities do, and they are larger for those in minority and poorer communities.

The cumulative impacts of policies, bad policies, for decades, for centuries, got us to this place, noted panelist Jamil Bey, founder and president of PittsburghsUrbanKind Institute. Where do we put the highway, the plants, the incinerator? Lets put them where property values are lowest where BIPOC and poorer people are living. How do we think of policies that reverse those policies?

One difficulty in Pennsylvania, said Allison Acevedo, director of the states Office of Environmental Justice,is that environmental justice is a policy in Pennsylvania. Its not a law. What can we do? First we have to be prepared as an agency to respond to community concerns.

Kyle Whyte, an indigenous philosopher and faculty member at the University of Michigans School for Environment and Sustainability, noted that indigenous peoples have been left behind from every infrastructure investment in the U.S. To bring sustainable energys benefits to indigenous communities, this country would first need to supply these places with the basics, such as better roads and clean water.

The industries causing climate change, he said, were able to take root because of the disposition of indigenous lands.

Ali Aslam, an undergraduate member of Fossil-Free Pitt, which is pushing the University to divest its endowment funds from fossil fuels, noted that too often the responsibility for the climate crisis is pushed onto individuals. We are told we must get rid of plastic straws, for instance, when much more environmental damage is being done by world-destroying industries like fast fashion, fracking or fossil fuels, he said.

The solution? Keep putting pressure on elected officials to make decisions, Bey said, and reject the idea that it is either/or that it is these workers versus those workers.

We all need to be thinking about campaign finance reform, Patterson said. Too much of our system is being controlled by these well-monied puppeteers in traditional power industries.

Marty Levine

Speakers:

Julie Beaulieu (moderator), lecturer for the Gender, Sexuality, and Womens Studies Program.

Jules Gill-Peterson, associate professor of English at Pitt who is leaving for Johns Hopkins University

Darren L Whitfield, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and former faculty member at Pitts School of Social Work

Miracle Jones, director of policy and advocacy at 1Hood Media

Ari Rubinson, a registered nurse and transgender man who helps to educate healthcare providers on LGBTQ competent healthcare

Max Reiver, a recent Pitt graduate who worked on numerous initiatives to improve the experiences of Pitt LGBTQIA+ community members

Dena Stanley, founder and executive director of TransYOUniting

Key takeaways:

The main message delivered during this session focused on transgender equality is that its time to move beyond workshops and events like this and start taking action.

I think we have to just say time is up on universities in failing to protect gender diverse communities, Whitfield said, for being silent and passive and oftentimes active participants of oppression and neglect of gender diverse communities.

We have to stop talking and we have to act, he said. I challenge the University to think about action, and that does start with education and it does start with this panel, because I think training and education is important, but that training just cant be for faculty and staff and students. It also has to be of administrators and board of trustees and board of directors.

One area that need attention, Gill-Peterson said is the unprecedented avalanche of anti-trans legislative proposals in over 30 states in the U.S., directly targeting trans people under 18. In particular, bills impeding their equal access to education by preventing them from participating in sports, but also bills banning or outright criminalizing trans health care for young people.

Gill-Peterson, a trans woman of color, said, Theres no secret here. Theres nothing that we need to tell all of you today to raise your awareness or theres no light bulb moment. Its actually just, are you committed to ending forms of racial and gender discrimination and oppression or are you not. She said this applies to Pitt and other higher education institutions who either want more faculty of color or more trans faculty, or they dont.

Miracle Jones said universities also need to look at what theyre funding, researching and teaching. We dont want education to reinforce stereotyping and negative perceptions of people as well, because whats the point of bringing trans students to a classroom and all they get to hear and learn and teach about themselves is stereotypes and negative perceptions of portrayals.

Dena Stanley said her focus is on trans women on color. When you uplift the most oppressed and the most vulnerable people in a community, you uplift the whole community. And right now, black trans women of color are those folks, she said.

Susan Jones

Continue reading here:

Diversity Forum: Featured events covered a wide variety of topics - University Times

A two-week exhibition which aims to provoke conversation about race and technology is taking place in Leicester next month.

Identity 2.0, a creative studio exploring digital identity, is launching This Machine is Black, at the LCB Depot.

The exhibition, which explores the relationship between technology and race in a unique interactive space inspired by a garden, will run from August 13 to 30.

It is supported by Leicester City Council and De Montfort University, following the naming of Identity 2.0 as winners of the Smart Leicester City Challenge.

READ MORE: 'Uncover the Story' campaign launched to promote Leicester and Leicestershire as fascinating destination

The space, designed like a garden, is split into four themes: Deep Fakes, Surveillance and Privacy, Afrofutirsm and Abolition. Each contains unique art pieces, created by Identity 2.0 or work from one of 11 commissioned designers, artists and researchers, from a black, Asian or underrepresented ethnic group.

Jada Bruney is a London-based illustrator and graphic designer who has produced work for Adidas, Tate Collective and been commissioned by Merky Books to reimagine The Story of Tracy Beaker in an alternative universe.

Now for This Machine is Black, her work, The Return to the Motherland explores the concept of a retro futuristic second Windrush Generation.

Her bold work including elements of animation and typography, joins the anime, manga and Japanese culture inspired work of Midlands-based artist, Tobi Uzumaki as well as Danielle Williams who hails from Nottingham.

The latter is a 3D artist and Creative Designer who will celebrate Black beauty, pride and raised fists in a work depicting Nina Simone as an ethereal afrofuturist warrior, serving up Black joy through the power of song.

The exhibition will include even more international influences as the Netherlands data scientist and AI artist, Ahnjili explores the human mind and the machine with algorithms to create modular, additive art systems that decay over the course of a day.

This range of commissions are partly funded thanks to the Leicester City Council. This Machine is Black is one of the winners of the Smart Leicester City Challenge, a competition run by Leicester City Council and designed to kick-start innovative projects. The exhibition is also supported by De Montfort University.

Assistant City Mayor for jobs and skills, Cllr Danny Myers, said: Im really pleased that Smart Leicester could support Identity 2.0 through our Smart Leicester City Challenge. It sounds like they will be bringing a really innovative and fascinating piece of work to the LCB Depot, our hub for creative businesses in the heart of Leicesters Cultural Quarter. Im really looking forward to going.

I also look forward to supporting many more opportunities like this through the ongoing work of our Smart Leicester initiative, so that Leicester becomes known as a smart city, focused on using technology for the good of everyone who lives, works or visits here.

Our food and drink newsletter brings you email updates filled with the latest news from restaurants and bars across Leicestershire.

It's really easy to sign up - all you have to do is click here and enter your email address.

The creators of This Machine is Black, Identity 2.0, have previously produced a range of moments and spaces which aim to push the conversation about digital identity into the mainstream.

Past work includes a digital exhibition (CTRL+U) which reached more than 3,500 people internationally, a self-published zine, a web series and creative workshops. They have been supported and praised by MIT Tech Review Download, Soho House and Airbnb.

The founders, Arda Awais and Savena Surana are two award-winning London based creatives, who work in the creative-tech world, and have been named Web Champions 2021 by Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Talking about the exhibition, Arda and Savena said: Were so excited to bring an important topic to one of the most diverse cities in the UK. Being women of colour, this is a topic which directly affects us, and we want more people to engage with it. We love creating spaces for people to explore what it means to exist online and in a technological world - and using art means that more people can get involved in this important fight for our future.

"We infuse humour, surprises and everyday language to make sure that this is a non-intimidating environment to explore technology. We also hope that this will encourage more artists to think critically about the tech they use in their practices!

Tickets to the exhibition, which cost 3 (or are free to some groups) can be found here.

See more here:

Immersive exhibition exploring relationship between technology and race coming to Leicester's LCB Depot - Leicestershire Live

I want to celebrate the success of the citys Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team program passing through the City Council. This was an example of the incredible success that can come from community support when we follow the leadership of community members most affected by an issue and support their proposed solution. The Heart program is sitting with the city manager, awaiting final-stage approval and implementation.

As a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Boston, I have had the chance to be a collaborator and supporter of the Heart program and the incredible leadership of The Black Response Cambridge. It has been powerful to see how our community can come together to work toward a safer Cambridge for all, choosing alternatives to our current policing and carceral system.

Thanks to Cambridge Day for reporting on Heart passing and including the nuances of the councils vote andthe process with the current city manager (Alternative policing proposal for Heart unit passes City Council with hopes for fast action, June 8). This reporting missed the opportunity to name how this program could support us all over us! It decided to focus on the fear of increased violence with this program rather than the immense opportunity to invest in communities, provide differentiated services and allow for people within communities to be trained to care for each other.

I am a passionate advocate for mental health care, community support and relationship building, and I have benefited from these services in my life. I am excited to see Heart bring these services and more to our community. These services will help people in need during a crisis, and on a larger scale, they will build community education, relationships and investment. For example, Heart will offer conflict resolution through Transformative Justice Practices, as well as aftercare support and nonviolent public responses should incidences arise. Heart will also offer community-based skill training, a resource database of other service providers; and mutual aid services to provide access to food, material goods, community and more.

I am eager to see the Cambridge we can build together a Cambridge that is better and stronger for all of us, that centers our most affected community members and that listens deeply to their voices. As Ruth Wilson Gilmore, director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics and a prison abolitionist and prison scholar says, abolition is about presence, not absence. Its about building life-affirming institutions. The Heart program is the affirmation of life and community that we are building together.

Please take the time to talk to your loved ones about Heart and a future without policing and surveillance that would allow us to build and sustain community. Im very supportive and excited to have the Heart program in my community, and hope you are too.

Ellie Carver, Reed Street

A BETTER

Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.

DONATE

Original post:

Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team shows how a community can work well together - Cambridge Day

EDITORS NOTE: Hear Us is a column series that features experts of color and their insights on issues related to the economy and racial justice. Follow us here and at #HearUs4Justice.

After police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, national attention was drawn to the unjust and racist practice of how local governments disproportionately levy criminal and traffic fines and fees on members of Black and Brown communities to generate revenue. Indeed, the subsequent Justice Department investigation and report found that the issues in Ferguson were systemic, and notes that officers appear to see some residents, especially those who live in Fergusons predominantly African American neighborhoods, less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue.

While advocacy organizations and policymakers across the country have since moved forward with fines and fee reform in recent years, we must tell the story like it is community members were and continue to be ahead of the game. Back in 2009, the Youth Justice Coalition in Los Angeles County released a report on the pervasive impact of charging fees to the families of young people who were ordered to juvenile detention facilities. They rightly called for the only solution that would provide meaningful relief the complete abolition of fees.

Abolishing criminal fees and writing off current debt is the only systemic, permanent solution to this form of racialized wealth extraction, and it is a solution our communities want and deserve. And its what we say is the solution, as Black and Brown people who ourselves, and whose loved ones, continue to be subjected to targeted policing, hyper surveillance, disproportionate arrests and unjust punishment.

While that rationale alone should be sufficient, fee abolition is also by far the most fair and efficient process to address this issue. Instituting an ability to pay mechanism a process by which a determination is made on whether a person can afford to pay a fee may seem beneficial. But ability to pay is a less effective policy that places high bureaucratic burdens on individuals to prove their economic circumstance; it relies on the discretion of judges or other entities of power (almost never a good thing for BIPOC communities), and it does not address the racism and bias baked into the criminal legal system that inevitably will obstruct the process. As we see from the recent failure of the PPP program to reach Black and Latinx business owners, the last thing that will help Black and Brown communities is a complicated application and administrative process thats required to access relief.

Abolition is the most honest tool at our disposal. It at once validates how inherently broken the system is, and it demands more progressive, pragmatic and restorative visioning of the future. The only way to stop racialized wealth extraction is to stop racialized wealth extraction, not to make it more administratively onerous to dismantle.

In recognition of this reality, last year, through the work and advocacy of the Debt Free Justice California Coalition, California became the first state to abolish more than 20 different criminal fees through the Families Over Fees Act, providing an estimated $16 billion in relief to people across the state. This year, the Governor and the Legislature have the opportunity to continue this work through the Finish the Fees Act, which would eliminate the more than 60 remaining fees that can still be charged to Californians.

The Legislature has included in its budget the elimination of additional criminal fees, including the unjust and economically disastrous $300 civil assessment fee for failure-to-pay and failure-to-appear violations. Abolishing this unnecessary and ineffective fee is a tremendous step towards creating a more fair and equitable California. But the state has another opportunity to further ameliorate policies that only serve to entangle individuals deeper within the criminal legal system. Namely, the issuance of bench warrants.

Advocates and affected communities are sounding the alarm that a collateral consequence of eliminating civil assessment fees could be an uptick in judges relying on the penalty of bench warrants when, for example, a person fails to appear in court. This practice effectively makes an infraction that was never meant to be punishable by jail time - such as a traffic violation one that could land someone in jail.

People fail to appear in court for numerous reasons: lack of transportation or childcare; fear of losing employment for missed work; medical issues; or they simply never received the court notice in the first place. Issuing a bench warrant is unnecessary and egregious, particularly when another highly punitive tool is already in place trial by absentia. Trial by absentia is where the court proceedings move on without the individual present; these proceedings often yield a guilty verdict, a harsh penalty in itself.

Despite this reality, current California law contains numerous provisions that allow for the issuing of bench warrants for traffic and other infractions. In abolishing civil assessments, the state should also amend the penal and vehicle code to remove the possibility of bench warrants for these violations, which only serves to wield and increase police power for infractions that by definition are neither crimes, nor punishable by jail time. A recent story from LA highlights the potential dangers of not eliminating this practice.

California is trailblazing on fines and fee reform with the passage of the Families Over Fees Act last year and now the Finish the Fees Act. But if bench warrants stay within the traffic and vehicle code, we erase the gains we are making toward racial and economic justice. Lets not be short-sighted in our actions. Other states are watching and learning from what we are doing. We hope that Governor Newsom and the Legislature builds on this momentum and that they support what our communities say they need fee abolition and an end to bench warrants. This is a racial and economic justice issue that has been heightened by COVID, and these actions fall in line with the governors own priorities to curb child poverty in California and to commit to racial justice. California has always been a leader in progressive change. Now is not the time to back away from that history, but to lean into it so that other states can learn from us, and follow our lead on fines and fee reform within our legal system.

All three authors sit on the Steering Committee of Debt Free Justice California.

Jhumpa Bhattacharya is the VP of Programs and Strategy at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

Stephanie Campos-Bui is the Deputy Director in the Policy Advocacy Clinic at Berkeley Law.

Brandon Greene is the Director of the Racial and Economic Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California.

Go here to see the original:

Hear Us: California Is Trailblazing the Path to Debt-Free Justice. Other States Should Follow. - Next City

The Sri Lankan public school teachers online learning strike has now entered its third week. Teachers are demanding a salary increase, abolition of existing salary anomalies and withdrawal of the Kotelawala National Defence University Act (KNDUA).

Over 200,000 teachers across the country are involved in the strike, called by the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU), Ceylon Teacher Service Union, United Teachers Union and several other unions.

The teacher unions were forced to call the online learning strike after police brutally suppressed a protest against the KNDUA on July 8. Several participants, including CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin, were arrested and detained at an Air Force-controlled quarantine centre.

The KNDUA has been presented to parliament by the defence ministry and will be debated in early August. If passed, it will give the military-controlled tertiary institution, which was originally established to train senior officers, the same powers as other universities, under the University Grants Commission, including to establish more private fee-paying courses. The transformation of the university is part of the governments moves towards the privatisation of education and the militarisation of society. Teacher union officials and others were released in the face of widespread anger over the police crackdown. The unions have been compelled to continue the national strike, because teachers are determined to win their long-standing demands.

The Teacher-Student-Parent Safety Committee (TSPSC) and Socialist Equality Party (SEP) warn that the teachers national strike is at a critical turning point. Despite the governments intransigence and threats, the unions continue to insist that pressure will force it to bow to teachers demands. They are deliberately limiting industrial action, in preparation for shutting down the struggle.

On July 22, over 2,000 teachers marched to the presidential secretariat in central Colombo. Teacher union leaders were summoned to a meeting with senior officials, with Education Minister G.L. Peiris participating via telephone.

Following the talks, CTU General Secretary Stalin told teachers that discussions would be held on Tuesday with the minister and officials, regarding a cabinet paper on their demands. This would be followed by a discussion with President Gotabhaya Rajapakse on July 30.

A similar cabinet paper was prepared by the minister when teachers held a one-day sick leave strike in January 2020. The union bureaucracy hailed this as a victory, but later admitted there would be no change in teachers wages or conditions.

The unions have called for the elimination of salary anomalies, comparing teachers wages with the salaries of other state employees. But instead of uniting all workers in a common fight for decent living wages, the unions are dividing the workers. Likewise, the different unions among teachers are dividing the latter and stoking grievances over grade differences.

The unions are also demanding that teachers service be classified as a separate closed service, meaning that employees can only be transferred within the education sector, not to other public sectors. The unions make the empty claim that this would improve wages and conditions. Closed services in other state sectors, such as the railways and the postal services, have produced no improvements for workers.

The teacher unions leadership now boasts that the unions have never been more united, that they are better able to pressure the government and win their demands. Since 1997, teachers have heard this rhetoric constantly, at protests over the past 24 years, when the unions first called for abolition of salary anomalies.

Teachers must reject union claims that increased pressure will shift the government. In fact, the Rajapakse government, which confronts a profound economic crisis, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, is preparing to unleash even greater attacks on the working class.

On July 24, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena told the media that the government spends 86 percent of its revenue on state employees salaries and a teachers wage rise was impossible, given the depth of the economic crisis induced by the pandemic.

If the government granted teachers salary demands, it would have to increase taxes and burden the people, he declared, in an attempt to pit other workers and the poor against teachers.

The Rajapakse government, however, has already increased taxes on the masses, while granting huge tax concessions and cheap capital to big business.

Last week, Basil Rajapakse, the newly-appointed finance minister, directed officials to prune state-sector expenditure and not hire new workers. Colombo has slashed imports and forced employees to work in dangerous pandemic conditions, in a desperate attempt to earn foreign exchange to pay huge external debts.

The education budget has also been slashed this year to 126 billion rupees ($US630 million), down from 166 billion rupees in 2019. Only about 1.2 percent of gross domestic product is being allocated to education spending.

In recent months, thousands of health, postal and plantation workers have taken industrial action against government and big business attacks on living and social conditions. Other sections of the population, including poor peasants and fishermen, have protested, demanding financial support from the government.

These struggles are part of a wave of working class resistance unfolding around the world. Like its international counterparts, the Rajapakse administration has responded to the rising social opposition with anti-democratic measures and moves towards a presidential dictatorship.

Help the WSWS expand our coverage on the class struggle!

The trade unions have responded to the rising opposition by doing their utmost to prevent workers coming into struggle. When forced to call industrial action, they treacherously work to contain and then scuttle it, betraying their members demands.

The unions fully backed Rajapakses demand for a reopening of the economy, amid the ongoing pandemic, thus placing workers and their families in harms way. The teachers unions, likewise, have supported the reopening of schools in unsafe conditions.

On May 27 and June 2, President Rajapakse imposed the essential public services act, which bans any strike action and protests by workers in 12 public sector entities. While the government continues to renew this repressive measure every two weeks, it has not been opposed by a single union, including the teachers unions.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Samagi Jana Balavegaya, the Tamil National Alliance and pseudo-left groups, such as the Frontline Socialist Party, have supported this anti-democratic attack. The Socialist Equality Party is the only organisation to oppose it and call on workers to prepare for struggle to defeat it.

The struggle against Colombos attacks, and the defence of living and social rights, requires a political struggle against the government and the entire capitalist system. The unions are utterly hostile to such a fight.

Teachers cannot allow their strike to remain under the control of the unions. They must take their struggle into their own hands.

We urge teachers to build independent Teacher-Student-Parent Safety Committees at every school, to rally parents, students and other sections of the working class, as well as the oppressed, to defend public free education with the following demands:

This is the program advanced by the SEP in Sri Lanka, as part of the International Committee of the Fourth Internationals fight to develop the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.

The TSPSC will hold an online public meeting on the program for teachers struggle on Friday, July 30 at 7 p.m. We urge teachers, students and workers to participate in this meeting and discussion. Please register for the meeting here.

Sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter

Receive news updates and information on the fight against the unsafe reopening of schools.

Visit link:

A program of struggle for the teachers' wage strike in Sri Lanka - WSWS

It will also have implications for councillors who in May 2022 will have to stand for election to a new unitary authority serving the entire county.

But above all, it will be the around 10,000 council staff across North Yorkshire who will be the most affected by the changes.

When the new authority launches in April 2023 following the abolition of North Yorkshire County Council and the district and borough councils in Harrogate, Scarborough, Selby, Craven, Ryedale, Hambleton and Richmondshire, most staff will be transferred across but some duplicated roles will inevitably be at risk of redundancy.

It is not yet known how many jobs will be affected - and there are also the questions of whether staff will be relocated and what happens to office buildings including Harrogates new civic centre headquarters.

North Yorkshire County Council - which is behind the single council plans and will act as the continuing authority when reorganisation happens - has said those at risk of redundancy will be mostly senior staff and that the transferring of workers will be a simple process.

However, some union officials are not fully convinced.

David Houlgate, branch secretary at Unison Harrogate, which supported rival plans for two new councils split on a east/west basis, said: Whilst we saw merits in both proposals there was a concern that district and borough council roles were at greater risk with the North Yorkshire County Council proposal. It would be safe to say that concern remains.

Staff are also concerned about possibly having to relocate though at this time we have no idea what is likely to happen.

On the other hand, Wendy Nichols, secretary of the North Yorkshire branch of Unison, which supported the single council plans, said reorganisation should be welcomed by all staff who she hopes will work together to deliver a stronger future for everyones benefit.

She said: Many thousands of staff will now simply transfer to the new council as part of the process of setting it up.

Our priority is to make sure that staff experience the least possible disruption so they can get on with their jobs and continue to deliver high quality and reliable public services.

The aim of reorganisation is to unlock the door to a devolution deal with the government which could see millions of pounds and decision-making powers handed down from Whitehall to North Yorkshire.

The county could also get a mayor similar to those seen in South Yorkshire, the Tees Valley and Greater Manchester.

But a key part of the plans is saving money and a large part of this will come from a reduction in staff.

For example, there are currently eight council chief executives across North Yorkshire earning around 100,000 a year.

The new council will just have one - and the same will most likely be said for other top roles including directors.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire County Council explained: With the exception of a handful of the most senior managers, all staff will simply carry on doing what they are currently doing.

After April 2023 when the new authority is in place some services may want to review their structures and arrangements especially if there is duplication of work and roles or more efficient new ways of delivering services which have been brought together.

The expectation is that whilst over time for some services there will be changes to staffing structures and need for reductions in posts this will be able to be managed by removing vacancies.

For a small number of the most senior managers there will be a need to reduce posts at an early stage when eight senior management teams become a single new management team.

The coming months and as more details emerge about the new authority will undoubtedly be a nervy time for some staff.

Until it starts to take shape, there will be many unanswered questions about exactly whose jobs are at risk and what the new staffing structure will look like.

But officials have insisted staff will play a key part in the process and that they hope workers wont quit local government due to the uncertainties ahead.

The county council spokesperson added: There is a wealth of talent across district, borough and county council staff and it is very much hoped that everyone will see this as a huge opportunity to build a new, ambitious and exemplar council for everyone in North Yorkshire.

See the original post:

Around 10,000 public sector staff to 'keep doing their jobs' when North Yorkshire district councils are abolished - but unions aren't convinced - The...