unusualmusic at Angry Black Woman wrote this great, great, great, GREAT post about racialization in movies, in casting and characterization. There are all sorts of examples where people of colour have been characterized as evil, undercharacterized, or simply replaced with whiteness.

Whitewashing is a frequent topic these days, given the complete and utter failure that is The Last Airbender. Some of the arguments I’ve seen purport that race simply doesn’t ‘matter’ and that’s why it’s okay to cast white actors as main characters in an Asian-inspired world, surrounding them by supporting actors of colour. Few times is this actually true. Usually, in media representations, when someone says that the whitewashing of characters of colour is justified because their race doesn’t matter, it means that whiteness is raceless. With this logic, being white means you are not racialized and you have no race. Or an ethnicity for that matter. Obviously, white people can’t be ethnic, right?

Anyway, read the post at ABW. It’s got an impressive set of links for reading.

I’m currently reading Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith, published in 1999. It’s a classic, I think. I’m not yet finished, but so far, I’ve been enjoying it immensely. I recommend it to everyone, particularly academics, but her writing is still very accessible and not full of jargon. This passage about history, among others, stands out to me (p. 34):

[...] We assume that when ‘the truth comes out’ it will prove that what happened was wrong or illegal and that therefore the system (tribunals, the courts, the government) will set things right. We believe that history is also about justice, that understanding history will enlighten our decisions about the future. Wrong. History is also about power. In fact history is mostly about power. It is the story of the powerful and how they became powerful, and then how they use their power to keep them in positions in which they can continue to dominate others.

I’m definitely glad I picked this up.

About two weeks ago, a commenter wrote the following about the Miley Cyrus: That Achy Breaky Bigot video by ill-literacy that I reposted:

Come on ! That doesn’t make her a bigot. I’m sure you have done things that some could interpret as bigoted.

While I don’t know if this person (or robot) really had any interest in my blog, this sentiment is worth addressing because it’s a common way of derailing and shifting conversation away from the privileged person. This isn’t necessarily a response to this particular comment, but I’ll use it as a starting point.

That doesn’t make her a bigot.

What is a bigot? Most people would say it’s someone who is proud of their intolerance and has a fanatic dedication to that intolerance. I disagree; bigotry is limitless. Being a bigot involves a particular frame of mind, where intolerance is normalized. We need to stop thinking of bigotry that is reserved for ‘those people over there’ who are loud and stomping all over the place declaring that “God Hates You.” We have to stop thinking of discrimination as something that happens individually, or that bigotry cannot take on subtle forms, integrated into our institutions. If we think of oppression in terms of systems, then bigots don’t live outside those systems. We have all been bigots at some point in our lives, then.

What Miley Cyrus did was bigoted. Doing the “slanty eye”, regardless of intention or knowledge, is bigoted. It’s more than gestures and words and phrases – these things are borne out of ignorance. Ignorance allows violence to not only start or happen, but ignorance also makes sure that violence will continue. Ignorance is that frame of mind where prejudiced acts are made to be inconsequential to you and prejudice is normalized so that it’s not typically seen as prejudice. If repeating and redoing the things that makes violence endure makes a person not bigoted, then I don’t know what does.

I’m sure you have done things that some could interpret as bigoted.

Yes. I have. I’ve done many, many things that some could interpret as bigoted. Do you know why? The things I did were bigoted. Just like Miley, I’ve done the “slanty eye” in the past without understanding the ramifications. It doesn’t make me any less accountable to my actions, and it doesn’t make me any less of a bigot. Defensiveness, denial, and trying to deflect any responsibility from myself makes me a bigot. When I say the word ‘dumb’ or ‘lame’ (and other ableist words) to mean something ineffective or stupid, whether I catch myself in the act or not, it makes me a bigot. When I defend my supposed “right” to use those words, it makes me a bigot. When I participate in the oppression of another, it makes me an oppressor; it makes me a bigot. Being a “good” person (oh, and yes, that does include us do-gooder equity seekers) does not exempt anyone from engaging in bigotry.

I haven’t written anything on the blog in awhile. Somehow, I managed to completely miss the entirety of May without realizing it. I was overwhelmed offline by a number of things, but it’s gotten a little less frantic now and I’m more in control of myself (again). I wanted to concentrate on things before my ass was handed to me. Well, my ass got handed to me anyway, so I think I’ll be back to posting my reflections again. The pause, however, made me realize that what I had set out to write about last year has not happened as frequently as I expected.

Almost a year ago, I finally decided to leap into blogging publicly where anyone could read, instead of my usual habit of putting everything under lock and key to a specific set of people. I wanted to talk about anti-oppression as it related to me, because despite all of the great writing I was following, I couldn’t see myself in it. I wanted to share my thoughts, from my unique vantage point, in the hopes that maybe there was someone else who felt similarly. I love reading blogs by womanists/feminists, and other anti-oppression blogs, but it is intensely isolating when you aren’t able to identify yourself within it. I’m aware that this is unclear, but I can’t seem to make sense of the feeling either. So, I started a blog. And I got distracted. I’m not saying I’m some kind of prolific blogger or that I get a lot of hits (which is why I don’t bother making categories). I simply wanted to write about being an Indo-Trinidadian-Canadian overhyphenated queer woman while I was also trying to make sense of it all. If other people read it, that would be an added bonus. I’m finding I haven’t done that as much as I intended.

So, it’s bad my ass was handed to me in May, but at least I realized that I’ve veered off the course I intended to take. Change and rethinking yourself is a good thing!

I read over at Questioning Transphobia that Angie Zapata’s murderer had been convicted of first-degree murder yesterday, including bias motivated.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised it was first-degree. I have very little faith in justice systems, but for once, they got it right. The system did what it was supposed to be doing. It’s bittersweet, though,  because this is after the fact. This is after a beautiful life was taken away.

Angie’s family also gave a statement on the trial yesterday, h/t TransGriot (may contain triggers):

I send my love to Angie’s family.

So, I’ve been half-watching the mudslide of transphobia that has been coming out of the feminist blogosphere in the last few weeks. I hope to engage in the conversations very soon because it is a part of my responsibility as a cis-person, but I have been mostly a reader and not a contributor yet. 

However, I will say this. 

If you’re a non-trans person who sees a post on transphobia that has been coming out of a blog you frequently read or comment on, do everyone a favour and engage with the content of the post. If you find yourself wanting to ask what cisgendered means (of course you do, that’s what all the angry people are calling you, right, and you MUST KNOW NOW), I have a very good way you can avoid doing that. Trust me, it is one of the best collection of Trans 101 answers you will find.

Simply click here you will finally find all the resources you need to avoid further putting your foot in your mouth and derailing conversation to satiate your curiosities. Use it well. Use it often. Apply it to other discussions in anti-oppression.

Alberta has decided that the $700 000 they were spending on gender reassignment surgery per year was putting them back too much. The provincial government has cut funding of the surgery completely out of the budget, which was released on April 7.

From xtra.ca (don’t read the comments): 

The Alberta government delisted funding for gender reassignment surgery this week, and trans activists are quickly organizing to push for the program’s reinstatement.

In Tuesday’s budget, the province announced it was cutting the GRS program to save $700,000 a year. Alberta plans to spend $12.9 billion on healthcare in 2009, according to figures released this week. The GRS program funded surgeries for between 10 and 20 people a year.

The decision to end the GRS program comes just weeks after the province said it would add sexual orientation but not gender identity to the province’s human rights legislation.

From the Edmonton Sun (seriously, of the few articles about this, the Sun is being remotely respectful):

The Alberta government politicians insist that their decision wasn’t based on morality. They say they had to “delist” the service in order to save about $700,000 in the provincial budget.

[..]

Warneke, who runs the transgender clinic at Grey Nuns Hospital, was not consulted or even notified that the funding would be cut.

Up to now, he’s approved 16 people a year for the surgery, which is usually performed in Montreal.

Alberta Health has said anyone who has had their funding approval will still get the surgery, but Warneke said at least 16 of his patients have been caught in a limbo where he’s approved them but the government hadn’t yet green-lighted the funding.

Many of the other articles I’ve found seem to be highlighting that coverage of chiropractic care has been cut (and then SRS as a ‘o well you know’ comment). This move by the provincial government is both ridiculous and transphobic. Just last year, Ontario activists went through a similar battle. Trans people face high rates of unemployment and unemployment because of discrimination. These aren’t elective surgeries. They are costly for an individual, and already difficult to get approved for. I’m sure the Alberta government’s budget is to their liking, helping people out in these tough economic times, but I’m pretty sure in this case “people” doesn’t include trans people. 

There is a facebook group that is currently active if those of us not living in Alberta and would like to help (though if you don’t have Facebook, I dunno what to tell you). Several people have begun the process of filing human rights complaints with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. There is also a petition you can sign.

The first edition of the Asian Women’s Carnival is up now! It looks like the first of many amazing editions, so I hope you go off and read the posts.

People often find themselves lost when they search for something on the Internet and find this blog. I’ve kept silent on these opinions until now, and I think I am doing a disservice by not helping googlers. I’m here to help you today with all the burning answers from the top searches.

Ignoring women.
You’ve come to the right place. I do a lot of that. I believe it is important to ignore women when talking about feminism.

Nightfuck.
Disco stick.

Kyle Payne.
He’s a very nice non-creepy man. We should welcome him back into the blogosphere with open arms.

Women fuck.
No, they don’t. Where did you hear such lies?

Women fuck again and again and again.
LIES! 

Why do white people insinuate themselves…?
As a person of the Caucasian persuasion, I am very offended by the term “white people.”

Is it okay to be a gay minister?
You’ve got an oxymoron in there somewhere. 

Is it okay for women to masturbate?
No. Women have too much equality now. Some things should just be left for men. 

Ugly brown women fucking.
 This is why the Earth’s population is out of control. We have to put an end to it NOW.

Fuck women.
Now you’re onto something.

I missed two weeks of updating, despite me saying I didn’t want to do that, not for a lack of topics to write about, but other, more immediately pressing life stuff got in the way. I probably won’t be updating too much in the next two weeks (which I hate to say, because then I always think up something to write) because I’m desperately trying to graduate this year in spite of everything. It’s taking up so much of my time that I’ve started being – gulp – nice to people just because it’s less time consuming than yelling at them about why they’re being obtuse.

However! There are some things happening on the Internet that I would like to point out to readers because they are brilliant initiatives, and good reads.

One of the main reasons I started this post was to point out Raven’s Eye. This is a space for women/trans people of colour to convene and talk about issues relating to us. The posts are usually cross posted from other blogs so that we can follow conversations with others like ourselves we might not even know are happening elsewhere in blogland.

Renee of Womanist Musings and Monica of TransGriot are heading towards their third week of hosting a web/blog radio show featuring topics on anti-racist feminism. You can catch recordings of the first two episodes at the link, and tune in on Sundays SATURDAYS at 4PM (I think EST? I dunno. I always miss it – maybe because it’s actually on Saturday and not Sunday. Oy.)

debunkingwhite, a community on LiveJournal has recently started a growing “basics” post on whiteness in anti-racism that can serve as a good resource.

Also on LJ is the “Writers of Colour 50 Book Challenge“, challenging people to read at least 50 books written by people of colour, in a year, or other time frame you set for yourself. A lot of attention has been brought to it lately given all the brouhaha about Racefail ‘09, which I am not even going to start on, lest I not graduate because of high blood pressure induced by clueless people. Check out the community for recommendations, resources, and reviews of books, non-fiction and fiction included.

Speaking of Racefail ‘09 and LJ (again), it’s good to be proactive. Check out Verb Noire, an independent press that has just launched with the goal of printing works featuring  underrepresented and otherwise marginalized topics/characters. Read this post explaining who is behind it and what the press is all about. If you’re feeling particularly generous, donate to help them keep going.

So, that’s that. Go read and partake and participate. If you have anything else to add, drop a note in the comments.

WOC and Allies Have Something To Say is up at Tell It WOC Speak! I am honoured that one of my posts is the featured post this month. As with the first carnival, there is an amazing array of posts by women of colour and allies that you should definitely read.

Since the first carnival last month, I have been thinking about the ways I’ve sold myself short when it comes to this sort of stuff. Inside and outside of feminist circles, women of colour are taught that we do not have ownership of our experiences and our emotions, that we are not authorities of our own lives. We live in a world that we are not authorities of our own lives and lived experiences, and that we need some kind of cred (academic or not) to warrant sharing our thoughts. We are subtly told we need to be legitimated somehow.

This type of understanding is insidious, and yes, not limited to women of colour. (It can be applied to other relationships of power between the oppressor and the oppressed.) As a writer, I’ve overcome the fear of submitting articles and letters for print in general, but on topics of oppression, I still have a fear with no particular name. I had wanted to submit something for the first carnival, but I found myself second guessing if any of my posts were good enough, and if I could possibly write something that is relatable to other women of colour. Yes, even though it is a space for the voices of women of colour. I had similar thoughts when I sat on my hands about starting a blog – the main question being, “how the hell could I possibly match up as a WOC blogger…?”, “But my grammar!!! oh and spelling” and “I can’t articulate like [insert any WOC blogger here who is not me].” I was thinking about it in the wrong way, though. I’m not writing to represent women of colour everywhere. I’m writing to represent myself.  

What I am trying to say is: I am glad this type of carnival exists, that I actually submitted something despite all my useless hand wringing, and so long as there are women of colour on the Internet, there will be a carnival like this. Your lived experiences, your power, your pain, your truth – no matter how or where you say it – they are all valuable.

Guest post by Aaminah Hernández at Problem Chylde:

1) Say we are too “involved” or biased in regards to the subject, and claim that you are more “objective”.

This is frequently done to silence people who are trying to tell their own story. Academia is famous for this, but it happens outside academia as well. For example, who are the acknowledged “experts” about our cultures, religions, and lives? Why are there white upper-class men teaching Women’s studies, white upper-class women teaching African or Latin American studies, and white upper-class Christians or atheists teaching Islamic studies? Why does the media go to people outside the group they are speaking about to ask their opinion and views on a subject? [...]

Read the rest.

Yeah, I’m talking about so-called white feminist allies who want to question the need for WOC spaces.

Yeah, I’m talking about so-called white feminist allies who get defensive when someone points out structural white privilege in action, start lashing out at imaginary threats, which they then rationalize as people/women of colour in general, and make the whole thing about how victimized they are because they imagined someone calling them racist.

Yeah, I went there, offline buddies.

Why we need WOC only spaces:

Healing.

Oppression hurts. It cuts deep. Not all of us know how to deal with it without unknowingly hurting ourselves. Not all of us have the words to relay what we are feeling. Not all of us have the ability to speak out, because though silence isn’t comforting, it’s familiar. WOC only spaces give us a chance to discuss and listen to similar kinds of hurt without having to pander to whiteness. This doesn’t mean that other WOC will not come to the defense of whiteness, or become defensive/offended on behalf of whiteness, but the presence of whiteness in the space automatically makes many WOC feel like they have to watch what they say in order to not offend that whiteness. This doesn’t mean that WOC cannot disagree, or approach oppression differently, because we are all different people. We have chances to speak freely, question systems of domination, and each other in a collective environment. We are not alone. We can speak freely without having to resort to Racism 101 For White People, and any hand holding is done for the benefit of POC… not whiteness. 

Turning our anger into positive social change.

I would argue that looking after ourselves and allowing ourselves to heal by voicing our experiences is positive change and not to be frowned upon. It’s unreasonable to expect every WOC-only space to have a mandate of political action. I don’t believe that that all WOC only spaces need to do more than looking after ourselves, because WOC have been taught to never look after ourselves, and only give, give, give. That said, WOC only spaces allow us to engage in consciousness raising with each other, and to turn our anger into constructive anger and action, even if it is in our day to day lives. The existence of WOC only spaces that strive to be safe, inclusive, and welcoming to women of colour yields the opportunity to organize collectively when it is most needed. If we can develop a space where we find support that we do not get from the rest of the world, we are more likely to be motivated to effect social change by working together to find solutions.

So, for those white feminists who are missing the point of WOC only spaces, saying that women of colour are “segregating themselves” and forming vicious little cliques where we hate on white women…

… did you ever consider that it’s not always about you?

I’m not sure how successful this exercise will be, since I think only 8 people follow my blog, but humour me.

We are all marginalized and privileged in some ways. Often we speak about our sites of oppression more than our privileges. This does a disservice to social justice because if we truly want equity/equality, we must know all of our relationships to power, including the ways in which we are awarded privilege. Acknowledgement is key, because our privileges allow us to purposefully not see the ways in which we are complicit in oppression. 

How did you exercise your privilege today? How did you act upon it? What were the ways in which you receieved unearned comfort? No matter how big or small, consequential or inconsequential you think it might have been, how has your privilege come to light today?

Today, I walked up several flights of stairs and thought it was an inconvenience because there was no elevator in the building. It wasn’t until I reached the top (ranting about how “out of breath” I was) that I realized this was an accessibility issue. Someone who cannot use stairs due to a disability is being systemically denied access, and that I was systemically being granted access to a building because I am physically able-bodied. Additionally, I had a class (hooray, academic privilege) today in the basement of a building, and it never occurred to me to check where the elevators were (if they exist) because I had always taken the stairs. 

How about you?

This is a tired, old post that I’ve written about with respect to tone, and that so many before me have written about. Hey, what’s another one to add to the pile? I’m talking mainly about the relationship between WOC and white women in feminist spaces, but I know it applies elsewhere.

Depending on the race, the anger of women of colour is seen as inappropriate because it is either “unbecoming”/”unladylike”, or “demasculating.” I don’t know. At this point, I don’t care about the different ways WOC anger is characterized because it boils down to one thing: we’re apparently supposed to never be angry at racism, especially when we are in anti-racist and/or feminist spaces.

Too many times, a woman of colour will not come forward in a feminist space when she feels racism because she anticipates that it means putting herself in a crossfire between other women of colour and white women in the space. Too many times, she will have no avenues available to her to speak about her experience and get real justice, through acknowledgement that she has experienced racism and dedication to finding solutions. Too many times, she will leave and never come back. Too many times, she will not be able to claim “feminist” as hers, because of all the hurt that word has caused. Too many times, a woman of colour will stay silent, sit on her anger, and let it boil inside until it burns her and only her.

She does this because she knows the danger of speaking. She has shown her anger before, and it has never been received with the seriousness it deserves. It’s been met with hostility, escalating hostility. It is tiring to speak, every day, all the time, against people she is supposed to be working in solidarity with. So, she makes a choice. “Which will hurt me the least? Speaking, or not speaking?” If she speaks, will she be listened? If she speaks, she will have to engage continually with people who are perpetuating racism. If she doesn’t speak, she has the lovely option of it digging itself into her insides and festering, but at least this way no one will cry at her like a sad puppy and call her violent.

Too many times, she will choose not to say anything, because she is taught her anger is illegitimate. “If everyone else finds a problem with it, maybe what I’m saying is wrong?” Too many times, she will choose not to say anything, because it is exhausting to know that other people think her anger is illegitimate. 

Why are women of colour not allowed ownership of our feelings, our emotions, and our anger? Why can’t we be angry when someone says or does something racist in a feminist or anti-racist space? Why must it turn into how our anger is negatively affecting the emotions of everyone else? “You’re bringing the atmosphere down” or, my personal favourite, “you’re bringing a lot of negativity into this space and it’s not constructive.”

When do women of colour get to be angry? When do we get to say that racism and sexism is being perpetrated against us in a space, and not have to do it in “calm” and “rational” manner before our supposed white “allies” listen to us, and take us seriously, without getting defensive? Why do we have little right to our emotions? Racism and sexism make me furious. Must I tilt my head to the side and say, “oh, how quaint that you think that” when someone says, “oh, yeah, I know your people have a real problem with violence against women”?

I don’t have any solid answers for those questions. (Except the last one. I have a definite answer for that. Hint: it’s “no.”) I think that there need to be more WOC-headed and WOC-centric spaces, online and offline, where we can show as much goddamn anger as we want without having to justify our emotions. I like those. Those are good. They need to multiply and be angry. Often, if we don’t release that anger, and use the releasing of our anger as a means of healing ourselves, we burn out real fast.

Anyone reading who knows me offline (ahem, k), this post is, unhappily, not about today (yesterday?), but applies.

Last night, I debated writing about this on the blog, because I had previously decided not to comment on it. Would I just be repeating the cycle? Would I also be making an example out of her? I came to the conclusion that I needed to show that I am enraged, and sometimes we just need to rage. We need to fucking rage just to survive. This isn’t a pleasant or nicely worded entry, and don’t make it about you if it’s not about you.

I don’t want to open up any dialogue right now. I don’t want to teach you. I don’t want to explain to you how women of colour are shoved in all directions when it comes to violence against women. I don’t want to teach anyone about sexism and racism in the media. I don’t want to tell you about my experiences so that you can satisfy your voyeuristic curiosity that we have been trained to have. I don’t want to make any woman, WOC or not, into a model victim. I don’t want to tell you why it’s wrong to expect that of any survivor. I don’t want to have to argue again and again why it is downright bullshit to try to take away agency from the survivor. I don’t want to explain that “the personal is political” doesn’t mean no one has a right to privacy.

I want to yell. I want to scream. I want to rage. I want to extend a hearty ‘fuck you’ to a lot of people.

I don’t give a fuck how your life has been fundamentally changed by seeing a sensationalized photograph of a domestic assault survivor.

I don’t give a fuck about her fame.

I don’t give a fuck that you want to see it too.

I don’t give a fuck that you think she has no right to privacy because she’s a celebrity.

I don’t give a fuck how lucky you now feel to have never experienced intimate partner violence just because you’ve seen it.

I don’t give a fuck that you can see the ‘upside’ of this because it’s “raising awareness.”

I don’t give a fuck about you making her into an example.

I don’t give a fuck about what you think she should and should not do about her life.

I don’t give a fuck about her abuser’s career.

I don’t give a FUCK if you think she deserved to be abused, or to have her photos spread around like a fucking Christmas card.

Fuck the people who have turned this into entertainment.

Fuck the people who have turned this into an after-school special on VAW.

Fuck the people who published it on news sites and displayed it on television (I am looking at you Entertainment Canada).

Fuck the people who posted it on their blogs, their journals, their Facebooks, MySpaces, and other social networking sites so that EVERYONE else can see it.

I give a fuck about her dignity and I am yelling about it. I give a fuck about her choices that only SHE has a right to. I give a fuck about her life. I give a fuck about her rights. I give a fuck about her privacy. I give a fuck about her, so why don’t you?

This is really, really troubling. You can find a copy of the assignment at the link.

The assignment for the Grade 4 students at École Mont-Carmel in Ste-Marie-de-Kent was based on the notion that the planet was about to explode.

The students had three spaces in a rocket ship and they had to decide whom to save among an Acadian francophone, a Chinese person, a black African, an English person and an aboriginal person. The assignment also included images representing each of the different ethnic groups that they could choose to save.

Because WordPress ate my entire analysis, let me just reiterate the fuckedupness of this assignment. These children are being graded on who deserves to live. Maybe my French is rusty, but I’m quite certain the only details they are given is ethnicity/race, and language. Those are the only factors in deciding who gets to live. What’s that? Run that by you again? They have to pass judgment on who is worthy to live based on their ethnicity and language.

Who on Earth thought that this was an appropriate school assignment for 10-11 year olds (hell, anyone!)? At first, I thought, “Perhaps it’s a trick question and the kids are supposed to say ‘OH HELL NO’ and not do the assignment” and then I laughed uncomfortably. Fourth graders, as much as I would like to give them props, are most likely not able to verbalize their thoughts on racism for an assignment.  

I imagine myself in the fourth grade, and even though I was the most brilliant person in the world then (haw haw), I would never have been able to articulate why or why not this assignment made me feel hurt. In fact, I probably would have selected the English and the Acadian francophone because I was being taught in school that those were “real” Canadians.

Exactly what was the purpose of this homework? What was it trying to teach? What was it trying to achieve? What was the children supposed to get out of it, other than to teach them that everyone is different, and that some people are worth more than others? It was government approved, too. Is this what the school board thought was integrating anti-racism into the school curriculum meant?

Bernice Ryan, the school’s principal, said she has listened to Lomax’s concerns, but feels the exercise is a good one, as it is intended to show the students how to be respectful to all groups.

“Children would say, ‘Well, we don’t want to make any decision so we kept everyone here on the planet.’ Or some of the students would say, ‘Well, we’ve chosen to keep the three main ethnical groups in our community, which is English, French and Amerindian, because of being able to communicate,’” she said.

Face, meet palm. You’ll get to know each other very well.

The 1st Women of Colour Carnival is up at Tell It WOC Speak.

This type of blogging carnival is so important in the face of women of colour who are constantly being silenced and demanded to justify their existence both on the Internet and off. I hope that I can contribute to future carnivals, and I encourage any women of colour reading to contribute as well! 

Take a read. It’s wonderful. Thank you, Renee, for organizing it.

I’ve written several pieces about the disproportionate murder and missing cases of Native women in Canada, and each time, I find myself staring at a blank page for at least an hour, or erasing what I’ve written, rewording, and starting over. How do I start this post? How do I write it effectively, and not do injustice? I could easily not write about the hundreds of missing or murdered Native women, because I am non-Native and a Canadian citizen. I am, in short, on the privileged end of the colonial project, even if I am otherwise oppressed.

This is a part of the problem. Here’s a clip from the film, Stolen Sisters. 

Aboriginal women are constantly going missing, being murdered, and the rest of Canada sleeps soundly while mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces, friends, are facing incredible amounts of violence disproportionate to non-Native women. The responsibility, then, falls upon Native communities to solve all the problems of Canadian colonialism, while I and the next non-Native sleeps. There are hundreds of unresolved missing and murder cases of Native women in Canada alone. They are mostly forgotten by larger Canadian society, erased, and invisible to mainstream eyes because Indigenous women are racialized as disposable.

Imagine that. An entire community is seen as disposable. 

This has to do with many things, not limited to racism. Colonialism, sexism, racism, classism, and all sorts of interlocking oppressions are at work. As most of us know, the media plays an important role in influencing people’s opinions and attitudes towards each other and society. Most of the missing indigenous women are characterized in the media as drug addicts, alcoholics, and sex workers. While it is true that the genocide of Aboriginal cultures and people has led to disproportionate amounts of violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse, this is not all that these women are. Interestingly (in that ‘oh gawd’ way), as soon as it is revealed that a woman is a sex worker, she apparently no longer has any legitimacy as a human. 

Let’s use a high-profile case as an example.

Open up your favourite search engine. Search for “Robert Pickton.” Open a few of the pages you find, though be warned they are probably going to have some horrific descriptions. Robert Pickton is/was a serial killer in British Columbia who kidnapped and murdered women he thought were disposable. They were almost all sex workers, and they were predominantly Native. Hit CTRL + F (or your Find equivalent) on these pages and look for “indigenous”, “Aboriginal”, or “Native.” How often will you find these words? Next try “sex worker”, “drug”, and even “prostitute.”

I don’t know what you’ll find, but I can make an unimaginative guess. You will find little mention that any of these women are Native. These women, then, are in no way connected to the epidemic of vanishing Indigenous women? All I can ever ask is, why? Why are the lives of Indigenous women seen as less valuable? Particularly Indigenous women? The police and government are generally apathetic about solving and pursuing these cases. Why? Why must these cases stack up?

Tomorrow, like every February 14, No More Silence is organizing cross-country rallies and marches to honour missing and murdered Native women, to bring awareness that this is a major problem, to seek justice for Native women and their communities, and to let Native women know that they are loved and valued.

They spit in our faces, both figuratively and literally, when we challenge their undeserved comfort on our backs, and all we can do is pick up. Even when they say they are allies, all we can do is pick up and fight it and survive.

Keep fighting. Don’t give up today, tomorrow, or the next day. You are not alone.