Evelyn C. White reviews Ted Rudland’s excellent “Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power, and Race in Twentieth-Century Halifax”, and the pros and cons of a CFL stadium in Halifax. “$170-$190 million to lure a CFL team to Halissippi? Ya’ll might wanna draw up another game plan.”
It may not look that way, but poor Nova Scotia is just so very very racist.
Stacey Dlamini, mother of the young Black man shot with a high-velocity nail gun, writes about racism and complicity, “I wonder how the story might have turned out had someone on Nhlanhla’s crew said to the person who shot him, “Hey, why don’t you leave the kid alone?” What if they’d come up to Nhlanhla and said, “You know man, you don’t have to accept this kind of treatment. Let’s do something about it together.” What if someone had shown him some compassion or solidarity? Or even in the aftermath, some empathy? This experience would feel different for us.”
Earlier this week we reported on the Halifax rally in support of Nhlanhla Dlamini, the young Black man shot with a high velocity nail gun by a co-worker. Here is a transcription of an excellent speech delivered by Angie Bowden at that rally, wherein she addresses the impact of such racist acts on the entire Black community in Nova Scotia, and especially also on its youths.
About 80 people rallied this afternoon at the the Maritime Centre, home of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education. They were there to protest anti-Black racism in workplaces anywhere, and especially to support Nhlanhla Dlamini, the young Black man shot with a high velocity nail gun by a co-worker employed with PQ Properties Limited of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia on September 18. The man who shot Dlamini should be charged with attempted murder and hate crimes, rally organizers say.
Raymond Sheppard, representing African Nova Scotian City workers, and members of Equity Watch held a joint press conference to argue that in terms of bullying and racism there is no political will among senior management to truly address the issues, and that it is time for an independent third party, like the City’s Auditor General, to hold an inquiry.
Poet and writer Joanne Bealy went to the Kent Monkman talk at the Central Library, and learned some hard lessons about white privilege and complicity, not just from Monkman but especially from two Black women.
News release: Hate Crimes against Persons of African Descent are escalating in Canada and indeed Nova Scotia while authorities are failing to take a strong public stand against these intolerant actions…Hate Crimes against young African Canadian youth are especially heinous. Case in point, the September 19, 2018, alleged racial bullying, racist taunts and slights that culminated in Nhlanhla Dlamini being shot with a high velocity nail gun by a co-worker employed with PQ Properties Limited of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
Ricky RIchard reflects on the tremendous debt he and fellow Acadians owe to the Mi’kmaq for shielding them when they were chased and deported by the British. “I am alive today because of the Mi’kmaq. I want to thank them. I owe them my life and that is a debt I cannot possibly repay. … My life is theirs, but I am ashamed of the way we have treated the Mi’kmaq. We have dispossessed them of their land, their livelihood, their ways, their dignity. History teaches us that too many injustices have been brought to bear on such a generous and welcoming people,” writes Richard in this remarkable open letter.
The story of Nhlanhla Dlamini, the 21-year old Black worker from Pictou County who tells of being bullied at work and shot at with nail gun, has been widely reported. People in Halifax are trying to get some kind of action off the ground in support of Dlamini.