The N-word is NOT JUST ANOTHER WORD. It is our history of segregation and slavery embodied. It is my grandmother not being able to eat at the table with everyone else, it’s the family friend being stopped by the police four times as he was walking home. An Amherst resident on the George Baker saga and what it tells us about racism in Nova Scotia.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for increased classroom education on treaties, residential schools and past and present indigenous contributions. We take a look at the Nova Scotia response.
“Sobeys regrets that this matter has taken so long to come to a conclusion.” That’s the best Sobeys can come up with in terms of apology in a recent racial profiling case. By skillfully exploiting flaws in Human Rights legislation Sobeys almost got away with racism. Good thing Ms. Andrella David and the residents of Upper Hammonds Plains had other ideas.
Andrella David, a victim of shopping while black at the Sobeys store in Tantallon, continues to wait for an apology by the large grocery chain. “This was never about the money for me; it has always been about the dignity and respect that I deserve,” she writes in a recent statement.
Not getting the apology for racial profiling they are looking for, the African United Baptist Association is calling for a boycott of Sobeys stores in their communities. And the boycott may well soon spread to the Atlantic provinces.
NSGEU president Jason MacLean calls upon councillor George Baker to abort his run for mayor, and discusses racism and privilege in his speech at the Rally for Diversity in Amherst.
There will be a large rally for diversity in the Town of Amherst tomorrow. George Baker, the racist councillor who used the ‘n’-word will not be the focus of the rally, but his behaviour definitely was a wake-up call.
A sitting Amherst councilor and mayoral candidate used the ‘N’-word, but it was purely accidental, he explains. He has no plans to suspend his campaign, let alone resign.
This weekend’s video is a documentary / docudrama about Donald Marshall Jr, the Mi’kmaq youth convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. The most impressive part is how Donald Marshall Jr, one year before his death, talks about his 12 years in prison hell, his powerlessness during the criminal case, his anger at Nova Scotia’s racist police and judicial system.
HRM’s Municipal Operations unit is a bad place to work, especially if you’re Black, queer or a woman, says an independent consultant who reviewed the workplace for diversity and inclusion. African Nova Scotians experience harassment and racism, homophobia is a problem, and only 4 percent of the full time workforce are women. Ongoing cutbacks are part of the problem.