What do they learn (in school today)

June 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment

What do they learn (in school today)

a hawker deliberate
she open-mouthed at the youths of today
unmasked undistanced
outside their local high

What do they learn
in school today
assembling now
up close and personal in our Covid-19 era

do teachers not teach about these new times
about this invisible enemy
along with the other
linking all pandemics in critical thought and analysis

(do they just stick
to the usual to the syllabus to what is dictated
not wanting to stir)

What do they learn
in school today
it being just a day
before June 16
a Public Holiday

are there doctors here
epidemiologists too
gathered boisterously
it being just a day before a Public Holiday

Remembering June 16 1976
of struggles past and present

South Africa’s Youth Day, June 16 2020

 

(Photo Credit: Simon Fraser University)

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When Barbados says BLACK LIVES MATTER we must mean ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER.

June 15, 2020 by 5 Comments

We all know some things are too important to remain unsaid. And today what needs to be said centers around systemic Racism and anti-blackness and the way it manifests, not just in America but in Barbados too. 

Despite being a majority black country the claws of discipline and population control from the colonial era are still clenched tight around the necks of our civil society. How could they not be? The system of oppression that built America’s destructive racial tensions between the white and black community has a foundation in the Slave Code created here  to control the enslaved people in Barbados. 

Because of this horrific historic connection we cannot distance ourselves as if Racism is just an issue “das happen to dem ovuh dey”. The people gathered here know now is the time for us to pull the weeds out of our own back garden. It is the time when we must confront the atrocities of past AND present to build a better future. Now is the time when we must pry the stone cold fingers from around our own necks and the truth is, we know these fingers well: 

The myths of “Bajans real passive yuh” which results in us not only criticizing and stopping each other but our own imagination. We must remember that the docility of Bajans was directly orchestrated by European & British racial tropes. Do you understand the power that system still has over us if 300 years later this myth can still strip away our audacity? Our ability to imagine and ask for a new reality because “das just how iz always been”? Just because something has always BEEN does not mean that is how it should always BE.

Because police brutality is not a foreign issue. It happens here. Our anger and cries carry the names of victims in the US but also those who lost their dignity and life to the Police Force in Barbados. Names I do not know beyond I’Akobi who passed on June 17th 2008. I only know his name because of the hard work and dedication the Rastafarian community did to keep him remembered. We cannot leave each other out like that.  We cannot think “dat is a dem issue”. Today we marched for him and for the untold stories we know but cannot name.  A friend of mine I went to school with was brutalized for skateboarding at 16 in a bus terminal. 

They were black. But you already knew that because police brutality here does not regularly affect those who look like me. How many times have we seen young black people severely punished by our judicial system for a 5 bag, but crimes by the white elite go by with a slapped wrist and no due justice? And it is the responsibility of those who look like me to speak out against this double standard and the injustices our society accepts. Remember that silence is violence. 

Because racial segregation is not a foreign issue. The active removal of the white community from black Barbados is the worst kept secret here. We learn quickly who goes to what school. Who holds the majority of wealth in this country and if they do not want a statue to go down – it won’t. Even if the majority has said it is painful to look at. 

And it is the responsibility of the white Barbadian community to reject the exclusivity and combat the explicit bias and implicit violence at their family dinner parties, in their social circles at the Yatch Club, in Blue Box Cart, and in their company infrastructures too. 

As we marched today we took steps of resilience because to protest in Barbados means permission and request. The Public Order Act asks us if our pain is enough. Keeps us jumping through hoops to accommodate impossible stipulations for approval and if we dare deviate we can be shut down in seconds. It was created to stop black power protests in Barbados to appease the political and economical elite in 1937 because we WERE not passive then and we ARE not passive now. 

Today we are here for George Floyd, yes, and for Breonna Taylor and for all those who we have lost to an unjust system that does not value black lives over white profit. We march for them. We march for us. 

We march against the covert and overt racism Barbadians face. Against the police brutality we know. Against the anti-blackness in schools and businesses where, in 2020, how black hair naturally grows from the scalp, whether dreadlocked or bantu knots or twist outs can result in the denial of job opportunities.  

Against hotels and the business sector that prioritize white tourists over local investment. 

We march against the fallacy that Bajans don’t support each other as if we didn’t have Landship and the Meeting Turn, as if that isn’t our legacy?! 

But the battle to undo these colonial atrocities has not been fought for a day. As the fight continues it must be carried by warriors from every community that call this island home.  No action is too big nor too small as we protect the rights and humanity of the most marginalized identities in our communities. 

So, in the absence of our leaders saying it, let me say unequivocally, when we say black lives matter, we mean the lives of black people with dreadlocks matter. We mean the lives of those black people with mental health conditions matter. We mean black women’s lives matter, black trans lives matter, black men’s lives matter, black children’s lives matter, black queer lives matter, black muslim lives matter, black sex workers lives matter, black neurodiverse lives matter, black poor lives matter, black disabled lives matter. 

When Barbados says BLACK LIVES MATTER we must mean ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER. From past to future. So, Barbados, Azman say lewwe we step heavy because WE AIN PASSIVE. 

And, in a unified voice, lewwe tell dat claw of colonialism clenched around our necks – tek yuh hands offuh me! 

  • Luci Hammans, “Spoken from the skin I’m in”
  • June 13th, 2020
  • Black Lives Matter March and Rally in Barbados 

 

(Photo Credit: Luci Hammans / Facebook)

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I have a question for those of you who continue to say “not all cops are bad”

June 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment

I have a question for those of you who continue to say “not all cops are bad” or to share the heartwarming photos of a black man supposedly buying lunch at Cracker Barrel for 2 white cops, or to remind us that the important thing is to be kind to everyone (because, after all, we want to feel GOOD, don’t we?):

When you learned about the horrific abuses of children by pedophile priests, how widespread it was, how the church tried to cover it up and would move pedophile priests from one parish to another, did you say “Hey, not all priests are bad?” Did you tell the victims how they should feel or how they should formulate their ‘message?’ Did you put an “I Support My Local Priests” sign on your front yard? Did you share touching photos of a little boy hugging a “good” priest? Did you balk at the idea of removing the statute of limitations for the abuse? Did you disbelieve the victims’ stories? Did you tell them that somehow it was their fault? Did you remind everyone to be kind to each other and that priests were hurting too? Did you say “Well, we ask so much of priests, you know, with having to solve the community’s social problems and that whole celibacy… thing?” Did you say “How do we know the kid didn’t come on to him first?” “All s/he had to do was comply and it wouldn’t have ended so badly?” Did you watch the movie Spotlight and think “Well, they didn’t really tell the priests’ side of the story?” Did you think it was OKAY for a diocese to cover up the abuses and move a priest from one parish to another, only to abuse more children? If you learned that someone you knew was abused did you tell them “Well, all kids matter, not just you” 

I’m guessing the answer to these questions is no. And, if the answer is no, then you best do the important work of asking yourself why you think or say these things about #BlackLiveMatter and the response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the countless others at the hands of the police. Do the work. Love and kindness aren’t spread through platitudes, they’re spread through DOING THE WORK.

 

(Photo Credit: Mainichi / AP / Matt York)

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So, You Want to Defund the Police? Start by Busting the Police Union

June 12, 2020 by 1 Comment

All around the world, people are waking up to the idea that the criminal justice system has been designed to brutalize and punish black and brown individuals—from videos of black men and women dying at the hands of police officers, to tear gas and other human right abuses being levied at protestors demanding solutions to police brutality—the system of police is not meant for the oppressed class. Defunding and demilitarizing them is only the first step for the realization of abolition; but how do we begin to understand the power behind the police? 

Short answer, it’s their union.

Long answer, it’s the power that the police unions over the years have been able to amass, even at the backing of major labor organizations (most disappointingly, being on part of the labor council by the AFL-CIO). The influence that they wield when making policy recommendations and funding politicians really should not be ignored. If we are looking toward defunding as the first steps in the goal of abolition, then the potential backlash from cop unions and their supporters should be researched, analyzed and dismantled before they can halt the movement towards defunding.

Already, we are seeing leaders of cop unions attempting to tamper down criticism by creating even more scandal for themselves and revealing the racism that is so deeply ingrained in the system of policing and the criminal justice system. The head of a Baltimore police union called Black Lives Matter protesters a “lynch mob”. In Philadelphia, another referred to demonstrators as “a pack of rabid animals”. A democratically elected black prosecutor in St. Louis is a “menace to society” who must be removed- “by force” if necessary, because she was in favor of police reform. And yet another union president, in NYC (where police have been absolute murderous with protesters), begged to not be treated, “like animals”. They’re attempting to put a stop to any reforms—no matter how small and miniscule—and they’re powerful enough to stop them. One single police union has spent more than $1 million on state and local races in 2014.

Police unions are the strongest and most powerful unions in the country. Their ability to negotiate contracts that give them almost full immunity when their members harm and kill someone is abhorrent, “Typically, such contracts are chock full of special protections that are negotiated behind closed doors. Employment contract provisions also insulate police from any meaningful accountability for their actions and rig any processes hearings in their favor; fired cops are able to appeal and win their jobs back, even after the most egregious offenses. When Daniel Pantaleo, an NYPD officer who was involved in the 2014 murder of Eric Garner, was finally fired, the police union immediately appealed for his reinstatement and threatened a work slowdown.” 

It is time for all labor organizations, no matter how small, to not only condemn the violence of the police force but actively work to dismantle an institution that’s history is stained with the blood of the working class and immigrants. As noted in Kim Kelly’s impassioned article, “No More Cop Unions”, the history of police violence has been against workers during strikes or at protests, “Despite their union membership, police have also been no friend to workers, especially during strikes or protests. Their purpose is to protect property, not people, and labor history is littered with accounts of police moonlighting as strikebreakers or charging in to harass or injure striking workers. The first recorded strike fatalities in U.S. history came at the hands of police, who shot two New York tailors dead as they tried to disperse. During the Battle of Blair Mountain, the police fought striking coal miners on the bosses’ behalf. In 1937, during the Little Steel Strike, Chicago police gunned down 10 striking steelworkers in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre. In 1968, days after Dr. Martin Luther King addressed a group of sanitation workers, Memphis cops maced and assaulted the striking workers and their supporters, killing a 16-year-old boy.” The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumpka, a former president of United Mineworkers of America harshly criticized the police for engaging in violence against striking minors. 

The AFL-CIO is now facing calls to disaffiliate from its association with the International Union of Police Associates (representing over 100,000 law enforcement employees as well as emergency personnel) from 21 council members from the Writers Guild of America East, citing the policies and the actions of the police union as being consistent with, “authoritarianism, totalitarianism, terrorism and other forces that suppress individual liberties and freedoms.” The AFL-CIO has already disaffiliated from other unions in the past, including the Teamsters, SEIU, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The federation has already disaffiliated some powerful unions, so it has the potential to kick out an organization that has no business calling itself a union. 

This is but one step in demanding the end of police violence and terror; this is but one piece of an interlocking system that needs to be collapsed, but it will be a preemptive strike in the already powerful attempt to squash legitimate demands to doing away with police.

If you are a union member, or someone interested in demanding the end of AFL-CIO’s association with the International Union of Police Associations, please sign this petition from No Cop Unions. Please also encourage your union local to condemn the violence against protesters or issue a statement in support of Blacks Lives. Solidarity means solidarity with the workers and all oppressed members of society, not solidarity with the muscle of the state and the capitalists. 

Workers of the World Unite! We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Chains!

 

(Photo 1 Credit: ABC News) (Photo 2 Credit: The Guardian / Star Tribune)

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Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racism Works

June 10, 2020 by 5 Comments

“Thank you to the Anderson, De Dios, and Sandoval-Moshenberg families. I appreciate this opportunity to speak my truth 

Before I begin I would like to have a moment of silence to acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Manahoac, Nacotchtank, Piscataway First Nations tribes on which we are standing, working, and learning in today.

For those who don’t know me, I am Jocelyn McCullough

I am a proud and unapologetically Black girl in America 

I am a scholar 

I am a student leader at Justice High School 

I am the great grand-daughter of a Tuskegee airman

I am the granddaughter of Black Panthers who were at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963- 57 years ago

I am also the great cousin of Emmet Till who like George Floyd was murdered because he was a Black Male

I am an anti-racist  

And I am here to tell you that WE ARE DONE DYING 

WE ARE DONE DYING At the hands of the police

WE ARE DONE DYING On Video

WE ARE DONE DYING Without accountability

          I am here for 
                Breonna Taylor
                Antwon Rose 
                Alton Sterling 
                Trayvon Martin
                Laquan Mcdonald
                Sandra Bland

and countless others who have been killed at the hands of police
whose names will never make it on the news

I am here today because my father’s, mother’s and little brother’s life matters as much as any white person’s life 

I am here today because every Brown and Black man, woman and child deserves equal protection under the law of THESE United States of America

I am here 57 years later, just 10 miles from where my grandparents marched alongside freedom fighters still asking this same question

When will America stop tolerating injustice, police brutality, economic oppression, and racism?

That is who I am and why I am here.  

I know you are here because you want to be the generation that fixes the problem as opposed to passing it on to your children and grandchildren.  

As I continue to speak and while the sun still shines every day ask yourself why you are here and what are you willing to do?

As Sweet Honey in the Rock sang (in Ella’s Song):  

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Until the killing of black men, Black mothers’ sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers’ sons

We believe  Black lives matter everywhere whether it be in your child’s classroom or on their little league soccer team. 

Black lives matter every day and everywhere.

Black lives matter When 
people of privilege pull their kids out of their local public school to go to one with less people of color

Black lives matter  When 
parents know their children’s curriculum is sugar-coating history but don’t care enough to use their white privilege to say anything about it. 

Black lives matter when 
the same prison system that was used to keep Black people in chains is now profiting off of detaining immigrants.

Black lives matter when 
their white children don’t have more than a few Black or Latino students in their AAP,  AP or IB classes. 

Black lives matter
When Black children are expected to close the achievement gap as if something is wrong with THEM and not the racist and classist education system.

Black lives matter when
You are proud of living in a diverse community but not in any way are supporting people of color in your community.  

Black lives matter when
creating schools and highways named after people who wanted to keep Black people in chains. 

Once it is understood that Black lives Matter 

The recent immigrant family will be able to get their child into IB/ AP classes 

Once it is understood that Black lives Matter 

The transgender or biracial child will not have to deal with 100 microaggressions a day. 

Once it is understood that Black lives Matter 

The Asian child who has been trying to explain the horrors of police brutality to their family will be heard.  

Once Black lives matter and are respected there will be no more George Floyds.

As Malcolm X said: You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

           Change is Needed Now

For me to go to a school that was named after a confederate and many of my friends of color not knowing why that’s offensive is a clear example of why change is needed now

This is an example of one of the many dangers of our history being taught from a white supremacist perspective. 

 For me to go to a school where many immigrant children aren’t able to play varsity sports because they can’t afford to be on expensive club teams is why change is needed now 

For me to go to a school where white children are coddled when they express racism while students of color are silenced is why change is needed now

Or that Black students make up less than 2% of the student body at the illustrious Thomas Jefferson high school

This is an example of one of the many dangers of our history being taught from a white supremacist perspective. 

Shows me we have some real work to do right here in Fairfax County

. 
We must educate ourselves and our community
We must demand justice
We must Disrupt Racism

You all need to vote for all the Black people who have been wrongfully incarcerated. 

 
You need to vote for people like me who are too young to vote but are being mentally and physically impacted by Racism every day. 

Together we can capitalize on this moment
The world is watching us,  America,
watching us and waiting for us to decide
What are we going to do next? Are we going to continue to accept the status quo or dismantle our racist systems? 

Who are we?
What are we willing to sacrifice for justice?
Which side of this revolution will you be on?

Will YOUR grandchildren be here still chanting and singing “We shall overcome” 60 years from now!

It gives me hope that there are a lot of people here today! And I want all of you to join me in song
While we sing honor the native land you stand on.  
While we sing think about what conversation you want to have at the dinner table tomorrow as well as what book you will read next. 

Thank you for everyone for valuing and hearing my voice today! 
WE will now sing This Little Light of Mine 
Please join us in song and DON’T be afraid to get into it and clap your hands

Thank you!”

 

(Photo Credit: Facebook / Mary De Dios)

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Still many rivers to cross

June 9, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Still many rivers to cross 
(with apologies to Jimmy Cliff)


Still many rivers to cross
for those whose language
includes words and phrases
the world has heard before

Riots and Rioters
Vandals and Vandalism
Terrorists and Terrorism
(Destruction of Property)

Did we here smile
a smile of Deja Vu
at images of that statue taking a river-dive
(where else were there)

not just a statue 
but a symbol of it all
just as those uniforms are
the planet over

Still many rivers to cross
will we find our way over


Television scenes of that piece of stone taking a dive, brought the 1969 Jimmy Cliff song to mind.

 

(Photo Credit 1: Daily Mail) (Photo Credit 2: INews / PA)

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Self-care is not synonymous with selfishness, but is necessary for survival.

June 7, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Since we’ve been back at school, I’ve managed to wake up before the alarm every single day. Yesterday I woke up with a fluttering heart just after 5, and after 6 today. Not cool for a weekend. Especially not when you have to be at your full senses, on high alert for the coming week. Being positive, encouraging the kids, telling them how brave and wonderful they are, because they are, staying in touch with the kids who are still home, teaching in the real and virtual world, trying to teach, be expressive and animated with a mask on, watching which board marker you pick up, using the same pen for everything, not being able to walk to a desk, hand on child’s shoulder and explain. Coming home, absolutely famished because you only drink the coffee which the hubby packs, because you had a sandwich at school once since being back, but you didn’t know which side plate to use and it was embarrassing having to raise and lower the mask everytime someone came into the staffroom and you imagine the virus lurking in every surface which you know has been sanitized.

Watching these amazing teenagers listen intently, take in every single word we say, fear for their future, ask if they will have to repeat the grade, be afraid to even speak to each other. I miss their quick retorts, funny quips, and especially their random, offbeat questions and comments. We used to ‘get’ each other. Now we’re just afraid of getting the virus from each other.

Watching your friends and colleagues struggle with their own fears, speaking to parents’ concerns about their child at school, their child at home, their child with a co-morbiditiy, their child without a co-morbiditiy, but with vulnerable family members. The parents’ huge and understandable irritation and then their ensuing vitriolic expression when Ministers and MECs don’t say the same thing. Being at the receiving end of that expression, but using diplomacy and exercising patience when you yourself are ANGRY! Watching our principal try and do the right thing by everybody, carrying what seems too much on those slight shoulders. Being available to parents at odd hours because questions, fear, anger and confusion knows no school hours.

Since Lockdown started, we’ve repeatedly told the kids and their parents ‘We’re in this together and we’ll get through it together’…. Now I’m not so sure. What will we come out as? Resilient, tenacious and ALIVE, or defeated, overwhelmed…

I remind myself, as I remind any other teacher and parent reading this, we can only take it one day at a time, and most importantly, this is the time to have and exercise an active and living faith.

Wishing you a blessed Sunday. Do what makes you happy. Be kind to and gentle with yourself. Self-care is not synonymous with selfishness, but is necessary for survival.

(Photo Credit: Phando Jikelo / African News Agency / Cape Times)

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Episode XV: Answer to Langston Hughes

June 6, 2020 by Leave a Comment

BOOM!

 

 

 

 

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We didn’t get to finish

June 4, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Tembinkosi Qondela

We didn’t get to finish

We didn’t get to finish
a social media dialogue
in between the music
I sent TQ to keep
our spirits up

We didn’t get to finish
he asking leading questions
in response to my saying
that I miss the schoolchildren

What will you do he asks
when most are infected 
the school has to close 
and you can’t even 
visit them at the hospital 

Children whose nutrition 
and immune system 
is compromised are also 
vulnerable and then they 
bring it home to those 
who are more vulnerable

Whizz Centre suspended classes 
for 60 of their learners 
who were a major source 
of the Centre’s income
putting people’s health first

This is the TQ we knew
health before profit
health before economy 
not economy before health
he maintained you cannot sacrifice 
people’s health for the economy

Then he asks me
what is this economy 
we are talking about  
are we talking about 
food or gold

We didn’t get to finish

 

(Photo Credit: Facebook / Tembinkosi Qondela)

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We cannot wait to win over hearts and minds, we have been trying to do that for centuries

June 2, 2020 by 1 Comment

I have been struggling to find words and honestly still can’t. The week has been draining both physically and emotionally on top of trying to figure out how to live in a pandemic. What I haven’t been able to shake from my head is what I‘ve heard over and over again from friends and complete strangers: “It just broke me.” 

What we’re seeing nationwide is just that, a breaking point. In communities across the country this is the culmination (again) of having one’s humanity repeatedly denied for simply existing and no accountability for those responsible for repeated violations of our dignity and rights as a human being. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others whose names we know and those we don’t, should be alive today. It is our collective responsibility to ensure they receive justice. 

Numerous reports and images of individuals infiltrating these peaceful protests with the sole purpose of causing destruction and mayhem is sadly nothing new. The same restraint showed to those who stormed state capitols with military grade weapons should be given to those protesting unjust violence and systemic racism that has been embedded into our policies, institutions and society. 

We cannot wait to win over hearts and minds, we have been trying to do that for centuries. Our policies must change NOW if we are to move forward. We have to create a new normal.

(Photo Credit: MSP Magazine)

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