Tag: justice

Justice for _ _ _ _ _

Posted on by Sherlyn Assam

When these deaths are followed by hashtags instead of convictions, I often wonder when the murderers will tire of being fuelled by hate. When our peers and our friends and our families and their cops and their government will shout loud enough to be heard over 400 years of white noise.

I should not know George Floyd’s name. I should not know Breonna Taylor’s. I should not know Ahmaud Arbery’s. I should not know Sandra Bland’s. I should not know Philando Castille’s. I should not know Eric Garner’s. I should not know Michael Brown’s. I should not know Trayvon Martin’s. The list goes on.

When black people pass each other in the halls, on the street, in cars, we often exchange a nod or a small smile. Even if we do not know each other by name, we know each other by collective experience. We are nodding to this, greeting one of our own in a place we have not been welcomed, and smiling because we are still out here, against the odds.

The odds were not in George Floyd’s favour – or any of my fallen brothers and sisters, whether I know their names or not. There should not be a hashtag, should not be injustice, should not be murder, should not be a combination of hatred and power.

And yet, there is. And where racism is, corpses follow.

While I wade in the sorrow of knowing George Floyd is not the first and will not be the last, I am still kicking to stay afloat. We will not be crushed by the pressure of institutions made to obliterate us. In fact, we will break the knee of the system, of the perpetrators.

I should not know George Floyd’s name, but now that I do, I will not forget it. I refuse for him to be swept aside as they count on our routines to distract us from the atrocity. Their error is failing to realize we are living in this atrocity.

Showing up on social media, the streets, in offices, and the courts is not an event we RSVP to. We are living it. We can breathe. And with every last breath, we will fight.

Justice for George Floyd. Justice for us.

If you’re moved to support necessary change, consider the following:

Additional content on related issues we’ve found illuminating include:

Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Jericho Brown interviewed on CBC Radio’s Writers & Company

My Black ancestors fled America for freedom. I left Canada to find a home. An essay by Dr. Debra Thompson in The Globe and Mail

Sherlyn Assam is Informed Opinions’ Media Engagement Coordinator and a graduate student in the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program at Carleton University. 

5 Resolutions to maintain 2017’s momentum

Posted on by Shari Graydon

If 2017 goes down in history as a year of resolve, what will we say about 2018? That we built on the momentum to make lasting change, or that we let the energy dissipate into nothingness?

From women’s marches around the world to the #MeToo movement, many people took not just to social media, but to the streets, speaking up against hate, inequality and violence.

Women, in particular, shared their realities in ways and in numbers that got global attention and sent shock waves through a host of industries, from Hollywood and high tech to policing and restaurants.

But genuine revolution requires persistence: we need to continue challenging unconscious biases, dismantling entrenched systems, and redistributing power. We need to translate last year’s manifestations of resolve into actual resolutions – and then act on them. And we need leaders who are willing to take a stand and publicly spearhead this revolution.

Is that you? Someone you work with — or for?

Here are 5 suggestions for how to keep amplifying women’s voices for change in 2018:

  1. Publicly announce your commitment to support gender equality in the media and donate $1,000 for a tax receipt in support of “What Gets Measured Gets Done”, the high tech dashboard we’re building to track women’s voices in the media;
  2. Ask women in your workplace what’s needed to overcome the barriers to their advancement, and then commit to implementing meaningful measures that will benefit them and your bottom line;
  3. Nominate qualified women from your organization or network who are able to speak to media for inclusion in ExpertWomen, our online database designed to make it easier for journalists and conference programmers to feature smart women;
  4. Talk to us to explore how we might partner with you to amplify women’s voices in Canada and raise awareness at corporate events;
  5. Book a Finding Your Voice, or Building Allies for Change keynote or workshop combining research insights and concrete take-aways with storytelling and humour to engage and motivate your colleagues.