Anti-Racism Practices and PAR

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Anti-Racism Practices and PAR

• Prepared for Dr. Tim Pyrch
• Prepared by Sunny Shuang

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Definition of Race (Barker, 1999)

• The major subdivision of human species whose
  distinguishing characteristics are generally
  transmitted.
• Many characteristics by which people seek to
  distinguish racial groups are not generally
  transmitted but culturally learned.

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Jewish Journalist Executed Daniel Pearl, the
Jewish Washington Post journalist kidnapped
three weeks ago in Pakistan, has been declared
dead after a video depicting his killing was
handed over by someone knowing his Islamic
extremist kidnappers. Believers in Islam, in
Pakistan, and worldwide, have condemned the
execution by kidnappers who claimed to be
nationalists but made a mockery of the Islamic
faith which believes in non-violence. They
 falsely claimed that Pearl was a  CIA spy, then
changed this accusation to scapegoating him as a
spy for Israel. The Wiesenthal Institute is
demanding that his killers be returned to the US,
when they are found, for justice. Pearl and his
pregnant  wife, a Buddhist, were peace-loving
people who had fond words for the people of
Pakistan and the people of Islam. (Feb, 23/02,
AAR)
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Race Concept (Castagna Dei, 2000)

• Is important for its social and political
  consequences.
• To deny the race concept is to deny the lived
  historical realities of many peoples.
• Race is an ideological and political construct
  with both subjective reality and a material base.
  

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Together, we can make a difference...

• "Since wars and violence begin in the minds of
  men, women and children, it is in the minds of
  men, women and children that the defenses of
  peace and non-violence must be constructed.
  (Unknown, 2002)

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Racism what is it?

• Stereotyping and generalizing about people,
  usually negatively, because of their race
  commonly a basis of discrimination against
  members of racial groups. (Barker, 1999)

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What does Racism do?

• "Racism in its many forms is one of the chief
  barriers to individual fulfillment and happiness
  in our own society, and a major component in
  wars, persecutions, and ongoing slavery elsewhere
  in the world.
• I hope that people will finally come to realize
  that there is only one 'race'--the human
  race--and that we are all members of
  it."(Margaret Atwood)

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Racism a Power-Over Concept

• Racism goes beyond ideology, however, involving
  discriminatory practices that protect and
  maintain the position of certain groups and
  sustain the inferior position of others.

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Racisma Power-Over Concept a Superior Thinking

• "Like tribalism, fundamentalism, homophobia and
  all other shallow responses of one person to
  another, racism concentrates on 'what' you are,
  and ignores 'who' you are." (Timothy Findley )

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The Sharpeville Massacre

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March 21, 1960 A large crowd of Black South
Africans assembled in front of the Sharpeville
police station to protest the pass laws imposed
by apartheid. The pass laws were statutes
requiring all black men and women of South Africa
to carry a reference book with them when they
travelled outside of their homes.
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The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert
Sobukwe, together with Nelson Mandela's African
National Congress (ANC), organized the protest
for the nation's blacks to join together to
demonstrate peacefully against apartheid. Rarely
in South Africa before 1960 had so many black
people demonstrated their defiance of the laws in
any way. The police were highly apprehensive, not
knowing what to expect. Suddenly, tensions were
released the crowd pelted the policemen with
stones, and the edgy policemen retaliated with
gunfire.
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• In the end, sixty-nine protesters were killed
  and one hundred and eighty were wounded (some
  shot while trying to flee) in what came to be
  known as The Sharpeville Massacre

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The Canadian Concentration Camps Another
Power-Over

• After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the United
  States, the Canadian government passed the "Order
  in council PC 1486" expanding the power of the
  Minister of Justice to remove any and all persons
  from a designated protected zone (100 mile radius
  of the BC coast). This was part of the War
  Measures Act. On March 4, 1942, the BC Security
  Commission was established and 22,000 Japanese
  Canadians were given 24 hours to pack, before
  being incarcerated, interned, and separated from
  their families.

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Like the American assembly centers, which housed
internees at Santa Anita and other race tracks,
the Japanese Canadians were initially housed in a
temporary facility just as demeaning in Vancouver
called Hastings Park Race Track.
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Men were separated from their families and forced
to work on work crews building roads, railroads,
and sugar beet farms. The women and children and
older people were sent inland to internment camps
(desolate ghost towns and farms made into small
cities) in the interior of British Columbia at
Greenwood, Sandon, Kaslo, New Denver, Rosebery,
Slocan City, Bay Farm, Popoff, Lemon Creek, and
Tashme.
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• "Self-supporting" camps were established in
  Lillooet, Bridge River, Minto City, McGillivray
  Falls, and Christina Lake. 1,161 internees paid
  for their relocation and leasing of farms in
  these desolate areas that provided a less
  restrictive, less punitive environment. These
  Japanese Canadians were still considered "enemy
  aliens" by the government.
• About 945 men worked on road construction camps
  at Blue River, Revelstroke, Hope, Schreiber,
  Black Spur. Those men who complained of the
  separation from families (Nisei Mass Evacuation
  Group) as well as other "dissident men" who
  violated curfew hours were sent to the "prisoner
  of war" camps at Angler and Petawawa in Ontario
  (699 men). They were forced to wear shirts with
  round, red targets on their backs.

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• Similar to the the emasculation and
  impoverishment of the Jews before the roundup to
  the German concentration camps, the Japanese
  Canadians had property, businesses, cars, and
  boats confiscated and sold by the Canadian
  government before they were forced into labor
  camps. Without their property, assets, or jobs
  they were then charged inequitably for their
  internment. Harold Hirose, a veteran of the
  second world war, had five acres of Surry
  farmland (a neighboring area of Vancouver) which
  was confiscated and sold for 36. He received a
  check for 15 which included charges for the
  administrative costs in a transaction which he
  did not approve. He subsequently made several
  appeals to the government to recover the land but
  these failed. (see Justice in Our Time, The
  Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement, Roy Miki
  and Cassandra Kobayashi, 1991,Talonbooks, pp.81.)

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Unlike the Japanese Americans the Japanese
Canadians were not allowed to join the military
until after 1945. In spite of the incarceration,
the Japanese Canadians volunteered to serve in
the Canadian Armed Forces. In 1945 the Canadian
government extended the War Measures Act which
allowed the MacKenzie King government to execute
the "final solution" which forced these Japanese
Canadian citizens to repatriate to Japan (a
country most of the Japanese Canadians had never
been to before) or a forced a "dispersal" to
eastern or midwest Canada. Until 1949 it was
illegal for the Japanese Canadians to return to
Vancouver or western Canada, despite the end of
the war.
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For the Japanese Canadians there were no homes,
farms, and other property left behind before
internment. They were forced to start their lives
over, with no economic resources, in an estranged
and racially repressive environment of midwest
and eastern Canada. In 1988 redress for the
Japanese Canadians was passed and the Prime
Minister issued an apology for the miscarriage of
justice that led to internment and incarceration.
Yet the 21,000 of redress money hardly
compensates for the lost years of incarceration,
property confiscated, family separations and
disruptions, and the invisible psychological
scars and memories of racial injustices that
remain.
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Power

• The possession of resources that enables an
  individual to do something independently or to
  exercise influence and control over
  others.(Barker, 1999)

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One more news flashChief launches probe into
assault allegation

• Chief Christine Silverberg has launched an
  internal investigation into allegations by a
  Latin American man who says he was savagely
  beaten by undercover police officers.
• Juan Domingo Melendez, 37, alleges he was jumped
  by officers during a sting operation into
  Calgary's sex trade in a case of mistaken
  identity.

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Mistake??? I dont think so!!!

• the city's Latin American Community Association
  came out in support of Melendez's claim and said
  there have been more incidents where Calgary
  police officers have mistreated other Latin
  Americans.
• "What happened to Melendez is the last straw,"
  said a news release. "There are other Latinos who
  have had similar incidents like Melendez. But
  they are afraid to speak publicly."

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• In a statement obtained by the Herald, Melendez,
  an electrical engineering student at SAIT, said
  he was walking home from school at the time of
  the beating, which occurred in the 300-block of
  11th Street S.E.
• He said he was beaten by several members of the
  Calgary Police Service and the man who originally
  jumped him never identified himself as a police
  officer..

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• Dago Correa, from the Latin American Community
  Association, said the target of the sting
  operation was a native man.
• Correa questioned if Melendez's dark features led
  police to mistake the student for the target of
  the operation.
• In the statement, Melendez alleged he was thrown
  to the ground, handcuffed and kicked.He also said
  he was mocked by officers after he was taken to
  the police station.
• "Some cops passing by made fun of my bleeding
  face, saying I had fallen hard on the ground,"
  Melendez's statement reads

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• Melendez has been charged with assaulting a
  police officer and resisting arrest in connection
  with the incident.
• A formal complaint has not been launched. Don
  Wise, speaking on behalf of Melendez, said they
  were not going to launch the complaint,
  preferring to go public through the media to
  garner the attention of top police brass.
• (Calgary Herald, Sept. 13/01, By Kelly Harris)

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What now???

• If the power is over me and my people, who are
  marginalized in this world, then what should we
  do? How do we act that is not as immature as
  people who are power over us?

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Some wisdom thinking

• Power can be interpreted in a number of ways and
  to influence it to change power relationship
  we must understand the environment and the
  culture where that change is to occur. (Tim
  Pyrch, 1998)

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Change the Power Relationship

• PAR is about POWER..
• People Of Wisdom Equally Represent the POWER
• People of Wisdom should Participate in Action
  because
• Sum is stronger individuals, which
• Creates Larger Power
• With Each Other.

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FromPower Over to Power With

• Power with is power that is created out of equals
  working together. It is the kind of power that is
  typically (although not always) found in
  friendships, self-help groups or groups working
  for social change. (Denise Young (1999),
  Rehabilitation Reviews 10(10))

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So, Change Racism to Anti-Racism

• First Step Self Awareness
• Knowing where I am from and who I am after all
  everyone is unique, no one is better or worse
• Second Step - Promoting Cultural Understanding in
  the Classroom Community
• Fear of or intimated by people who are different
  from us is caused by the lack of proper
  understanding of diversity.

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Learn to Become an Ally

• "Becoming an ally" has also become an
  increasingly popular topic of conversation in
  many circles.
• Allies are people who work with members of a
  minority group toward the goal of ending
  oppression (or replacing power over with power
  with).

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Join the hands

• Listen to others stories
• Participate in actions that promote diversity and
  eliminate the discrimination
• Enjoy the differences and celebrate the diversity

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ListenTalk Conversation

• Pass on to the person who is next to you whenever
  you are
• Talk to people and understand what they are
  thinking, if necessary, challenge them with
  manner
• Dialogue.. ConversationFind an ally to build the
  power with
• Now see what the expert said??

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Becoming an Ally Anne Bishop (1994)

• Work toward your own liberation - learn, reflect
  and act against oppression,
• Listen, listen, listen...(If you find yourself
  waiting for your turn so you can convince the
  "other" of your "truth," you're not listening!),
• Remember that those who are oppressed see
  oppression more clearly than those who are
  oppressors,

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More strategies..from Bishop

• Try to avoid the trap of "knowing what is good
  for them," and
• Support unlearning oppression with members of
  your own group (to help them understand how they
  oppress).

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Do these points meet with ones expectation?

• Anti-Racism a Power-with concept
• To Walk the talk
• To take a strong stand to oppose undesired racial
  discrimination

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Education

• It all starts with the youth in school

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With peoples power join together, Power will
become from within, the individuals heart, when
time is right..
Final thought
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