The Director Studio’s Post

My first article for The National is out today and it made the front page! I wrote about the new hate crime bill and the unchecked rise of far right thinking. I also draw a little on my own experiences of racism which despite years of doing activism, isn’t something I normally do. Give it a read below! https://lnkd.in/e-igzb-Y

What is ICRC doing?

As a mother to two young children with visually different complexions, if I don't teach them about #racisminamerica, then then the 🌎 around us certainly will. As a woman of color raised in a family with also visually different skin tones, I learned firsthand how people discriminate based on the perception of race. I could not make sense of it as a child. While I was born in the states, I moved out at a young age, then returned. I was only 7 years old when I began to process how I was being treated in comparison to the paler people around me. It was especially hurtful to see such discrepancies in such close proximity, within my own family. Can you imagine sharing the same exact parents with a sibling and the world around you telling you that you belong to different racial categories each with their own bag of prejudices? This is the nonsense that is racism that fuels #colorism and a testament to the fallacies underlying the social construction of race. Teaching children about racism through the analogy of bad rules is perfect. It's not lost on us that a generation raised through the approach of #colorblindness so often still refuses to acknowledge #systemicracism. In empowering children to recognize bad rules, we're training their abilities to recognize #injustice. We cannot solve a problem if no problem is perceived and that's precisely how #inequity continues to permeate society. #equitymatters #antiracism #justiceforall #mythofmeritocracy #accesstojustice #raisingthebar #endracism #firstgen #racialwealthgap

Last night, I had the honour to learn from and discuss with a group of Coast Salish hereditary chiefs about how we can unify our people and truly move beyond colonialism. We concluded that true progress doesn’t come from sitting at the colonizer’s table, but by creating our own. If corporations and governments want to work with us or on our land, they should come to our table, respecting our terms and traditional laws. Too often, we see Indigenous “representation” in corporate and entertainment spaces, mistaken for reconciliation, when in reality, it’s merely assimilation. Large corporations that “celebrate” our culture while simultaneously perpetuating the arrests of our land protectors and ongoing policy discrimination are not allies. The entertainment industry, despite its glitzy displays, is still very publicly riddled with abuse and exploitation, the same type of abuse that our girls and boys had endured in residential schools up until 1996, and continued in new forms to this day. It's crucial to understand that true sovereignty and progress lie in building our own platforms and institutions, guided by our traditional protocols and laws, and not colonial law. Representation without genuine empowerment and autonomy is merely assimilation.

"Celebrating the spirit of democracy today and every day! Join us in honoring the voices, rights, and freedoms that make our society strong. #DemocracyDay #CPJANews #PowerOfThePeople"

This crisis has illustrated just how important those fundamental principles are in today's world. #impartiality #neutrality and #independence are critical tools for ensuring that people who need help in conflict are able to receive it. But the most important of these is #humanity.

Triggering Historical content: To comprehend systemic racism in 2023, it is imperative that “white” folks know the depths of our historic depravity. We must learn the truth about the psychological and physical crimes against humanity committed in the USA if we ever want to come remotely close to genuinely supporting the dismantling of systemic racism in the USA.

Justice is the moment of putting all the wrong things to right. Let’s celebrate the day of world international justice day a remembrance of what and how all we have achieved. https://lnkd.in/gB8_Qb9 #InternationalJustice #WorldDayForInternationalJustice #DayForInternationalJustice #Justice #InternationalJusticeDay #WorldDayforInternationalJustice2024

Upholding neutrality is crucial to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those in need.