Resisting silence Sepideh Afshar, Opinion Editor Resistance, to me, is to be vocal about the injustices you see and experience. For about a year, I was part of a sorority at McGill. In this predominantly white space, I found myself silenced concerning the overt racism I was experiencing. I felt[Read More…]
Tag: Black lives matter
A race for comfort
A question that continues to trouble Black Lives Matter activists and organizers almost two years after the largest uprisings in recent history is how to disseminate powerful, transformative messages to those uninvolved, unaware, or uninterested in racial justice. To answer this question, critics pen a deluge of columns: Defund the[Read More…]
Pandemic prison conditions emphasize need for reform
Throughout the pandemic, prisons have faced a reckoning, and Montreal’s Bordeaux prison is no exception. The prison has seen some of civilians’ worst fears play out, from multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, to inadequate resources, and more recently, to more than 1,000 inmates locked in their cells for over 24 hours while[Read More…]
10 things: The most inspirational sports moments of 2020
WNBA supports Warnock The 2020 U.S. elections have remained heated in Georgia, with Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler facing off against Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff in January 2021. Among the groups who helped Warnock advance are WNBA players, including several from the Atlanta Dream, of which Loeffler is part-owner.[Read More…]
Campus Spotlight: #TakeJamesDown
Anti-Black racism at McGill is institutionalized, and the work of Black student activists is vital in demanding systemic changes on campus. A summer of Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the continued police brutality and murders of Black people have brought increased visibility to Black activism around the globe, including[Read More…]
Concordia activists highlight challenges of human rights activism in 2020
On Sept. 13, the Concordia Student Union hosted an online seminar featuring Montreal activists discussing a wide range of subjects, such as systemic oppression against Indigenous Peoples, police brutality against Black people, and the Canadian government’s negligence towards marginalized people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was called “Police, Climate[Read More…]
Reconciliation must go beyond a toppled statue
The police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 sparked global protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism, giving renewed momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement. In light of these events, McGill, an institution whose history is rooted in violence and enslavement, expressed its intention to put forward[Read More…]
Anonymous Instagram pages highlight student experiences with discrimination at McGill
As recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests against police brutality have ignited a global reckoning with racism, new McGill-related Instagram pages are platforming anonymous Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) students’ experiences with discrimination at the university. Untold McGill and Black At McGill have highlighted disturbing instances of racism[Read More…]
Black Lives Matter at McGill too
Danielle Geathers, MIT’s first Black woman student body president, and Nicholas Johnson, Princeton University’s first Black valedictorian, inspired my recent Facebook post reacting to the news that I would be serving as one of the very few Black presidents in the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) 112-year history. I[Read More…]
Thousands protest against anti-Black racism and police brutality in downtown Montreal
Thousands of Montrealers gathered on May 31 in front of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal’s (SPVM) downtown headquarters to protest police brutality and anti-Black racism in Canada and the United States. The demonstrations were organized by Justice for Victims of Police Killings, Hoodstock, and Tout Le[Read More…]
