Category Archives: Race and Racism
Not In Our Name: UBC’s new Progressive Jewish Alliance
The Silencing of Jewish Progressive Voices In recent years there has been an explosion of Jewish groups breaking away from the mainstream Jewish community’s discourse on Israel/Palestine, seeking to reclaim the history of radical Jewish politics. As young Jews we have witnessed a silencing of perspectives that critique Israel and its actions. Slogans such as: […]
“Critical Muslim Voices and The Elections”: A Conversation with Hasan Alam
Hasan Alam is a lawyer, activist and a founding member of Critical Muslim Voices. A few weeks ago I got the chance to sit down with him and talk about Critical Muslim Voices, what the upcoming federal election means for Muslims, the Islamophobic rhetoric surrounding the elections, and the presence of CSIS (the Canadian Security […]
white feminist 404
can trauma be owned can it be speculated on / paid for in plastic rainbows & rubber kisses? you, white feminist, are a bracelet locking me within these washed, haunted halls (so clean): the clock, this wristband, these lunch trays – they tell me to give one story here the exact four lines you’ve been […]
Institutional Burden Politics: A look at UBC’s disability structures
How do UBC’s bureaucratic and institutional structures perpetuate ableist assumptions such as burden discourse? Burden discourse is when disabled bodies don’t feel entitled to ask for support. This can be due to language use, interpersonal interactions, and/or structures in the institution, which is what this article will focus on. It is critical to look closely […]
Frontlines Beat Pipelines 2: Supporting The Unist’ot’en Through Creative Resistance
The first week of school brings more than just the familiar and notorious whirlwind of welcome back events, parties, and Imagine Day-related hysteria. It also conjures up the long legacy of on-campus colonial violence and misogyny that sometimes rears its head in traditions like Frosh. The Sauder School’s “Pocahontas chants” of 2013 readily come to […]
Social Justice Synonyms #22: “Gypped/Gypsy”
The word “Gypsy” is the misnomer that subsumes all harmful stereotypes of the Romani people, one that has long connoted illegality and irregularity.
Homelessness is Not a Choice
I am deeply indebted to the Coast Salish people, the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam nations on whose unceded lands I think, teach, learn, and write. With my heartfelt gratitude. It is springtime again and the Five Days for the Homeless Campaign has recently concluded at UBC. The campaign’s website states that student participants had to […]
Pièce de Résistance – Art as Revolution
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings At an open mic evening called Spoken Works III: Centring Black Voices, some of those stories were released. Held on March 4th at Heartwood Community Café, non-black organizer Jane Shi explained that the […]
UBC SPHR Press Release: UBC’s AMS Officially Opposes Campus Boycott and Divest Campaign
Vancouver, BC – On March 4, 2015, the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) student union, the AMS, voted to officially oppose the boycott and divestment campaign put forth by on-campus student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). The campaign seeks to implement the BDS movement at the student union level at the university that […]
Zionists are not your enemy
How divestment activists at UBC can win over Jewish students and fight oppression more effectively
One needs to repeat that what in Zionism served the no doubt fully justified ends of Jewish tradition, saving the Jews as a people from homelessness and anti-Semitism, and restoring them to nationhood, also collaborated with those aspects of the dominant Western culture (in which Zionism exclusively and institutionally lived) making it possible for Europeans […]
