Move follows previous and current staff complaining of toxic working environment at global advocacy group
The global advocacy group for gender equality Women Deliver has launched an investigation into allegations of racism and discrimination within the organisation.
Its CEO, Katja Iversen, a G7 advisor on gender equality, has issued an apology and taken a leave of absence until the conclusion of the investigation.
Continue reading...Statues of colonialists and brutal leaders have been toppled by protesters or removed by governments in recent weeks as campaigns to bring down monuments to historical figures tainted by racism and slavery spread around the world.
In Belgium, during Black Lives Matter protests, numerous statues of King Leopold II, whose brutal rule of Congo caused an estimated 10 million deaths through murder, starvation and disease, were defaced and covered in red paint. While in the UK, Oxford University’s Oriel College voted in favour of removing its statue of the Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
In response to the latest action, the historian David Olusoga looks at the significance of these statues and examines the impact they have had on the victims of colonialists and imperialists, as well as the cost borne by their descendants
Many bank directors received compensation after slavery was made illegal in 1833
The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 but it was not until 1833 that the Slavery Abolition Act finally banned the ownership of other human beings. However, 46,000 slave owners continued to benefit financially as the subsequent Slave Compensation Act provided £20m in payments – a sum worth billions in 2020 terms. Despite the name of the act, the former slaves were not compensated.
University College London’s Legacies of British Slave Ownership project shows that 10% to 20% of Britain’s wealthy can be identified as having had significant links to slavery. The amount of money borrowed to pay off slave owners was so large that the government only repaid it fully in 2015. Companies with links to slavery in their past include:
Continue reading...Linking to Game of Thrones disregards Colin Kaepernick’s protest and what it inspired
The foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s assertion that the act of taking a knee appears to be “a symbol of subjugation and subordination” that originates from the TV show Game of Thrones showed a startling level of ignorance of the genesis of the protest adopted by the Black Lives Matter movement.
When the then NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the US national anthem before a game on 1 September 2016 to highlight racism, it began a protest that would reverberate around the world.
Continue reading...Every 19 June for more than 150 years African Americans across the US have celebrated freedom from slavery. Guardian US reporter Kenya Evelyn explores the significance of Juneteenth, how celebrations have evolved over the years and looks at whether it is time for the holiday to receive federal recognition
Continue reading...Louie Giglio said his choice of words was poor, but his attempt to rebrand white privilege should also grab our attention
On Monday evening, Atlanta megachurch pastor Louie Giglio apologized for calling slavery a blessing. In an online church service, he was apparently aiming to have an “honest conversation around how racism has plagued our city for generations”.
Then he said: “We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do, and [we] say ‘that was bad’. But we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in.”
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The lawsuit filed by the US against John Bolton aims to stop the former administration official “ from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information.”
But it states that “on or around” 27 April, Ellen Knight, who was reviewing Bolton’s manuscript, “had completed her review and was of the judgment that the manuscript draft did not contain classified information”.
Bolton’s book The Room Where It Happened will be a critical account of the Trump administration, according to the publisher.
Bolton “shows a president addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government”, according to Simon and Schuster.
Continue reading...A man was shot after a scuffle broke out when demonstrators tried to remove a bronze sculpture of a Spanish conquistador outside a museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A group of armed men had tried to protect the statue of Juan de Oñate. The injured man was in a critical but stable condition, police said.
Authorities later announced the monument would be removed until the next step could be determined
Continue reading...Photographer Henry J Kamara writes about his experience photographing the Black Lives Matter protest in London last weekend
Continue reading...The PM’s commission will be the latest in a line of initiatives examining race inequalities
Boris Johnson has announced a “cross-governmental commission” into racial disparities in education, health and criminal justice. It is the latest of a series of reports into ethnic injustices over recent years.
Continue reading...Racism is embedded in structures and power dynamics, so we should logically conclude that we are not immune
As events unfold in the US and across the world, colleagues in the aid sector are closely watching, and sharing their solidarity. After all they are allies and educators of human rights.
Yet as various institutions grapple with their failure to address discrimination, there has been a disappointing lack of self-reflection in our sector. If we understand that racism is embedded in structures, that it is part of engrained power dynamics, we should logically conclude that we are not immune.
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Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been defaced yet again during Sunday afternoon’s Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles, although these days it might qualify as bigger news if the former reality TV host’s terrazzo-and-brass totem went longer than a week unmolested.
Trump’s star was defaced during today’s Hollywood protest march. #blm #hollywoodprotest #JusticeForGeorgeFlyod #hollywoodboulevard #hollywoodblvd #protests pic.twitter.com/UI3SOIZSiV
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at the Montana State Capitol building in Helena in protest of the killing of George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Helena Independent Record reports Sunday’s protest is the largest of a number of demonstrations that have been held in Montana’s capital city in recent weeks amid the nationwide backlash to police-related violence against black and brown people.
The protest for George Floyd in Helena, MT is... huge. pic.twitter.com/LLwdiHMwxZ
Continue reading...Black families whose relatives have died in police incidents demand end to systemic racism
Black families in the UK whose loved ones have died in incidents involving the police have called for the abolition of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates the police, and the immediate suspension of officers involved in deaths as part of a new plan to address systemic racism and unlawful killings.
The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC), which supports family members of those who have died following police incidents, has drawn up an eight-point plan calling for fundamental changes to the way deaths involving the police are dealt with. A disproportionately high number of these deaths involving the police are black and the UFFC said that failing to successfully prosecute police sends the message that the state can act with impunity.
Continue reading...Footage from Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan shows the officers approaching Rayshard Brooks in his car, which was parked in a Wendy’s drive-in lane, and asking him to move it. They question him and make him take a breathalyser test. The officers then attempt to arrest and handcuff Brooks, leading to a scuffle, which culminates in his shooting. The interaction lasted about 45 minutes. The footage in this video has been edited for length
Continue reading...BLM protesters targeted monument to Indro Montanelli, who admitted buying 12-year-old Eritrean girl
Milan’s mayor has rejected calls to remove a statue from a public park of an Italian journalist who acknowledged having bought a 12-year-old Eritrean girl to be his wife during Italy’s colonial occupation in the 1930s.
Giuseppe Sala said in a Facebook video that he was perplexed by “the lightness” with which Indro Montanelli had confessed to buying the child from her father, in a widely circulated video of a 1969 talkshow appearance, but said “lives should be judged in their totality” and he believed the statue should stay.
Continue reading...Demonstrators set fire to a fast food restaurant in Atlanta on Saturday where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot dead by a police officer the previous night. Police were called to the restaurant over reports that he had fallen asleep in the drive-through line.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers' attempts to arrest him.
Tutu Foundation claims Westway Trust, which manages 23 acres in north Kensington, is ‘suppressing’ final version of critical report
A charity set up 50 years ago to compensate families living in the shadow of London’s A40 flyover has been branded “institutionally racist” and “unethical”, according to a leaked landmark report.
The Westway Trust, which manages the land under the flyover and works on a range of projects with the local people, appointed the respected Tutu Foundation to investigate persistent allegations of racism against the diverse community of north Kensington. Following the Grenfell fire, the charity provided support for victims, who today commemorate the third anniversary of the disaster in which 72 people died.
Continue reading...The president’s West Point speech went smoothly but protests have focused a harsh light on his use of the military
Donald Trump attempted to solidify his bond with the US army on Saturday, delivering the graduation speech to cadets at the United States Military Academy and boasting of a “colossal” $2tn rebuilding of American martial might.
Related: Top US military general Mark Milley apologizes for Trump church photo-op
Continue reading...Arrests made as ‘guard our monuments’ demonstrators chant ‘Eng-ger-land’ and throw bottles
At least five people have been arrested in clashes between protesters and police in central London at a demonstration against perceived slights to British national heritage.
Scotland Yard said that as of 5pm on Saturday, they had arrested five people for offences including violent disorder, assault on police, possession of an offensive weapon, being drunk and disorderly and possession of class A drugs.
Continue reading...Peaceful protest erupts into skirmishes as anger at death of George Floyd resonates in France
Riot police fired teargas to prevent thousands of anti-racism protesters marching through central Paris on Saturday, as a wave of anger continued to sweep the world following the death of African-American George Floyd.
The protesters gathered in Place de la Republique, where the crowd chanted “No justice, no peace” and some climbed the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. Police refused organisers permission to proceed to the Opera House.
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