Category Archives: Race

Academics launch petition against ‘racist’ mural in French parliament

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Mural was created in 1991 to commemorate France’s abolition of slavery in 1794

Two French academics have launched a petition to remove a parliament mural commemorating the abolition of slavery, which they said was a racist, humiliating and dehumanising depiction of black people.

Mame-Fatou Niang, associate professor of French at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and Julien Suaudeau, who lectures in Pennsylvania, said the vast mural which has hung in a corridor of a building at France’s National Assembly for 28 years should be taken down. It was created in 1991 by French artist Hervé di Rosa to commemorate France’s first abolition of slavery in 1794.

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Stormzy pulls out of Austrian festival citing ‘racial profiling’

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Rapper cancels headline slot at Snowbombing hours before he was due to go on stage

Stormzy has pulled out of his headline slot at Snowbombing festival just hours before he was due to perform, after accusing its staff of racially profiling his manager.

The Brit award-winning rapper, 25, said his friends had been targeted by security at the event in Mayrhofen, Austria, on Thursday looking for someone carrying a weapon, “despite no one [in their party] fitting the description”.

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Why dark-skinned black girls like me aren’t getting married

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Black women in the US marry less than others - and the numbers are even lower for darker skinned black women. Is colorism – favoring lighter skin – to blame? Dream McClinton puts herself on the line to report

I take a deep breath and ready my fingers. I admonish myself for being theatrical about something so mundane. Another deep breath.

“Here we go,” I mutter, pressing enter.

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White Porgy and Bess cast ‘asked to say they identify as African-American’

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Hungarian singers allegedly signed paper to bypass stipulation of all-black cast

The Hungarian State Opera has come up with a dubious way around a stipulation that George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess be performed by an all-black cast: it is allegedly asking its white, Hungarian singers to sign a paper saying they identify as African-American.

The company first put on the opera a year ago, leading to a spat with the Gershwin estate, which stipulates the opera should only be performed by a black cast.

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Donald Trump vs FBI director on the white supremacist threat – video

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FBI Director Chris Wray has described white supremacist extremism as 'a persistent, pervasive threat' during a House committee appropriations hearing. According to congressman Jose Serrano, Wray did not mention the issue by name in his budget request to the House, but Wray reiterated the significance of the issue, describing the shift from organised white supremacist groups towards un-coordinated lone actors. His comments were in contrast to those of Donald Trump who, after the Christchurch shooting, said he 'didn't really' see white nationalism as a growing threat around the world but instead a 'small group of people with serious problems'.

 

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New Orleans to apologise for worst mass lynching in America’s history

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Mayor LaToya Cantrell will say sorry for 1891 killing of 11 Italian Americans after some were acquitted of murdering police chief

The mayor of New Orleans is to apologise to Italian Americans for the historical lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in what is considered the nation’s worst such incident.

“This has been a longstanding wound,” said Michael Santo of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy. Santo said that when the city was asked earlier this year for an apology, Mayor LaToya Cantrell embraced the idea, appointing Human Relations Commission head Vincenzo Pasquantonio as liaison.

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Authorities at odds over claim Adelaide Oval staff told not to admit Aboriginal people

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Instructions not to sell tickets were reportedly received before last year’s Naidoc Week AFL game

Box office staff at the Adelaide Oval were reportedly directed to stop selling tickets to Aboriginal people while fans gathered before last year’s Naidoc Week AFL match celebrating Indigenous culture.

The box office and Oval management said a supervisor “misinterpreted” an instruction from the police and security not to sell tickets to a specific group of people who were intoxicated and had been refused entry.

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Penny Wong warns racism and hate speech in parliament threaten democracy

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Labor senator says those who ‘see political or commercial advantage in heightening cynicism’ are diminishing civic life

Penny Wong will say that “racism is a threat to our democracy” in a speech taking aim at those who see “political or commercial advantage” in increased cynicism towards public institutions.

The Labor senator is set to warn that hate speech and extremist views in parliament and a “lack of unity in response to these” have harmed democracy, pointing the finger in part at the Coalition for its tardy response to condemn One Nation in the 45th parliament.

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Greek tragedy prompts ‘blackface’ racism row at Sorbonne

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Protesters picket French university, which says actors were wearing masks according to ancient theatre practices

A row over alleged racism and attacks on freedom of expression has erupted in France after students prevented a Greek tragedy featuring actors using black masks from being performed at the Sorbonne, claiming it was “Afrophobic, colonialist and racist”.

Demonstrators who picketed the prestigious Paris university to stop actors entering the theatre said the play, The Suppliants by Aeschylus, was being performed with blackface and was offensive.

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Facebook agrees to ban discriminatory ads in civil rights settlement

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ACLU hails ‘sweeping changes’ after company criticized over ad targeting based on race, gender and age

Facebook is taking steps to block discriminatory ads for housing, employment and credit by preventing advertisers from targeting users based on race, gender, age and zip code.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other rights groups, which sued Facebook for violating civil rights laws with its ad practices, announced the “historic settlement” on Tuesday, saying “sweeping changes” would restrict illegal and discriminatory ad targeting.

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Michael Daley claims Asian workers taking young people’s jobs in Sydney

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NSW Labor leader says ‘no offence’ meant after video surfaces of him saying ‘our kids are moving out and foreigners are moving in’

The New South Wales opposition leader, Michael Daley is under sustained pressure over his comments in a 2018 video in which he said young Sydneysiders were leaving and being replaced by workers from Asia.

Despite repeatedly apologising “if anyone took offence” Daley insisted his comments were not racist or dogwhistling and were about housing affordability in Sydney.

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Australians are asking how did we get here? Well, Islamophobia is practically enshrined as public policy | Jason Wilson

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Any 28-year-old has grown up in a time when racism was ratcheting up in the public culture

The worst terror attack in New Zealand’s modern history took place on Friday, and the alleged perpetrator is an Australian.

Appropriately, this calamity has started a process of deep reflection in the man’s home country. Everywhere, decent Australians are asking, how did we get here? Do we own him?

There has been extensive, international discussion about the role of the online subculture of the far right in these events – the codes, memes and signals of internet-mediated white supremacy.

Related: To prevent another Christchurch we must confront the right’s hate preachers | Jonathan Freedland

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A letter to our leaders: as Australian Muslims we live in fear, please remember our pain

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How is it right that in our parliament it is OK to call Islam a ‘disease’, it is OK to refer to a ‘final solution’, it is OK to ridicule our religious attire?

Dear Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten,

I am an Australian Muslim woman. I am highly educated and hold a professional job. In fact, I spend a great deal of my working life with the Australian legal system. I am a wife. I am a mother. And tonight I am frightened, anxious and so very sad.

The tragedy that has occurred in Christchurch has pierced a hole in my heart that I cannot actually close. The grief is deep – these innocent people were simply praying when massacred by a man who had a deep disdain and hatred for them, not because they said or did anything but simply because they were Muslim.

Watching the images and hearing the eyewitness accounts is beyond traumatic. We have shed tears and expressed our hurt, but most of us have something in common – as hard as it is to say this, we are not surprised or shocked.

Why? Because we have lived with this fear for a long time now. Genuine fear that our lives are at risk simply because we are Muslim.

Related: 'We love you': mosques around world showered with flowers after Christchurch massacre

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‘It’s a small group of people’: Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

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President downplays hate surge after white supremacist, who mentioned Trump in a manifesto, attacked New Zealand mosques

Donald Trump said he did not view white nationalism as a rising threat around the world, as New Zealand is reeling from a white supremacist attack on two mosques that killed 49 people.

Asked by a reporter on Friday if he saw an increase globally in the threat of white nationalism, the US president responded: “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. I guess, if you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s a case. I don’t know enough about it yet.”

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China is ‘in a league of its own’ on human rights violations, Pompeo says

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Pompeo singled out Beijing for detaining members of Muslim minority groups as he unveiled annual human rights report

China is “in a league of its own” when it comes to human rights violations, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday as he unveiled the state department’s annual report on human rights around the world.

Related: 'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam

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Anish Kapoor: ‘If I was a young Muslim, would I feel angry enough to join Isis? I would at least think about it’

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Britain has gone through the looking glass and the artist’s new show follows it into the abyss. He talks about the upsurge in racism, fighting for Shamima Begum – and his clash with France’s president

At 7.30 on the morning after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Anish Kapoor left his London flat for an appointment with his analyst. On the street, he heard two men talking. “Bet he doesn’t even speak English,” said one. “I turned around and they were talking about me. I was so furious.”

Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor, CBE, RA, the 65-year-old, Turner prize-winning, Mumbai-born British-Indian artist, who has lived in London since the early 1970s and (though this is hardly the point) speaks better English than most of his countrymen, had woken up in a new land. “Since then permission has been given for difference, rather than being celebrated, to be undermined.”

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Bernie Sanders’ Chicago 2020 speech to focus on fight against racism

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The Vermont senator will conclude a two-part launch in the Windy City, harking back to his student days in the civil rights era

With the Chicago skyline around him, Bernie Sanders will on Sunday conclude his two-part presidential campaign launch by emphasizing the role of race and racial discrimination in American society.

Related: Bernie Sanders draws on personal history in 2020 campaign launch

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