This year for Black History Month I will be examining Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 by Constance Backhouse. Please read the preamble post if you haven’t already. Part 1 of this series is here. It is either appalling ignorance on my part (if you wish to blame me) or abysmal historical instruction from …
Category Archive: black history
Feb 08 2013
Movie Friday: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Other America
There are few things that get me more irate than people who selectively quote Martin Luther King Jr. as their ‘trump card’ for their argument. While I think Dr. King had some fantastic ideas in his time, he was looking at reality through a theological lens without the benefit of scientific training; furthermore, the world …
Feb 07 2013
CBC gives us a helpful prompt for Black History Month
In honour of Black History Month, the CBC has created an incredibly helpful interactive profile of a number of black Canadians. I will readily confess that most of these names are brand new to me, so we can all learn together. Go check it out! Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!
Feb 04 2013
Black History Month: Re Eskimos (1939)
This year for Black History Month I will be examining Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 by Constance Backhouse. Please read the preamble post if you haven’t already. The first case that Backhouse examines is a Supreme Court decision regarding whether or not to classify “Eskimos” (now properly known as Inuit) as Indians …
Feb 03 2013
“Why isn’t there a white history month?”
One of the staples of black history month is legions of white people generating faux outrage in an ever-expanding variety of media wondering why there isn’t a “white history month”. There’s a black history month, the argument goes. Isn’t the goal for everyone to be equal? Why can’t we celebrate white history? Is it because you’re racist? I …
Jan 15 2013
Historical projection
One of the things that blogging has moved me to do more often is to learn about history. I am somewhat ashamed to say that between, let’s say, grade 10 history class (which was in 2000) and the founding of this blog (in 2010), I was not exactly what you might call ‘a student of …
Nov 29 2012
The accuracy of the elephant’s tail
If you want to make sense of a lot of what it happening in US national politics, I’ve found Chris Hayes’ show Up! to be a consistent source of diverse and thought-provoking analysis. As an avowed and unashamed ‘man of the left’, he manages to break issues out of the left/right divide and instead field panels …
Sep 26 2012
No noose is good noose
Hey folks! Remember that time that Clint Eastwood did something hilarious? Clint Eastwood did end up stealing the show at Mitt Romney’s formal appointment as his party’s choice for the US presidential election but perhaps not in the way he or the candidate would have wanted. The 82-year-old’s rambling gravel-voiced conversation with an empty chair – supposedly supporting an …
Aug 23 2012
Today’s word-boner: Ta-Nehisi Coates
One of the great tragedies of my life is that while I love language, I can barely find enough time to write as much as I want, let alone read. There are writers out there like Teju Cole, Amanda Marcotte, Jamelle Bouie, Sikivu Hutchinson, Touré, Greta Christina, Tim Wise, and countless others whose ability to work …
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