Month: June 2020

If you’re not from Canada, chances are you haven’t heard of Canadian rapper (yup, that’s a thing!) Shad, a.k.a. Shad K, a.k.a. Shadrach Kabango. His parents are Rwandan, he was born in Kenya, and he grew up in London, Ontario (he has my sympathies). As a rapper, he’s one of Canada’s best — in 2011, his album TSOL beat out Drake’s Take Care album for a Juno Award (Canada’s analogue to a Grammy). He also hosted CBC Radio One’s show Q (which you can hear in U.S. on public radio) in 2015 and 2016, and hosts the Netflix series Hip-Hop Evolution.

He recently posted this online, and it’s worth reading, thinking about, and taking to heart:

So I’ve gotten quite a few messages from people asking how they can help right now and I’d suggest following (not DMing!) our community leaders and activists for their best advice, but this is what’s been on my mind lately with respect to this.

6 things:

1. Your relationships: The beliefs and conversations among your family and friends
2. Your work: The atmosphere and dealings in your workplace
3. Your schools: The environment and practices in your kids’ schools
4. Your communities: The messages communicated explicitly and implicitly in your community groups and religious communities
5. Your money: Where you choose to invest and how your spend your discretionary income
6. Your vote: At every level

Petitions and donations are very helpful, especially in moments like these, but there are relationships and environments where you and only you can help dismantle anti-Black racism in an ongoing (and thus sustainable) way.

These dimensions of our lives are, in sum, who we are. Rather than looking out into the world for someone to attack or someone to save, my hope is that well-meaning folks would look into the mirror of these things and change themselves. This process will likely be more uncomfortable than sending cash or adding a signature but such feelings can be a good sign: Change is by definition unsettling.

As you educate yourselves, scrutinize these aspects of your life, and set out to make changes in some or all of them, remember again that the larger story is good; Black people have been surviving and fighting this fight for a long time and you’re welcome to partner with us for our freedom and for yours.

But have no illusions: The work probably won’t be glamorous and it won’t undo past harm. It will cost you something. Perhaps literally. And expect more pushback than praise. It is work after all.

Well put, sir.

I’ll close with a couple of my favorite Shad numbers:

Tap the tweet to see the source.

This tweet’s from a couple of years ago, but it’s still just as valid today, as people like the (former) co-owner of Nocturnal Hospitality Group have learned.

Photo by Grace Jensen. Tap to see the source.

When faced down by racist manbaby Jay Snowden at a Black Lives Matter protest in Whitefish, Montana, Samantha Francine pushed up her sunglasses so she could stare right back at him, eye-to-eye, even as he loomed over her with clenched fist and threatening posture. But she did not back down.

Here’s a video of Snowden’s tirade:

According to the report from NBC Montana:

He uses several expletives, knocks signs out of protesters’ hands and yells at an apparent clergyman before police take him away. The crowd around him chants “peaceful!” continuously throughout the nearly 3-minute video.

The man who caught the encounter on video tells NBC Montana it was totally peaceful up until that moment. He says Snowden drove by and flipped off the crowd the night before also.

From the statement issued by the Whitefish police:

Protests over the death of George Floyd have been ongoing in Whitefish since Monday night. Crowds of approximately 60 to 70 individuals have been peacefully protesting adjacent to Whitefish City Hall and at 2nd and Spokane. During last night’s protest an individual became confrontational with the protestors and police intervened, removing the individual from the scene. The subject, Jay Snowden 51 of Whitefish, was charged with one count of disorderly conduct this morning after Whitefish Police consulted with the Whitefish city prosecutor. Snowden has an initial court date of June 17, 2020.

If the name “Whitefish, Montana” rings a bell, it’s because neo-nazi, mentor to Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller, and professional speedbag Richard Spencer is at least a part-time resident. Here’s a Guardian article about it, and here’s a CNN report: