Episode 10- Experienced: The Train Station Incident and What is a Hate Crime?

While the concept of a hate crime is well developed in Canada, the consequences for perpetrating one are not.  In this episode, Stephanie shares her experience as victim of a racially motivated assault, and then we discuss the problems with the Criminal Code of Canada in addressing hate crimes.

 

Resources referenced in the episode:

The Criminal Code of Canada
CTV News Article: What Counts as a Hate Crime in Canada?
Stats Canada Hate Crime Statistics
CBC Article: Reported Hate Crimes on the Rise in Toronto and Police Awareness may play a role
Global News Article: Alberta and Edmonton See Highest Rise in Hate Crimes in Canada

Episode 9- Raising Multiracial Children

In this episode, Stephanie and her guest Sajah discuss the complexities of raising multiracial children who celebrate their full identities.  They also provide strategies for parents to consider as they navigate the task of raising confident children.



Media/ Articles referenced in this episode:

• "Mixie Me" article in Toronto Life Magazine
• Metro Newspaper blog post "For the love of God stop telling mixed race couples their kids will be cute"
• CBC News article "Talking to my kids about being mixed race"
• Bustle post "18 things Mixed race girls are very tired of people saying to them"

Strategies for Raising Well-Adjusted/ Well-Rounded Multiracial children:

• Reject the myths of multiracial people:  the confused mixed race person;
• Teach your kids to talk about skin color/ race (https://www.momjunction.com/articles/tips-to-raise-your-biracial-child_00357927/#gref)
• Celebrate your child’s multiracial heritage  (http://www.cbc.ca/parents/learning/view/talking-to-my-kids-about-being-mixed-race)
• Live in a diverse neighborhood
• Have kids attend a school with a diverse population
• Have kids participate in activities that promote cultural diversity (https://www.thoughtco.com/raising-well-adjusted-biracial-children-2834779)
  
  

Episode 8- Multiracial Myths

In this episode Stephanie and Donald discuss some of the myths that have developed about being multiracial in North America and (bunk) theories about why multiracial people have a hard time fitting in.  (They don’t.)




Media references in the episode:

•         Poem by Langston Hughes, "Cross"
• An article on racial identity in Multiracial people from Thought Co.
• Adrian Piper “Passing for White, Passing for Black” 
• Article on the "Tragic Mulatto" Myth
• Article on Multiracial people from Toronto Life
• Globe and Mail article about mixed race people in the Canada Census
• Article "We are starting to just begin our ancient ancestors"

Terms for multiracial people that are offensive and dated:

• “mulatto”
• hexadecaroon (⅙ black)
• quadroon (¼ black)
• “octoroon” (⅛ black)
• quintoon (1/16 black) 
• “half and half”
• “brownie”
• “colored”
• “dusky”
• “Half-breed”
• “half-black/ half-white”
• “high-yellow”
• “hybrid”
• “mixed blood”
• “no nation”
• “pick n’ mix”
• “quarter caste” (one mono race and one mixed race parent)
• “checkerboard
• “grey”(http://www.mix-d.org/files/resources/Terminology_Chart_09.pdf) 

Terms you can use:

• multiracial
• multi-heritage
• mixed parentage
• mixed heritage
• multiple heritage
  

Episode 7- The "N-Word": Yes, that N-Word

In this episode, Stephanie and her guest Dayle, talk about the “n-word,” the complex relationship that black people have with it and why white people should not say it. Ever.



(Warning: The sources listed below do use the "n-word" even though we don't use it in the episode.)

Here is the media referenced today:

• Here's a great multimedia feature on the "N-Word" by the Washington Post

• Neal A. Lester's article "Straight talk about the "N-Word"

• Blog post on The Undefeated "if you truly knew what the n-word meant to our ancestors, you'd never use it"

• Ta-Nehisi Coates article in the New York Times, "In defence of a loaded word"

• Medium.com article, "the only time white people can say the n-word."

 

This is an advertisement for tobacco from Nigger Hair Smoking Tobacco that was first manufactured by the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based B. Leidersdorf Company in 1878. According to the company the product was named after "its distinctive, curly Long Cut strands". The product was sold at economic prices and packaged in metal tins with "the head of a negro surmounted with a copious crop of wool, and having a large ring pending from the nose and another from the ear" stamped on the front. Early advertisements for Nigger Hair bore the tagline "Always be a good boy and smoke B. Leidersdorf and Co.'s Nigger Hair".  (Source)

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, her best selling novel and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song, which serves as a major plot point. (Source)








The pictured license was not issued by the state of Missouri, nor did it provide the holder the legal right to hunt and kill African-Americans. It was a real piece of racist memorabilia (but actually artificially aged), one which was reportedly sold at an annual party thrown by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) called “The Good Ol’ Boys Roundup” in 1995.  They were not. Although the hunting licenses may not have been sold at the Good Ol’ Boys Roundup, nor were they legal documents issued by the state of Missouri, these pieces of racist memorabilia really do exist, and some online stores still sell “federal nigger hunting licenses." (Source)

Episode 6- Experienced: Multiracial Voices in Science Fiction

In this episode, Stephanie and Donald shares their recent experience at a Sci-Fi convention.  A few larger questions came about as a result.


Here is the link the Samuel R. Delany's essay for The New York Review of Science Fiction, "Racism and Science Fiction"

Are you a Sci-Fi writer or reader?  What do you think about the treatment of race in Sci-Fi literature? At conventions?

Interested in looking at Donald's Sci-Fi writing blog?  Visit www.donrmontgomery.com