Jan 7, 2025
paintings and photos I’ve taken. The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art In The 21st Century exhibition currently up at The Art Gallery of Ontario which included a photo of me taken by Zanele Muholi back in 2008
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paintings and photos I’ve taken. The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art In The 21st Century exhibition currently up at The Art Gallery of Ontario which included a photo of me taken by Zanele Muholi back in 2008
RACISM AT OCCUPYTO
So I went to the activist assembly put on by Occupy Toronto this past weekend (jan 20-22) at OISE. As a member of the People Of Colour at Occupy Toronto (@POCoccupyto) I was concerned about the lack of race analysis being shown at this conference and this whole Occupy Toronto movement. 47% of Toronto's population is made up of racialized people. The fact that OccupyTo is refusing to make an intersectional analysis of classism and racism shows how faulty this movement is. How can this movement claim to speak on behalf of the 99%, yet they are unable to centralize the struggles of racialized people who bear the brunt of the fuckery of this system.
The fact that our POC group wasn't even included in the assembly just goes to show that the framework from which this movement is standing on is weak. After we had sent emails to the assembly organizers about wanting to participate and not getting any response back I had to repost the email on their facebook page so it could acknowledged. The fact that Occupyto's facebook page is able to "like" Daft Punk's page but can't even "like" our page pretty much sums up the lack of awareness on their part. I'm not sure what white person told them that our group was no longer in existence but I'm pretty sure they probably should have asked one of our members before they came to that conclusion. That was the excuse we were given as to why we weren't included in the assembly... BULLSHIT
Members of the POC group attended fridays opening panel where I was able to address the audience and panel with a statement about how this movement is fraudulent. Addressing the fact that no time was being spent on racial analysis in this conference and how fucked up that was. Talking about how this is a privileged white movement that is not addressing the needs of those who are economically screwed the most because of this capitalist system which is deeply entwined with systemic racism.
Well needless to say after that speech one of the organizers Katie was pretty quick to find me afterwards to see if the POC's would be willing to take a spot. Now we had already addressed how since it was so last minute we weren't able to take a Saturday spot but we would have to meet up and discuss if Sunday would work. Lucky enough for them our group was available to have a workshop on the Sunday.
And in the meantime I had been asked to be one of the Dj's for the after party on Saturday from Demian who isn't an official OccupyTo representative but someone from another organization that wanted to help with the planning of the party. I figured it would be a good opportunity to educate people thru music. I was told there was gonna be a mic so I could rhyme and bring other people if I wanted to do a live performance. Well there was a mic but it belonged to some dude who wasn't interested in sharing. So not interested in sharing but fully wanted to babble on about shit over my set and when I said know he unplugged the mic and took his shit and left... clearly one of the greatest examples of OccupyTo spirit I've seen thus far. So with no mic I was content to dj my vinyl for this mostly white crown up until a point. That point being where I had to cut the music and let loose what was on my mind.
http://youtu.be/Twokttb7zD0
Come Sunday and unbeknownst to the POC group OccupyTo decided that they would put Women, Rainbow Coalition and POC's all in one room and call it an Anti-Oppression Diversity session. Gotta love how white people just wanna take control of everything without asking if that would be ok. The workshop went well. We all aired out why we were in attendance and how fucked up it was the Occupy would take it upon themselves to put all the marginalized groups in one room while the decision making process was going on down the hall. Well without getting into specifics the people in our room came up with some good strategies of how we could move forward.
Now that ending would have been great had that been the end... but it wasn't. In true OccupyTo fashion some fuckery had to go on. Carla who's one of the organizers wanted to talk to me about how there had been a lack of communication and reasons why we weren't contacted yadda yadda ya. Apologies and all that shit but I'm not sure she or the rest of OccupyTo got the point.
The Point being the foundation OccupyTo is on is faulty and isn't working. Lots of people can see that and it wasn't just POC's. Allies were also telling her that the system was fucked and as someone who just came in to the movement towards the end you really can't tell us how things were when we were there and you weren't.
Shit got a little heated and I had to tell this white person who likes to appropriate indigenious culture aka yoddle like he's doing a ceremonial song and not feel anyways that he's being untrue to self. So I called him out on his shit. I also had to tell people that just having these types of conversations are draining and people of colour are tired of us having to teach white people when you have the tools to do the work yourselves.
I had somewhere else to be so I was leaving...BUT HERE'S THE CLINCHER. One of the organizers felt the need to follow me and my friend to the elevator because the dude I cussed out was being talked to by someone by the elevators. YOU DID NOT NEED TO FOLLOW ME. WHAT YOU DID WAS RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RACIST
because I did not need to be escorted out I was not being violent in anyway. I am an adult and I don't need supervision by some pretentious what person who thinks that they are KEEPING THE PEACE.....
GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT BULLSHIT.
I needed to get this off my chest because if I choose to continue working with you eediyats you must do some serious work on your racist practices because what I was a witness to this weekend was absolutely unacceptable.
kalmplex
TRIGGER FESTIVAL - RACISM IN THE ELEVATOR
JANELLE SMILING photo by kalmplex
POSITION AS DESIRED: EXPLORING AFRICAN CANADIAN IDENTITY.