ABSTRACT
The current conjuncture is marked by a multitude of global crises that include the COVID-19 pandemic;global warming;conflicts in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Palestine;growing global poverty and food scarcity;the exponential increase of forcibly displaced people;the escalating use of incarceration to manage migrants, including children;land conflicts with Indigenous peoples;and the persecution and genocide of religious, ethnic, and sexual minorities around the globe, from the Rohingya to the Uyghurs. In Canada, we nessed the of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children forced to attend residential schools;court rulings in favour of pipelines that violated the constitutional rights of Indigenous peoples;the global mobilization of Black Lives Matters;the escalation of anti-Asian racism;the heightened Islamophobia that resulted in the killing of members of the Afzaal Salman family;attacks on mosques and synagogues;and the ongoing criminalization, incarceration, and violent police murders of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour across the country. The recent occupation of Ottawa and other cities and towns highlights the rise of right-wing extremism that, along with the failure of the state to act swiftly to protect the rule of law, brings up the intersection of misogyny, racism, colonialism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and populism (Karim, 2000;Mirrlees, 2021;Neville & Langlois, 2021). Drawing on their experiences working with the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) as scholar-activists, King and Odartey-Wellington argue that the canon of Canadian communications scholarship must be expanded to include Canada's history of colonialism and discrimination against ra- cialized people.
ABSTRACT
In the spring of 2020, African Nova Scotians were faced with two emerging pandemics: the ongoing pandemic of anti-Black racism, and the pandemic of COVID-19. The Association of Black Social Workers created a response specific to the needs of African Nova Scotians, employing the six practice principles of Africentric social work. They established a partnership with community and government partners to manage a phone line to triage based on need, and a virtual community check-in to connect about the pressing Black Lives Matter movement. This paper contextualizes the historic and current systemic racial inequities faced by African Nova Scotians within the context of the current public health emergency, and the need for an equitable, community-based emergency response. This specialized, Africentric service provision model can be used to inform the development of emergency responses for other Black communities in Canada.Alternate :Au printemps 2020, les Néo-Écossais d’origine africaine ont été confrontés à deux pandémies émergentes : la pandémie continuelle de racisme anti-Noir et la pandémie de la COVID-19. L ’Association of Black Social Workers a créé une réponse spécifique aux besoins des Néo-Écossais d’origine africaine, en utilisant les six principes d’intervention du travail social afrocentrique. Elle a établi un partenariat avec des partenaires communautaires et gouvernementaux pour gérer une ligne téléphonique de triage en fonction des besoins, et une communauté virtuelle permettant de rester connecter au sujet du mouvement « La vie des Noirs compte » (Black Lives Matter). Ce document met en contexte les inégalités raciales systémiques, historiques et actuelles, auxquelles sont confrontés les Néo-Écossais d’origine africaine dans le contexte de l’urgence sanitaire actuelle, et la nécessité de mesures d’urgence équitables et communautaires. Ce modèle de prestation de services afrocentriques spécialisés peut être utilisé pour éclairer l’élaboration de mesures d’urgence pour les autres communautés noires du Canada.