Status Updates From Stolen City: Racial Capital...

"Responsibility for the coexistence of great poverty beside great wealth rests squarely at the feet of a dominant regional bloc that has fought every effort to expand the parameters of social, economic and cultural justice," Woods wrote. Rejecting dominant explanations of poverty -liberal or illiberal- that blames past trauma, lack of education, risky behaviour or cultural deficiencies... (p. 20) Quite the start.

Went to the book launch with KR & bought a copy with the intent to read it right away. Only got through the Introduction before life got in the way.

I usually skip acknowledgements. This time I read them carefully as I was curious for local colour . It was a very thoughtful & exhaustive acknowledgment, & was glad to see that I recognized a bunch of quality people.

Looking forward to finishing it this time.

“Despite [Métis Communities’] demands, the Canadian state refused to provide running water, electricity, sewer connections or improved housing…in the hopes that they would eventually disappear.”

“It is worth noting that the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike—a forceful, and fondly commemorated, emancipation—missed a tremendous historical opportunity by failing to oppose the white supremacists and settler-colonial underpinnings of capitalism in the Winnipeg region.”

An eye-opening new perspective on the 1919 Strike. Wow.

“…one morning being invaded by a foreign army, driven away, confined to a tiny patch of land, kidnapped by priests, and monitored by foreign agents while the rest of the world is fenced–off into other tiny rectangles and, to top it off, filled with strangers where unfathomably hostile. The Anishinabe and the Métis struggled under conditions of such extreme captivity.”