#family separation

[hussyknee]

I'd ask whether the Blue No Matter Who crowd had anything to add, but considering when they mean "lesser evil" they mean "more likely to spare the white middle-class" AND the fact that evil has no bottom so the goalpost will move onward to hell and beyond, they will never fucking shut up in our lifetime.

[sparksinthenight]

Have a Heart Day Letter to Canadian Government to Help Indigenous Kids 2023

This is the letter I wrote to the government of Canada, asking them to stop discriminating against First Nations children and families on reserves, and asking them to stop taking First Nations children from their loving families. All the research is from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, whose website is here: https://fncaringsociety.com

You can read the following letter and please, please, even if you don’t live in Canada send a letter of your own, either using this letter as a template or in your own words:

Our names are and we are from various parts of so-called Canada. We are writing to you to ask that you end the discrimination against First Nations children, so that all First nations children can grow up safe, healthy, well educated, and with their families who love them, who they have grown up with and grown attached to. We ask that you fund all services on reserves better, especially child and family services, Jordan's Principle services, and education. We ask that you ensure there is no discrimination in any of the services provided to First Nations people and that all organizations providing access to services on reserves are free of racism and discrimination. We ask that you implement the Spirit Bear Plan. And we also ask that you fairly compensate all children and families who have faced harm as a result of the Canadian government's unfair practices.

Child and Family services on reserves are underfunded. They are also prejudiced. This means that instead of helping families with what they need to in order to best take care of their children, they take children away from families that love them and put them in foster care. Families struggling with poverty or mental health or addictions or disabilities still love their children. These families should not be separated, they should be helped so that they can have their needs met. Indigenous children are 17 times more likely to be separated from their families compared to non-Indigenous children. But they are not more likely to face familial abuse. The reason why the vast majority of these kids are being separated is because their families are poor, struggling with mental illness or addiction or disability, or some combination of these factors. If child and family service providers were better funded and more culturally respectful, they would be able to help families meet their children’s needs instead of taking children away.

Most services on reserves, including services for disabled kids, healthcare services, and mental health services, are funded by the federal government. But these services are often underfunded, often severely. There are also many times when First Nations families living on reserves need to access provincial services. When this happens, there are often long disputes between provincial and federal governments about who should pay. This leads to children not receiving the healthcare and services they need, or having long gaps and delays in receiving healthcare and services.

Jordan’s Principle was implemented to ensure that all children receive timely and adequate healthcare and services first and payment disputes are resolved in a way that doesn’t affect children’s access to services. But this principle has been implemented in a very narrow way by the government and many children who needed services and healthcare under Jordan’s Principle did not receive those services. Many children who did receive services did not receive them in a timely manner.

Education on reserves is also underfunded, and First Nations children on reserves do not have access to safe, comfy schools and high quality education. They do not have environments where they can learn all that they can and reach their full potential. This is horrifically unfair, since every child has an equal right to education and every child has an equal right to good quality education where they can learn, grow, thrive, and reach their full potential.

Education needs funding. You need to have enough teachers, small class sizes, and heating in classrooms. You need books, textbooks, school supplies and a library. You need a whiteboard, markers and erasers. You need good bathrooms. It really helps to have smartboards like settler schools have. You need a gym, sports equipment, art supplies, and a safe playground. You need a lab with equipment. You need therapists, nurses, counselors and educational assistants. You need money for field trips. You often need snacks. You need learning toys like base ten blocks for younger kids. First Nations children cannot afford everything that they need to learn effectively.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered the government of Canada to stop discriminating against First Nations children. It has ordered that Canada stop taking children from their loving homes and that they stop denying services and healthcare to children who need them. The government has mostly not listened to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s rulings.

An Agreement in Principle is not a binding agreement. It simply is a set of promises that may or may not be turned into a binding agreement. The Canadian government created an Agreement in Principle with First Nations groups including the Assembly of First Nations to fund and support First Nations child and family service providers adequately so that these service providers could help struggling families instead of separating them. They also agreed to fund and support Jordan’s Principle better so that every child who needs services or healthcare can receive it. The government promised to conduct regular reviews of First Nations child and family service providers and Jordan’s Principle providers to check for discrimination, and to have accountability measures for any discrimination that occurs. They promised to reform Indigenous Services Canada to be less discriminatory and more culturally respectful.

While all these ideas are great, these are just ideas at this point. There is no binding agreement yet. The government promised to do these things but no one knows if they’ll keep these promises. A Final Settlement Agreement on reform, which will be legally binding, is being worked towards. But that Agreement has not been made yet and we do not know what the Final Settlement Agreement will include, if it will stay true to the promises made in the Agreement in Principle, or if it will be effective in keeping children holistically healthy and with their families.

The Canadian government has created a Final Settlement Agreement on compensation where it will compensate some of the victims of Canada’s discrimination against First Nations children and families. While this is good, many victims will not be given the $40 000 in compensation that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has stated that all victims must receive, and many victims will not be compensated at all. Victims that will not be compensated include children who were placed in provincial programs after being separated from their families, the estates of deceased parents or caregiving grandparents, and many people who were denied the help they needed under Jordan’s Principle. There is only $20 billion set aside for compensating families who were discriminated against, which may not be enough to give everyone the $40 000 they are entitled to. And if you want to opt out of the Final Settlement Agreement on compensation and instead claim your $40 000 ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, you only have until February to opt out, and people don’t have the information and guidance they need in order to decide if they want to opt out or not.

It’s not only education, healthcare, child welfare, and disability support services that are underfunded on reserves. All social services on reserves are underfunded. This includes housing services, childcare services, after school programs, utilities services, mental health and addictions support, welfare, and more. This means that families living in poverty have less help and support in order to pull themselves out of poverty and the cycle of poverty continues. It also means that families that need mental health supports don’t receive them. This is bad for children because living in poverty or with bad mental health is not something any child deserves and also because poverty and mental health are often the reasons why children get ripped away from their families and put into foster care. And obviously, being separated from your family is way worse than living in poverty is.

You must ensure that you do the following things:

-Fund First Nations Child and Family Service providers as much as each service provider needs in order to help families to stay together and have their needs met. For example, if a family is suffering from poverty, child and family service providers need to have the money needed to support that family financially instead of taking the child away. If a family is living in bad housing, child and family services needs the funds to improve their housing instead of taking the child away.

-Ensure that all First Nations child and family service providers - and service providers on reserves in general - are non-discriminatory, are routinely and thoroughly checked for any discrimination within the organizations, and that there is accountability and consequences for any discriminatory conduct, policies, or attitudes that are ever found or reported in these organizations.

-Ensure that a broad implementation of Jordan’s Principle is carried out so that every child who ever needs any services, healthcare, or support always receives it.

-Ensure that the system for providing Jordan’s Principle services to people is well-funded, easy to navigate, and non-discriminatory.

-Create a Final Settlement Agreement on child and family service reform and Jordan’s Principle reform that goes above and beyond everything suggested in the Agreement in Principal on reform.

-Ensure that all children, parents, and caregiving grandparents, living or deceased, who have been discriminated against in any way by the Canadian government receive their owed $40 000 compensation. This includes children who were placed in the provincial care system and everyone who did not receive the services they were owed through Jordan’s Principle.

-Fund all services on reserves so that the needs of every person living on reserves can be met.

-Implement the Spirit Bear Plan.

-Fund education on reserves better so that it is of the same quality as education off reserves.

Thank you for reading our letter and please take our concerns to heart.

You can email your own letter to the following ministers:

Prime Minister Trudeau: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca

Deputy Prime Minister Freeland: chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Indigenous Services Hajdu: patty.hajdu@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relationships Miller: Marc.Miller@parl.gc.ca

And your own Member of Parliment, who you can find here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en

[follow-up-news]

The Biden administration and more than 4,000 migrants who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration reached a legal settlement Monday that allows the families to live and work in the U.S. for three years while receiving housing, mental health and legal assistance to apply for asylum. The settlement also prohibits the federal government from separating any migrant families crossing the border for eight years, unless the parents are considered a danger to their children or the public or they have previously entered the country illegally more than twice. The deal, announced by the Justice Department, may end one of the darkest chapters in U.S. immigration policy, in which families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 2017 and 2018 were systematically separated. Children younger than 18 were sent to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, while parents were prosecuted by U.S. attorneys in federal court.

[thebloodlinestopswithme]

[randyite]

[jennymanrique]

COVID-19 Pandemic Worsens the Mental Health of Minority Children

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that surveyed more than 7,000 high school students, revealed that 55.1% described suffering emotional abuse, 44.2% reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and 9% attempted suicide. More young women and LGBTQ+ youth saw a rise in suicidal behavior, more Asian kids confronted racism and hate, more Black youth and Native Americans experienced hunger and economic devastation and along with Latinos, suffered mental stress due to the pandemic.

A panel of experts convened by Ethnic Media Services explained that to avert a “pandemic” of future adults with serious emotional and mental disorders, it’s important to foster a positive ethnic racial identity. They argue that civic engagement in particular, can be a mental health intervention: building opportunities for young people to speak truth to power and connect with their communities is key for their development.

Angela Vasquez, MSW, policy director for mental health at The Children’s Partnership:

“Nearly 50% of youth who are severely impaired with a major depressive episode did not receive treatment… Black and Latino children were about 14% less likely than white youth to receive treatment for their depression… Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Native youth, so nearly three and a half times higher than the national average. And high school girls across all races and ethnicities made plans to attempt suicide more than boys.”

“Over half of Latina girls are worried about a friend or family member being deported. Nearly a quarter have been harassed because of their family name, or country of origin. Since the pandemic started, Asian youth have been experiencing harassment and bullying.”

“Family separation harms children’s mental and physical health; children of undocumented parents are at risk of behavioral problems. Having parents taken away undermines family economic security. The climate of fear further restricts children, access to education, public benefits, and other services.”

“Direct and vicarious exposure to police violence, including immigration enforcement are contributors to toxic stress…There is a large growing campaign for police free schools.”

Dr. Ilan Shapiro, Pediatrician, chief medical affairs officer of Altamed federally qualified health centers, Los Angeles

“As a pediatrician, they never tell you about all the tools that you need to bring on board for a pandemic, especially on the suffering of a community that has lost so much from life complications. And it’s not just the Latino Hispanic community… We need to make sure that we create structural changes.”

“There’s something called the Internet that most of my patients don’t have… There was a year that they were at home doing nothing, eating whatever, they were feeling depressed, anxious without moving, the (pandemic) ramifications were horrible.”

“At least 50% of the patients that I take care of, were directly touched by COVID-19: they were sick, they had a family member that was close to them that actually died, or they were harmed because of the pandemic.”

“We need to translate medical terms to an actionable language that our community can actually do something with… It’s up to us to make sure that we create open conversations and resources with media with healthcare providers.”

Dr. Myo Thwin Myint, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Tulane University School of Medicine, He serves on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent (AACAP) Training and Education Committee New Orleans, Louisiana:

“Disparity exists in terms of racial minoritized groups, as well as a gender and sexual minoritized groups. Particularly our LGBTQ and trans kids suffer disproportionately from the mental health challenges because of the unjust societal challenges. Across the country, many state legislatures are discussing passing laws that add additional stress to get appropriate care.”

“Our Surgeon General has put out a general mental health advisory and (recognized that) a crisis is happening. It was really good to see that there’s recognition from the federal government and we hope that what follows will be an investment in our youth’s mental health.”

“We should being able to go out to the youth where the challenges are happening rather than waiting in our clinic and ivory towers where we know there are systemic challenges such as transportation. We need to be thinking very creatively how we are going to be providing care.”

Sydney McKinney, PhD, Executive Director of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute based in Brooklyn:

“Addressing the mental health and wellness of black women and girls is really vital to reducing their risk of coming into contact with the juvenile legal and the criminal legal system… Among black teenage girls, suicide death rates increased from 2001 to 2017 by 182%.”

“Nearly 2 million young people are arrested by police every year. And data show that 75% of those have experienced traumatic victimization in their lifetime… Black girls account for 43% of girls who are in youth detention which is more than any other racial group.”

“The pandemic has exacerbated the mental health needs of black girls and gender expansive youth who are directly impacted by the foster care, the child welfare system and the juvenile legal system.” “Media can elevate and bring attention to mental health and wellness programs and services that are culturally affirming and gender-responsive. So much of what people know is clinical modalities, which many of the folks in our communities are reluctant to engage in for very well-founded reasons.”

Originally published here

[hussyknee]

Family separation, whether voluntary or not, is inherently traumatic. It can be the better option, but it's always one of last resort, and the spectre of losing family is itself traumatic. More so for diasporas and marginalized communities because their sense of belonging and heritage connection and only reliable social protection is wrapped up in kinship networks. So please have a care to properly think about what it means to be a character of colour or part of a diaspora when you're writing analysis or stories about them.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“DOUKHOBOR CHlLDREN ARE On WAY TO COAST,” Brantford Expositor. May 27, 1932. Page 17. ---- Will Be Placed in Homes While Parents Serve Prison Terms ---- NELSON, B.C. May 27— (By the Canadian Press) - The 141 Doukhobor children of all ages are on their way to the coast to-day to be placed in various homes in Vancouver and Victoria while their parents are serving three-year prison terms for participating in nude demonstrations at Thrums recently. One hundred and six children were taken from the jail here and en route 35 more were picked up at Boundary Falls. These latter are children of the Doukhobors who demonstrated in the nude at Grand Forks a few weeks ago. 

Wards of the government, the children appeared in a happy mood when they left here in two special coaches attached to the westbound train. There was a demonstration at the jail an hour before they left when they were taken from their parents but not trouble. Early In the day the fathers and mothers were informed that their children would be removed last night and many tears were shed, farewell said, the parents feeling keenly the departure of their youngsters.

[xtrablak674]

[Originally published in Fashion Fag Magazine Vol 1 No 4 November-December Issue 1995 based on a story I wrote in college.]

Man O’ Da House

A Story About My Mother’s Goin’ Home

Mommy!

Mommy?

Mommy.

Where are you? I can't see you. Where did you go? Why is it so dark? Mommy!! Why did you leave me Mommy? Mommy!!!

I sit and wake up in a cold sweat and look over toward the window. The sun is glaring through the metallic Venetian lines, leaving parallel lines of sunlight on the wall. I soon forget what I was dreaming about and my sense of foreboding. As if in suspended animation the air in the room is deathly still. I break the serenity, get up, lean over and turn on the idiot box. I Dream of Jeannie is on, so that means its about six or six-thirty in the morning.

I lie back down and contemplate how I'm gonna approach Mom about the job with the Daily News delivering papers. Mrs. Church my baby sitter said I could get the job if Mom agreed. My birthday is five days away and I am gonna be eleven. As Mom always says 'I am da man o' da house', and she needs help making ends meat. I don't want to have to ask her for money all the time; I hate doing that.

I leave the placidity of my bedroom and walk into the living room to confront Mom. I stop at the threshold and gaze into the room; something is different it mirrors my room with its dead calm. The ever constant old color TV breaks the tranquility, and yet it doesn't it seems to blend into the background and take the form of a voyeur.

I break the static and cross to the head of the couch where Mommy rests. She looks uncomfortable yet at peace, with one leg propped up on the back of the couch, clad in bra and panties, one eye partially open but not enough for her to be awake. This is a regular sleeping position for her.

"Mrs. Church says I could get a job wit' the Daily News if you say it's OK I think I should get it, besides I'm turning eleven and Mrs. Church says I can. So what do you say?"

I look down into her face after my speech awaiting a response.

Silence.

"Well?"

Silence.

"Then forget you then. But Mrs. Church says I can!"

I suck my teeth and storm out of the room. How could she ignore me? Just who does she think she is? Well Mrs. Church says I can have the job. Besides I'm at Mrs. Church's house more then I'm here.

Realization.

Like a wave washing over a beached fish a thought comes to me. What if she's playing dead? A game in recent years she played with my younger brothers and me. I remember how the last time we played it, she woke from her feigned state of eternal rest after I had jokingly picked up the phone and pretended to call the police. My brother Monte didn't like the game and always grew very upset when ever she played it the frequency seeming greater over the last few months. 

I liked it because I could prove to her that I knew how to keep a level head in a dangerous or erratic situation the same way I did when my youngest brother Choan cut open his knee o the bone, and I carried him to this local convenience store to call for help. Blood was gushing all over the place and I kept a cool head, applying pressure to the wound and barking orders to the frazzled attendant of the store. I knew that if she died and we were alone I would keep the situation under control because I was da man o' da house.

Wise to her scheme I walked slowly back into the living room to prove myself more clever. The television blaring like an entity from the Poltergeist movie seemed to prod me on. I stopped at the head of the couch and reached down and touched her forehead.

It is cold.

Are people supposed to be cold when they're asleep? My mind began to race to find an answer to this anomaly. Bad information was put into the program and the computer was malfunctioning. Well your body shuts down at night to conserve energy and repair itself, its logical that it would reduce it's temperature to conserve energy.

I hurry down the hallway to test my new theorem on my brothers. Their shared bedroom is at the back of the apartment the room is chilly but filled with a glow of energy that reminds me of the way you feel after a long hot bath. Monte is closest to the door.

I reach to touch his forehead.

It's warm.

Something isn't right I feel the room began to spin around me, I grab the door frame to steady myself and shake my head to regain focus. Monte is my junior but I think he might be able to help me assess the situation a bit better and shed some light on my confusion.

I shake him.

"Monte I think something is wrong. I felt Mommy's head and it feels cold. Are people cold when they're asleep?"

Before I can finish trying to explain he rushes down the hallway in a frenzy his footsteps sound like a bell tolling in my head as I follow him and find him at the couch shaking Mom and screaming.

"Mom wake up! Mommies wake up! Mom!!"

I am surprisingly calm as I look at him wondering why he's freaking out so. I am feeling a little dizzy, and thinking is getting hard its like trying to run through a pool when the water is above your head. I decide we need an adult intervention and I call Mrs. Church to ask her what to do.

"Hello this is Trevor. Can I speak to Mrs. Church?"

"Hi Trevor it's Mrs. Church. What's the matter?"

"Mrs. Church something is wrong. Mom's forehead feels cold, really cold and she doesn't want to wake up."

I look over at Monte he is crying and holding Mom's hand.

"Listen Trevor calm down and call 911. Then after you call them call me back and let me know what they say"

I am calm, why did she say that?

"OK I'll call you back."

I hang up and look up Chaon is rubbing his eyes and making his way down the hallway.

"Chaon go and sit with Monte and watch TV"

He shuffles oblivious to the foot of the couch between Mom's feet. It's his usual sitting position. Everything is fine here. He groggily sits and stare into the void of the TV not for one moment seeming to acknowledge Monte's visible distress or my rising since of uneasiness.

I pick up the phone and dial 911.

The room seems as if its getting darker even though its mid morning.

"911 Emergency Services. How may I help you?"

"HimynameisTrevorBrownandIthinkthereissomethingthematterwithmymother"

"Trevor. Trevor, calm down and tell me what's the matter."

Why do people keep saying that I am calm.

Breathe. Exhale.

"My mother's head feels really cold... really cold and she won't wake up."

"Trevor slow down and give me your address and I'll send an ambulance over right away OK?"

"MYNAMEISTREVORBROWNILIVEAT1101BROWNSTREETPEEKSKILLNEWYORKAPARTMENT5GZIPCODE10566"

"Thank you Trevor, help is on the way you will be fine"

I didn't feel fine.

The air in the room felt like orange marmalade thick and heavy I felt as if it was getting harder to catch my breath and think. 

I call Mrs. Church gives her an update and she tells me she is going to send her son Marvin over to pick us up and to get dressed. I tell Monte and Chaon to go get dressed. When Monte and Chaon  come back we all sit on the couch and watch Tom & Jerry. It is very hard to focus on the cartoon antics, my mind races over the mornings events wondering if there is something I should have done differently. I look over at Monte's tear streak face and wish I could be as free as him to let go but I don't have that luxury I am da man o' da house and I have got to be strong and keep the situation under control.

I sit quietly dry eyed and wait.

After what seems like a lifetime the intercom rings, I jump up and answer it. It's Marvin and the paramedics. I buzz them in and mindlessly sit back down. I look into Mom's face making a mental note to never forget the expression that is written across it. No more pain of chemotherapy and losing her left breast and hair, or the men in her life hurting her, or even the Cinderella-like betrayal of her family. No more worrying about how she was going to feed us, clothe us, no more rent, no more work for her grey streaked hair. The calmness on her face is like a serene lake in the mountains untouched by mortal hands.

A knock on the door interrupts my inflection. I drift to the door and open it. The paramedics dash through the door and over to the couch.

Too late.

Marvin follows the room is taken over by loud commands and noisy machinery . Marvin tells us to go down to the car out back and wait for him. I try to see what they are doing to Mom but I am pushed out along with my brothers. Wait don't they know I am da man o' da house? I should be right there besides my mother seeing what is going on. But in the rush of everything and the reality that I am just a child I am ignored and so I join my brothers in Marvin's yellow car.

This was the last time I saw my mother.

Within the next few days of which I have little to no recollection I was eventually shuffled off to the Bronx to live with my paternal grandparents and my brothers off to live with my Cousin Margaret. What about a funeral or memorial you ask? They said we were too young to go to a funeral that we would not have understood or know how to behave.

TOO YOUNG to mourn your mother's death the woman who had carried you for nine months in her belly, breast fed you at her teat, the woman you had lived your entire life with? Too young to say good bye to someone who fed clothed and nurtured you, who defended you when people were out to hurt or mislead you? Too young indeed!

To this day I do not know anything about the disposition of my mother's remains. I heard she was cremated and buried, but I don't know cause of death. Some say it was cancer, some say it wasn't whose to believe. No one has answers to my questions when I ask them. I know that some day I will find her and let her know her man o' da house is doing alright.

[Photos by Brown Estate]

[felucians]

Nex Benedict's death wasn't just for being transgender, it was for being native too. 2 Spirits are revered in many native cultures and it is a native-specific identity. This wasn't just a hate crime against trans & NB individuals, this was also a hate crime against Natives of Turtle Island.

You cannot separate Nex's trans identity from their native identity - this is a case of MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2 Spirits).

Native children being killed at school is nothing new, so it's equally important to talk about Nex's native identity and being intersectional, this is a devastating tragedy for indigenous people, the queer community & especially those of us who are both indigenous and queer.

May Nex rest in peace 🪶