11 Decolonizing Restorative Justice
Jenna Smith
Title: Decolonization Restoration: Reconstructing Restorative Justice Practices
Abstract
Restorative justice can and needs to be decolonized. When analyzing the impacts of colonization, defining decolonization, and exploring decolonized practices, one sees that decolonized versions of restorative measures can and indeed do occur within post-colonial societies. Asadullah’s decolonizing tree framework offers a reasonable and appropriate framework to deconstruct colonial elements and augment decolonial values within existing restorative practices. Upon embracing the information within this essay, it is my hope that students and restorative justice practitioners understand and adopt decolonized mindsets in order to reimagine restorative justice and continue their education with the intent to deconstruct colonial values.
Introduction
Since the 1990s, the use of restorative justice practices has increased exponentially in post-colonial countries such as Canada and New Zealand (Tauri, 2009). Restorative justice is an alternative form of justice that focuses on victims, communities and offenders (Vogel, 2006). Compared to retributive forms of justice, restorative justice offers a collaborative approach that is trauma-informed and harm-reducing (Vogel, 2006). The theory behind restorative justice is that offenders, through community-based, mediated collaborative punishment, take responsibility for their actions, which in turn will create stronger communities (Vogel, 2006). Victims, like offenders, are key stakeholders throughout the restorative justice process and are encouraged, alongside the community, to play an active role in the justice process (Vogel, 2006). Despite the glowing reputation and seemingly solid theory behind restorative justice measures, the widespread use of restorative justice in post-colonial States has illustrated a disconnect within the justice community. Notably, once post-colonial States adopt practices of restorative justice, it often becomes falsely categorized as Indigenous justice (Breton, 2012). Such categorization is no mistake. It means that post-colonial States adopt restorative practices into a Western crime-control model then claim these practices are to aid Indigenous offenders (Daly, 2002). This false categorization is extremely damaging and harmful to Indigenous peoples within the post-colonial States that have introduced restorative justice measures (Findlay, 2000). It also illustrates the lack of awareness among policy makers and program developers about Indigenous culture and the extent of its difference to mainstream culture. Restorative and Indigenous justice share similar practices, but the way in which each justice method is executed and applied to individuals within communities is different and therefore Indigenous justice and restorative justice cannot be considered equal (Braun, 2019). There is a need to decolonize restorative justice and its practices, which have been purposely misrepresented throughout its existence in post-colonial States such as Canada (Tauri, 2021). This misrepresentation most likely began when the Government of Canada implemented restorative justice as a smoke screen to seem “more inclusive” towards Indigenous offenders.
In order to decolonize restorative justice, one must assess the implications of colonization on the justice system and the people it serves. This requires an active effort to find relevant working definitions of decolonization in order to promote it within the context of restorative justice and in daily life of average Canadians through education delivery. Dr. Muhammad Asadullah’s decolonizing tree framework offers an approach for recognizing the colonial aspects of restorative justice practices that make it fail Indigenous people, the very group it purports to help (Asadullah, 2021). In order to conceptually test a decolonized restorative justice practice, Asadullah’s framework can be used to deconstruct case examples to determine if the practice is decolonial. Decolonizing restorative justice is possible, but not without a usable and transferable framework that encompasses the cultural needs of Indigenous peoples and other minorities over-represented in the justice system.
The Impacts of Colonization
The implications of colonization are tangible in most post-colonial States. In fact, colonization and globalization processes have massively contributed to the suffering of Indigenous peoples (Tauri, 2016). Through the process of colonization, many Indigenous populations were annihilated as settlers arrived in their areas (Diamond, 1999). For example, approximately 90 million Indigenous peoples are believed to have resided in the Americas prior to the arrival of European explorers and settlers (Diamond, 1999). As part of the colonial system, settlers forcefully imposed their ideals on Indigenous peoples (Hand, Hankes, & House, 2012). As part of this process, anti-Indigenous laws, norms, practices and social values were adopted by white settlers. Through colonial assimilation, the collective identities of the Indigenous peoples were stolen and many of their collective (cultural) memories lost (Lavallee & Poole, 2009). Under settler rule, Indigenous people were forbidden to practice their cultural ceremonies or speak their languages (Lavallee & Poole, 2009). Indigenous people were ethnologically suffocated by the colonizers, and the implications of this cultural genocide continues to plague Indigenous peoples in post-colonial societies today (Hand, Hankes, & House, 2012).
This process of colonization through assimilation, exploitation, general social exclusion, and criminalization has had lasting effects on the current criminal justice system, alternative justice measures such as restorative justice, and the Indigenous peoples of the post-colonial States (Cunneen, 2002). Not only were formal justice systems based on the settler-colonial ideology, but its discriminatory values continue to hamper post-colonial societies even as they move closer to positive, decolonized forms of justice (Breton, 2012). The problems within many current postcolonial justice practices have affected the ways restorative justice has been introduced, developed, and implemented (Tauri, 2016). The impacts of colonization within the current, colonially influenced justice system and its rehabilitation practices include the Indigenisation of restorative justice, which perpetuates the colonial loss of identity among Indigenous peoples.
The Absent Emotion Factor
The foundations of the traditional Western legal system of most post-colonial States are rooted in colonialism (Asadullah, 2021). This colonial influence has embedded a legal ‘etiquette’ throughout the justice system that conveys, maintains, and perpetuates itself. Thus, the therapeutic element of emotion has been removed from legal proceedings in colonized States. The Canadian Court, for example, is performative rather than emotive in that an offender’s legal advocate or lawyer stands before the court and presents most of the defense. Lawyers and legal advisors portray the needs and circumstances of their client. Within this process, it is rare for an offender to testify about how they feel about their crime. There are many reasons for this, such as fear that an act of empathy or apology could lead to suspicions about their innocence or intent (Karstedt, 2002). The restorative justice approach of the offender acknowledging responsibility in front of stakeholders allows for transformation in terms of emotional healing. Victims also lack enforceable rights to share their feelings and achieve emotional healing within the criminal legal proceedings of post-colonial States (Karstedt, 2002). Although victim impact statements may be read, they aim to clarify the seriousness of a crime committed rather than offer a way for victims to obtain closure or offenders to admit, understand, and explain their accountability as well as guilt.
Emotion is central to changing behaviour and understanding one’s responsibility (Vogel, 2006). Despite the use of victim impact statements, the emotional element of humility within justice is quite absent (Karstedt, 2002). This absence of emotion is a colonial attribute normalized within current legal criminal proceedings and in the tomes of legal literature. Legal research relating to the current, colonially influenced criminal justice systems also lacks explorations of the role of emotion (Karstedt, 2002). The role of emotion can be demonstrated by displays of crying, apologizing, expressing remorse and addressing the community. Taking responsibility and transforming emotions are vital to the success of restorative practices (Vogel, 2006). It can thus be said that the restorative power of emotion is not recognized in current criminal justice proceedings or restorative justice practices in postcolonial states.
Indigenisation of Restorative Justice
Moving from colonial criminal justice proceedings to restorative justice is often seen as positive in post-colonial States (Daly, 2002). Restorative justice as an alternative justice model was widely adopted throughout post-colonial States starting in the 1990s (Tauri, 2009). As restorative measures began to gain traction within criminal justice systems of post-colonial States around the globe, governments turned restorative justice into a Western-centric crime-control model (Daly, 2002). This model was then held up as concurrent with Indigenous justice and popularized by the government as a way to help Indigenous offenders (Tauri, 2009). The ensuing misconception of restorative justice can be seen as a “purposeful misrepresentation” within the restorative justice industry (Tauri, 2021). This misrepresentation of restorative justice as Indigenous benefits the governments of post-colonial States by wrongly implying inclusiveness of Indigenous peoples into justice practices (Tauri, 2021).
The purposeful exclusion of Indigenous peoples within justice systems is another method used by post-colonial governments to silence Indigenous people. On the one hand, the Indigenisation of restorative justice is harmful because it pretends to promote the goals of Indigenous advocates who have fought extremely hard for their sovereignty in justice matters (Breton, 2012). On the other hand, when Indigenous justice is categorized and advertised as restorative justice, the miscategorization weakens the Indigenous fight for sovereignty within postcolonial States and perpetuates systemic injustice (Breton, 2012). Thus, it is critically important to separate the practices of restorative justice and Indigenous justice in post-colonial societies. Currently, most restorative practices in post-colonial States exhibit a top-down approach that is applied within the Western crime control model. The top-down approach means implementation of strategies for restorative justice at the highest levels of government in the vague hope they will trickle down to communities and individuals. This strong State involvement directly opposes traditional Indigenous values and conflict-resolution or justice measures in previously colonized lands (Tauri, 2021). The Indigenization of restorative justice is directly tied to colonization because it is a way that post-colonial governments maintain control over Indigenous peoples.
Loss of identity
Needless to say, colonization has impacted Indigenous peoples tremendously. One devastating implication of colonization is the loss of Indigenous identity (Lavallee & Poole, 2009). Through the process of assimilation paired with the other negative effects of colonization, Indigenous identities across the globe have been suffocated (Lavallee & Poole, 2009). Historically, post-colonial states such as Canada used laws to ban Indigenous peoples from practicing their ceremonies and traditions (Lavallee & Poole, 2009). An example of such legislation is the implementation of residential schools across Canada. Despite extreme pressure by the government, the Indigenous peoples managed to retain aspects of their culture, largely because colonial values and assimilation processes were so unjust they could stand in the way of but never replace Indigenous knowledge and traditions (Wolfe, 2006).
Many attempts to save their identities have been made by the Indigenous peoples of post-colonial States. Indigenous peoples have asked for their sovereignty and well as self-governance (McGuire & Palys, 2020). Sovereignty and self-governance could ensure culturally appropriate justice practices and measures that would uphold Indigenous community values. Thus, sovereignty and self-governance for Indigenous peoples are vital steps towards decolonization. However, there is widespread reluctance from the government to afford Indigenous peoples the right of self-governance. This reluctance stems from colonization, as post-colonial governments are quick to radicalize Indigenous peoples (Tauri, 2016). Notably, it is common practice at all levels of post-colonial governments to dismiss Indigenous people’s ideas, values and justice practices (McGuire & Palys, 2020). Despite this, Indigenous peoples continue to fight for and restore their decimated cultural identities and rights.
Defining Decolonization
Decolonization is a dynamic concept, it can be understood and conceptualized in many ways (Sium & Desai, 2012). Decolonization is sustained through the incorporation of Indigenous practices and Indigenous knowledge (Braun, 2019). Decolonization can be understood as a deconstruction of Western ideals that depend on colonizer values. Decolonization has macro and micro forms and can happen in many ways (Asadullah, 2021). Macro forms of decolonization target large-scale, institutional and systemic change (Asadullah, 2021). Macro forms of decolonization are thus vital for decolonized justice practices within postcolonial States. Notably, micro forms of decolonization are also extremely important (Asadullah, 2021). Micro forms of decolonization target the worldview of individuals (Asadullah, 2021). An example of micro decolonization is the decolonization of one’s mindset as a person can redefine themselves and what motivates them once they have broken down the barriers that colonial values reinforce (Asadullah, 2021). Both micro and macro forms of decolonization are integral to the deconstruction of colonial values within postcolonial States. As suggested by this discussion of micro and macro forms of decolonization, there are multiple ways to conceptualize decolonization, but it must always aim to ensure the rights of all citizens, not just those of the mainstream core. This can only be achieved through the decolonization of spaces, policies, practices, and people’s minds.
Decolonizing Spaces
In order to decolonize post-colonial States, the Indigenous peoples need to be consciously welcomed back into spaces from which they have been exiled (Cunneen, 2002). Since Indigenous peoples were victims of assimilation by the settlers, the Indigenous peoples’ territory and resources were also lost (Wolfe, 2006). This hostile takeover of resources and land was the settlers’ primary motive and the reason for forced assimilation of the Indigenous peoples (Wolfe, 2006). This is because land was and is considered an extremely valuable resource and the colonial system was specifically designed to create wealth for the mother country through the exploitation of natural and human resources (Wolfe, 2006). A relationship with the land was a central tenet of Indigenous people that was lost when they were relocated and put upon reserves (Cunneen, 2002). Moreover, because of the twisted implications of colonization, these reserves are also linked to social views on Indigenous criminality since they served to radicalize Indigenous people in the eyes of the public (Cunneen, 2002). The decolonization of spaces is a necessary step in rebalancing authority lost through the assimilation process and must focus on letting Indigenous peoples into spaces from which they have been ideologically excluded (Cunneen, 2002). These spaces include government establishments and local justice organizations (Cunneen, 2002). Further, pathways for change must be created in order for Indigenous peoples to regain land rights and become part of conversations about sustainability on all fronts (Cunneen, 2002). Once there is decolonization of spaces, Indigenous people can safely practice Indigenous knowledge once more.
Decolonizing our minds
The aspect of decolonizing the mind is hard for most of us to fathom. To decolonize one’s mind is to forfeit motivations brought forward by Western ideologies and become open to the possibilities of more equitable ideals that are unbeknownst to the mind (Cunneen, 2002). This type of decolonization is arguably the hardest to achieve because the colonial system also worked to brainwash settlers and Indigenous peoples into believing there is only one cultural reality, and this persists in postcolonial States. The one cultural reality that was presented consisted of Western ideologies. These Western ideologies are based on status, an unquestioning approach to authority and celebration of individual self-interest. It is extremely difficult to distance oneself from this deeply embedded white-settler narrative (Sium & Desai, 2012). Moreover, the decolonization of individual minds will also depend upon a reimagining of the colonial power structures that keep this thinking alive (Cunneen, 2002). A questioning of such power structures in postcolonial states and why is paramount in bolstering individual cognitive awareness. Not only do individuals’ minds need to be open to the concept of decolonization, a collective push for the systemic change needed to decolonize society will also be required.
Rights must be recognized
In order to decolonize post-colonial societies, Indigenous rights must be properly granted (Cunneen, 2002). Since the arrival of the settlers within postcolonial countries, the rights of Indigenous peoples have been neither properly sustained nor addressed. Treaty rights should be upheld in all countries that signed them and the many wrongs of colonial and postcolonial governments in terms of human right contraventions should be righted. In order to right these wrongs, the governments of postcolonial States must publicly address the power imbalances within their societies in a clear move towards reconciliation (Asadullah, 2021). That said, Indigenous advocates must be part of the process. Their voices must be heard and properly considered at all levels of government. Indigenous peoples are being punished for living on land that is rightfully theirs. This punishment comes in many forms in Canada, such as over-policing on reserves and a lack of clean drinking water (Environment Climate Change Canada, 2021). The possibility of decolonization cannot even be glimpsed until Indigenous peoples receive basic human rights in postcolonial states.
Restorative Justice and Decolonization
All justice systems in postcolonial states must be decolonized. In terms of restorative justice, decolonization must take place at both the institutional and personal level to satisfy its macro and micro forms (Asadullah, 2021). First, restorative justice must be decolonized at a level of the State institution (Asadullah, 2021). This form of decolonization happens when power structures are questioned and deconstructed in the aim of creating systemic change (Asadullah, 2021). This macro form of decolonization could be accomplished by changing restorative justice protocols to ensure standardized and properly categorized applications. The government’s role in restorative practices must also be deconstructed, as government initiatives for restorative measures can contribute more harm than good (Asadullah, 2021). Essentially, decolonizing power relationships at institutional levels deconstructs settler narratives by ensuring less of a power imbalance between certain groups of a postcolonial state and the government (Asadullah, 2021). This approach to addressing the power imbalances within the criminal justice system would constitute macro decolonization having the potential to create institutional change (Asadullah, 2021).
Secondly, the decolonization of restorative justice must occur within the minds of individuals (Cunneen, 2002). People must be taught to reflect on the implications of colonization for society and educate themselves instead of being defensive regarding privileges they may have within that society. The personal decolonization of one’s mind is a micro form (Asadullah, 2021). Doing this will require postcolonial states to provide citizens with information about Indigenous values, traditions, and practices to pave the way to the Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. It will be nearly impossible to escape the colonizer mindset; however, since the ideology of postcolonial societies is rooted in colonization (Sium & Desai, 2012).
Overall, the need for a decolonized restorative justice is great. Decolonization of restorative justice would introduce change within justice systems founded on colonial values. Moreover, both macro and micro forms are involved in the push to decolonize restorative justice, which will include the deconstruction of institutional practices and personal motivations.
A Decolonizing Framework for Restorative Justice
Since decolonization has no standard definition, there have been many frameworks presented for the purpose of creating successful restorative practices. An inclusive, extensive example of a restorative justice framework for decolonization is the “decolonizing tree” created by Muhammad Asadullah (Asadullah, 2021). The decolonizing tree offers a framework for identifying the essential attributes of a successfully decolonized restorative justice practice (Asadullah, 2021). Through the decolonizing lens, these attributes are expressed through the roots, trunk, branches and fruit (Asadullah, 2021).
First, one must examine the roots of the decolonizing tree when considering a restorative justice practice (Asadullah, 2021). This bottom-up approach to decolonization ensures there is a do-no-harm principle attached to the restorative justice practice in question (Asadullah, 2021). All restorative practices must thus be informed by a trauma-informed lens and involve a consultation aspect with Indigenous peoples and the local community (Asadullah, 2021). Validating the roots of a restorative justice practice is foundational in creating an anti-oppressive restorative practice (Asadullah, 2021).
Secondly, the trunk of the decolonizing tree must be analysed in order to verify decolonized restorative justice practices (Asadullah, 2021). The trunk of restorative justice within the decolonizing tree framework is composed of local cultures and traditions that ensure practices are culturally relevant (Asadullah, 2021). Certifying restorative practices as relational is vital for decolonization (Asadullah, 2021). The trunk of the decolonizing tree also symbolizes the need for strong, collaborative leadership within the community that is inclusive of Indigenous people.
Thirdly, the decolonizing tree framework has branches to ensure grassroots wisdom and guidance throughout the restorative justice process (Asadullah, 2021). The branches also point to the need to acknowledge and learn from other culturally relevant and similar restorative practices around the world (Asadullah, 2021). When examining similar practices, one can recognize and personalize those that may have potential in one’s own community. In short, the success of a decolonial restorative practice is vital to build upon other relevant practices of a similar nature (Asadullah, 2021).
Finally, the fourth concept within the decolonizing tree framework is fruit the tree bears (Asadullah, 2021). The fruit symbolizes the sharing of successful, decolonial, restorative practices with other communities in need of similar practices (Asadullah, 2021). The desired outcome here is to have locally grown and owned restorative practices in a given community (Asadullah, 2021). Reflection and sharing are decolonial concepts that complement positive restorative justice measures and should be implemented to ensure the success of any community based, bottom-up practices (Asadullah, 2021).
In sum, the decolonizing tree can be used to ensure that the appropriate decolonial elements exist in a given restorative justice practice. Such elements include the roots, which are foundational to each practice and ensure a bottom-up approach that pays special attention to trauma-informed justice (Asadullah, 2021). The next element is the trunk, which ensures the practice is composed of or collaboratively includes local, Indigenous influences and leadership (Asadullah, 2021). The tree branches ensure the practice is culturally relevant to the community (Asadullah, 2021). Finally, the fruit of the program is an essential element as the practices can be shared among communities who can use them for their own purposes (Asadullah, 2021). The decolonizing tree allows for easy understanding of decolonizing practices within restorative justice as it lays out a framework for the essential attributes of decolonized practice (Asadullah, 2021).
Decolonized Restorative Justice Practices
The Production of ‘Cellfish’
Prison theatre programs include multiple practices that are considered restorative in nature. These theatre programs are created by prisoners to be performed before external communities and internal communities within the prisons themselves (Hazou, 2017). One specific aspect of prison theatre looking to a decolonized form of restorative justice is the New Zealand production, CellFish (Hazou, 2017). The production of CellFish fosters the reparation of harm, as it itself enacts restorative justice principles (Hazou, 2017). CellFish was written by Miriama McDowell, Rob Mokaraka and Jason Te Kare (Hazou, 2017). It speaks to the implications of colonization including dehumanization and the absence of emotion within the criminal justice system of New Zealand (Hazou, 2017). The production takes a critical look at the current retributive system and how it can be restored through restorative justice principles (Hazou, 2017). Within the production, both professional actors and prisoners have been able to perform, making it a hybrid opportunity for people to learn and feel the legacies of colonialism within the prison system while ensuring a safe space (Hazou, 2017). CellFish can be deconstructed within the decolonizing tree framework in order to further examine the production’s relationship to colonialism and community.
First, in terms of the decolonizing tree’s root element, the production of CellFish is grounded in consultation with Indigenous people (Hazou, 2017). The production of CellFish was built upon the experiences of prisoners incarnated in New Zealand (Hazou, 2017). It touches on themes of colonization and the implications with imprisonment rates of the Māori peoples and offers appropriate representation of this cultural group (Hazou, 2017). Notably, the production is aptly focussed on the Māori peoples, as they have the highest incarnation rates in New Zealand making them both the most affected and the most disadvantaged within the justice system (Hazou, 2017).
Secondly, the trunk of the decolonizing tree can also be found in CellFish, as the production is built upon culturally relevant instances and historical notions of incarnation (Hazou, 2017). The many examples of culturally relevant practices for the Māori include traditional dances such as the haka pōwhiri (Hazou, 2017). In addition, Indigenous understandings inform about the interconnections of family relations and the restoration of balance (Hazou, 2017). CellFish focuses on cultural practices and identity within prisons (Hazou, 2017), satisfying the trunk aspect of the decolonizing tree.
Thirdly, the decolonizing tree’s branches are also found in CellFish in the form of prison theater itself, since the concept of prison theater has influences from the rest of the world (Hazou, 2017). An example of the restorative power of prison theater is the Shakespeare Behind Bars program founded in the United States (Hazou, 2017). Upon finding greatly reduced recidivism rates after offenders attended the program Shakespeare Behind Bars, the foundation of the program was made transferable to other nations. Thus, CellFish and the theories supporting its production are built upon an extremely strong foundation.
Lastly, completing the elements of a decolonized restorative justice practice, is the fruit. Through articles and other ways of disseminating information, productions such as CellFish will be shared with other prison populations and citizens alike. The production conceptualizes healing through the lens of Indigenous approaches to justice and will be influential across all platforms (Hazou, 2017).
Community-Based Restorative Justice
There have been many successes with community-based justice systems. A community-based justice program was implemented by Augustine Park in Red Deer, Canada which began in 2014 in response to an Indigenous community grieving children who died at residential schools. The restorative program was set in motion to commemorate the children of Indigenous people who were forcibly placed by the Canadian government into abusive residential schools. Other goals set by Augustine Park’s community-based restorative justice practice included claiming cemeteries where Indigenous children were buried, providing education on the topic of residential schools and aiding in reconciliation (Park, 2016). Community-based restorative justice by Augustine Park in Red Deer is a prime example of a practice that can be deconstructed through the decolonizing tree framework.
First, this community-based justice program has great roots within the context of the decolonizing tree framework. The practice was created through a partnership between the Indigenous Church and the Remembering Children Society, both practices consulted throughout the process and are interested in decolonization. Feedback from members and partnerships was encouraged to ensure a voice for local peoples. Moreover, the practice was created within the Cree context and all tactics of justice came from Cree values and approaches, which ensured bottom-up creation (Park, 2016).
Secondly, this community-based restorative justice practice embodied all the vital elements of the trunk. All included elements were culturally relevant and community leaders played a vital role (Park, 2016). Moreover, Indigenous peoples were made central and practices including feasting and spirituality were conducted according to Indigenous beliefs and worldviews, allowing for cultural resurgence (Park, 2016).
Thirdly, the branches of this partnership practice can be understood through the decolonizing tree. The process was developed in the knowledge that culturally relevant practices are important and can be found by reaching out to other successful restorative justice programs. Principles of other community-based restorative practices were also applied in the participants’ interest as they were harm reducing and information oriented (Park, 2016). Importantly, throughout the process of community-based restorative justice there were instances of transformed relationships (Park, 2016).
Finally, the fruit of the decolonizing tree can also be applied to this practice. One of the goals of this community-based restorative justice program was to help other communities who needed closure and could use similar practices. Thus, in ensuring their goal of sharing, this program formed the basis of a restorative practice that was both locally created and locally sourced—and local approaches offer a particularly effective way of achieving justice (Park, 2016).
Limitations
Limitations are common within the examination of all case studies. Both the production of CellFish and the community-based justice practice are solid examples of decolonized practices that fit the decolonizing tree framework. However, there are limitations related to the examination and analysis of the studies presented. The greatest limitation within this research is that there is no participant feedback. The lack of participant feedback means that the majority of the information presented within the articles comes from the author which in turn creates an absence of reflection by participants. Therefore, through analyses, one has limited access to all accounts within the given practice. When deconstructing restorative justice using a decolonial framework, the absence of multiple accounts and perspectives can be discouraging as decolonization is never limited to only one person or one person’s account of events that took place.
Conclusion
Decolonization of restorative justice practices is needed in post-colonial states. After the mass adoption in the 1990s of restorative justice practices within postcolonial States, their governments began falsely associating Indigenous justice with restorative justice (Tauri, 2021). This Indigenization of restorative justice is extremely harmful and needs to be repaired (Findlay, 2000). Restorative justice practices are supposed to be positive, with a focus on relationship building and offender responsibility (Vogel, 2006). It is time that the greatest offenders, the governments of post-colonial States, take responsibility and ensure the decolonization of justice practices in both macro and micro forms that will allow Indigenous peoples into spaces from which they have been barred.
In the quest to decolonize restorative justice, one must assess the implications of colonization on current justice practices and on Indigenous people and the mainstream populations of colonized States. The implications of colonization include an absence of emotion in criminal proceedings, the Indigenization of restorative justice practices, and the loss of Indigenous identity in postcolonial states. Decolonization can be carried out on spaces, mindsets, and through the establishment or renewal of Indigenous rights (Cunneen, 2006). The use of both macro and micro forms of decolonization will contribute to and promote the overall decolonization of restorative justice practices (Asadullah, 2021). Decolonization of restorative justice is possible for postcolonial societies but must be approached from a reasonable and structured decolonial framework. If justice is to be reimagined in our post-colonial societies, it is up to us to practice restorative justice in the intent of deconstructing colonial values.
Discussion Questions
- In what ways have the governments of postcolonial States ensured that Indigenous needs are misrepresented? Please discuss why these misrepresentations are harmful and what can be done at a government level to stop misinformation.
- Reflect upon your own understanding of restorative justice. In what ways has your perception changed after reading about the impact of colonization?
Recommended Activity
In order to take the necessary steps to reimagine restorative justice, researchers must take a personal interest in decolonization. When reimagining and deconstructing colonial values it is important to examine one’s own motivations and influences. Much of what we know to be normal and productive is based on colonial values (Breton, 2012). Thus, I would recommend taking time out of your week to do some reflective writing. Ask yourself if any of the practices in your life reflect colonial values. Then, reflect on whether those values are serving you and your community in a positive manner and write down the answers. Once you become comfortable analyzing your own life, you may begin to critically reflect upon what the programs, education and media you submerge yourself in and what ideals are perpetuated throughout such mediums. Remember, decolonization is not supposed to be comfortable.
Recommended Readings
- Cunneen, C. (2002). Restorative justice and the politics of decolonization. In<PHONE_NUMBER> 906368843 W. E. M. &<PHONE_NUMBER> 906368843 H. J. Kerner (Eds.). Restorative justice: Theoretical foundations(pp. 32-42). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
- Tauri, J. (2009). An Indigenous perspective on the standardisation of restorative justice in New Zealand and Canada. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://ipjournal.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/an-indigenous-perspective-on-the-standardisation-of-restorative-justice-in-new-zealand-and-canada/
References
Asadullah, M. (2021). Decolonization and Restorative Justice: A Proposed Theoretical Framework. Journal of Decolonization of Criminology and Justice, 3(1), 27-62.
Breton, D. (2012, January 01). Decolonizing restorative justice. Retrieved 26 February 2021, https://read.dukeupress.edu/tikkun/article/27/1/45/30402/Decolonizing-Restorative-Justice
Braun, K. (2019). Victim Perspectives and Criminal Justice. In Victim Participation Rights (Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology, pp. 65-86). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Environment Climate Change Canada. (2021). Canadian environmental sustainability indicators: Number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserve. Government of Canada.
Clear, T. R., & Karp, D. R. (2002). What is community justice?: Case studies of restorative justice and community supervision. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Cunneen, C. (2002). Restorative justice and the politics of decolonization. In H. J. Kerner (Eds.). (2002). Restorative justice: Theoretical foundations (pp. 32-42). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Daly, K. (2002). Restorative justice: The Real Story. Punishment & Society, 4(1), 55-79. doi:10.1177/14624740222228464
Diamond, J. M. (1999). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. doi:10.1017/S0022050700022178
Findlay, M. (2000). Decolonising restoration and justice: Restoration in transitional cultures. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 39(4), 398-411. doi:10.1111/1468-2311.00178
Hand, C. A., Hankes, J., & House, T. (2012). Restorative justice: The indigenous justice system. Contemporary Justice Review, 15(4), 449-467. doi:10.1080/10282580.2012.734576
Hazou, R. (2017). Enacting Restorative Justice: Shakespeare and Tikanga Māori in Cellfish (2017). Australasian Drama Studies, 76, 211-240. Retrieved April 1, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/43192463/Enacting_Restorative_Justice_Shakespeare_and_Tikanga_Māori_in_Cellfish_2017_
Karstedt, S. (2002). Emotions and criminal justice. Theoretical Criminology, 6(3), 299-317. Retrieved April 1, 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/136248060200600304?casa_token=7XTU80bl1kcAAAAA:jIGCS5KnySMbFd3dNuwYus6ZhlqnAUK7jVBXuMHyRc551bizYkJkCIrsNyC6-LRMaf8G1K1pnVYRKQ
McGuire, M. M., & Palys, T. (2020). Toward sovereign indigenous justice: On removing the colonial straightjacket. Decolonization of Criminology and Justice, 2(1), 59-82. doi:10.24135/dcj.v2i1.16
Moyle, P., & Tauri, J. M. (2016). Māori, family Group conferencing and the mystifications of restorative justice. Victims & Offenders, 11(1), 87-106. doi:10.1080/15564886.2015.1135496
Lavallee, L. F., & Poole, J. M. (2009). Beyond recovery: colonization, health and healing for indigenous people in Canada. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(2), 271-281. doi:10.1007/s11469-009-9239-8
Park, A. S. (2016). Remembering the Children: Decolonizing community-based restorative justice for Indian residential schools. Contemporary Justice Review, 19(4), 424-444. doi:10.1080/10282580.2016.1226818
Sium, A., Desai, C., & Ritskes, E. (2012, September 16). Towards the ‘tangible unknown’: Decolonization and the Indigenous future. Research Gate. Decolonization: indigeneity, education & society. Retrieved 25February 2021 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279660253_Towards_the_’tangible_unknown’_Decolonization_and_the_Indigenous_future
Tauri, J. (2009). An Indigenous perspective on the standardisation of restorative justice in New Zealand and Canada. Retrieved 21 March 2021 from https://ipjournal.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/an-indigenous-perspective-on-the-standardisation-of-restorative-justice-in-new-zealand-and-canada/
Tauri, J. (2016). Indigenous peoples and the globalization of restorative justice. Social Justice (San Francisco): a journal of crime, conflict & world order, 43(3), 46-67.
Tauri, J. (2021, March 15). Decolonization and restorative justice [Online interview].
Vogel, H. J. (2006). The restorative justice wager: The promise and hope of a value-based, dialogue-driven approach to conflict resolution for social healing. Retrieved 26 February 2021 from https://cardozojcr.com/vol8no2/565-610.pdf
Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 4(4), 387-409.


Literature of Nineteenth Century Reform – Whittier & Child
82 Author Introduction-Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)
Lydia Maria Child was born in Medford, Massachussetts on February 11, 1802. Lydia was assisted in her early studies by her brother, Convers Francis, who was afterwards professor of theology in Harvard College. Her first village teacher was an odd old woman, nicknamed “Marm Betty.” She studied in the public schools and one year in a seminary. In 1814 she went to Norridgewock, Maine, to live with her married sister.
Figure 1. Lydia Maria Child
After several years, she returned to Watertown, Mass., to live with her brother. He encouraged her literary aspirations, and in his study she wrote her first story, “Hobomok,” which was published in 1823. It proved successful, and she next published “Rebels,” which ran quickly through several editions. She then brought out in rapid succession ” The Mother’s Book,” which ran through eight American, twelve English and one German editions, “The Girl’s Book,” the “History of Women,” and the “Frugal Housewife,” which passed through thirty-five editions. In 1826 she commenced to publish her “Juvenile Miscellanv.”
In 1828 she became the wife of David Lee Child, a lawyer, and they settled in Boston, Mass. In 1831 they became interested in the anti-slavery movement, and both took an active part in the agitation that followed. Mr. Child was one of the leaders of the anti-slavery party. In 1833 Mrs. Child published her “Appeal in Behalf of that Class of Americans Called Africans.” Its appearance served to cut her off from the friends and admirers of her youth. Social and literary circles shut their doors to her. The sales of her books and subscriptions to her magazine fell off, and her life became one of battle. Through it all she bore herself with patience and courage, and she threw herself into the movement with all her powers.
While engaged in that memorable battle she, with her husband, supervised editorially the “Anti-Slavery Standard,” in which she published her admirable “Letters from New York.” During those troubled times she prepared her three-volume work on “The Progress of Religious Ideas.” She lived in New York City with her husband from 1840 to 1844. Her anti-slavery writings aided powerfully in bringing about the overthrow of slavery, and she lived to see a reversal of the hostile opinions that greeted her first plea for the enslaved.
Her books are numerous. Besides those already mentioned the most important are “Flowers for Children” (3 volumes, 1844-46); “Fact and Fiction” (1846); “The Tower of Kindness” (1851); “Isaac T. Hopper, a True Life” (1853); “Autumnal Leaves” (1856); “Looking Towards Sunset” (1864); “The Freedman’s Book” (1865); “Miria” (1867), and “Aspirations of the World” (1878). Her reply to Governor Wise, of Virginia, and to the wife of Senator Mason, the author of the fugitive slave law, who wrote to her, threatening her with future damnation, was published with their letters in pamphlet form, and 300,000 copies were issued. A volume of her letters, with an introduction by John Greenleaf Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips, was published in Boston, in 1882.
Source:
Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied By Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life, Frances E. Willard And Mary A. Livermore, editors, CC-BY-SA
Image Credit:
Figure 1. “Lydia Maria Child,” Grace Hammond, Virginia Western Community College, derivative image from “Lydia Maria Child,” John A. Whipple, Wikimedia, Public Domain.


Looking for Trouble
Allyson Hoffman
A large blue triangle fills up most of the classroom whiteboard. Students shout out names from our readings, groups of three characters that conflict with each other to create triangles of tension. (This concept was first introduced to me by my writing instructor and mentor, Dr. Heather Sellers.) In the most effective triangles, each character or presence (weather, significant object, etc.) exerts pushback on the other two. Often the tensions aren’t explicitly stated but can be felt through each scene, making readers hungry for the next page. This is what I’ve challenged my students to name, and they excel, thrilled to see this concept in action on the page. I scribble and erase names on each corner of the triangle as fast as my students identify new groups.
When they’re breathless and satisfied, I ask what questions they have.
A student raises her hand.
“Now that we can spot tension, how do we write it? How do I get that third character in there?”
It’s a good question. I think on process, my own and the one discussed by Robert Olen Butler in our course text, From Where You Dream. I come back the next class with a guided writing exercise—one to help them pay attention to tension, to remind them to keep an eye out for that third character, and to help them explicitly reflect on desire and conflict. To go looking for trouble.
The exercise that follows leads to only the beginning of a piece, or the revision of a piece, or the opportunity to re-see where a piece might go. But for many of my students, this is the step they need to launch into full-length, polished work. Some confide in me their reluctance at “being told” what to write, though they quickly realize that the exercise gives them freedom in their writing. The prompts serve as a set of training wheels or handrails for balance and guidance, until they feel confident writing on their own.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Have students settle into their writing spaces, whatever that may mean for them. Note: I lead my students in a guided meditation before every writing exercise. We close our eyes, pay attention to our breath, and loosen up our bodies. I’ve found that when students’ minds are cleared of distractions—when they’re allowed to relax—they are receptive to new approaches to writing, such as this exercise.
- Start with the first of these prompts and give students a few minutes to write with it: Place yourself or a character in a room or enclosed space. Where are you? What are you doing?
- Ask each of the following questions as students are writing, and be sure to give them several minutes to write with each before moving on. Going through these questions can take ten to twenty minutes, depending on how much time the students need. I let them lead; if they’re still scribbling away after a particular question, I’ll linger with it longer than some of the other questions.
- You may have already noticed this, or you’re just noticing now, but there’s another person in the room with you. What are they doing?
- You and the other character are having a conversation. What do they say to you? What do you say back? What are you doing while you’re talking?
- You may have already noticed this, or you’re just noticing now, but someone or something else is in the room with you two. Who or what is it? What do they say or do? What do you say and do?
- Dig into the desires of each of your characters. What do they want? Who and what is in their way?
- If students are willing to share, have a discussion. I encourage mine to not only share the writing itself, but to discuss observations about the writing process. What did they learn from the guided writing? What was difficult or exciting? What will they do differently in their own writing? These conversations usually take me ten to fifteen minutes, depending on the enthusiasm of the students.
- Encourage students to expand on the pieces they’ve started in class and see where the writing takes them in a full story. I have my students write this story at home, but continue to use class time if you wish.
Example of the Exercise
I’ve used this exercise in my own writing, when I’ve gotten stuck. In this example, I discovered a car can be a character that provides its own tension. With the reflective questions, I realized the scene might need to start sooner, or that I’d need a flashback in a revision to make it clear why my mother is driving my car, because it’s crucial to the tension. Note that this example is not a finished work, but rather shows the drafting process and thinking on the page that the exercise permits.
We’re driving through the dark of early morning Georgia when my car shudders. Th-thunk. Th-thunk. I bolt upright in the passenger seat, shaken from my doze.
My mother grips the steering wheel. Th-thunk. Th-thunk. Heartbeat sounds from the belly of my car. Seventy-five miles an hour, racing daylight to the Georgia–Florida line. Th-thunk.
“Should I pull over?” she asks.
I open the glovebox and dig around for the car manual. Th-thunk.
“I’m sorry, Al. We might have to get you a new car in Florida.”
I don’t want a new car. I want this car. Daisy. With peeling blue paint leaving spots like freckles on the hood. Strips of sunset-orange rust at the bottom of her body. Interior lights on the gas and the gearshift that have burned out.
I read the manual by the light of my phone. Th-thunk. “Get off at the next exit.” I shine light on the shift stick, over the letters that are burned out. “You’re driving on the D with the box around it.”
“What’s the difference?” Th-thunk.
“That’s for mountain driving. Hills.” Southern Georgia is flat, and Florida will be even flatter.
 [Note: Start scene when mom insists she drive most of the way? Flashback?]
I want to get my new life started, but I can only handle so much newness. [Note: See more homesickness? Michigan.]
If Daisy could talk, I bet she’d rather be home in Michigan, not on an endless trip. [Note: Flashback to more adventures with Daisy. Lake Michigan. What does home look like?]
Biography
Allyson Hoffman is a Michigan native who holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida. She is a winner of the 2018 AWP Intro Journals Award in Fiction. Her work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Mid-American Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.


Chapitre 1 – Bonjour !
Vocabulaire
Whether you are learning French because you want to travel, need it for work, or have signed up for a French course, learning languages is a great way to meet new people and gain new perspectives. In the “Vocabulaire” section of this Pressbook, you will learn some everyday vocabulary for job titles, classroom objects, the date and days of the week.
Lexique
- Les noms et prénoms
- Les professions
- Les objets de la classe
- La date
- Les jours de la semaine
Rencontre
Play the video to meet a Francophone and Francophile. Listen to how they use informal and formal greetings to speak to each other. The video will pause every time there is a listening comprehension question. These questions are meant to challenge you and check your comprehension.
Select the diagonal arrows to enlarge the video and view subtitles. You may slow down the recording by using the gauge on the bottom right-hand side of the player. Bonne rencontre!
‘Tu’ ou ‘Vous’?
‘Tu’ ou ‘Vous’?
Forms of address:
When speaking to another person in French for the first time, does one use ‘tu’ or the formal ‘vous’?
- In general, ‘tu’ is used with friends, family, and children. Register of language: Formal.
- ‘Vous’ is used to express politeness, formality, and social distance. ‘Vous’ is the form of address used for all formal situations. Register of language: Informal.
Entraînement
Test your understanding of when to use ‘Tu’ versus ‘Vous’ by answering the questions below. Select ‘Tu’ or ‘Vous,’ then use the “Check” button to verify your answer. To move to the next question, select the right arrow “>”.
Formality and Informality in the video with Negin and Sarah
Watch the video above once more before you answer the questions below.
Salutations: niveau de langue familier et soutenu
Niveau de langue: familier
Niveau de langue: soutenu
To advance to the next question in the exercise below, select the grey bar at the bottom. To increase the size of the exercise select the arrows on the bottom, right-hand side of the H5P item.
La Date
Les Jours de la semaine
Quels sont les jours de la semaine?
Press “play” and follow the days of the week in the image below as they are read out loud in French.
Vocabulaire
Play the recording and enter the vocabulary into the flashcards below. Be sure to pause the audio recording if you need more time to type your answers.
Vocabulary for the classroom
La salle de classe
Select the different plus icons on the image to discover the vocabulary for each hot spot in French.
Instructions for the classroom
Les consignes pour la salle de classe [Les consignes]
It is helpful to learn basic vocabulary to follow instructions in class. To advance to the next question in the exercise below, select the grey bar at the bottom, to the right of the blue segment of the bar. To increase the size of the exercises select the arrows on the bottom right-hand side of the H5P item.
Enjoy meeting people
You, singular and informal form
or
You, plural or singular formal form
training or practice exercises
Register of language
informal
formal
What are
the days of the week?
Instructions


4 Evaluate Your Learning Skills and Strengths
Even if the university environment is new to you, you already come to learning with a set of skills, strengths, and strategies that can contribute to your success. Before you move on in this chapter, take some time to reflect on the following questions. You may wish to write your answers on this page, or in another learning journal.
1. Consider a learning experience in the past that was successful for you. What were you able to learn?
2. What did you do that helped you to succeed in your learning?
Often, we associate learning in university with strengths in reading and writing. Though it is true that reading and writing are important skills used in many courses, you can also apply other learning strengths to contribute to successful learning.
One framework for evaluating your personal strengths is Multiple Intelligences, based on research by Howard Gardner. Gardner proposed that there are eight different ways of learning, creating things, and solving problems. Everyone uses all eight of these intelligences; however, in each individual, some intelligences are areas of strength, while others are weaker. This accounts for our different preferences in learning.
| Intelligence | Description |
| “Word smart” – Linguistic Intelligence | The capacity to use language to express what’s on your mind and to understand other people. People who are high in this intelligence are sensitive to language, meanings, and the relationship of words. They engage easily with vocabulary activities, grammar, poetry, essays and plays. |
| “Number smart” – Mathematical Intelligence | People with a highly developed logical-mathematical intelligence understand the underlying principles of some kind of a causal system; or can manipulate numbers, quantities, and operations. Abstract thinking, counting, organizing; and logical structures are preferred by people high in this intelligence. They also like critical thinking activities, breaking words into smaller parts and reassembling them. |
| “Picture smart” – Visual/spatial Intelligence | The ability to represent the spatial world internally in your mind. Spatial intelligence can be used in the arts or in the trades and sciences. If you are spatially intelligent and oriented toward the arts, you are more likely to become a painter or a sculptor or an architect than, say, a musician or a writer. These people tend to be keen observers, able to think in three dimensions, and like to use metaphors. Learning materials that work well for them include: graphs, charts, colour codes, guided imagery, pictures, posters, and mind maps. |
| “Body smart” – Kinesthetic Intelligence | The capacity to use your whole body or parts of your body – your hand, your fingers, your arms – to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of a production. These people have good body control and fine motor skills; and are often active and animated. They need “hands-on” learning opportunities, like shop, labs, games, skits, and plays. |
| “Music smart” – Musical Intelligence | The capacity to think in music, to be able to hear patterns, recognize them, remember them, and perhaps manipulate them. People who have a strong musical intelligence don’t just remember music easily – they can’t get it out of their minds, it’s so omnipresent. People will be sensitive to rhythm, pitch, intonation, and can remember tunes and rhythms easily. They tend to like poems, plays, jazz chants, rap music, songs, and musically guided imagery. |
| “People smart” – Interpersonal Intelligence | Understanding other people. Anybody who deals with other people has to be skilled in the interpersonal sphere. This is a social intelligence and those who are high in this area are outgoing and interactive; sensitive to others’ moods, feelings, and motivations |
| “Self smart” – Intrapersonal Intelligence | Having an understanding of yourself, of knowing who you are, what you can do, what you want to do, how you react to things, which things to avoid, and which things to gravitate toward. They tend to know what they can do. They tend to know what they can’t do, and they also tend to know where to go if they need help. |
| “Nature smart” – Naturalistic Intelligence | The ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals), sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations) as well as a good sense of their surroundings and environment. They are also sensitive to changes around them, both outdoors and indoors. |
It is also important to note that we can continue to develop all of our intelligence, and use multiple intelligence to learn content in any course. Our brains continue to grow and develop over time, even into adulthood. Taking full advantage of these opportunities for growth can support your learning in any course.
Try it!
As you read about these ways of being intelligent, what do you discover about your learning strengths? Consider how you can use the theory of Multiple Intelligences to understand your strengths and learn content in any course.
- How are you smart? Identify your 2-3 strongest intelligences.
- How will you use these intelligences to learn?
Now, consider how you might use all eight of the intelligences to learn in one of your courses.
Download a printable worksheet for this exercise.
Study topic:_______________________________
| Intelligence | Learning Activity |
| Verbal intelligence
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| Mathematical/logical intelligence
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| Visual/Spatial intelligence
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| Kinesthetic Intelligence
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| Musical Intelligence
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| Interpersonal Intelligence
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| Intrapersonal Intelligence
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| Naturalistic Intelligence
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Extend Your Learning
You can find a number of online inventories/tests to help you to identify which of your Intelligences you lean towards using more often. Knowing what your preferences are, and what you may want to grow or adapt, will help you in your educational journey.
- Adapted from: Armstrong, T. (2017, May). Multiple intelligences in the higher education classroom. Keynote presentation presented at the Learning Specialists Association of Canada National Conference, Montreal, QC. ↵
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres. (n.d.). Learning with your mutiple intelligences. Retrieved from https://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/Learning%20Centres/Study_MultipleIntelligences_LA.pdf ↵


The Future of the American Negro
Chapter VI
It has become apparent that the effort to put the rank and file of the coloured people into a position to exercise the right of franchise has not been the success that was expected in those portions of our country where the Negro is found in large numbers. Either the Negro was not prepared for any such wholesale exercise of the ballot as our recent amendments to the Constitution contemplated or the American people were not prepared to assist and encourage him to use the ballot. In either case the result has been the same.
On an important occasion in the life of the Master, when it fell to him to pronounce judgment on two courses of action, these memorable words fell from his lips: “And Mary hath chosen the better part.” This was the supreme test in the case of an individual. It is the highest test in the case of a race or a nation. Let us apply this test to the American Negro.
In the life of our Republic, when he has had the opportunity to choose, has it been the better or worse part? When in the childhood of this nation the Negro was asked to submit to slavery or choose death and extinction, as did the aborigines, he chose the better part, that which perpetuated the race.
When, in 1776, the Negro was asked to decide between British oppression and American independence, we find him choosing the better part; and Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was the first to shed his blood on State Street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy liberty forever, though his race remained in slavery. When, in 1814, at New Orleans, the test of patriotism came again, we find the Negro choosing the better part, General Andrew Jackson himself testifying that no heart was more loyal and no arm was more strong and useful in defence of righteousness.
When the long and memorable struggle came between union and separation, when he knew that victory meant freedom, and defeat his continued enslavement, although enlisting by the thousands, as opportunity presented itself, to fight in honourable combat for the cause of the Union and liberty, yet, when the suggestion and the temptation came to burn the home and massacre wife and children during the absence of the master in battle, and thus insure his liberty, we find him choosing the better part, and for four long years protecting and supporting the helpless, defenceless ones intrusted to his care.
When, during our war with Spain, the safety and honour of the Republic were threatened by a foreign foe, when the wail and anguish of the oppressed from a distant isle reached our ears, we find the Negro forgetting his own wrongs, forgetting the laws and customs that discriminate against him in his own country, and again choosing the better part. And, if any one would know how he acquitted himself in the field at Santiago, let him apply for answer to Shafter and Roosevelt and Wheeler. Let them tell how the Negro faced death and laid down his life in defence of honour and humanity. When the full story of the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American War has been heard from the lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier, from ex-abolitionist and ex-master, then shall the country decide whether a race that is thus willing to die for its country should not be given the highest opportunity to live for its country.
In the midst of all the complaints of suffering in the camp and field during the Spanish-American War, suffering from fever and hunger, where is the official or citizen that has heard a word of complaint from the lips of a black soldier? The only request that came from the Negro soldier was that he might be permitted to replace the white soldier when heat and malaria began to decimate the ranks of the white regiments, and to occupy at the same time the post of greater danger.
But, when all this is said, it remains true that the efforts on the part of his friends and the part of himself to share actively in the control of State and local government in America have not been a success in all sections. What are the causes of this partial failure, and what lessons has it taught that we may use in regard to the future treatment of the Negro in America?
In my mind there is no doubt but that we made a mistake at the beginning of our freedom of putting the emphasis on the wrong end. Politics and the holding of office were too largely emphasised, almost to the exclusion of every other interest.
I believe the past and present teach but one lesson,—to the Negro’s friends and to the Negro himself,—that there is but one way out, that there is but one hope of solution; and that is for the Negro in every part of America to resolve from henceforth that he will throw aside every non-essential and cling only to essential,—that his pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day shall be property, economy, education, and Christian character. To us just now these are the wheat, all else the chaff. The individual or race that owns the property, pays the taxes, possesses the intelligence and substantial character, is the one which is going to exercise the greatest control in government, whether he lives in the North or whether he lives in the South.
I have often been asked the cause of and the cure for the riots that have taken place recently in North Carolina and South Carolina.[1] I am not at all sure that what I shall say will answer these questions in a satisfactory way, nor shall I attempt to narrow my expressions to a mere recital of what has taken place in these two States. I prefer to discuss the problem in a broader manner.
In the first place, in politics I am a Republican, but have always refrained from activity in party politics, and expect to pursue this policy in the future. So in this connection I shall refrain, as I always have done, from entering upon any discussion of mere party politics. What I shall say of politics will bear upon the race problem and the civilisation of the South in the larger sense. In no case would I permit my political relations to stand in the way of my speaking and acting in the manner that I believe would be for the permanent interest of my race and the whole South.
In 1873 the Negro in the South had reached the point of greatest activity and influence in public life, so far as the mere holding of elective office was concerned. From that date those who have kept up with the history of the South have noticed that the Negro has steadily lost in the number of elective offices held. In saying this, I do not mean that the Negro has gone backward in the real and more fundamental things of life. On the contrary, he has gone forward faster than has been true of any other race in history, under anything like similar circumstances.
If we can answer the question as to why the Negro has lost ground in the matter of holding elective office in the South, perhaps we shall find that our reply will prove to be our answer also as to the cause of the recent riots in North Carolina and South Carolina. Before beginning a discussion of the question I have asked, I wish to say that this change in the political influence of the Negro has continued from year to year, notwithstanding the fact that for a long time he was protected, politically, by force of federal arms and the most rigid federal laws, and still more effectively, perhaps, by the voice and influence in the halls of legislation of such advocates of the rights of the Negro race as Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Benjamin F. Butler, James M. Ashley, Oliver P. Morton, Carl Schurz, and Roscoe Conkling, and on the stump and through the public press by those great and powerful Negroes, Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, Blanche K. Bruce, John R. Lynch, P. B. S. Pinchback, Robert Browne Elliot, T. Thomas Fortune, and many others; but the Negro has continued for twenty years to have fewer representatives in the State and national legislatures. The reduction has continued until now it is at the point where, with few exceptions, he is without representatives in the law-making bodies of the State and of the nation.
Now let us find, if we can, a cause for this. The Negro is fond of saying that his present condition is due to the fact that the State and federal courts have not sustained the laws passed for the protection of the rights of his people; but I think we shall have to go deeper than this, because I believe that all agree that court decisions, as a rule, represent the public opinion of the community or nation creating and sustaining the court.
At the beginning of his freedom it was unfortunate that those of the white race who won the political confidence of the Negro were not, with few exceptions, men of such high character as would lead them to assist him in laying a firm foundation for his development. Their main purpose appears to have been, for selfish ends in too many instances, merely to control his vote. The history of the reconstruction era will show that this was unfortunate for all the parties in interest.
It would have been better, from any point of view, if the native Southern white man had taken the Negro, at the beginning of his freedom, into his political confidence, and exercised an influence and control over him before his political affections were alienated.
The average Southern white man has an idea to-day that, if the Negro were permitted to get any political power, all the mistakes of the reconstruction period would be repeated.
But, to be more specific, for all practical purposes, there are two political parties in the South,—a black man’s party and a white man’s party. In saying this, I do not mean that all white men are Democrats; for there are some white men in the South of the highest character who are Republicans, and there are a few Negroes in the South of the highest character who are Democrats. It is the general understanding that all white men are Democrats or the equivalent, and that all black men are Republicans. So long as the colour line is the dividing line in politics, so long will there be trouble.
The white man feels that he owns most of the property, furnishes the Negro most of his employment, thinks he pays most of the taxes, and has had years of experience in government. There is no mistaking the fact that the feeling which has heretofore governed the Negro—that, to be manly and stand by his race, he must oppose the Southern white man with his vote—has had much to do with intensifying the opposition of the Southern white man to him.
The Southern white man says that it is unreasonable for the Negro to come to him, in a large measure, for his clothes, board, shelter, and education, and for his politics to go to men a thousand miles away. He very properly argues that, when the Negro votes, he should try to consult the interests of his employer, just as the Pennsylvania employee tries to vote for the interests of his employer. Further, that much of the education which has been given the Negro has been defective, in not preparing him to love labour and to earn his living at some special industry, and has, in too many cases, resulted in tempting him to live by his wits as a political creature or by trusting to his “influence” as a political time-server.
Then, there is no mistaking the fact, that much opposition to the Negro in politics is due to the circumstance that the Southern white man has not become accustomed to seeing the Negro exercise political power either as a voter or as an office-holder. Again, we want to bear it in mind that the South has not yet reached the point where there is that strict regard for the enforcement of the law against either black or white men that there is in many of our Northern and Western States. This laxity in the enforcement of the laws in general, and especially of criminal laws, makes such outbreaks as those in North Carolina and South Carolina of easy occurrence.
Then there is one other consideration which must not be overlooked. It is the common opinion of almost every black man and almost every white man that nearly everybody who has had anything to do with the making of laws bearing upon the protection of the Negro’s vote has proceeded on the theory that all the black men for all time will vote the Republican ticket and that all the white men in the South will vote the Democratic ticket. In a word, all seem to have taken it for granted that the two races are always going to oppose each other in their voting.
In all the foregoing statements I have not attempted to define my own views or position, but simply to describe conditions as I have observed them, that might throw light upon the cause of our political troubles. As to my own position, I do not favour the Negro’s giving up anything which is fundamental and which has been guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the United States. It is not best for him to relinquish any of his rights; nor would his doing so be best for the Southern white man. Every law placed in the Constitution of the United States was placed there to encourage and stimulate the highest citizenship. If the Negro is not stimulated and encouraged by just State and national laws to become the highest type of citizen, the result will be worse for the Southern white man than for the Negro. Take the State of South Carolina, for example, where nearly two-thirds of the population are Negroes. Unless these Negroes are encouraged by just election laws to become tax-payers and intelligent producers, the white people of South Carolina will have an eternal millstone about their necks.
In an open letter to the State Constitutional Convention of Louisiana, I wrote:
“I am no politician. On the other hand, I have always advised my race to give attention to acquiring property, intelligence, and character, as the necessary bases of good citizenship, rather than to mere political agitation. But the question upon which I write is out of the region of ordinary politics. It affects the civilisation of two races, not for to-day alone, but for a very long time to come.
“Since the war, no State has had such an opportunity to settle, for all time, the race question, so far as it concerns politics, as is now given to Louisiana. Will your convention set an example to the world in this respect? Will Louisiana take such high and just grounds in respect to the Negro that no one can doubt that the South is as good a friend to him as he possesses elsewhere? In all this, gentlemen of the convention, I am not pleading for the Negro alone, but for the morals, the higher life, of the white man as well.
“The Negro agrees with you that it is necessary to the salvation of the South that restrictions be put upon the ballot. I know that you have two serious problems before you; ignorant and corrupt government, on the one hand; and, on the other, a way to restrict the ballot so that control will be in the hands of the intelligent, without regard to race. With the sincerest sympathy with you in your efforts to find a good way out of the difficulty, I want to suggest that no State in the South can make a law that will provide an opportunity or temptation for an ignorant white man to vote, and withhold the opportunity or temptation from an ignorant coloured man, without injuring both men. No State can make a law that can thus be executed without dwarfing, for all time, the morals of the white man in the South. Any law controlling the ballot that is not absolutely just and fair to both races will work more permanent injury to the whites than to the blacks.
“The Negro does not object to an educational and property test, but let the law be so clear that no one clothed with State authority will be tempted to perjure and degrade himself by putting one interpretation upon it for the white man and another for the black man. Study the history of the South, and you will find that, where there has been the most dishonesty in the matter of voting, there you will find to-day the lowest moral condition of both races. First, there was the temptation to act wrongly with the Negro’s ballot. From this it was an easy step to act dishonestly with the white man’s ballot, to the carrying of concealed weapons, to the murder of a Negro, and then to the murder of a white man, and then to lynching. I entreat you not to pass a law that will prove an eternal millstone about the necks of your children. No man can have respect for the government and officers of the law when he knows, deep down in his heart, that the exercise of the franchise is tainted with fraud.
“The road that the South has been compelled to travel during the last thirty years has been strewn with thorns and thistles. It has been as one groping through the long darkness into the light. The time is not far distant when the world will begin to appreciate the real character of the burden that was imposed upon the South in giving the franchise to four millions of ignorant and impoverished ex-slaves. No people was ever before given such a problem to solve. History has blazed no path through the wilderness that could be followed. For thirty years we have wandered in the wilderness. We are now beginning to get out. But there is only one road out; and all makeshifts, expedients, profit and loss calculations, but lead into swamps, quicksands, quagmires, and jungles. There is a highway that will lead both races out into the pure, beautiful sunshine, where there will be nothing to hide and nothing to explain, where both races can grow strong and true and useful in every fibre of their being. I believe that your convention will find this highway, that it will enact a fundamental law that will be absolutely just and fair to white and black alike.
 More than one-half of the population of your State are Negroes. No State can long prosper when a large part of its citizenship is in ignorance and poverty, and has no interest in the government. I beg of you that you do not treat us as an alien people. We are not aliens. You know us. You know that we have cleared your forests, tilled your fields, nursed your children, and protected your families. There is an attachment between us that few understand. While I do not presume to be able to advise you, yet it is in my heart to say that, if your convention would do something that would prevent for all time strained relations between the two races, and would permanently settle the matter of political relations in one Southern State at least, let the very best educational opportunities be provided for both races; and add to this an election law that shall be incapable of unjust discrimination, at the same time providing that, in proportion as the ignorant secure education, property, and character, they will be given the right of citizenship. Any other course will take from one-half your citizens interest in the State, and hope and ambition to become intelligent producers and tax-payers, and useful and virtuous citizens. Any other course will tie the white citizens of Louisiana to a body of death.
“The Negroes are not unmindful of the fact that the poverty of the State prevents it from doing all that it desires for public education; yet I believe that you will agree with me that ignorance is more costly to the State than education, that it will cost Louisiana more not to educate the Negroes than it will to educate them. In connection with a generous provision for public schools, I believe that nothing will so help my own people in your State as provision at some institution for the highest academic and normal training, in connection with thorough training in agriculture, mechanics, and domestic economy. First-class training in agriculture, horticulture, dairying, stock-raising, the mechanical arts, and domestic economy, would make us intelligent producers, and not only help us to contribute our honest share as tax-payers, but would result in retaining much money in the State that now goes outside for that which can be as well produced at home. An institution which will give this training of the hand, along with the highest mental culture, would soon convince our people that their salvation is largely in the ownership of property and in industrial and business development, rather than in mere political agitation.
“The highest test of the civilisation of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.  Surely, no people ever had a greater chance to exhibit the highest Christian fortitude and magnanimity than is now presented to the people of Louisiana. It requires little wisdom or statesmanship to repress, to crush out, to retard the hopes and aspirations of a people; but the highest and most profound statesmanship is shown in guiding and stimulating a people, so that every fibre in the body and soul shall be made to contribute in the highest degree to the usefulness and ability of the State. It is along this line that I pray God the thoughts and activities of your convention may be guided.”
As to such outbreaks as have recently occurred in North Carolina and South Carolina, the remedy will not be reached by the Southern white man merely depriving the Negro of his rights and privileges. This method is but superficial, irritating, and must, in the nature of things, be short-lived. The statesman, to cure an evil, resorts to enlightenment, to stimulation; the politician, to repression. I have just remarked that I favour the giving up of nothing that is guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States, or that is fundamental to our citizenship. While I hold to these views as strongly as any one, I differ with some as to the method of securing the permanent and peaceful enjoyment of all the privileges guaranteed to us by our fundamental law.
In finding a remedy, we must recognise the world-wide fact that the Negro must be led to see and feel that he must make every effort possible, in every way possible, to secure the friendship, the confidence, the co-operation of his white neighbour in the South. To do this, it is not necessary for the Negro to become a truckler or a trimmer. The Southern white man has no respect for a Negro who does not act from principle. In some way the Southern white man must be led to see that it is to his interest to turn his attention more and more to the making of laws that will, in the truest sense, elevate the Negro. At the present moment, in many cases, when one attempts to get the Negro to co-operate with the Southern white man, he asks the question, “Can the people who force me to ride in a Jim Crow car, and pay first-class fare, be my best friends?” In answering such questions, the Southern white man, as well as the Negro, has a duty to perform. In the exercise of his political rights I should advise the Negro to be temperate and modest, and more and more to do his own thinking.
I believe the permanent cure for our present evils will come through a property and educational test for voting that shall apply honestly and fairly to both races.
But, most of all, it will come through industrial development of the Negro. Industrial education makes an intelligent producer of the Negro, who becomes of immediate value to the community rather than one who yields to the temptation to live merely by politics or other parasitical employments. It will make him soon become a property-holder; and, when a citizen becomes a holder of property, he becomes a conservative and thoughtful voter. He will more carefully consider the measures and individuals to be voted for. In proportion as he increases his property interests, he becomes important as a tax-payer.
There is little trouble between the Negro and the white man in matters of education; and, when it comes to his business development, the black man has implicit faith in the advice of the Southern white man. When he gets into trouble in the courts, which requires a bond to be given, in nine cases out of ten, he goes to a Southern white man for advice and assistance. Every one who has lived in the South knows that, in many of the church troubles among the coloured people, the ministers and other church officers apply to the nearest white minister for assistance and instruction. When by reason of mutual concession we reach the point where we shall consult the Southern white man about our politics as we now consult him about our business, legal, and religious matters, there will be a change for the better in the situation.
The object-lesson of a thousand Negroes in every county in the South who own neat and comfortable homes, possessing skill, industry, and thrift, with money in the bank, and are large tax-payers co-operating with the white men in the South in every manly way for the development of their own communities and counties, will go a long way, in a few years, toward changing the present status of the Negro as a citizen, as well as the attitude of the whites toward the blacks.
As the Negro grows in industrial and business directions, he will divide in his politics on economic issues, just as the white man in other parts of the country now divides his vote. As the South grows in business prosperity it will divide its vote on economic issues, just as other sections of the country divide their vote. When we can enact laws that result in honestly cutting off the large ignorant and non-tax-paying vote, and when we can bring both races to the point where they will co-operate with each other in politics, as they do now in matters of business, religion, and education, the problem will be in a large measure solved, and political outbreaks will cease.
- November, 1898. ↵


What is Water – The Hydrological Cycle: Overview of Water Cycle (Reading)
Required Reading: “The Water Cycle”
Estimated time: 15 Minutes
A unique aspect of life on Earth is that water exists in all three states – as a gas, as liquid and as a solid. Water in its liquid state is capable of absorbing massive amounts of energy. When light from the sun hits the Earth, the atmosphere (including atmospheric water) and oceans absorb this energy. Daily and annual energy fluctuations and exchanges between water reservoirs drive weather and climate.
I believe it is important to have a foundational understanding of how our water system works, how we depend upon it, and the anthropological effects that society has upon this resource. We can look at water on multiple levels – from global changes in the what is known as the water cycle to our local communities and our homes. They are all connected.
For this reading, I’ve chosen section 13.1 (The Hydrological Cycle) of the open textbook Physical Geology; written by Steven Earle, this book and the excerpted section below, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (except where otherwise noted).
This text has two full chapters on water related matters (Surface and Ground Water), as well as excellent background material for the geological context of climate change if you choose to look deeper into components of the water cycle.
As you review the materials, ask yourself similar questions to that you were asked to consider with respect to food in module 1:
- How do you define water?
- What does water mean to you?
- How does is relate to your everyday life.
I’d also like you to consider these two additional questions:
- What do we mean by a cycle?
- Why is the concept of a cycle important in our considerations of climate change and adaptation?
Chapter 13.1, The Hydrological Cycle
- Excerpted and modified to ensure images are consistently displayed from https://opentextbc.ca/geology/chapter/13-1-the-hydrological-cycle/
- Earle, S. (2015). Physical Geology. Victoria, B.C.: BCcampus. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/geology/
- Download for free from the B.C. Open Textbook Collection
Water is constantly on the move. It is evaporated from the oceans, lakes, streams, the surface of the land, and plants (transpiration) by solar energy (Figure 13.2). It is moved through the atmosphere by winds and condenses to form clouds of water droplets or ice crystals. It comes back down as rain or snow and then flows through streams, into lakes, and eventually back to the oceans. Water on the surface and in streams and lakes infiltrates the ground to become groundwater. Groundwater slowly moves through the rock and surficial materials. Some groundwater returns to other streams and lakes, and some goes directly back to the oceans.
Even while it’s moving around, water is stored in various reservoirs. The largest, by far, is the oceans, accounting for 97% of the volume (Figure 13.3). Of course, that water is salty. The remaining 3% is fresh water. Two-thirds of our fresh water is stored in ice and one-third is stored in the ground. The remaining fresh water — about 0.03% of the total — is stored in lakes, streams, vegetation, and the atmosphere.
To put that in perspective, let’s think about putting all of Earth’s water into a 1 L jug (Figure 13.3b). We start by almost filling the jug with 970 ml of water and 34 g of salt. Then we add one regular-sized (~20 mL) ice cube (representing glacial ice) and two teaspoons (~10 mL) of groundwater. All of the water that we see around us in lakes and streams and up in the sky can be represented by adding three more drops from an eyedropper.
Although the proportion of Earth’s water that is in the atmosphere is tiny, the actual volume is huge. At any given time, there is the equivalent of approximately 13,000 km3 of water in the air in the form of water vapour and water droplets in clouds. Water is evaporated from the oceans, vegetation, and lakes at a rate of 1,580 km3 per day, and just about exactly the same volume falls as rain and snow every day — over both the oceans and land. The precipitation that falls on land goes back to the ocean in the form of stream flow (117 km3/day) and groundwater flow (6 km3/day). Most of the rest of this chapter is about that 117 km3/day of streamflow. The average discharge of the Fraser River into the ocean is approximately 0.31 km3/day, or 0.26% of the world’s total.


Science
136 Microbiology
Images
Microbiology (CC BY-NC)
These slides and other images from Joe Rubin (TheRubinLab) can be found in Flickr. Click on each image for a label and description of the image or slide.
Labs
Fundamentals of Microbiology Lab Manual (CC BY)
This lab manual for Fundamentals of Microbiology was developed to supplement OpenStax Microbiology at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. Topics include smear preparation, simple, gram, acid, and endospore staining, environmental effects on bacterial growth, and bacterial isolation from a mixed culture.
Microbiology Laboratory Manual (CC BY)
This course for community college students was designed to be taught as a face to face course that meets twice per week over an 11 week term at Columbia Gorge Community College. This course covers several key methods in a Microbiology Laboratory course.
Supplemental Materials
Introductory Medical Microbiology Ancillary Materials (CC BY)
This set of lecture materials, laboratory notes, and activities are ancillary materials created for use with OpenStax Microbiology. Topics covered include the cell, prokaryotes, eukaryotes, acellular pathogens, microbial metabolism, microbial growth, biochemistry of the bacterial genome, microbial genetics, microbial growth, antimicrobial drugs, pathogenicity, epidemiology, and the immune system.
Textbooks
Introduction to Food Microbiology [PDF] (CC BY-ND)
The high-level objective of the Introduction to Food Microbiology open textbook is to increase awareness and knowledge of food safety and safe food handling procedures as they relate to the principles of food microbiology. Created by the FOODSAFE Secretariat, the Introduction to Food Microbiology open textbook content emphasizes food safety awareness practices as found within the food service industry, to make it as practical and relevant for learners as possible.
Microbiology for Allied Health Students (CC BY)
Microbiology for Allied Health Students is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements for the single semester Microbiology course for non-majors and allied health students. The book presents the core concepts of microbiology with a focus on applications for careers in allied health. Adapted from OpenStax Microbiology, CC BY 4.0. Has an accompanying lab manual.
Videos
TheRubinLab (CC BY)
This YouTube channel is devoted to microbiology education for post-secondary students and beyond.
Media Attributions
- Canada Map Icon © Icons8 is licensed under a CC BY-ND (Attribution NoDerivatives) license
- BC Map © Adamwashere is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike) license


87 Overview of Module 6
With a population of 1.58 billion and 22 percent of the world population, the countries of East Asia comprise the second most populated world region. China , Taiwan , Japan , and South Korea , together comprise the world’s most powerful and dynamic economic region. A wide range of natural habitats, distinctive societies that are transforming those environments, and stark contrasts between cultural continuity and rapid economic and social changes characterize the region. Long histories of separate, isolated development, mixed with occasional bursts of economic, political, or cultural contact among the countries in the region result in a distinctive web of regional diversity, combined with deeply rooted cultural and political systems. A brief overview of these historical processes and population dynamics is followed by details of distinctive patterns in China , Japan , the Koreas , Taiwan , and Mongolia .
China ’s cultural and economic evolution, natural environment, and current status as an emerging global economy powerhouse dominate the chapter. Emphasis is placed on development consequences of the transition from pre- to post-economic reforms of the late 1970s. Those consequences include not only China ’s economic progress, but also the environmental challenges caused by economic development. Other China topics examined in relative detail include the major urban-economic regions, rural-to-urban migration, and looming population decline.
Japan receives a relatively large part of Chapter 10 that is not devoted to China . The evolution and consequences of the Japan Model that transformed the country from afeudal state to a leading economy not only in the region but also globally is a major topic as are Japan ’s current economic malaise and aging population structure.
Chapter 11 is the reading here. In this Module, you are asked to:
- Do questions from Chapter 10 in a Written Assignment
- Do a Web Assignment by visiting a famous newspaper in China.
- Do a Web Assignment concerning China’s economic growth.
- Take Exam 6
- There is no discussion this time.
Original document by Peter Turner licensed CC BY