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Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'
Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid
7 reviews
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Audio: Emily Nixon made the right choice to wear her heart on her sleeve while narrating the book, she did much to help humanize and eulogize the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in This area of Canadá and beyond. She really brought them their families and friends and the author herself to life.
Misc: I hate this being tagged as true crime because I genuinely think true crime is commodified and dehumanizing violent crimes especially violence against women into entertainment that often isn’t concerned w the fact but reviling in suffering and violence. Such as accounts like Stephanie Soo that pretend they weren’t lying about Amber heard now when they were using that woman’s public harassment for even anonymously discussing her abuse for monetized content for ages. Those people make me lucky that even if I am terrified of empty lots and just slightly shadowed by plants areas even in populated areas after the murder of my cousins neighbor who drove me to university while I studied in Mexico every day, murdered in his own neighborhood bc he checked out an abandoned lot near the Oxxo, at least being a Mexican man his unsolved murder is to uninteresting for anglophones to notice to butcher and desecrate like they do murdered women pretending preaching stranger danger or sensationalizing white women’s paranoia does anything to help women. When they’re again the first to spread myths about mutual abuse. This book doesn’t deserve to be in the same category as that drivel.
Book itself: the forward being by the first victim discussed Ramona’s cousin Mary Teegee is very good to start the book with a living First Nations woman talking about her very real reality of being in danger simply because of racist misogyny and her experience having lost a young relative to that violence. It serves adeptly as memorial and message to action and information and informed the reader of how directly the white Canadian reporter has worked with the families from their own mouths (as well as bookending the book w memorials of Ramona by different relatives). It’s a very good ethos and so this decision.
McDiarmid herself does well to humanize and tell the lives and ends as we know of it every victim and much of their surviving families as well. She deftly debunks myths based in racist misogyny that all these women and girls lived dangerous lives that were the “real” factors as opposed to lethal racism while then navigating back to discuss indigenous girls and women who were hitchhikers, sex workers, drug addicts and so on all without shaming them. She also is well informed and knows how to transition to discuss the ongoing pain of the original residential schools to the modern residential schools (Canadian and frankly American foster system) and how it harms and endangered indigenous people especially girls from being unable/unwilling to help girls in actually dangerous homes (literally putting on teen girl in a motel by herself or putting multiple in multiple abusive foster homes) to taking them from their indigenous communities …because a house didn’t have enough windows (which is a good example of the eugenics involved in saying poor people shouldn’t have children).
It was hard at the parts where she interviews Canadian police, the RCMP, where they argued for more funding and just deny racism exists in the force and blame everyone but themselves and waver between calling indigenous people liars to frankly stupid because First Nations are Just “wrong” about reality apparently. But it’s to ge that pov in book that explicitly discusses for the RCMP were explicitly formed to “settle the west” their literal creation is genocidal in nature that no wonder they are uncaring about contemporary genocide. Much like American cops they also intimidate victim families and clearly lie about barely teenage indigenous girls drowning while drunk based on racist stereotypes decades to two families in a row to try to mess with an overdue inquiry about their gross negligence.
I think the book is very educational about rural areas of Canada and even small cities I think be hard for people from more populated areas to understand. Also very deftly discusses much of 20th century anti-indigenous violence and I think is soooo important people realize the world they believe has always exist is very newly formed and a better world with land back and an end to genocide is possible.
Also I just felt this book was well written to discuss the murders of white Canadian girls and women to show the contrast in response that leads to people feeling safe in killing indigenous girls and women and the racism in the country at large that is killing these girls while being aware those specific white girls and women are still people who died horrifically and maliciously.
Deeply compelling and compassionate writing that i recommend.
Misc: I hate this being tagged as true crime because I genuinely think true crime is commodified and dehumanizing violent crimes especially violence against women into entertainment that often isn’t concerned w the fact but reviling in suffering and violence. Such as accounts like Stephanie Soo that pretend they weren’t lying about Amber heard now when they were using that woman’s public harassment for even anonymously discussing her abuse for monetized content for ages. Those people make me lucky that even if I am terrified of empty lots and just slightly shadowed by plants areas even in populated areas after the murder of my cousins neighbor who drove me to university while I studied in Mexico every day, murdered in his own neighborhood bc he checked out an abandoned lot near the Oxxo, at least being a Mexican man his unsolved murder is to uninteresting for anglophones to notice to butcher and desecrate like they do murdered women pretending preaching stranger danger or sensationalizing white women’s paranoia does anything to help women. When they’re again the first to spread myths about mutual abuse. This book doesn’t deserve to be in the same category as that drivel.
Book itself: the forward being by the first victim discussed Ramona’s cousin Mary Teegee is very good to start the book with a living First Nations woman talking about her very real reality of being in danger simply because of racist misogyny and her experience having lost a young relative to that violence. It serves adeptly as memorial and message to action and information and informed the reader of how directly the white Canadian reporter has worked with the families from their own mouths (as well as bookending the book w memorials of Ramona by different relatives). It’s a very good ethos and so this decision.
McDiarmid herself does well to humanize and tell the lives and ends as we know of it every victim and much of their surviving families as well. She deftly debunks myths based in racist misogyny that all these women and girls lived dangerous lives that were the “real” factors as opposed to lethal racism while then navigating back to discuss indigenous girls and women who were hitchhikers, sex workers, drug addicts and so on all without shaming them. She also is well informed and knows how to transition to discuss the ongoing pain of the original residential schools to the modern residential schools (Canadian and frankly American foster system) and how it harms and endangered indigenous people especially girls from being unable/unwilling to help girls in actually dangerous homes (literally putting on teen girl in a motel by herself or putting multiple in multiple abusive foster homes) to taking them from their indigenous communities …because a house didn’t have enough windows (which is a good example of the eugenics involved in saying poor people shouldn’t have children).
It was hard at the parts where she interviews Canadian police, the RCMP, where they argued for more funding and just deny racism exists in the force and blame everyone but themselves and waver between calling indigenous people liars to frankly stupid because First Nations are Just “wrong” about reality apparently. But it’s to ge that pov in book that explicitly discusses for the RCMP were explicitly formed to “settle the west” their literal creation is genocidal in nature that no wonder they are uncaring about contemporary genocide. Much like American cops they also intimidate victim families and clearly lie about barely teenage indigenous girls drowning while drunk based on racist stereotypes decades to two families in a row to try to mess with an overdue inquiry about their gross negligence.
I think the book is very educational about rural areas of Canada and even small cities I think be hard for people from more populated areas to understand. Also very deftly discusses much of 20th century anti-indigenous violence and I think is soooo important people realize the world they believe has always exist is very newly formed and a better world with land back and an end to genocide is possible.
Also I just felt this book was well written to discuss the murders of white Canadian girls and women to show the contrast in response that leads to people feeling safe in killing indigenous girls and women and the racism in the country at large that is killing these girls while being aware those specific white girls and women are still people who died horrifically and maliciously.
Deeply compelling and compassionate writing that i recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
I am very interested in the subject, but this book was confusing and hard to read. The chapter structure was very confusing; there are so many written out facts and stats when it would’ve been easier/more understandable to read tables & figures; and it doesn’t feel like there’s an overall/overarching message or purpose of the book (not that there needs to be, but I feel like it’s trying to have one)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
I think that this is absolutely an important topic that needs to be spoken about more in Canada and British Columbia (especially since the government is still only kind of implementing the proposed changes piecemeal) but I was expecting more from this book. I found the organization of it a bit confusing since it jumps back and forth in time a lot, and I was expecting a stronger stance taken in the book itself based on the title. The actual book is more of a list of facts than an essay making a statement, and some questionable statements about the RCMP (that one officer saying he doesn't see colour was particularly egregious) are just stated with no clarification or authorial opinion attached.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Police brutality, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Racism, Rape, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Colonisation
Minor: Racial slurs, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Car accident
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Colonisation
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Alcohol
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Highway of Tears is a comprehensive and personal account of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) of Canada, particularly along Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia.
I want to be clear that McDiarmid is not Indigenous; she is white. According to the Introduction by Mary Teegee, McDiarmid approached the Carrier Sekani Family Services organization (who have worked closely with the families impacted by the Highway of Tears) to document the history of the Highway of Tears and "len[d] her voice in the fight for justice for those we can no longer hear."
This book so deftly blends first-hand accounts of the victims' stories and the impact on their families and communities in combination with a broader examination of the systemic issues facing Indigenous girls and women in Canada (from poverty and intergenerational trauma due to residential schools and colonization, lack of social and public services, indifference and outright hostility from settler/colonizer communities, and the utter failures of the RCMP (and police forces) to help these families and bring justice to these women and girls.
The structure of the book introduces us to the remote beauty and rough realities of northern BC, and takes us chronologically through the prominent cases of the Highway of Tears starting from the (primarily) 1990s and 2000s. Within chapters focusing on specific missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and in separate dedicated chapters, McDiarmid builds the context for why this happens at all. How Canada is a colonial state and the realities of settling northern BC (the racial tensions that so many white people claim don't exist in the process of investigation), and how the Canadian government, and by extension, the RCMP, systematically destroys Indigenous communities, cultures, languages, and social systems. I particularly appreciated the sections on the RCMP as I didn't fully understand the culture of RCMP and why it operates the way it does (essentially as a military organization in often municipal roles). I knew the RCMP first existed to "settle" Canada and displace Indigenous communities, but I didn't fully understand all the nuances. In the second half of the book, as we progress into the 2010s, McDiarmid documents the efforts to raise awareness and prompt action by the victims' families, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Carrier Sekani Family Services organization, the Highway of Tears Symposium, and the Commission's National Inquiry in the MMIWG. So many of the families walked kilometres upon kilometres, told their stories again and again (exacting an incredibly emotional toll on their health), and tried in vain to get a country that simply doesn't care to listen.
And we should care. I think everyone should read this book. And then go read the National Inquiry in MMIWG's Final Report and the Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (my next steps after this review). I also encourage people (and myself) to read books on this subject by Indigenous authors and support and uplift Indigenous art, and culture, and stories, and people.
We need to do better.
Sidenote: Some (Goodreads) reviews have noted they felt the structure disorganized but I liked how it flowed together and built off ideas throughout the text. McDiarmid does a decent job of refreshing our memory of particular cases and families and the inclusion of photos helps familiarize us with and further humanize the people discussed.
I want to be clear that McDiarmid is not Indigenous; she is white. According to the Introduction by Mary Teegee, McDiarmid approached the Carrier Sekani Family Services organization (who have worked closely with the families impacted by the Highway of Tears) to document the history of the Highway of Tears and "len[d] her voice in the fight for justice for those we can no longer hear."
This book so deftly blends first-hand accounts of the victims' stories and the impact on their families and communities in combination with a broader examination of the systemic issues facing Indigenous girls and women in Canada (from poverty and intergenerational trauma due to residential schools and colonization, lack of social and public services, indifference and outright hostility from settler/colonizer communities, and the utter failures of the RCMP (and police forces) to help these families and bring justice to these women and girls.
The structure of the book introduces us to the remote beauty and rough realities of northern BC, and takes us chronologically through the prominent cases of the Highway of Tears starting from the (primarily) 1990s and 2000s. Within chapters focusing on specific missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and in separate dedicated chapters, McDiarmid builds the context for why this happens at all. How Canada is a colonial state and the realities of settling northern BC (the racial tensions that so many white people claim don't exist in the process of investigation), and how the Canadian government, and by extension, the RCMP, systematically destroys Indigenous communities, cultures, languages, and social systems. I particularly appreciated the sections on the RCMP as I didn't fully understand the culture of RCMP and why it operates the way it does (essentially as a military organization in often municipal roles). I knew the RCMP first existed to "settle" Canada and displace Indigenous communities, but I didn't fully understand all the nuances. In the second half of the book, as we progress into the 2010s, McDiarmid documents the efforts to raise awareness and prompt action by the victims' families, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Carrier Sekani Family Services organization, the Highway of Tears Symposium, and the Commission's National Inquiry in the MMIWG. So many of the families walked kilometres upon kilometres, told their stories again and again (exacting an incredibly emotional toll on their health), and tried in vain to get a country that simply doesn't care to listen.
And we should care. I think everyone should read this book. And then go read the National Inquiry in MMIWG's Final Report and the Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (my next steps after this review). I also encourage people (and myself) to read books on this subject by Indigenous authors and support and uplift Indigenous art, and culture, and stories, and people.
We need to do better.
Sidenote: Some (Goodreads) reviews have noted they felt the structure disorganized but I liked how it flowed together and built off ideas throughout the text. McDiarmid does a decent job of refreshing our memory of particular cases and families and the inclusion of photos helps familiarize us with and further humanize the people discussed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality