A Open Letter on the Recent Attacks in Bellingham

Dear Western Students and/or Bellingham Community Members,

Please stop robbing/mugging people at odd hours of the morning (or any other time of day for that matter). It creates an unsafe environment for the community. 

Such actions encourage people to post and issue warnings telling friends and loved ones not to walk alone during certain hours, but telling people not to walk alone does not solve the problem. It does not stop muggers from mugging people. 

While these warnings come from a well-meaning place, and do offer valuable information about increasing safety when walking alone, they also create a culture of fear; a culture of fear that does nothing more than make people uncomfortable in their chosen home: Bellingham. This perpetuates the violence in the streets by taking it into our homes.

Sometimes walking alone is unavoidable. Sometimes walking alone is preferred. If you see someone walking alone, leave them alone. Don't mug them, don't rob them, don't rape them. I am not saying that if someone is walking alone, that they should not take reasonable precautions, but the burden of responsibility should not rest with them. It should rest in those who would attack them.

If you need help, there are all kinds of organizations and community outreach groups that can help you with this problem, from violence prevention programs to financial assistance groups. There is never a good reason  to mug someone.

The first steps to creating change in a community start with individuals. I'm asking those of you reading this as individuals to make a commitment not to hurt people, and to hold others accountable for the same.

In Solidarity,

Daniel Canham

Student, Community Member, Activist, heARTist

Thoughts on the "new" Spiderman

Reading articles like this one about the new Spiderman depresses me for a few reasons.


1) The racial outrage that Marvel would dare to create a non-white hero.

C'mon America, your demographics are changing. There are more people of color in your borders than you're willing to recognize so shut up and let them do some talking instead of subscribing to the same kind of Western imperial ideologies that have silenced them and plagued us for generations. Miles Morales is half-black, half-Hispanic, this totally fits with the subversive history Marvel is known for (anyone care to remember how the X-men were/are originally a poorly done metaphor for racial tensions in the 60s?).

2) The ignorance of the fact that this is happening in the Marvel Ultimates universe, a separate continuity to reflect a more contemporary readership.

According to the Wikipedia page (a source I trust in this instance because no self-respecting comic book geek would let there be inaccuracies), Ultimate Marvel was meant as a new continuity for a new generation of comic readers, so the argument that having a non-white Spiderman flies in the face of the history of the character is invalid. This is not for the people who grew up with Spiderman, it's for the people growing up with Spiderman.

Peter Parker is alive and kicking in the standard Marvel universe.

This actually bugs me a little for other reasons as well. The fact that Marvel has to utilize an entirely separate universe to allow for something like the death of Peter Park and birth of Miles Morales shows institutionalized racism of the industry. This is a step in the right direction, yes, but the fact that it would be impossible to pull off in the "regular" or "original" Marvel universe brings to light some of the inherent problems with comic books when it comes to race.

As long as Miles doesn't end up being some kind of tokenized "ethno-diversity man" character, I'm happy for him. Though the way the "could be gay" comments by writers have been misinterpreted by the media and taken by the hoardes of internets, let's just say I don't have very high hopes. You go, web-slinger!