Another Black History Month has past, and amidst our celebration of Black achievements and excellence, we have learned about the Canadian Civil Rights Movement and the enslavement of Black people in Canada. Although slavery was abolished in 1833, Blacks still face extreme violence and discrimination. Currently making its way through the court system is the case of a 19-year-old man who was beaten within a few inches of life by a Toronto Police officer; He suffered a broken jaw, nose, wrist and lost his left eye. At the time of the December 2016 attack, he was walking down the street with two friends, on their way to visit the home of another friend. His friends managed to escape the confrontation but he was caught (as he ran away) and viciously assaulted with a metal pipe.
(Below: Protests at the Ontario courthouse as the case starts pre-trial)
When the police arrived at the scene, the victim was charged. Charges were later withdrawn, but his mother says that he is no longer her out-going, fun-loving son, "he's a different person, wounded far beyond the physical injuries." The police officer (who was off-duty at the time of the attack) was only charged months later, after the victim's lawyer contacted the Special Investigation Unit directly, demanding an investigation because no one, in the two police departments involved, had reported it (as
per protocol). When the officer was finally arrested and charged, he was immediately released on bail and is currently suspended with pay awaiting trial. This is every parent's nightmare, but in the Black community, nightmares like these often become reality.
As we observe another International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, it is crucial to know our enemy, in order to defeat him. So, in an effort to understand racism, we must examine Black History. We have to understand the attitudes surrounding slavery: European-Canadian colonizers perceived enslaved people as property, not as human beings. Furthermore, slave owners viewed slavery in racial terms, with Aboriginals and Africans serving and White people ruling. Slavery was so pervasive that "slave ownership was found at every level of colonial Canadian society, whether French or English, working on farms, in bakery shops, working in leather tanning, slave orderlies working in hospitals, working for merchants, working in the fur trade as slave canoe paddlers for Scottish and French Canadian fur traders crisscrossing the country," says Historian George Tombs. Slavery was the predominant way of life for most Black people for over 200 years in Canada, which means Blacks have been enslaved, longer than free.
The fact is that these wide-spread, deep-rooted attitudes of white superiority don't just disappear with changing laws, for example: the last segregated school closed in 1983, 150 years after the abolition of slavery and a year after the launch of The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Black and brown bodies were perceived as commodities, and its this perception that breeds the idea that people of color are inferior. Historian Afua Cooper says that,"slavery was the context in which current race relations were created, which is black inferiority and white superiority." Add prejudice and fear, which the media has stoked and perpetuated for years, and you have racism.
If you understand that capitalism was built on the foundation of slavery, then you should consider that racism is sewn tightly into the fabric of our societal systems. Recent studies show that "racial disparities exist in income, health status, services, civic participation and in the labour market." And regardless of education, employment and income disparities persist for racialized people in Canada. We are more likely to be unemployed and underemployed; racialized Canadians earn an average of 81 cents to the dollar in comparison to other Canadians. "Racialized immigrant women earn only 48.7 per cent of the employment income that non-racialized immigrant men earn, while racialized women as a whole earn 56.5 per cent of what white men earn. The effect of these inequalities in the labour market is that racialized Canadians are three times more likely to live in poverty than other Canadians" (Toronto Star). But I don't need a study to tell me that, as a racialized, immigrant woman, I'm living it.
In the Spring of 2013, I was excited to start a new job in Communications, after two years of searching for full-time employment. I went to work for a media start-up company. But soon realized that I was being taken advantage of; I was working two full-time jobs for one (low) hourly wage. I had to stay late, just to keep up; but finding full-time work, with benefits, in your field, in highly-competitive Toronto, is next to impossible. And a pay raise was promised at the end of my three-month probationary period, so I bore down. For the two jobs, I reported to different managers, one Black the other White. It was into the second month of my employment that I noticed a shift in attitude -to distinct animosity, from the White manager. It was at this time I was showing alot of initiative, so the Black manager had relinquished all outbound communications to me, including the client newsletter.
The White manager's vicious treatment became increasingly worse the better I did and could be felt throughout the office. A friendly co-worker warned me that she was a racist and "had it out for me". This co-worker, also white, was witness to a slew of racist comments made by the White manager and the Owner about both me and the Black manager. Then I noticed a management role posted online. Startlingly, the job description was exactly what I was doing as one of the two full-time jobs but paid a salary that was more than twice as much. I had the training and experience, so I applied for the job. Then I left on my scheduled vacation week.
While on vacation in Vancouver, I politely asked a man who was littering on the bus to "please stop". He immediately looked at me and said, "why don't you pick it up for me nigger? You can be my slave." I was surprised that he could distinguish my skin tone, he was so drunk.
But I digress... instead of being promoted, I was fired upon return. I was fired one day before the end of my probation and given no reason or explanation. Both Black manager and White co-worker quit the same day, claiming a "toxic work environment". I immediately filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal. I retained a pro-bono lawyer. The case took a grueling two years to be heard at the Human Rights Tribunal. But I won. The settlement money softened the blow that this happened in huge, multicultural Toronto. Ironically, my parents moved us kids out of South Africa in 1982 to escape the oppressive racist laws of apartheid and to give us a chance at a future unfettered by this affliction. How could they guess that it would be impossible to escape?
I've used the settlement money to pursue a degree in Communications and am nearing completion. Sadly, this experience impacted my confidence to such an extent, it has me questioning how to successfully return to the workforce. I have anxiety about my professional life that keeps me up at night.
I think most adult Black Canadians can attest to experiencing racism, whether in the workplace, DWB (Driving While Black, and yes -that's a real acronym) or during police encounters. And as parents we have to deal with the heartbreaking chore of explaining this reality to our children (see video). Our Prime Minister issued a statement last month saying, "it's time Canadians recognize that anti-black racism and unconscious bias do exist and it's time to take action to ensure that there is equal opportunity and treatment of Black Canadians." These are dangerous times with the emboldening of white supremacist groups and the current political climate of our southern neighbors. The "talk" becomes more important now than ever.
Admittedly, it's hard to fully comprehend racism and its abysmal effects if you haven't directly experienced it, but it starts with understanding the history and the systems constructed from that history. We can never fully understand Canada without reference to Black people, yet Blacks have been largely erased from the history books, so that there is no reference to the brutal discrimination of the past, which led to the racism of the present. "One of the key values that we are told Canadians promote nowadays is the diversity of the population, but the fact that the institution of slavery has been ignored for hundreds of years, minimized as much as possible and never taught in schools, means that somehow we are failing to uphold the value of diversity," says Tombs.
The elimination of racial discrimination will start when the history is told and understood in its entirety. Canada prides herself on her exceptionally inclusive ways; however, for this to ring true, recognition and contributions of all peoples must first take place. It starts in our schools. It starts with our children because kids aren't born with prejudice. They have a chance to see a future free of racial discrimination.
But learning Black History during one month -the shortest month, of the year won't do it. Just as eliminating racial discrimination one day of the year won't either.
