Canadian Series Of North American Negroes - CSONAN

WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?

This article has been written to address a few issues I have concerning the "Black Community" in Canada, and how it has changed since I was a child. I am a seventh generation Canadian and my skin color is brown. When I was born in 1960, I was classed as a Negro, I then evolved to being grouped with my brothers and sisters as being colored. Then with the influx of immigration in the 70's I then graduated to being classed as black, as this was the latest politically correct term for Canadians of color. In the 1980's I became a hyphenated-Canadian; this is where my problem begins. Young Canadian blacks who attempt to mirror their American cousins.
I am very proud about my feelings for Canada. I made a point of ensuring that I traveled across Canada to see the diversity and distinctness of the different areas and cultures. I have talked with Reserve Indians in northern Alberta. I have promoted the beauty and understanding of all Canadians. I have debated with racists and separatists. I have accomplished a lot concerning building a better Canada for my family and myself. I have never considered myself to be anything but Canadian, first and foremost. These lessons I learned from my parents, along with the fear of God and a love for all people. The Canadian census indicates I am a minority, but I refuse to follow that political assignment, because I am CANADIAN.
I have also wondered why the Federal Government forces me to indicate that I am less than Canadian somehow, due to the fact that I must somehow trace back my ancestry 200 years to find out where my descendants may have come from. From all the searching I have done, I now believe slave traders were very poor record keepers when it came to keeping track of slave family names, origins, family members, dates of birth, number of centuries in location, etc. Yet after 150+ years of Canadian background, I can still go to jail for not indicating on the Census that I am African-something?
So where did the escalation of racism in Canada begin. I believe it starts in our homes where young blacks should be taught morals and respect. I believe it is perpetuated by our schools that teach British and French Canadian history, and ignore the development of the black society in Canada. I believe it begins with our media, where they report on black killings and identify (specifically) all black criminals by nationality. Our entertainment system only produces movies about black gangsters, black prostitutes, black pimps, drug pushers, and the breakdown of our urban centers in North America. We now have a generation of young children who believe that the MAN (our Caucasian corporate brothers) is out to get them. Every time a young black is killed by a white cop it is racism. It does not matter that the offender was in the process of breaking the law or refusing to follow and officers' warnings or directions. I am not saying that there are not racist cops. What I am saying is that you should treat an officer with respect. Like any other of your fellow human beings, you may find that after 5 minutes the officer will let you go on your way. If you approach an officer with disrespect, just like any other of our fellow human beings, the police officer is going to get defensive. Then who would blame him for giving you a hard time. I believe a lot of us forget that the law enforcement officer is there to serve and protect. They are trained to, and have to deal with the dregs of society who would rather break the law than to work with it. The officer who shoots a suspect is only human, and usually has a family to go home to. If I was a cop being approached by a violent suspect and he happened to be carrying a weapon, attempting to evade custody or assault me. I would do everything in my power to make sure that I returned home to my family at the end of my shift. This does not mean that all blacks who are killed by police bullets during the course of being apprehended deserve what they got. With split seconds only between whether you live or die, the officer is trained to make that decision. I am also not indicating that the Police do have to take more steps to improve their training when dealing with minorities., But the buck has to stop with us "as a community".
Why was there a group of black people in the area of the Todd Bayliss killing yelling, Kill the pigs, let the cop die? This is where we as the black community must step out and defend the cops who are there when we need them. Where were Dudley Laws, Charles Roach and the Black Action Defense Committee, when support for the Metropolitan Police was needed. I did not see Dudley or Charles, speak out against the likes of Clinton Gayle. This would show the Black community that Clinton's actions were wrong, and that as Canadians we detest the actions and life style of such individuals. No, Dudley and Charles are always the first ones down at Metro Police Headquarters complaining about racism because another young black person was killed by one of Metro's finest. Children today do not have the same moral values hat we were raised with. I also do not want to indicate that these problems do not exist in other racial designations, within our communities, but I am focusing on our own Black community.
As a Canadian with brown skin. I do not applaud the actions of the BADC, they do not and cannot represent the way I feel about racism in Toronto. Where is the BADC when a young black is killed by another young black. Is that not reverse racism. Does Dudley only care about blacks who are killed by white police officers, and only when he can get his name in the paper? I have noticed a lot of racism that involves black against black, and this goes back along way in history.
I have been pulled over by the police but only because I was not following the guidelines that society sets to make this country safe for everyone. I did not indicate to the officer that he was only pulling me over because I was black. I accepted the fact that I had made a traffic violation and accepted my ticket. I then thanked the officer and told him to have a good day. Do you know what. He didn't call me nigger. I didn't get thrown into the back of his cruiser and roughed up. I also probably changed his perspective about how he may feel when approaching a black suspect, while in the line of duty. When I was in grade school, the most I ever had to worry about was maybe being called NIGGER and maybe having to defend myself against the ignorance of others (physically and mentally). Today's school children now have to worry about whether they will even make it home from school, to return to the families who may or may not love them. We have seen a growing number of young black children who switched to using weapons instead of their minds. Instead of discussing the things that bother them they now kill randomly. The number one killer of young black persons in North America (Canada, U.S., and the Caribbean), is and still remains young black persons. So where is the BADC to change those statistics?
I remember Toronto back in the 70's where black persons would pass each other on the street and nod or greet each other. Now black men do not make eye contact with each other out of fear of being accosted or shot. The high number of young black men with weapons is appalling. The amount of young black immigrants has risen and so have the amount of bad attitudes. For those of you who have immigrated to Canada, you must remember why you decided to come to Canada. Remember you are welcome here but do not make it harder for those of us who were here before you. A lot of Canadian blacks put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears. So that my children and my children's children, and you, and I, would have a more just society to live in. This is so we would not have to go through some of the hardships they endured.

Where is the BADC to counter the reverse racism thrown at other Canadians by our black community?

They are only reactionary and we as a community must make the change. The reason that the black community will never become a major player like other racial group is the prejudice of blacks against blacks. This may go back to the African tribes prior to British imperialism. But to bring the topic closer to home it probably stems back to slavery where the house slave was much more above the status of the field slave. The house nigger as they were called may have seemed quite arrogant when compared to the field worker. This can still be seen in today's society, especially in the Caribbean community where the East Indian descent blacks feel that there African brothers are arrogant and visa versa. Also perpetuated by our own brothers and sister and re-enforced by society is the shade of your blackness. My skin is darker than yours therefore "I'm somehow blacker." So why do we blame Caucasians for prejudice, instead of ourselves. I have spoken with West and East Indians, both from the mainland and South America. I have indicated that I have been classed as not being black even though my skin is a rich mocha brown, and I cannot count the times I was called nigger as a kid. We have to clean up the prejudices amongst ourselves (the black community) before we can ever hope to change the way society views us as a community. We have to re-teach our children that the stereotypes portrayed in the media can be changed but we have to change them, and not wait for society to change them for us. Why is it OK for one black to call another black a Nigger, but when it is stated by someone of another race, it is prejudice. I looked up the term nigger and the only definition I could find indicated that it described a person's ignorance. No where in the definition did it ever specify a racial class of people. So we as a community are perpetuating the use of the word, in describing our selves as ignorant.

The systemic employment practices of the Canadian business community also helped to foster tensions among the black community and helped to perpetuate the single parent home. Prior to the mid 40's the only job a person of color could get was either as, a porter on a train or work in the mines, if you were male. Females were limited to working as a domestic or finding jobs in child care. This has two very important parts that affected the black community and their family units.

With the black male prior to the 60's, they usually had to leave the family unit to locate work. Thus the female was given the importance of raising the family while the male was off attempting to find employment. If the wife or mother was fortunate enough to find work outside the home, it also created an environment of unwatched children. Thus we have the start of the single parent family. As more fathers became frustrated by employment opportunities and left their families, the breakdown of the black family unit began, this re-enforced the dejection and self esteem of the black male.. Also the immigration policies of the 1960's put a lot of Canadian black domestics out of work due to the cheaper wages of their Caribbean counterparts. This is not to say that the people who immigrated to Canada, do not have the right to work in there chosen new country. It built resentment, as hard working black Canadian mothers once again found themselves looking for work in the white man's world.

Some points to note are that the hiring practices of the time focused on integration, although the lighter a black person's skin was the more apt they was to be hired by white employers. This re-enforcement by the business community, of judging a person by their skin color also helped to build the resentment and jealousy, that certain factions of the black community feel toward each other. This became more apparent as more light skinned Negroes became employed and it built envy and jealousy in the community and even within the family unit.

I remember starting school in Toronto in 1965, this was the first year that Toronto schools became desegregated. I watched my father travel across Ontario looking for work. I remember when my father went back to college, to better himself and to improve our families economic condition. This was in the mid 1970's and my father graduated second in his class. My father could not get work in his new field. No one would give him an apprenticeship, as there were no black funeral directors in Canada at the time. My dad was upset but he did not give up. He did not turn his back on us, but showed us that you have to persevere and continue to make a path for yourself in this world. No one will magically walk up to you and say you people have been oppressed for hundreds of years, Here is a million dollars!

We have to rebuild the black family unit and instill a sense of self esteem in our children. We cannot turn back time to make up for the past mistakes of slavery. We cannot punish the living for something that their dead fore-fathers implemented. Slavery is dead in North America. The sooner we all remove the chip off our shoulders, where our white brothers are concerned, the better we will be able to deal with our own issues as a community. Speak up for your rights but don't turn to violence. Let your children know that they are valued. There are too many single parent homes where the father has abandoned the roost (this is also pervasive throughout all racial designations, but once again, I must re-enforce that I am only addressing the Black community. We must make the change, before we can expect the rest of society too. Stand up and be counted. Don't deny anyone the right to live in a free and just society.

We have drug dealers (Clinton Gayle), gang bangers (like the Jamaican Posse), and gangster rappers (like Tupac Shakur). We then have the black extremists who scream racism whenever one of the above types of people ends up dead during the committing of an offense. I remember the days of Canada past, when the community mourned to learn about a member of the black community being killed in an auto accident.

We now have a generation of young blacks who look up to these criminals as role models. Instead of working toward a high school education, young blacks now seem to want to get out in the working world and make themselves rich and would do anything to make it the easy way, like much of society today.

We must remember that our children are not stupid. The city gang trend today is perpetuated by our under educated young black men, who gave up on an education. These gang members may look at this road as a way to financial success. This only leads to personal decay of character and also changes the way that they view other people, the world, and their country.

We now have young kids who talk about killing anyone who DISSES (sic) them. They refuse to show respect for themselves and for others. Because of peer pressure, the quest to remain within the guidelines and morals issued by the community, become harder to maintain. We have to change if we are ever going to grow as a society or community. We have to let our children know that it is not cool to act as though they are gangsters. We have to teach them to resolve things without turning to violence. We have to teach them respect for all people and things, especially themselves. We have to let them know that the family unit starts with their input. We have to teach them to be more lenient of other cultures and religions. We have to investigate the reasons why our young children turn to crime instead of knowledge. We have to investigate why a great majority of young black children turn to drug dealing and drug abuse. We cannot blame society as we are the only ones responsible for ourselves. We have to ensure that our children get a proper education, so that their input is valid and valued.

Most of all we have to stop the violence amongst ourselves. We have to help each other and ensure that we let our brothers and sisters know that there are those of us who care, and that they can make a difference in this life. These facts have to be passed through to all races if we ever expect to have a country where we are truly strong and free.