Sometimes I see an event occur and I marvel at the humanity of people. Other times, I see events occur and I wonder, where is our humanity?

The last couple of weeks have been more of the latter. It has been a very difficult time, internalizing and processing all the events. There is so much that I want to say and do, yet simultaneously, I feel stuck, overwhelmed, sad and angry.  I have had many debates and discussions over the last two weeks and here is a summary of my thoughts on them.

You are not African American or even Canadian. Why is this your fight?

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” – Desmond Tutu

The quote above is a favourite of mine and one that I strive to live by. Why should I have to be American or Canadian to stand up to injustice. Why doesn’t the fact that we are humans sufficient enough to make me act? When people see me, if I am ever arrested, they will not ask whether I am African-American, Afro-Canadian, Nigerian-Canadian, an immigrant – nothing. My skin colour is sufficient enough to be treated the same way as other Black folks whose ancestors came to Turtle Island as slaves.

Before I came to Canada six years ago, like many other folks, I was shown one side of Canada – the moral exemplar kind, better than the US in terms of human rights, justice and standard of living. I never knew about its First Nations Peoples nor atrocities committed in its imperialistic conquests. However, the first time I experienced racism was here, in Canada. Barely four months here, I was called the N word by another student who had poked his head out this dorm window. It was this moment that my idealistic, conditioned assumptions of Canada was broken and I started my self-learning. We should not be okay with saying “Oh but at least we are not as bad as the Americans”, or “you must be grateful to be in Canada”.

Vancouver is considered to be one of the safest cities in the world but I am still not totally safe walking alone at night because I am acutely aware of my skin colour.

Racism has no geography. Canada had black slaves and although it tried to make this part of history benign in comparison to the United States, the forceful taking of people from their home for labour and profit, is still what it is, slavery. As a fellow black feminist scholar, Anita Mwango Moragia rightly puts it, “conversations about systemic racism [in Canada] are inextricably linked to conversations about class, colonialism and neo-colonial experiences on the African continent”. One cannot exist without the other, one’s story is incomplete without the other.

I am non-black, and I support you but I don’t know where to begin

I am not here to give you a list of books to read and movies to watch. You have seen those around on Social Media. Google has made self-directed learning very easy.

Black folks have historically been given the extra burden of doing the work of anti-racism and it is exhausting. Expecting black folks to do this further removes you from the work and further creates emotional labour for Black folks. I have lost count of the number of times I have been the only black body in a room and the burden that comes with educating the other folks. Stop expecting me to teach you what you should already know. I am not the knowledge keeper of all things black, African or even Nigerian. What I share are from my own lenses only and to categorize all black folks with that lens is a further injustice to their own experiences and identities.

What next?

I have received a lot of messages asking what folks can do beyond sharing, donating and reading – on becoming a more active ally. I am always for tangible action plans. Personally, I see many folks that appear to have good intentions but are unable to follow through. I hope some of the ideas below help make this a little easier to do so. 

Personal Actions

Speak Up

Call out that family member, friend or colleague that makes those racist (including the ‘borderline’, you know the one that leave you with a fuzzy awkward feeling in your stomach) direct or off-hand comments. Before we can begin to change institutions and systems on a larger scale, we have to examine and change our hearts. Ask yourself where your assumptions and knowledge of what Black people are and aren’t come from. The Media, books, movies?

How have those assumptions shaped the way in which you see and interact with Black bodies?

Have you considered the history of a favourite childhood song, eeny, meeny, miny, moe?

It is not enough to be anti-racist. It is not enough to have non-white friends. It is not enough to be silently mortified. Be uncomfortable. Your silence is complacency. Be mad. Spend your privilege; look back at this moment decades from now and be able to hold your head up high knowing that you stood for justice, humanity, reconciliation and compassion.

Stop Othering

Begin to notice the comments you make about Black bodies. Stop othering, exoticizing, and trivializing Black bodies, Black Art, Black Hair and the Black Struggle. You cannot listen to Black music and switch off to the struggles of the musician’s blackness.

A black person should not have to worry that their hairstyle may cost them a job while the same hairstyle on a non-white body is simultaneously being considered ‘trendy’.

Is your first thought when you hear defund the police, “Oh no! It will be chaos.” Rather than first understanding the systemic racism that exists in policing and how defunding might mean the re-allocation of resources to healthcare, education, housing, and other community safety services that will consequently have an impact on poverty, which is intrinsically connected to violence? How might we put the focus community-centred law and order?

Black folks do not have all the answers to anti-racist work and need non-black folks to join in and support. However, we remain in this all too familiar ‘something horrible happens-people are mortified, and protest-things go back to normal a month later’ cycle. This idea cannot continue.

Workplace

Consider how hiring is done in your organization, how phone interviews create situations of biases and prejudice when the applicant does not sound ‘Canadian’?

Consider how non-white names on resumes could be over-looked for more ‘white-sounding’ names? During my internship at Vancity where I led the hiring process for a secondment, my team redacted the identifying features of candidates. Imagine having this be the hiring norm in your organization; in the country.

Racism is political and personal. Just as more organization have unconscious bias training programs, continuous conversations about racisms need to become a norm in the workplace. Is your organization doing Diversity & Inclusion for the right reasons?

Final thoughts

To my white and non-black allies who feel hopeless about the way things are, know that Black folks need you in this fight. Despair and hopelessness are dangerous feelings right now as the lives of Black and Brown folks are on the line every single day. There is always something that you can do to make your immediate community more just and equal. Challenge the decisions of elected and city officials, amplify Black Voices, support Black-owned businesses, if you are not sure about anything after doing your research, ask and do not assume. Continue to spend your privilege and reflect in moments of quietness:

“In what ways does my proximity to whiteness afford me privileges that are not extended to Black and Brown people?

In what ways have I been conditioned to believe in the superiority of whiteness?

In what ways have I engaged in rhetoric that promotes othering or stereotyping of Black People?”

– @jazzchung (Instagram)

In what way can I be and do better tomorrow?

Black lives have always and will continue to matter. “You didn’t build me, you don’t sustain me and you cannot end me”.

—

Nkiru Ani is a guest contributor to The Potentiality and we’re grateful for her ideas, cautious optimism and mentorship.

Here’s a diverse list of Vancouver/Canada specific work compiled via Feminists Deliver that I encourage folks to do outside of the ones they may have already heard about.

• Dr. Yvonne Brown’s book: Dead Woman Pickney: A Memoir of Childhood in Jamaica
• Dr. Yvonne Brown’s thesis: Bodies, memories, and empire: life stories about growing up in Jamaica 1943-1965
• Battered Women’s Support Services: Black Women in Canada and the Black Women’s Program at Battered Women’s Support Services
• Stratagem Virtual: 10 Habits of Someone Who Doesn’t Know They’re Anti-Black (Make sure to buy a ticket to Stratagem Virtual)
• COOP Radio: Interview: Udokam Iroegbu, Angela-Marie MacDougall and Lama Mugabo
• CBC The Early Edition: June Francis of the Hogan’s Alley Society, and Christopher Parker Washington political science profession respond to the unrest this past weekend
• CTV Power Play: Anti-Black racism in Canada with Robyn Maynard and Sandy Hudson
• CBC On The Coast – Artist Naomi Grace (Buy from Naomi’s Melanin Rising Apparel and listen to the playlist, “VanCity Black“
• CTV: Canadians should not be blind to racism in our own country, SFU prof says
• CBC: Markiel Simpson of the BC Community Alliance, and Hogan’s Alley Society co-chair June Francis discuss anti-police brutality protests after the deaths of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet. (see: 24:54)
• The Lynda Steele Show: Vancouver’s rich Black history with Amir Ali and Professor June Francis 
• CBC News at 6 (see 39:06) : https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1745209923579

If you would like to donate to Vancouver/Canada-specific organisations, here are a few options:

• Hogan’s Alley Society 
• Black in BC Community Support Fund for COVID-19 
• Black Lives Matter Vancouver
• Black Women’s Program at Battered Women’s Support Services
• The Black Mental Health Matters Fund (Toronto)
• Eritrean-Ethiopian COVID Solidarity Fund (Toronto)
• Justice for Regis
• Toronto Protester Bail Fund (they are redirecting funds to Justice for Regis)
• Vancouver Black Therapy & Advocacy Fund
• Black Business and Professional Association