Recently, an African Canadian woman in North York, Toronto lost her third child, all three dying of fatal late night shootings. Two of the three died in 2002. It is very saddening and I send my condolences to her. Alas, it is not only sad that she lost all her children to shootings, but it is too spirit-dropping knowing that all of these children were African Canadian.
Why, oh why do we always hear of awful things happening to the African Canadian in our communities? One night, an African Canadian has been arrested, the next a black person has been shot dead. In the USA, we also hear of protests and funerals and crying relatives all the time. We try to prevent it with youth programs in church communities for example. Parents work hard to give their children a good education. But we still end up in the news.
I do not know why we Africans tend to get mixed up with the law often. We are just like all the other races like Caucasians and Asians, yet a lot of the time, you will see us in the news about drugs or gangs or whatever. I just do not know why this is so. Are Africans trying to fit in? Are we supposed to find drug dealing or gangbang interesting, a common pastime? A possible reason why Africans today find it their duty to break society’s rules is because they want payback. Do they want payback for slavery, payback for discrimination, payback for all racism and all that shenanigans from decades ago?
Then would Martin Luther King’s efforts all be for absolutely nothing? The Civil War in America would have no meaning as well. Those soldiers and protesters who died in both occasions were fighting for abolition of slavery, ending all racial discrimination and segregation. They did not struggle for African domination; they fought relentlessly for Africans freedom and equality. No, I do not mean it is ok for African people to commit crimes to be like the whites who commit crimes. Instead, we Africans should surpass being equal to others intellectually. Surpass others in school and in work. Hold the door for your manager or pick up your professor’s pencil. Thank anyone who gives you anything, from a small meal to a full scholarship no matter what. Let the haters know what type of potential they were keeping stored away when they enslaved our ancestors. Let them know we are worth their time, respect, and acceptation.
A couple of months back, a white officer, Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, gunned down an eighteen-year old African teenager, Michael Brown. This sparked weeks of protests both peaceful and violent, vandalism, and robberies. Tensions were already high in the majority-African community and the majority-white government and police. The protests, though necessary to get the public’s point across that there needed to be a change, were executed rather poorly resulting in injuries and nighttime curfews. That is not a good example about African Americans either.
But when the people came together at Brown’s funeral, it really demonstrated how we Africans do and should act. They were all together as one, crying in each other’s arms yet standing tall and mighty to let their thoughts be known. We should all come together not only in difficult times, but in the happy time as well.
If Africans could act more like they did at Brown’s funeral, together as one, we could really make a difference in how other races picture us. There would be less racism and more acceptances, less crimes committed by blacks and more scholarships won by Africans, less struggles and death, more happiness, rejoicing, and celebrations. I am doing my part by staying away from the stereotypes. Now, fellow African Americans and Africa Canadians everywhere, I hope you can sever all the tough but brittle strings that tie us to those stereotypes too.
Angelous