ACCESSING POST SECONDARY EDUCATION

“In the decade leading up to 2015, nearly 70% of Canada’s projected 1.7 million new jobs are expected to be in management positions or in occupations usually requiring post-secondary qualifications. Improving access to post-secondary is one way to increase the number of graduates able to respond to labour force demands in the face of anticipated skills shortages.” Excerpt from an April 1, 2009 report by “Canadian Council on Learning” entitled “Post-secondary education in Canada: Who is missing out?”

The Board of Directors of the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) met for the last time on April 11, 2012. The Paul Martin Liberal government created the Canada Council on Learning in 2004 to “report regularly on Canada’s progress in learning outcomes, and publish and disseminate key findings on what works.” In 2010 the Stephen Harper Conservative government informed the council it was cutting its funding. The final report of the CCL was presented in 2011.

I read the report “Post-secondary education in Canada: Who is missing out?” which was published in 2009 by the CCL as I was searching for answers to how the government plans to address racism/White supremacy in post-secondary education. Alas! I did not find any answers there. There was information about the “constellation of barriers confronting low-income, first-generation and Aboriginal students.” There was also recognition that addressing those barriers “requires a coordinated effort by governments, educators, parents, members of the community and students themselves.” There is much in the report about financial barriers, academic barriers and the “unpreparedness” of racialized and first generation students who attend post-secondary institutions. However nowhere in that report was there an acknowledgement of the White supremacist culture in post-secondary institutions that alienate racialized students which leads to overwhelming “missing out.” Of course the federal government that established the CCL is no longer in power and the present government seems to have no interest in the subject.

My quest began after a conversation with a group of students in their final year of a four year program at one of Toronto’s universities. These bright articulate young women were somewhat distressed because of the White supremacist culture to which they have been subjected. They also spoke about the disrespect to which a racialized professor is subjected by White students. Their remarks reminded me of an incident where educators in training looked at a group of Africentric dolls and burst into laughter declaring that the dolls were “a bunch of voodoo dolls.” It is alarming to think that some of these young White people will be working in schools that African Canadian children attend and will be expected to educate our children when they have such contempt and disdain for African culture.

Meanwhile many of our young people are not in post-secondary institutions they are in other kinds of institutions where their presence provides jobs for many of those White youth who attended post-secondary institutions. This state of affairs is not accidental it is all deliberately planned. Even the teaching in post-secondary institutions is deliberately set up to ensure that the position of power that White skin people hold is perpetuated. That is the reason why there is never a serious effort to address White skin privilege even when it is very evident in a class room setting at post-secondary institutions. Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci addressed the issue of education to maintain the status quo (cultural hegemony) from the point of view of a White male Marxist in a European country so there is no race analysis but it is pertinent in the case of African Canadians being educated to normalise White supremacy. Cultural hegemony has been described as: “The domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of the society - the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores - so that their ruling-class Weltanschauung becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.” Gramsci wrote: "The individual consciousness of the overwhelming majority of children reflects social and cultural relations which are different from and antagonistic to those which are represented in the school curricula." In that case it was the ruling class in Italy educating the other classes of people living in Italy to accept the attitudes of the ruling class as normal and everything else as “other.” Similarly in Canada the ruling class being White skin people are in control of the education system and for anyone who is not White to survive in a post-secondary institution they must imbibe the idea of White ruling class culture as normal. To resist is to be ostracised or worse fail to obtain post-secondary credentials thus hampering the opportunity to get a well-paying job.

The experience of the young African Canadian women in the Toronto post-secondary education is not unique it is replicated on campuses across Canada. What these young women are experiencing can lead to what has been described by the experts as “Racial battle fatigue.” African American professor Dr. William A. Smith from the department of Education, Culture & Society and the Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Utah has done extensive work on the subject and is credited with coining the phrase “Racial battle fatigue.” In a presentation entitled “Understanding and Recognizing the Impact of Racial Microaggressions on Students of Color in Historically White Institutions” he wrote: “According to most university brochures, college represents a time of unbridled optimism, exciting challenges, and myriad opportunities. Few students would anticipate that their university experience might be marked by ongoing racialized incidents questioning their academic merit, cultural knowledge, and physical presence. Many Students of Color constantly face charges of being unqualified and viewed as being "out of place." Each of these experiences are racial microaggressions which compromises the campus climate, student satisfaction, personal health, and success of the targeted student or group. Over time, the mundane but extreme stress caused by these assaults can lead to mental, emotional, and physical strain which has come to be identified as Racial Battle Fatigue.” In an interview in February 2008 Smith defined “Racial micro-aggressions” this way: “Racial micro-aggressions are latent, or offensive remarks or actions that whites rarely see as racist yet are experienced by people of color as assaults.” Smith also has also been quoted on the subject of how racism affects those who are victimized: “The ferociousness of racism should be viewed like a racial neurotoxin that can traumatize, hurt, enrage, confuse, and in the end prevent optimal growth and functioning of individuals and communities of color.”

Although Smith is credited with coining the phrase “Racial Battle Fatigue” he has expanded on the work of an earlier generation. African American Psychiatrist Chester Middlebrook Pierce Emeritus Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School identified “Racial micro-aggressions” in 1974 as: “These [racial] assaults to Black dignity and Black hope are incessant and cumulative. Any single one may be gross. In fact, the major vehicle for racism in this country is offenses done to Blacks by Whites in this sort of gratuitous never-ending way. These offenses are microaggressions. Almost all Black - White racial interactions are characterized by White put-downs, done in automatic, pre-conscious, or unconscious fashion. These minidisasters accumulate. It is the sum total of multiple microaggressions by Whites to Blacks that has pervasive effect to the stability and peace of this world. In 2011 Smith wrote: “Pierce (1974), believes that racism is an infectious disease, a perceptual disease, as well as a lethal disease. Indeed, the consequence of a life-time of racism coupled with mal-adaptive, exhausted, or limited coping strategies results in a shortened lifespan or premature death for People of Color.” Smith co-authored “Assume the Position You Fit the Description” Psychosocial Experiences and Racial Battle Fatigue Among African American Male College Students” the results of a study that examined the experiences of African American male students enrolled at Harvard University; Michigan State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois; and the University of Michigan. The findings of the study were published in the December 2007 edition of American Behavioral Scientist magazine and found that: “Two themes emerged: (a) anti-Black male stereotyping and marginality (or Black misandry), which caused (b) extreme hypersurveillance and control. Respondents experienced racial microaggressions in three domains: (a) campus—academic, (b) campus—social, and (c) campus—public spaces. Black males are stereotyped and placed under increased surveillance by community and local policing tactics on and off campus. Across these domains, Black males were defined as being “out of place” and “fitting the description” of illegitimate nonmembers of the campus community. Students reported psychological stress responses symptomatic of racial battle fatigue (e.g., frustration, shock, anger, disappointment, resentment, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear). There was unanimous agreement in the subjective reports that the college environment was more hostile toward African American males than other groups.”

I did not have this information when I spoke with the young women who were experiencing serious “racial microaggressions” in their classroom at one of Toronto’s prestigious universities. Maybe it has not reached that point for African Canadian women attending Canadian universities. After all we are constantly told that Canadian racism is different from the US brand of racism or even that there is no racism here!

JOMO KENYATTA APRIL 8 - 1953

Jomo Kenyatta has been sentenced to seven years hard labour for his part in the organisation of the rebel Mau Mau movement. The leader of the Kenya African Union, who was found guilty on all charges, was also given three years hard labour to run concurrently for being a member of the movement. Kenyatta told the court he and his colleagues were not guilty but that they stood for the rights of the African people and peace in Kenya. Kenyatta was also given several opportunities to denounce the illegal movement which he refused to do. Excerpt from British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report March 8, 1953

Jomo Kenyatta, born Kamau wa Ngengi to parents Muigai and Wambui who were members of the Kikuyu ethnic group in central Kenya changed his name to Jomo Kenyatta as an adult. He became Kenya’s first Prime Minister when the country gained its political independence from Britain on December 12, 1963 but it was a long hard road getting there. Kenyatta’s political career could be said to have begun when he became a member of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA.) The KCA was an organization founded in 1924 to present the concerns of the Kikuyu people to the representatives of the British government in Kenya who occupied African land.

Although at that time the British were in possession of the best farming land in the country they were not the first Europeans to occupy the land. The first Europeans entering Kenya in 1844 were German missionaries. These missionaries had more on their minds than converting Africans to Christianity. They made numerous exploratory journeys into the interior of the country where they carefully mapped and wrote about their findings. In 1860 they published detailed maps and cataloguing of the land in “Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours During an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa.” Not surprisingly, the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf dedicated the book to “The Prince Consort Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel etc.,” the German husband of then reigning British monarch, Victoria (ancestor of today’s British royal family.) The book documenting the findings by the German missionaries probably widely read in Britain led to British adventurers descending on Kenya in droves.

White people displaced the indigenous African communities in the area and occupied the land. The well-established African communities which included, farmers, fishermen, hunters and ironworkers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production and trade with other countries were destroyed. Mombasa (Kenya’s capital) was the major port city of Kenya in the Middle Ages from where ships left to trade with other countries. In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa a Portuguese writer and trader visited several countries bordering the Indian Ocean and documented his findings in “The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and Their Inhabitants” which was published in 1518. Of his visit to Mombasa, Barbosa wrote, “This is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of those which come from Sofala and those which go thither, and others which come from the great kingdom Cambaya and from Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar.” The history of Kenya however began long before the advent of Europeans to the area. In the 1981 published book “Kenya’s Past: An Introduction to Historical Method in Africa,” Thomas Spear writes “The history of eastern and central Kenya stretches more than two million years from the initial emergence of mankind itself to the present. The archaeological record of mankind in Kenya is the oldest in the world, stretching back some four to five million years to the earliest men and women and their immediate forebears living on the shores of Lake Turkana.”

Kenya’s history was re-written by White colonizers who swiftly followed the German missionaries and British adventurers. The lives of the Africans changed considerably after this large scale occupation of the land by White men and women. The Germans and British were jostling each other for space in East Africa. The covetous Europeans had occupied other areas of Africa and by 1884 felt that they needed to have some rules since they were tripping over each other in their greedy stampede to occupy African land. In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismark organized a meeting (Berlin Conference) of the major White tribes of the world to negotiate and end the confusion over who would occupy which portion of Africa. Fourteen countries were represented when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884; Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey and the United States of America. The feeding frenzy lasted three months until February 26, 1885. This group of White men meeting in Europe haggled over haphazardly drawn boundaries on the African continent, disregarding the centuries old established communities, cultures and order of the Africans.

Following that initial “Scramble for Africa” the British moved into Kenya, occupied the most fertile land and forced the Africans off the land. They passed laws that disenfranchised Africans, even forbidding them to own land in certain parts of the country. With the White interlopers occupying what they dubbed the "White Highlands" of Kenya, the Maasai and the Kikuyu were displaced and some were forced unto reserves. With the fertile land in Kenya reserved for White people and Africans forced to subsist on mostly infertile land, the White settlers became increasingly wealthy while the Africans lived in poverty. The large scale farming that enriched the White farmers needed cheap labour but the Africans refused to work on the farms. To ensure that Africans were a cheap source of labour for the White population of Kenya, the British government passed laws which forced the Africans to work for the White people who now occupied their land. The British army was on hand to ensure that White farmers and the stolen African land they occupied were protected. The passing and enforcing of the “Masters and Servants Act” (1906) ensured that a caste system of all White people as masters and all Africans as servants was firmly in place.

By the time the KCA was founded in 1924 almost 40 years and two generations of British occupation and brutally barbaric rule had cowed some Africans in Kenya into accepting life as colonized people. However regardless of dispossession and occupation of their land it is natural for human beings to resist oppression and the Africans in Kenya fought back in various ways. Organizing and protesting were some of those ways.

Not surprisingly the KCA was banned in 1940 during the time of the European tribal conflict (1939-45) because White people were occupied with killing each other in Europe. The battle which began in Europe soon engulfed the lives and the lands of racialized people whose land had been occupied by White people. So of course racialized people from Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Central, North and South America were drafted into the conflict fighting on the side of whichever European tribe controlled their native land. The British would have found it difficult to keep track of the members of organizations like the KCA while they were battling with other Europeans in Europe so the organization was banned. When the European tribes ended their armed conflict on September 2, 1945 those Africans who had been fighting beside White men for years knew that White men were not superior beings just human beings some cowards under fire some brave but all could die from bullets. Those Africans returning from the war in Europe were not content to return to the status of second class citizens in their countries and the fight for independence from European colonization intensified. The Kenya African Union (KAU) was founded in 1944 to address the inequities of colonization. Kenyatta and other African leaders were influenced by the philosophies and teachings of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey an African Jamaican considered the father of the modern Pan-African movement. This philosophy led to Africans realizing that they needed to unite to gain their political independence from the European colonizers of their land and the struggle was on across the continent. A group of disenchanted and disenfranchised Africans supposedly a break-off group of KAU who waged armed struggle against the colonizers in Kenya became known as the Mau Mau. Every African in Kenya was suspected of being a member of the Mau Mau and the repression of Africans by the British was brutal (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/05/kenyans-sue-uk-colonial-human-rights-abuses.)

Although Kenyatta denied being a member of the Mau Mau (http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/kikuyu/articles-speech.htm) he was arrested, tried and found guilty on March 8, 1953. Even with Kenyatta’s incarceration the struggle for independence continued in spite of brutal British repression and on December 12, 1963 Kenyans gained their independence from British occupation.

NANA YAA ASANTEWAA MARCH 28 - 1900

Onward Christian soldiers Into heathen lands Prayer books in your pockets Rifles in your hands Take the happy tidings Where trade can be done Spread the peaceful gospel With the Gatling gun From “Africa: A Voyage of Discovery with Basil Davidson - The Bible and the Gun” a series of articles/videos produced in 1984.

The Gatling gun was patented in 1862 just in time for Europeans who had mostly ended the enslavement of Africans in the “New World” to turn their attention to possessing and exploiting the African continent and those Africans who lived there. Not being content with brutally robbing the continent of its people and their talents for centuries these evil, covetous, unconscionable people left their homes in Europe to invade and seize vast amounts of African land. The invention of the Gatling gun gave them an advantage of superior firepower to slaughter Africans who resisted their encroachment. The Gatling gun and later the Maxim gun were used to steal and occupy African land and subjugate Africans on the continent. The Africans armed with rifles were no match for these machine guns which could outfire any rifle of the time. Some Europeans also used the excuse of Christianizing the Africans to explain their presence on the continent. Davidson in his series of videos debunks that myth. His research as presented in the videos show that these Christian missionaries in some cases used brute force to “convert” Africans to Christianity. These good Christian White people destroyed and stole African art, culture and property in their efforts to “Christianize” the Africans. However as Davidson points out the missionaries in spite of the supposed Christian zeal to convert Africans held fast to the White supremacist belief that Africans were not their equal. From the song that Davidson mentioned in his presentation it is obvious the real purpose of the missionaries as an advance army was to culturally, emotionally and spiritually subdue as many Africans as possible before the European settlers arrived like locusts to occupy African land. With Africans forced or volunteering to accept the new religion which included worshipping a White superior being and by extension White skin people as superior the task of subjugating the Africans and stealing their land was made a bit easier. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ONSlDEaoQ

Many Europeans had moved into the African continent disregarding the Africans, behaving as if they did not exist and taken possession of their land, cattle and other property. Any resistance by Africans was met by the most dreadful, barbaric violence from the European invaders of their land. Davidson quotes from a British army officer’s diary where the man describes in detail and with much satisfaction his role in murdering Africans and occupying their land. Davidson describes the colonial period as: “Prolonged interlude of destructive subjection and foreign occupation [of Africa] whose main achievement was not to carry Africa into a new world order but merely to complete the dismantlement of the old.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDdBlO3XauA

The most egregious and presumptuous act of theft against the African people had its beginning during a two month meeting from November 15, 1884 to January 20, 1885. Known as the “Berlin Conference” because of its location in Berlin, Germany, the meeting included representatives from 14 White tribes who carved up the African continent and parcelled out land among themselves with no thought to how their actions would affect the Africans, owners of the land. The Europeans arrived on the African continent and swarmed throughout the land bringing destruction and mayhem to the lives of Africans. They occupied the most fertile land and by force and trickery using “the Bible and the gun” they coerced Africans into labouring to enrich Europeans. Africans did not sit quietly and allow the White interlopers to reign supreme. There were several acts of African resistance.

One of the most famous acts of resistance was led by an African woman in Ghana. Nana Yaa Asantewaa is considered an African freedom fighter who led her people in resistance to the oppression of the colonizing British. Following the “Scramble for Africa” where members of 14 white tribes decided to carve up the African continent to colonize and exploit the people living in those places (Ethiopia being the sole African country they were unsuccessful in colonizing) the British tried to subdue the Ashanti nation of Ghana. In the first Ashanti/British war in 1823, the British were soundly thrashed by the Ashanti warriors. Keeping in mind that there was no invasion of Britain by the Ashanti or any other African nation, the British were at an advantage because they could keep importing soldiers from a country where people lived in virtual peace while the Ashanti and other African nations were in a constant state of turmoil with Europeans invading their territories, slaughtering, kidnapping and enslaving their citizens. The British driven to extreme greed by the knowledge of gold in the Ashanti Empire (which they later named the Gold Coast) attacked the Ashanti in 1826, 1873, 1893-1894 and 1895-1896. In 1896, the British government annexed the territories of the Ashanti after the 24 year old Asantehene (king) Prempeh I, supposedly directed his people not to resist, which is hardly surprising since by this time the Ashanti had been resisting British attacks for 73 years. In 1900 not only did the British exile the kidnapped Asantehene to the Seychelles islands, the British governor demanded that he be allowed to sit on the sacred Golden Stool of the Ashanti, which not even the Asantehene was allowed to sit on. This was the final insult and after the meeting with the British governor (which supposedly took place on March 28, 1900) when some of the chiefs of the Ashanti were reluctant to fight the British to rescue their king, Nana Yaa Asantewaa took matters into her own hands. She is credited with rallying the men of Asante with this speech: “Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it were in the brave days of, the days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware, chiefs would not sit down to see their king taken away without firing a shot. No White man could have dared to speak to chief of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you chiefs this morning. Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be! I must say this: if you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We the women will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the White men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6aLXTS2F1E

Davidson a White man from Britain is considered an Africanist and has written extensively about African history and although he was not an academic (left school as a 16 year old) he was acknowledged by academic institutions as an authority on Africa and Africans. He published more than 35 books mostly about Africa and in the obituary published in the Guardian newspaper on Friday July 9, 2010 his books are described: “These were mainly about African history and included classic textbooks still in use in both east and west Africa.” I think of the battle, challenges and scepticism African Guyanese academic and scholar Ivan VanSertima encountered when he published “They Came Before Columbus” and remember the words of Susan McIntosh the author of “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” She lists several advantages and unearned privileges of White skin and one she lists is: “If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.” How many Africans have had the privilege of their work being published regardless of their talent and knowledge about their lived experiences compared to White people who write about Africa and Africans? We need to seek out and encourage our educators to support African authors so our children are exposed to the work of African authors as a balance to the overwhelming White supremacist culture to which we have been subjected since and even before the “Christian soldiers” invaded Africa.

DR FRANCES CRESS WELSING

"Racism (White Supremacy) is the local and global power system and dynamic, structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined, which consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war), for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth - a planet upon which the vast majority of people are classified as nonwhite (black, brown, red and yellow) by white skinned people, and all of the nonwhite people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people." From “The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors” by Dr Francis Cress Welsing

March 21 is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Dr. Francis Cress Welsing is one of the recognized voices that have defined “racism.” She is an African American psychiatrist whose definition of racism has been explored and documented in “The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)” published in 1970 and “The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors” published in 1990. Cress Welsing was born on March 18, 1935 during the time when African Americans were forced to live, study and work in a segregated USA. Even though she was born and raised in Chicago which was the destination of thousands of African Americans who fled the Jim Crow south Cress Welsing would still have witnessed the racist practices of White America. Emmet Till the 14 year old African American child who was brutally beaten and lynched on August 28, 1955 (for supposedly whistling at a White woman in Money, Mississippi) was born and raised in Chicago. As a 20 year old African American woman at that time Cress Welsing would have known about Till and the many other African Americans lynched by White Americans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDCk4s0Cof4.) Just 15 years before she was born (July 27-August 3, 1919) White American mobs in Chicago lynched African Americans and destroyed their homes. In spite of the atrocities that White Americans committed against their African American compatriots for more than 400 years, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is hardly recognized in that country.

The date March 21 was chosen to recognize and address the scourge of racism because of the massacre of Africans in South Africa during the apartheid era. On March 21, 1960 a group of Africans in Sharpeville, South Africa were peacefully demonstrating against the white supremacist apartheid "pass laws" when they were murdered by white police. The Sharpeville Massacre where 69 Africans were killed and almost 300 wounded (shot in the back as they fled the murderous police gunfire) led to worldwide condemnation of the white minority who had seized power in the African nation. The government in South Africa at the time was in power because Africans were denied the vote in their own country. In the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre where the white minority government declared a state of emergency and arrested more than 18,000 people even the very conservative United Nations (UN) was forced to take a stand and condemn the action of the state sanctioned massacre of peacefully protesting Africans.

In 1966 the General Assembly of the UN proclaimed March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The UN called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. Although condemned by the UN many of the world powers continued to trade with the apartheid minority White supremacists who ruled and oppressed Africans in South Africa. American President Ronald Reagan had to be forced to sign the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 into law. He vetoed the Act which was sponsored by African American U.S. Representative Ron Dellums in 1972 with support from the Congressional Black Caucus and Representative Howard Wolpe, chair of the House Africa Subcommittee. Reagan’s veto of the law was overridden by Congress (the Senate 78 to 21 and the House 313 to 83.) The Canadian government and various institutions in Canada including Carleton University and the University of Toronto, colluded with the White supremacist apartheid government of South Africa by refusing to divest and continuing to trade with the government and South African companies long after the UN called for sanctions.

Africans in Canada whether they are the descendants of Africans who were enslaved by the French in the 1600s or by White United Empire Loyalists after 1776 or fled slavery in America and sought freedom in Canada or immigrated from the Caribbean beginning in the 1830s after slavery was abolished by Britain are subjected to a White supremacist culture. The African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC) in a report dated January 24, 2012 wrote as part of its submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): “Canadian society is still affected by racism and racial discrimination. Because of its history, Canadian society, as in all the countries of Northand South America, carries a heavy legacy of racial discrimination, which was the ideological prop of trans-Atlantic slavery and of the colonial system. The ideological aspect of this legacy has given rise to an intellectual mindset which, through education, literature, art and the different channels of thought and creativity, has profoundly and lastingly permeated the system of values, feelings, mentalities, perceptions and behaviours, and hence the country’s culture. Racist stereotypes are the result but also the cause of racist practices. In the past, stereotypes of Black people were used to justify slavery and segregation. Today, they provide the basis for discriminatory policies and practices such as over-policing of African Canadian communities, police brutality, disparities in sentencing, disproportionate discipline of African Canadian students, and failure to implement equitable policies to address disparities in employment, economics, and education. These phenomena reveal a legislative, administrative and judicial focus on the perceived deviance of members of the African Canadian community and ignorance of their underlying socioeconomic and historic causes.”

Usually when the word “racism” is mentioned there are denials and excuses. Some of the more famous and ridiculous pronouncements: “I am not a racist. I have friends of all races. I treat everyone the same. I do not see colour.” Racism is more than one White person making derogatory comments about a racialized person or a group of racialized people. It is more than some random White person deciding not to give a job to a qualified racialized person. Racism is the White supremacist culture that allows and in many cases encourages White skin people to act out their prejudices and negatively affect the lives of racialized people. It is the power invested in White skin which allows the discrimination and the prejudice to cause harm to racialized people. In recent years there have even been White people who recognize and acknowledge the existence of White skin privilege and the scourge of racism. When Peggy McIntosh (http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/hfrance/White%20Privilege%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.htm) writes in her well publicized piece “White Privelege; Unpacking the Knapsack” about the unearned priveleges of White skin colour she knows what she is writing about being one of the privileged. After listing all the unearned priveleges of her White skin McIntosh writes: “Disapproving of the systems won't be enough to change them. I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitudes. But a white skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual acts can palliate, but cannot end, these problems. To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these taboo subjects. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to be now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.”

Dr. Cress Welsing who will be speaking about her definition of racism at York University on Saturday March 30 as an African American who has lived in a racist White supremacist society her entire life says: “The system of Racism (White Supremacy) utililizes deceit and violence (inclusive of chemical warfare, biological warfare and psychological warfare), indeed Any Means Necessary, to achieve its ultimate goal objective of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth. In the existing system of Racism (White Supremacy) when the term is undefined and poorly understood there is general confusion and chaos on the part of the victims of that system (local, national and global). It then becomes impossible for the victims of racism (White Supremacy) to effectively counter the global system of Racism (White Supremacy). The African enslavement, imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, fascism, etc., are all dimensions and aspects of Racism (White Supremacy.)”

AFRICAN RESISTANCE IN MAROON COMMUNITIES

March Break afforded me the opportunity to spend extra time with my three grandchildren (Amma Malia, Taiwo and Kehinde) teaching them about Guyanese culture which included the art of making mango achar. It began with a trip to the grocery store where among several items we bought one of their favourite fruits, mangoes. It was a bit of a surprise to discover that in spite of their outward appearance none of the mangoes were ripe. This led to a conversation about my childhood in Guyana where the subject became “Eating green mangoes with salt and pepper.” At every school I attended in Guyana including Kitty Methodist School in the greater Georgetown area, Agricola Methodist School on the East Bank Demerara, Providence Congregational on the East Bank Berbice and even Berbice High School (the joy of having a police officer father whose job description included moving around the country) whatever the difference there was one constant. At every school there could be found several ladies sitting on benches in front of the school selling green mangoes accompanied by salt and pepper. The women would have other wares for sale including boiled channa, fried channa, various fruits like genips, guavas, dunks, plums but peeled green mango with salt and pepper was a staple. Friendships were made and broken over green mangoes with salt and pepper. Naturally my grandchildren were eager to taste this Guyanese delicacy so I obliged. However it soon became obvious that we could not eat all those green mangoes even with salt (I did not include pepper) so the topic of what else green mangoes were useful for came up. “Ah achar” I intoned, “that is something else we used to make with green mangoes.” They had seen my jars of achar that I brought back from my visit to Guyana and the jars I regularly buy from Jan Kyte of Jan’s Catering here in Ontario. Now here was an opportunity to not only tell the tale of achar but to demonstrate the making of achar. I peeled, seeded and diced the remainder of the dozen green mangoes until my hands were sore and tired from the unaccustomed labour (who could have guessed that it would be such a task.)

The children took turns putting the diced green mangoes through the final preparation stage including adding some mild pepper (could not find any of our famous Guyanese wiri-wiri pepper in the grocery store,) salt, garlic, olive oil and mangreil to the mixture (there was some more eating of the tart flesh of the unripe mangoes.) Then it was time to “set” the achar by putting the jar on the window sill where it could get some winter sunlight (you have to work with what is available.) We ate some of the achar the next day. My granddaughter started it all by asking for some achar as part of her breakfast. I had never eaten achar for breakfast but there is a first time for everything so I let her have some for breakfast. I waited until lunchtime. It tasted really good considering that it has been years since I made mango achar. As much as I loved making achar with my grandchildren it cannot compare with the achar made by professionals like Jan Kyte of Jan’s Catering who I am in the process of contacting for my regular jar of achar (the achar from Guyana long gone.)

We also did homework and discussed the Maroons of Jamaica because my granddaughter recently saw a performance at school about the Maroons. We talked about the connection between Africans from the African continent and Africans in the Diaspora and how that connection was almost broken for several generations. The connection of Africans in the Diaspora and those on the African continent was almost broken during slavery but tenuous holds and fragments remained in the areas of culture, language and names. The Africans who fled the plantations after the Spanish were attacked by the British in Jamaica on May 10, 1655 were the basis of the Maroon communities. These mostly enslaved Africans from West Africa founded communities in the hills of Jamaica and resisted re-enslavement by the British, the new colonisers of Jamaica. The many stories of fierce, tactical African resistance to European enslavement especially led by heroes and sheroes like Nanny and Cudjoe are wonderful stories for our young people to hear.

There were Maroon communities established in almost every country to which Africans had been transported and enslaved by Europeans. In Suriname the Djukas, in Brazil the quilombos of which the famous community of Palmares whose leader Zumbi is formally recognized as part of Brazilian history today, in Colombia the Africans established walled communities called palenques the most well-known Palenque de San Basilio still existing today and many others throughout the region is proof of our ancestors’ resistance to their enslavement.

Outside of these Maroon communities where the people guarded their freedom and their culture there are families who managed to hold on to some of their African culture in the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas. Because the European enslavers worked many of the Africans to death within five to seven years there was a constant replenishing of Africans from the continent. In an article published in 2007 entitled “Britain, slavery and the trade in enslaved Africans” Marika Sherwood a White professor (Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London) who has written several articles and books about the history of Africans wrote: “Plantation and mine-owners bought the Africans – and more died in the process called 'seasoning'. In the British colonies the slaves were treated as non-human: they were 'chattels', to be worked to death as it was cheaper to purchase another slave than to keep one alive. Though seen as non-human, as many of the enslaved women were raped, clearly at one level they were recognised as at least rapeable human beings. There was no opprobrium attached to rape, torture, or to beating your slaves to death. The enslaved in the British colonies had no legal rights as they were not human – they were not permitted to marry and couples and their children were often sold off separately.” Even after the British abolished the transportation of Africans from the African continent in 1807 (they did not abolish slavery in their colonies until 1834 -1838) they “rescued” Africans from other slave trading and owning nations and instead of taking the unfortunate captives back to Africa “settled” them in British colonies as indentured labourers. From the website of the National Archives of the United Kingdom (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lesson27.htm): “Between 1808 and 1869 the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron seized over 1,600 slave ships and freed about 150,000 Africans but, despite this, it is estimated that a further 1 million people were enslaved and transported throughout the 19th Century.” The fact that Africans from the continent with their culture, history and language intact were added to the communities well into the 19th century (Cuba abolished slavery in 1886 and Brazil in 1888) it is not surprising that there are Africans in the Americas who retained some of their African culture and language.

Not all of this information was imparted to my grandchildren during their March Break visit but we will get to it over time. I felt very close to my late grandfather whose knowledge of African history I still draw upon. I could feel his energy with me as I interacted with my grandchildren. This is one of many ways that we can “pass on” our culture, our stories to the next generation. This all began with mango achar (which although a recognized part of Guyanese culture is not African) and became a story about our history as part of March Break activities.

EDUCATING AFRICAN CANADIAN CHILDREN

I believe the children are our future Teach them well and let them lead the way Show them all the beauty they possess inside Give them a sense of pride to make it easier Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be Excerpt from “The Greatest Love of All” recorded by George Benson for the 1977 movie “The Greatest” about the life of famous heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali

Friday March 8 is the last day of school before the week long March Break. From Monday March 11 to Friday March 15 all students attending Toronto District School Board (TDSB) schools will be away from school. One week away from the daily school routine and formal studies our children still need a routine to prepare them for their return to school work. While many families will leave home to spend time with relatives or visit warmer places like the Caribbean or Florida others will remain in Toronto. Not everyone can afford to go off to warmer climes on vacation for one week and some people’s jobs would not allow them the time off to do so. March Break can be enjoyable right here in Toronto even with the cold weather. There are several programs available at branches of the Toronto Public Library and at Community Centres.

Reading is fairly inexpensive and something all children should be encouraged to enjoy. Whatever a child’s interest there are books that can be found to foster that interest. Caregivers and parents can foster an interest in and enjoyment of reading in very young children by reading to infants (less than one year old.) It has even been proven that a child still its mother’s womb can benefit from a parent reading to him or her. Older siblings who can read could be encouraged to read to younger siblings. In those long ago days before video games and 100s of television channels reading was a pleasurable activity for many children. Imagine if all our children read about their history and knew (from their parents reading to them) even before they were sent off to kindergarten that they are valued and valuable coming from people who were the first on this earth and from ancient cultures, empires and kingdoms. What a great antidote to the racism that many of them experience from as young as 4 years old when they first enter the education system. It is unfortunate but a reality that some of our children encounter a White supremacist culture as soon as they enter the school system. From the images on the walls of the classroom and the school building to the books in the classroom there is a lack of inclusion in some classrooms and definitely in the curriculum. Some teachers prejudge children and have lowered expectations because of the child’s economic reality which because of the society in which we live leaves many African Canadian children either living in poverty or borderline poverty. Because of racism in the education system many of our young people have been pushed out of school and labour in low paying jobs where they barely eke out a living. Many are raising families in areas described as low income communities with “high crime” label. Warehoused in Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) buildings where they are over policed, sometimes abused by security guards and disrespected by other staff many of our young men turn their anger and shame (which is not theirs to own) on each other in violent acts that in some cases result in loss of lives.

The 1997 “Reconstructing 'Dropout' A Critical Ethnography of the Dynamics of Black Students' Disengagement from School” was published by authors Professor George J. Sefa Dei, Josephine Mazzuca, Elizabeth McIsaac and Jasmin Zine after a three year study/investigation of the experiences of African Canadian students in the Ontario Public School system. The book is introduced with this information: “It is common knowledge, supported by a large body of research, that in Canada and the United States, Black students constitute a disproportionate number of those who leave school prematurely. This book is an important study of the problem in the Ontario public school system in Canada. The work examines how institutionalized structures and processes of schooling lead to premature school-leaving of Blacks, from the perspectives of Black school drop-outs, Black students, Black parents, non-Black students, and school personnel.” In chapter four the authors write: “This chapter will examine the various factors identified by students, drop-outs, parents, and teachers as contributing to student disengagement. The narratives point to the ways in which school structures and policies can facilitate a student′s decision to leave school. It will further illustrate the difference between students who leave school prematurely because of pragmatic reasons, such as pregnancy or the need to work, and those characterized as ′push-outs′: students who, for various reasons, feel forced out of school.” In chapter 7 the authors conclude: “Students unable to find relevance to their own lives in the curriculum find it difficult to connect with the educational experience. Black students see a lack of curriculum content devoted to their history and experiences. For example, Black students had strong feelings about how the inclusion of Black history in the mainstream curriculum would enrich their educational experiences.”

As parents, grandparents, relatives, caregivers of African Canadian children it is our duty, our responsibility to ensure that our children have the best start in life to cope with what will be thrown at them as they try to navigate their way through a White supremacist system which does not value them, their culture or their lived experience. Suffering emotional and spirit injury miraculously some do manage to maneouver through a system that is not African friendly and come out on the other side with a degree and a good job. We must protect our children from the harm of growing up in a White supremacist culture. We must ensure that our children develop coping skills for those times when they are overwhelmed by the feelings that can arise when they are subjected to the spirit injuring practices of some educators. It can be especially shocking and hurtful when those educators are racialized people and even Black. Internalized racism can manifest itself in self-hatred even in educated people who are in charge of educating the next generation. Internalizing the White supremacist image of people who look like them as “less than” these educators would not see the beauty or the genius in a child who could be their younger self and so they perpetuate a White supremacist thought process. The importance of teachers’ attitude towards their students is addressed in “Reconstructing 'Dropout': “As ′front line′ workers in the education system, teachers were considered by students and parents as critical to the schooling process. Teachers′ styles, personalities, and skills were closely scrutinized by their students, who looked to them for guidance and knowledge. They felt their teachers could make a real difference in their education, and, whether positive or negative, teachers′ influence was seen as lasting. In this chapter, we examine how teachers′ practices in regards to labelling and streaming are experienced by Black students.”

All educators are in schools to ensure that children live up to their potential regardless of the child’s race, economic status or family structure. Their purpose should be to work with all children believing that every child is valued and capable of learning. They are not there to engage in bullying or blame and shame practices based on their biases. Educators have an important role to play in helping young children to self-regulate by modelling appropriate behaviour and guiding them appropriately. The disengagement of African Canadian students begins long before they eventually “drop-out” or are pushed out of the education system mostly by the time they are in high school. The process begins in elementary school sometimes as early as kindergarten. Without an education there is no hope of gaining employment and then a downward spiral into possibly criminal behaviour to make a living, incarceration and a vicious cycle with no escape in sight similar to the enslavement of our ancestors where their bodies provided the means of enrichment for other communities. The recent headlines in the mainstream newspapers should act as a wakeup call for everyone in our community regardless of where we live our educational or economic status. Our children are our future.

CLAUDIA JONES LEFT OF KARL MARX

There’s a woman who walks this mighty land With a queenly grace goes she In her struggles she never stands alone For look at her company Harriet Tubman is at her side “Good cheer, Claudia,” cries she “The slavers also wanted my head, But our brave people still fought free.” Fred Douglas and Garrison are here with her too, And the people of every land Stand shoulder to shoulder with Claudia Jones She speaks and they understand Excerpt from “A Ballad to Claudia” published in the “Daily Worker” written by Label Nibur

Claudia Jones who is recognized as one of the founders of the Nottinghill Carnival in London, UK was born on February 21, 1915 in Trinidad. In the 2008 published book “Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones” author Carole Boyce Davies has documented the life and times of this little known but very important activist. Boyce Davies writes of Jones: “The only Black woman among communists tried in the United States, sentenced for crimes against the state, incarcerated and then deported, Claudia Jones seems to have simply disappeared from major consideration in a range of histories.” Jones was born Claude Vera Cumberbatch on February 21, 1915 at Belmont, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad to Charles Bertrand Cummberbatch and Sybil Minnie Magdalene Logan Cummberbatch. Twelve days before her ninth birthday, on February 9, 1924 Jones arrived in New York on the SS Voltaire with her sisters Lindsay, Irene and Sylvia accompanied by their aunt Alice Glasgow to be reunited with her parents (who had immigrated to New York in 1922.) As a 20 year old in 1935 Jones (who is described as “Black, woman, Caribbean born, pan-Africanist, antiracist, anti-imperialist, feminist”) became involved in social justice activism organizing to support the Scottsboro Boys. The case of the Scottsboro Boys (who were also supported by African American activist Rosa Parks) began on March 25, 1931 when 9 African American young men were accused of raping two white women. Despite strong evidence of their innocence an all-white jury convicted the young men and sentenced eight of them to death. The accusation of rape came after a fight broke out between a group of White men and African American young men who were riding on a Southern Railroad freight train. The train was stopped by a White mob in Paint Rock, Alabama and the African Americans were arrested for assault. Rape charges were added when two White women who were also on the train accused the African American youth of rape. It was speculated that the White women accused the African American youth of rape because they feared they would be arrested for vagrancy. One of the women had been arrested for adultery and fornication just two months before in January 1931. Whatever their reasons for the accusations the women stuck to their stories until April 7, 1933 http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/scottsboro/rubybate.htm when under cross examination a different story was told. The Scottsboro boys eventually gained their freedom but the process took almost 20 years. As editor of a youth newspaper for the Federated Youth Clubs of Harlem Jones wrote a regular column “Claudia’s Comments” and so had a platform for her activist work.

Between 1936 and 1937 Jones joined the Communist Party and Young Communist League, became Associate Editor of “Weekly Review” a newspaper of the Young Communist Party League and served as Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Young Communist League in Harlem. By 1938 she was the New York State Chairperson and National Council member of the Young Communist League. In 1949 Jones wrote an article entitled "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!" which was published in the June issue of “Political Affairs” and addressed the intersectionality of race, class and gender in African women’s lives. This is an excerpt from the article which has been reprinted in several books including “Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal: An African American Anthology” by Manning Marable and Leith Mullings 2009, “Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American feminist Thought” by Beverly Guy-Sheftall 1995, “Notable Black American Women, Book II” by Jessie C. Smith 1996 and “The Business of Black Power: Community Development, Capitalism, and Corporate Responsibility in Postwar America” by Laura Warren Hill and Julia Rabig 2012. “The bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the Negro woman, and for good reason. The capitalists know, far better than many progressives seem to know, that once Negro women begin to take action, the militancy of the whole Negro people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced. As mother, as Negro, and as worker, the Negro woman fights against the wiping out of the Negro family, against the Jim Crow ghetto existence which destroys the health, morale, and very life of millions of her sisters, brothers, and children. Viewed in this light, it is not accidental that the American bourgeoisie has intensified its oppression, not only of the Negro people in general, but of Negro women in particular. Nothing so exposes the drive to fascization in the nation as the callous attitude which the bourgeoisie displays and cultivates toward Negro women.”

As a result of her activism and rise in the Communist Party Jones became a target of “aggressive” surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI.) She was the latest in a long line of Africans in America targeted by the FBI including the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey who was an especial target of J. Edgar Hoover. Jones was arrested for the first time on January 19, 1948 and imprisoned on Ellis Island under the Immigration Act. As a woman who had spent most of her life (24 of her 33 years) in the USA she was threatened with deportation to Trinidad. On December 5, 1955 she was ordered deported to Britain where she arrived on December 22, 1955 having left the USA on December 9 ironically aboard the “Queen Elizabeth.” Deportation from the USA to Britain did not curb her activism and once she settled in London Jones co-founded the West Indian Workers and Students Association in 1958 and founded the “West Indian Gazette.” She was active in political organizing of racialized communities in London and was instrumental in organizing the first London Caribbean Carnival on January 30, 1959 at St. Pancras Hall, London which eventually became the Nottinghill Carnival of today. The initiative came out of a response to a White supremacist British culture that saw White youth rioting through African Caribbean neighbourhoods from August 30 to September 5, 1958. At the time senior White police officers lied in their reports and laid the blame on “ruffians both coloured and white.” However a report 44 years later exposed the lies and in the British “Guardian” newspaper in an article published on Saturday August 24, 2002, Home Affairs editor Allan Travis wrote: “While senior officers tried to play down the racial aspects to the riots the internal Metropolitan police files released this month at the public record office confirm that the disturbances were overwhelmingly triggered by 300-to 400-strong "Keep Britain White" mobs, many of them Teddy boys armed with iron bars, butcher's knives and weighted leather belts, who went "nigger-hunting" among the West Indian residents of Notting Hill and Notting Dale. The first night left five black men lying unconscious on the pavements of Notting Hill.” In “Left of Karl Marx” Boyce Davies writes “The intellectual, cultural, and political work of Claudia Jones, in my estimation, offers one of the best models of African diaspora available. For Jones, who emerged as a leading member of the developing London Caribbean community in the 1950s and early 1960s, carnival carried, in its cultural practice, resistance to Euro-American bourgeois aesthetics, imperialism and cultural hegemony, and political and racial oppression. Carnivals, in the African diaspora tradition, demonstrate the joy that its people experience in “taking space.”

In the preface of the book Boyce Davies writes: “Claudia Jones was a Black woman and a communist, clear about her ideological orientation, as she was about her identity as a Black woman writing and doing political work simultaneously. Jones was a Black communist woman very conscious of her location in history and her contributions to advancing her particular understandings of anti-imperialism. But her Trinidadian origin, identity and Caribbean diaspora belonging are also always present, as is her African diaspora experience, all gained through a series of migration and lived experiences.” Although I knew of Jones previously I first heard of this extensive study of her life when I attended the “Black Women and the Radical Tradition”: National Conference at City University of New York (CUNY) in March 2009.

Until Boyce Davies resurrected Jones in 2008 her story was ignored even by the communists. Since the publishing of “Left of Karl Marx” I have attended several community events where communists and other socialist groups have books on display and never have I seen “Left of Karl Marx” among those on display. Asking about the book and even mentioning her name elicits puzzled looks, heads shaking and “No, never heard of her or the book.” The book is available at the Toronto Public Library and at our community bookstores including A Different Booklist and Nile Valley Books. Jones one of our mostly unsung sheoroes is buried left of Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, London the inscription reads in part: “Valiant fighter against racism and imperialism who dedicated her life to the progress of socialism and the liberation of her own Black people.”