Yesterday and Today: A Reflection on Black History Month

Lina Maria Zuluaga | February 2nd, 2021

The Canadian government invites us every February to celebrate Black History Month. They invite us to laud and honor the achievements of Black Canadians. And, they invite us to commemorate their contributions that have advanced the prosperity and cultural richness of this nation (1). But while celebrating and honoring is at the heart of the government’s mandate for us, reflection on the events and circumstances that inform this annual observance is just as critically important in our celebration of Black history.

Let’s talk about yesterday.

The presence of African descendants in Canada has been recorded farther back than Samuel De Champlain’s first voyage down the St. Lawrence River. Despite this, the presence of Black Canadians has been often non-existent in our history books. Little is said about the Black Loyalists and a lot less is mentioned about the appalling truth that slavery took place in what has come to be known as Canadian territory today*(2).

In 1978, the Ontario Black History Society was established by Dr. Daniel G. Hill and Wilson O. Brooks, who later petitioned the Toronto City Council to formally proclaim February as Black History Month. The first proclamation of the event in Canada was issued in 1979 in Toronto and by December of 1995, Ottawa had officially recognized February as Black History Month for the entire country (3).

But what has over twenty-five years of recognizing black history taught us? That proclamations are not sufficient and that the struggle of Black people not only in Canada but also around the world still persists to this day.

Let’s talk about today.

It has been eight months since an eight minute and forty-six second video (4) forced us to realize and pay attention to the fact that justice is colour-coded and not that just. Eight months since the world has seen the lawless side of the law and eight months since the world cried in horror at what goes down in nations that enshrine in their constitutions the principles of equal human worth and dignity. Unfortunately, it has also been seven, six and five months since attention has dwindled down. Seven, six and five months since the day-to-day struggle of people of colour has stopped flooding our social media feeds - this is problematic. In a world that is both connected and isolated at the same time, we cannot stop talking about the injustices that hinder the ability of another human being to realize their life to their full potential. We do not need to have money; we do not need to have a platform; we only need our voices. We do not have to be individually loud to be collectively so. But we cannot be silent. When we are silent, we are compliant and we become perpetrators of these injustices.

Celebrating the achievements of African descendants is neither enough nor sufficient to speak to the significance of Black History Month. Changing our bills to amend our exclusive narrative of history is the bare minimum we can do. It is a big step but it cannot be the only one. Rewriting history has to be accompanied by efforts to change our present so that the parts of history that horrify us are not repeated again. We are actively writing history and the onus is on us to change it. Black history is being written, not just on the lands of our Southern neighbours, but also right here and right now at home. Racism and anti-blackness are Canadian problems too and the refusal to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem has had detrimental effects in the Black Canadian communities (5).

Problems are easier to ignore when we seem removed from them. So as university students in Canada, let’s talk about our university campuses.

As the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement gained significant strength earlier this past summer, more and more Black Canadians came forward with their testimonies on their different struggles. A very prominent one was the issue of policing on campus and their discriminatory conduct towards people of colour. Acclaimed Black Canadian journalist and activist, Desmond Cole, discussed his experience on the campus policing issue while a student at Queen’s University in his book The Skin We Are In (6).

“The cops left me waiting in the glare of their headlights as they presumably ran my name through their computer. I was so afraid [...] Over the course of the next few years, I would be stopped or followed dozens of times by the police in Kingston and Toronto ….”

The issue is not foreign to other Canadian universities alike. In 2009, Frances Henry and Carol Tator discussed in their book the discriminatory treatment Black Canadians experience even in the most elite institutions in Canada (7). Most importantly, the issue is neither new or surprising. Yet with so many things happening around the world, it is easy for crucial information to get buried. Because of this, we cannot remain silent. If there is only one thing we can do this quarantined Black History Month, let that be amplifying the voices of Black Canadians and their struggles. Let’s celebrate their contributions but beyond that, let’s make sure their struggles never again go unnoticed and undermined. Black Canadians do not just need their faces on Canadian bills—before anything else, they need to feel safe in their own homes, campuses, and city streets.

Endnotes

1. Canadian Heritage, "About Black History Month," Canada.ca, last modified February 1, 2021, https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month/about.html.

2. "Black History Month Fact Sheet," BC Teachers' Federation, accessed February 2, 2021, https://bctf.ca/socialjustice.aspx?id=17660.

3. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month/about.html

4. Canadian Heritage, "About Black History Month"

5. "An Open Letter from the Black Law Students’ Association," University of Toronto Faculty of Law, accessed February 5, 2021, https://www.law.utoronto.ca/news/open-letter-black-law-students-association.

6. "How Anti-Black Racism on Canadian University Campuses Robs Us All," Academic Matters, last modified July 17, 2020, https://academicmatters.ca/how-anti-black-racism-on-canadian-university-campuses-robs-us-all/.

7. "How Anti-Black Racism on Canadian University Campuses Robs Us All."