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Racism is as American as Apple Pie. Essentially, a group of people no one wanted said, “My dude, let’s be “free” and start a country and lets subjugate everyone that doesn’t look like us, especially the brown people who already live here in the land that “we discovered” and when money and profit became an issue, these same people who desired to be “free” in their own land, decided to import and enslave others for profit! and on a whim, we can hang them, beat them, separate families, terrorize them in the bed sheets our ass was too lazy to wash and rape the women. Welcome to America the land of the “free” (If you’re White and Male at the time…white women need not apply at that time either).
Look at the history, it starts with the lies: *Columbus didn’t “discover” America — he never set foot in North America. During four separate trips that started with the one in 1492, Columbus landed on various Caribbean islands that are now the Bahamas as well as the island later called Hispaniola. He also explored the Central and South American coasts. But he didn’t reach North America, which, of course, was already inhabited by Native Americans, and he never thought he had found a new continent. You may also remember that it is believed that Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached Canada perhaps 500 years before Columbus was born, and there are some who believe that Phoenician sailors crossed the Atlantic much earlier than that.
Columbus actually discovered he was lost and wished he had a GPS.
If we could actually stop racism, what would America look like as a nation? It would look like its closest neighbor, Canada! But here is the rub…every person whoever entered into and graduated from the U.S. educational system knows that we are taught NOTHING about Canada in school. By default, we have learned that: its North, All the Arctic air blasts come from Canada, and they give us Maple Syrup, Hockey, Mike Myers and William Shatner. Essentially we are selectively ignorant about our landlocked neighbors to the North. On the other hand, they learn everything about us in their schools, and the majority of right-minded Canadians are baffled by the acts of White Supremacy that they see on their nightly news from the U.S.
The safe bet is if the brilliant minds that decide what fodder is taught to our children in school decide, hey, let’s teach children about our closest land-locked neighbor that we share safety, security, food, and energy with…the majority of right thinking people of color would leave the U.S. for Canada. It appears that the last stop on the Underground Railroad wasn’t New York State, it was Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Even Harriet Tubman had a place in Canada. Harriet Tubman made her first trip to St. Catharines, Ontario with eleven freedom seekers in December 1851. The town was a well known safe haven for African Americans fleeing from slavery and it was a hub for abolitionist activity. This devoutly religious woman with unwavering faith joined the Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church and would use this Niagara, Ontario town over a ten year period to start and end many of her legendary Underground Railroad rescue missions.
There are some 100 fringe hate groups in Canada, whereas there are 1500 in the United States (yes, the Klan is in Canada, eh?). But, until recently, in Canada, it wasn’t “safe” to be a professed racist. That mindset is socially unacceptable behavior in Canada and is not condoned under any circumstances. In fact, people who have even made remotely racist comments are ostracized because it is not condoned here as being, well…Canadian.
I have been going back and forth to Canada for almost 7 years now. In the last 3 years, I have rarely crossed the Border. I am still an American Citizen, I pay my taxes, I spend American money here, I vote, but I haven’t been, nor have I had the urge to return back to the United States of America. The answer is simple, I have adopted and I have learned to literally love Canada. I love the Canadian people and I think the country as it stands on the world stage is actually what America had hoped to be but we haven’t gotten there yet because racism is embedded in the DNA of AmeriKKKa (Yes, I did spell it like that). It’s the cancer that is terminal to the growth of the Nation.
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Canada went through a similar slave owner master trajectory. The timeline in many instances leads me to believe that Canadians as a whole (and largely influenced by the British) really desired their stance on slavery and emancipation, to be, well…different. The important parts in the timeline here:
1812-1815: The “Coloured Troops” and the War of 1812
Thousands of Black volunteers fought for the British during the War of 1812. Fearing American conquest (and the return to slavery), many Blacks in Upper Canada served heroically in coloured and regular regiments. The British promise of freedom and land united many escaped slaves under the British flag.
September 1813-August 1816: “Black Refugees” Set Sail
British Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochrane’s offer of transportation for anyone wanting to leave the United States was widely circulated among the Black population. Four thousand former slaves deserted to the British side and were transported to the British colonies. About 2000 refugees set sail for Nova Scotia from September 1813- August 1816. (Hence Nova Scotia’s rich and authentic African-American-Canadian history and its integral part in the underground railroad.
1815-1860: The Underground Railroad
Canada’s reputation as a safe haven for Blacks grew substantially during and after the War of 1812. Between 1815 and 1865, tens of thousands of African-Americans sought refuge in Upper and Lower Canada via the legendary Underground Railroad.
1819: John Beverley Robinson’s Pronouncement
Attorney General John Beverley Robinson openly declared in 1819 that residence in “Canada” made Blacks free. He also publicly pledged that “Canadian courts” would uphold this freedom. Many, at home and abroad, took notice.
24 September 1819: Lieutenant-Governor’s Black Settlement Plan
In 1815, Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland of Upper Canada began to offer Black veterans grants of land in the Township of Oro. His intention to balance “policy with humanity,” even in the face of American opposition, was expressed in a letter to a British official in 1819.
1829-1830: Wilberforce Settlement
By the end of the 18th century, there were more than 40 Black communities in Upper Canada. Life was uncertain in these early settlements. One of the first sizeable Black communities was Wilberforce, founded by Cincinnati Blacks.
28 August 1833: British Parliament Abolishes Slavery throughout the British colonies by an Imperial Act which became effective 1 August 1834. The act formally freed nearly 800,000 slaves.
6 March 1838: Blacks in Upper Canada Publicly Praised
In the spring of 1838, Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Bond Head addressed the legislature to publicly praise Black Upper Canadians for their loyalty and service during the recent rebellions.
1844: Anti-slavery Forum
In the Toronto Globe, editor George Brown, one of Canada’s leading abolitionists, regularly commented on the disadvantaged condition of Blacks in North America. From its inception in 1844, the Globe gave anti-slavery forces a public forum, attacking the United States Senator Henry Clay, the Fugitive Slave Act, separate schools, and other issues.
26 February 1851: Formation of Canadian Anti-Slavery Society
The number of abolitionist sympathizers grew in Canada in the 1850s-1860s. As more Black refugees entered Canada, sympathizers formed organizations and committees to influence public opinion and help freedom-seekers make their way north. On 26 February 1851, the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada was formed, “to aid in the extinction of Slavery all over the world.”
17 June 1852: Steamers Bring Freedom Seekers to Canada
By mid-century, Great Lakes steamers regularly transported Blacks to Canada. Underground Railroad agents used scows, sailboats, and steamboats to deliver their precious cargo to Canadian shores. This sustained migration prompted one Toronto Colonist editor to complain on 17 June 1852 that “every boat arriving from the United States seems to carry fugitive slaves.”
1866: First Black Politician in Canada
Shortly after arriving in Victoria in 1858, Mifflin Gibbs established a business. In 1861, he won public praise for helping to organize a Black militia and decided to run for public office. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1862, Gibbs was elected to the Victoria Town Council in 1866, the first Black politician in Canada.
21 November 1892: Canada’s First Black Physician Named Aide-de-Camp
Anderson Abbot became Canada’s first Black physician in 1861. He served as one of only eight Black surgeons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was distinguished by being appointed aide-de-camp of the New York Commanding Officers Dept., the highest military honor bestowed to that time on a Black person in North America.
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In Today’s Canada:
Canadians of Caribbean origin belong to one of the largest non-European ethnic groups in Canada. Caribbean nationals presence in Canada dates back to 1796 when a group of 556 Jamaicans arrived in Canada after an unsuccessful British attempt to enslave them in Jamaica. Between 1800 and 1920 a small number of Jamaicans and Barbadians immigrated as laborers to work in the Cape Breton and Sydney mines but immigration from the Caribbean to Canada really began in the 1960s, and by 1973 accounted for almost 13 per cent of all immigration to Canada. The Caribbean community is a powerful force and represents generational strength and commitment in Canada.
In Canada, I don’t feel Black, I feel like a man…period. And quite frankly, I never knew there was anyplace, other than Africa where I could blend in and just be a human. Want to marry anyone of any color that you so happen to fall in love with? In Canada mixed couples aren’t the oddity, it’s the norm. White Women marry Black Men all day long and White Men marry Black women all day long, here…it doesn’t matter, even though you will find some cultures that will still demand that you marry within. Sorry, Grand Wizard.
Canada is not without its issues: The society is misogynist, women do not, if at all hold the power position in many of the major corporations or banks, while medical care is free there are huge problems in the system such as wait time, or the time it takes to get specialized care or an MRI. Lastly, Canadians are far too nice (they have to be really really pissed off to protest). While they are the nicest people on earth their aggressions come out on the highway, pass the U.S. Border and its the Indy 500 and they plant the bumper of their cars right up to the rectum of your American license plate. And lastly, I think this is due to the love of Hockey if you get a Canadian really pissed off? You might get punched in your face (seriously, I think that is what occurs when you stay so nice, for so long).
There will be some trolls who will read this and who will obviously default to the following in their pistachio-sized brains: 1. “If you love that Country so much why don’t you stay there!” and the oh so familiar refrain: 2. “Go back to Africa where you came from.” The problem with both of those responses is the following: 1. Canadians are smart enough as a country to not just accept anyone, and 2. (Add a heavy dose of sarcasm to this answer): I and my ancestors had no choice and no ability to decide whether or not we wanted to take the original voyage to North America. I believe the shackles, chains, and guns were instrumental in our decision making therefore after spilling lots of blood, dividing our families and literally building the U.S. on our blood, sweat, and tears, I firmly believe that we “own America” as much as you do. Hence in returning to where I came from…that would be NYC. My journey started there while my ancestry is probably West African, mixed in with the blood and DNA of white slave owners who decided to do things to their female slaves in my family that they would never do with their own wives.
What makes America already great is the fact that you can criticize the hell out of it, and still, love it at the same time. Until the powers that be realize that there is money in diversity and innovation and that racism doesn’t just hold back just the intended victim, it stagnates the entire country. Until then, let the White Supremacist, intermarrying, bigot praise and worship their statues of a long dead by gone era. No one of right and fair mind will allow inhumanity to ever rise again.
Canada is threatened with the same cancer that has long infected the United States, but they won’t let it kill them because they will not allow it to ferment. Bill Clinton once said. ““In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect.” The one quote we never learned in school? When asked about her Underground Railroad rescue missions and the final destination of the freedom seekers she guided, Harriet Tubman said, “I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer, I brought them all clear off to Canada.”
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Thanks for the history lesson about my own country.
Its a great country, its just that they keep us ignorant about it and teaches us nothing about it in the states