It’s Black History Month Again

City of Brampton’s Black Empowerment Unit is still singing from the same songbook

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By Igor Stravinsky (Teacher, commentator)

It’s Black History Month (BHM) again, and we are reminded of that every day in Peel District School Board schools. “Students who identify as black” are encouraged to “explore their history”, but shouldn’t all kids be exploring the history of Canada and the World all the time?

Don’t get me wrong: I realize that recorded history has often presented a narrow view. Reading one person’s account, or even the accounts of numerous people from the same cultural group or social class, can lead you to believe an incomplete, sanitized, or even inaccurate version of events. We need diverse perspectives.

But the goal in seeking out those perspectives should always be to add to the always- limited existing picture- to make it more complete and more accurate, not to switch up to another incomplete and biased story. History has no colour- it’s just what happened.

The aim should always be to seek the truth, regardless of where it leads. Sadly BHM, like all the “months of reflection” are not about truth-seeking and exploring the complex nuances of our common humanity but rather all about presenting a particular identity group in a particular way, and BHM is the granddaddy of all months of reflection.

The City of Brampton, one of the three cities served by the PDSB, has a Black Empowerment Unit (BEU) which is of course digging into Black History Month. Its mandate is to “develop an action plan to eradicate the systemic anti-Black racism in the City of Brampton and uplift the social, cultural and economic position of the Black community through effective consultation, conversation, and engagement”. The “Black Community” means black-identified people in aggregate- whether from Somalia or Jamaica, regardless of language, religion or any other cultural differences. The blacks consulted and engaged with are almost always self-appointed black “leaders” (activists), or at least people those activists can count on to support their victim narrative.

I am not aware of any opportunity currently being denied to black people in Brampton or any other Canadian city. On the contrary, it is popular (and perfectly legal) to give blacks preferential treatment. But that doesn’t stop the activists from claiming “systemic racism”, for which they never provide any proof. Their “evidence” is always anecdotes and negative outcomes (such as higher school dropout and incarceration rates). Since “systemic racism” is never clearly defined, nor are any examples ever provided, establishing success criteria for groups like the BEU is impossible. That is good, though, from their point of view, because it means their mandate can go on indefinitely. Cha-ching! They’re like a broken record with a tip jar beside it that people keep throwing money in. Why change anything?

The BEU was formed in 2020, the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement on the heels of the Death of George Floyd. The knee-jerk reaction to the BLM-inspired social justice furor back then created many BEU-type entities in all types of institutions all over the Western world. Once established, those things are very hard to get rid of. They suck up and fritter away scarce resources but no one has the nerve to say so. They are thus left to languish, going through the same motions year after year. They cannot be audited or scrutinized by anyone outside the organization, as that would be “racist” (or colonial or oppressive or something). Are these entities making things better? Don’t ask.

Here is a list of the activities the BEU has scheduled for BHM this year.

I won’t discuss them all, but check out the Launch Event: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants – Black Youth Making History. The main dignitary is Danny Glover, an 82-year-old American actor. A $100 ticket gets you “access to an exclusive pre-event reception” with him, during which he will presumably talk about “black history”. But what does he know about the experience of being black in Canada? Couldn’t they find a Canadian black person to do the gig?

Black history month is really an American import. It arose there as the result of that country’s original sin of slavery, and one of America’s many ways of trying to atone for, well, being the same as just about every society that ever existed. Slavery was outlawed pretty much nowhere in the eighteenth century and Africans were more than happy to profit from the sale of other Africans to whomever.

Rather than celebrate the fact that the USA eradicated slavery over a hundred years ago (unlike Africa, where American slaves were sold and slavery still exists today), activists continue to blame all group-based negative outcomes (but not positive ones!) on slavery. American blacks, as a group, are more violent, less educated, and engage in a range of socially destructive behaviours at a disproportionately much higher rate than other Americans. Their family structure, which was solid up until the 1960s, has fallen apart, thanks to the welfare state. Treat people like they’re helpless and, surprise, they become helpless! These days over 70% of black kids in America are raised by a single mom, and usually a poorly educated one. Some of those single moms are great, but in general having two adults around is simply better for a bunch of obvious reasons.

There are plenty of very bright and highly educated black intellectuals, for example Thomas Sowell and Glenn Lowrey, who have spent a great deal of time studying this issue and have rational explanations for the struggles black people are enduring, along with suggestions for ways to start moving the needle in the right direction. The activists call these guys “race traitors” for rejecting the victim narrative.

Up here in Canada Black History Month is even more curious. I’m actually not that surprised an American actor was the best the BEU could come up with for their event. There just aren't that many name-brand Canadian blacks with a squeaky-clean resume willing to do such a thing. That is because blacks are newcomers to Canada. As I have written before, until the 1980s there were pretty much a handful in each major city and none anywhere else. And no, that is not because we were refusing them entry. When Danny Glover was a little boy, less than 0.2% of Canada’s population was black.

So “black history month” up here in the Great White North has become a study of American slavery and racism as well as the platforming of a bunch of black Canadians who, were they not black, would never be mentioned by anyone ever, like Zanana Akande, the first Black female Cabinet Minister, who will be in attendance at the Launch Event. The fact that she was elected to the Ontario Provincial Parliament in 1990 by mostly non-black voters is proof that, by then, Canada was pretty much a non-racist country. Actually, that time in Toronto was probably peak “colour blind” and since then, thanks to the activists like BEU, we have descended into a death-spiral of identity obsession, leading us into the swamp of the identity-based victimhood Olympics in which we now find ourselves.

The truth is that Akande was elected when the NDP under Bob Rae swept to power, replacing the David Peterson liberals. Peterson, riding high in the polls, called an early election, and voters punished him by voting in the NDP (talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!). I’d bet big bucks that most people voting for Akande did not even read her name on the ballot, they just put an X in the NDP box (a move most quickly came to regret). No one cared she was black then, and no one should care now. Reading her list of accomplishments one inevitably concludes she is a smart, hard-working, caring, and thoughtful person who has dedicated much of her life to helping others. There are millions of people like her here in Canada, which is what makes this country great, and they come in all colours.

Black History Month is a part of the activists’ strategy to convince black youth that they are oppressed and can only get ahead by banding together and demanding preferential treatment. Spineless politicians will usually give them whatever they want, but that is something that most Canadians will simply never accept. As more and more resources are handed over based on immutable characteristics, rather than individual merit or need, resentment is building.

This is a great country precisely because people like Zanana Akande were able to immigrate here and be successful through determination and hard work.

I’m sure she’s honoured to be invited to the BEU’s event, but at some level, she must realize that telling black kids they’re oppressed and they need shortcuts and handouts because they can’t compete on a level playing field is not the way to improve the outcomes activists are always complaining about.

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Snap Election in Ontario Elicits Non-Sequitur Response from Teachers’ Unions

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