I have grown up with racism and it still makes no sense to me, how someone can hate me because of the colour of my skin.
I am a born and raised Canadian citizen and it makes me so upset every single time when I have been told to go back to my country.
I had naively thought racism was an issue that wasn’t as prevalent anymore, perhaps I had become complacent to this issue and learned to live with the racist jokes and stereotypes. I never imagined I would fear for the well being of my children due to racism and hate.
However, I was wrong, there are lives being lost, people being hurt and killed for the colour of their skin and for belonging to a different culture or religion. The most recent event being the extremely tragic deaths of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario.
I am so tired of fighting hate and racism needs to end now!
Many people have asked what they can do to help and support. Let’s begin by calling it out, racism does take place in very public places such as our streets, stores, workplaces, restaurants and parks. If you see a person being harassed, stand with them, call out the wrong behaviours, call out the harassment and call out the racism.
There are bystander intervention workshops and seminars to learn how to combat harassment and hate and how to help people facing racism in our community.
Attending events such as Multicultural Festivals are another way to celebrate and recognize the diverse cultures in our society. They are a great place to learn about other cultures and show our children the beauty found in other cultures. Acceptance and tolerance needs to be taught in our schools and workplaces, write letters to our elected leaders demanding changes in our education system and changes to workplace policies. CALL IT OUT!
The ambassadors of love need to rise, speak up and call out the racism and hate. Learn and accept other cultures and religions, we have so much to learn from each other.
There is so much good in our beautiful world, we need to choose to be kind and accepting of all.
