This is the update of what transpired last night at the Toronto District School Board Trustee meeting in regard to the motion to change Black History Month to a homogeneous Heritage Month that is 'inclusive'.
This was the 3rd attempt that a number of members of Toronto's Black/Afrikan community have made to deal with this issue. The turned out wasn't as large as expected given how widely the email was sent out, nonetheless it was a very significant moment for several reasons.
Here are the events as they happened:
1. While they were in closed session, the trustee who tabled the motion came out and was confronted by the community who wanted to know why he would want to pass such a motion. He had no qualms telling the tv cameras that his motion was in support of the Tamil and Somali communities, who had expressed their dislike of Black history Month to him. The community challenged this and asked him to bring those constituents so we could hear them deny the honoring of their cultures and heritage for ourselves.
2. The trustee also claimed that another trustee, of Black African descent, was in support of his motion and that he was going to help him reword his motion to make it more appealing. This was also in front of the tv cameras.
3. Clearly this trustee must have missed history and geography class because he was not aware that Somalis are Afrikans, and Tamils are Asian. What was also evident is that this trustee did not seem to know that there was a difference between Somalis andTamils proving once again that we are perceived to be all the same because we look the same!
4. Members of the Afrikan/Black community, DEMANDED an immediate apology when the session resumed. One of the other trustees also demanded an apology from the nut in question for misrepresenting himself to the entire board and hence, tarnishing them by association as a TDSB management body.
5. This guy refused to apologize and repeated he had withdrawn his motion. At that point, the community SHUT THINGS DOWN! Vickie Mcphee, a powerful First Nations and Afrikan woman warrior, confronted the trustees and publicly demanded the matter be dealt with immediately and the trustee with the bad judgment be made to apologize. The board tried to shut her down but she boldly responded by saying she did not have to respect the chair because the chair DID NOT REPRESENT OUR COMMUNITY! They owed her respect as a 6th generation First Nations Afrikan Canadian. Civil disobedience instincts took over when the group started, "We demand an apology!" This forces the meeting to grind to a halt. The trustee in question took the opportunity to literally run out of the room and he went to hide in the safety of the back room.
6. After some hasty negotiations with the chair and other TDSB reps, the chair made a formal apology to the Black/Afrikan community and to those who the trustee had smeared with his lies.
The "oppressor" has been sent away to lick his wounds but you can be sure that he or someone like him will be back to try this mess again. The will step up the lies and deceit the next time so it's up to us as a community to make sure we stay diligent. The struggle continues!
