I received an email from a friend in Toronto and I am very disturbed that the Toronto Board of Education is even going to entertain this motion considering all of the problems they are having with youth in their city.
To marginalize black youth further will certainly result in even greater problems. Clearly there is some failure in the understanding of the purpose for this celebration and that making it "Heritage Month" is NOT inclusionary if that means you will limit the celebration of ALL heritage groups to the month of February.
It is incumbent on school districts to find more effective, proactive ways of demonstrating the importance of the historical contributions of people of African descent while at the same time honouring the same thing for people from other diverse backgrounds. If this plan is going to come with a complete change of the current education system, then great.
Since it will be more of the same, then this is a step back to the stone age. As a community, we have worked too hard to get schools to do the bare minimum and we already know that what is being done is not enough. Our children are suffering already and having them buy further into the stereotypes of black culture will never allow us to progress forward as a people. We know that doing more of the same will not work so imagine if we do less! Shame on the board of education for thinking they can sneak this one past us and then shame on us if we don't mek dem know we are a force to be reckoned with.
