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Another World

by Omara Downer

I have always been a dreamer. I even dreamt I was a unicorn, but what I have yet to dream of is freedom. And when I say freedom I don't mean pity. I mean a world where we Black people can jog without being shot or go into a store without being watched. A sad reality I face especially during the winter time because I have to wear a jacket and my hands are always in my pocket.

What is Anti-Black racism? If I could provide a definition; it would be the unequal treatment and perception of Black people in all aspects of human existence. 

Being a victim of racism in grade four, by my teacher, made me feel sad and nervous to be around that person. It made me feel less than my classmates that were not Black. It made me sad because I could not understand why my teacher did not like the colour of my skin. Sometimes I got so nervous at school I would run home before it was time for school to end. 

Many nights I cried myself to sleep trying to understand what I did wrong to receive the hate and anger that my teacher showed me and other Black students in the class. By the end of grade four my mom went to court and got justice for myself and all the other Black kids that were affected by this teacher who was arrested and fired. I have the comfort of knowing that no other student or family will be racialized by this teacher. 

As a victim of racism it made me realize how disadvantaged we are as a race. Every time a black person achieves something that a white person achieves it is highlighted. For example, recently it made headlines that The University of Toronto has accepted 24 black students in its faculty of medicine for the 2020 school year. The system has taught us that we are inferior to white people so these achievements are outside of our capabilities which calls for the need to be highlighted and glorified. You would never read a headline “XYZ university has accepted 24 whites students in their faculty of medicine for the 2020 school year”. 

Martin Luther King had a dream in 1963, “that his four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” Yet I was judged in 2018 by my teacher whose role was to protect and educate me. And today in 2020; 57 years later this young black 11-year-old girl named Omara still has that dream, and so do the many other Black people that are now protesting for this dream. 

All we ask for as Black people is equality not pity. We do not want handouts, we do not want privilege based on your guilt. I want to become a lawyer because I will be qualified to do so, not because you are trying to match your numbers to portray an institution that is diverse. As I said, what we need is change in the system, not pity to cover inequality.

One can never fully understand what racism takes from a Black person, emotionally, mentally and psychologically unless you are Black. Being Black means strength, resilience, self-love, power and humility all which I learnt during the darkest time of my life in grade four, because I no longer knew how to love someone that was hated. I wished I looked different, I wished my hair was different. I no longer looked in the mirror during that time. By the end I grew so strong my peers would come to me for guidance if they believe other students were being racist. I love myself, I love being Black and I hope one day the world will love us genuinely and see us as one HUMAN RACE.

Black lives matter TOO.