STU holds its first Black History Month panel
Fourth-year St. Thomas Univeristy student Will Leek told a packed audience in Kinsella Auditorium his experience being African-Canadian is something he’s “learned to live with.”
“There are some people that choose not be okay with it and there are some people that ultimately accept it,” Leek said. “Whether or not, it doesn’t really make a difference because I’m not going to change who I am for anybody else.”
Leek also described an incident where he was stopped by a police officer while walking in his neighborhood. The officer asked Leek were he lived. Leek told the officer he lived around the corner and the officer said, “Hey, Mr. Basketball star, tell me your address.”
“You don’t really feel accepted when you hear things like that coming from authority figures,” Leek said.
Leek was among panelists from organizations representing African-Canadians for the first-ever Black History Month panel at STU which was held on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m in Kinsella Auditorium. The other panelists were Alexa Joy Potashnik, host of Raw Colours and founder of Black Space Winnipeg; Mary Louise McCarthy, former president of the New Brunswick Black History Society; and Pascale Diverius, journalist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto.
The panel was organized by second-year student Husoni Raymond. He decided to take matters into his own hands after the university did little to acknowledge Black History Month last year.
“Black History Month provides an avenue for the accomplishments to be highlighted and creates an atmosphere in which people can engage in intellectual discourse about systemic barriers faced by people of African descent,” Raymond said.
The Atlantic Human Rights Centre received $3,300 from various departments within the university and $2,500 from the Students’ Union to spend on Black History Month. Leftover money will be used by the AHRC to pay for future initiatives.
Large posters commemorating the accomplishments of African-Canadians are also on display in a campus building as part of Black History Month.
Second-year student Ginelle Longley said STU celebrating Black History Month is a great example of society moving forward.
“We should be learning about it all the time, but I’m glad that there’s a month about it so that we can go into more depth and people learn a lot of things about it.”
First-year student David Effiong agreed and said he was impressed by the number of non-black people who attended.
“I know that most of them may have been coming because of bonus points or something [for class], but a lot of them may also have been coming just out of the sheer interest of being aware and learning about Black History Month and how they can help,” Effiong said.
“That really, really meant something to me.”
