Peace at Pride — I’m not your Black bogeyman

In my June 17th op-ed for this paper, I made clear my views about the colonial and racist legacy of Canada’s institutions and systems. This Canadian legacy has resulted in poor outcomes for racialized and Indigenous peoples in different domains of life — and it continues today. The police, like other institutions of power — including the Crown and government agencies — are not immune from it. This fact is not something I have ever denied.

Rowan White’s letter of July 2nd overlooked the substance of my op-ed, which aimed to provide a transparent look into the planning that went into the June 5th Pride event that was later cancelled. The people who were opposed to the event, and who posted on the St. John’s Pride (SJP) and Antiracism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador (ARC-NL) Facebook pages, were not seated at the project steering-committee table when decisions were being made. Thus, they did not know the actions that had been planned to ensure the safety of attendees. I can’t speak for the other members of the project steering committee, but the speculations, conjectures, and inflammatory comments that flourished on social media caused me harm, both personally and professionally.

ASSUMPTIONS MADE

White, a member of the Indigenous Activists Collective, asserted that there was no Indigenous leadership on the committee. This assumes something for which no evidence was shown. I, and another member of the project steering committee, had earlier made attempts to engage Peace Love and Pride, which I believe is led by someone who identifies as Indigenous, in planning and participating in the event. We respected the decision of Peace Love and Pride to decline our invitation.

Is it possible that members of the project steering committee identified as Indigenous and as members of the LGBTQ2S+ community? Did this matter to White? In making their claim, White glossed over the intersectionality they claim to champion.

White’s accusation that I lack understanding of “real people’s experiences” is at best hyperbolical and worst obtuse. Am I not a real person? Do I not count in their description of real people? Does my experience of racism and discrimination, which informs my life’s work, disqualify me from having “real people’s experiences”? On what basis does White claim to know me and to make such an outlandish claim? To suggest that I do not understand the mistrust that Indigenous and racialized people have towards the police further highlights the absurdity of White’s uninformed generalizations and falsehoods.

SENSITIVE TO DIFFERENCES

I was born and lived my formative years in one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, Nigeria, which some estimates suggest has over 500 languages. I am aware of and sensitive to differences between and within groups.

White is correct that I zeroed in on so-called white allies in my op-ed. In doing so, I did not assume, as they claimed, that Indigenous and racialized people are white or homogeneous. At the same time, I do notice the privileges afforded to white-seeming and white-passing Indigenous and racialized people.

White may not know that whiteness assumes an unassailable status: it is everywhere but nowhere. My intention was to expose and name it. Performative white allyship was on full display on the SJP and ARC-NL Facebook pages, whose sustained focus was to tarnish and portray me as that mythical stock character — the Black bogeyman. This happened under the guise of concern for racialized and Indigenous peoples, and intentionally or otherwise overlooked my Blackness and the care and sensitivity I was bringing to the issue. I, as a Black gay Muslim man, was excised from my role in working to bring the cancelled June 5th event to realization.

Regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, Indigenous and racialized people are not a monolithic group. Not everyone feels, as White claims, that police attendance at community events creates a lack of safety — in the local RCMP Black Engagement Steering Committee, for instance, Black people work with police to build relationships of mutual trust. How can White argue for some people to have a voice, yet be content to silence the voices of racialized and Indigenous peoples who feel differently? Do they not count as real people?

White critiques the colonial tool of divide-andconquer but at the same time weaponizes it, dividing the community into groups with legitimate claims of oppression and groups without legitimate claims of oppression. This false binary sets the condition for the former to deny the latter their rights to freedom of assembly.

Nothing I have said here or in my June 17th op-ed erases the fact that the institution of policing needs to do better in its relations with racialized and Indigenous peoples. Transformation and accountability can only happen through honest and frank dialogue. The police and affected communities must commit to working to advance reconciliation, so that the injustices of racism and racial inequality experienced by Indigenous and racialized people along intersections of various identities can be eradicated.

Dr. Sulaimon Giwa is an assistant professor in the school of social work with a cross appointment to the department of sociology at Memorial University, St. John’s. He is also the endowed chair in criminology and criminal justice at St. Thomas University, Fredericton.