‘I was so hurt’: Working While Black in Canada

“The workplace is a hostile environment for Black people” repeats social worker Robert Wright from Halifax in the film Working While Black: Our Stories.

To mark Black History Month, the Human Rights Office at the University of New Brunswick organized a film premiere and discussion about systemic racism on campus on Feb. 6.

Two elders, Jean Bartibogue and Jessie Sagawa, opened the event which featured the film screening and was followed by a discussion with invited guests.

In her introduction, University of New Brunswick graduate Jessie Sagawa told an anecdote about a poem published in The Brunswickan when she was a student in the 1980s.  In the publication, people of African descent were called “chocolate coloured mango beetles” by the author, who described them coming to “his” pristine white North.

In telling the anecdotes to the crowd, Sagawa expressed: “I was so hurt. (…) I was very hurt.”

Working While Black is a new film directed by Fateh Ahmed and made for the Taibu Community Health Centre, a place in Toronto that provides “access to primary care, health promotion and disease prevention programs in a culturally affirming environment.”

Based in Halifax, Ahmed is founder of Core Film Productions, a company that makes films about “humanitarian, social and global concerns.”

The film features frank —and often poignant— testimonies from Black professionals and scholars mostly from Halifax and Toronto. The film underlines the very destructive effects of systemic racism in the workplace, on people of colour, including serious mental health issues, depression and suicide.

Although Ahmed, director of the film was unable to attend the event, the screening was followed by a panel discussion. Speakers included Claudine Bonner, the Canada Research Chair in Racial Justice and African Diaspora Migration and Associate Professor at Mount Allison University, community leader and advocate Normand Hector, Yusuf Shire, President of NB African Association, and Nadia Richards, the Associate Vice President of Human Rights and Equity at the University of New Brunswick.

During the panel discussion, Shire outlined the work the New Brunswick African Association is doing to address the exclusion of Black New Brunswickers in the labour force. Unemployment numbers are higher for people of colour and especially women of colour. Studies like those of Sociology Professor Leyla Sall show the racism present in New Brunswick.

Bonner reminded the crowd that the human rights structure and laws emerged from the complaints made by people against the structures, in Nova Scotia. For her part, Richard discussed “anti-Black racism” as different from other racisms in Canadian society where there’s a hierarchy of “closeness” to White, amongst different cultural groups, imposed by the history of the state.

From Saint John, Normand Hector’s human rights complaint about being paid 15 per cent less than his white colleagues, was recently resolved, after four years. Hector said he wanted “people [to] understand that emotionally and financially” the complaint process is very difficult. The complainant is the one who has to prove the discrimination.

For Hector, in his case, “it wasn’t about winning or losing, it was about making sure the company [he] gave 22 years to, did the right thing.” Hector added that the film had been quite emotional for him as he saw some of his experiences echoed in the participants’ recollections.

Hector clarified that it “was never on [his] bucket list” to become a public figure in the province. Hector added: “How is it that a queer black man is the trainer for EDI for Hockey New Brunswick?”

Sagawa commended the attendees —including the President of the University of New Brunswick, Paul Mazerolle— for coming to the event: “This is the type of topic that doesn’t make everybody comfortable. (…) All we want (…) is to be able to understand each other (…) our shared humanity.”

Sagawa added: “difference really enriches us (…) to share ideas. Learning never stops.”

Black History Month events are ongoing in Fredericton during the month of February, at the University of New Brunswick, Saint Thomas University, and in the larger community.

Sophie M. Lavoie is a member of the NB Media Co-op’s editorial board.