York Region’s young people are, indeed, unstoppable, as they work together to keep the momentum going on the Black Lives Matter movement.
On Saturday, July 25, from 3 to 4:30 p.m., the community is invited to a youth-led online panel discussion on anti-Black racism that features four local youth from diverse backgrounds.
The Zoom event, Unstoppable, is presented by the new group, Black Youth - York Region, that was created mid-June for Black youth and allies to address anti-Black racism locally. It is a social community that provides a space for young people to learn to dismantle and challenge anti-Black racism and systemic oppression.
Panellist Hannah Mullings-Tatum, 18, a drama student who graduated this year from the regional arts program at Newmarket’s Huron Heights Secondary School, said she will bring a unique perspective to the conversation.
“I’m half-Black, but appear racially ambiguous, and it’s not a voice that’s often heard when we talk about anti-Black racism,” Mullings-Tatum said. “It’s important to me to participate in stuff like this, especially because I live in Keswick, a really small town, where there aren’t many people of colour and we don’t talk about issues like that. So, it’s important to me that not only I have a voice, but other people who are like me have a voice.”
Mullings-Tatum is passionate about social justice and equality, and took part in Keswick’s small but well-attended Black Lives Matter march recently.
To her, dismantling anti-Black racism means “going deeper than just people not using the n-word or being overtly racist”.
“It’s about getting to the root of the issues, where those prejudices and biases come from, and eliminating things like microaggressions and systemic racism,” she said.
“I don’t present as someone who is Black, but my siblings do. So I guess that would mean for them, being able to walk down the street and not have people stare or not be stereotyped based on the way you look,” Mullings-Tatum said. “It means feeling safe in your community and not feeling like the way you look is a factor of how you’re treated.”
Panellist Rachel Cheng, 15, who is a member of Markham’s Chinese community, said she knew racism was an issue, but up until recently hadn’t experienced it directly.
“Now, I’m really starting to feel the racism because of COVID-19 and feeling scared to be accused of starting the virus, of causing people to be sick, and I’m starting to feel that fear when walking down the streets, or when wearing a mask, I’m afraid,” Cheng said.
“I think that, like Hannah, I also bring a different perspective on this issue because I’m Chinese,” she said. “I also think it’s very important that people of colour address racism within their communities toward Black people, it’s not just white people that are being racist, it’s also people of colour, and that’s why I’m here to talk about that and how to be a good ally.”
Two other panellists will join in Saturday’s discussion, including Markham student Cameron Davis, 15, who runs the CammyD YouTube page, and is an accomplished athlete, gamer, clothing designer, and published author, and Sydney Baxter, 17, who organized Markham’s Black Lives Matter protest and is now working with the City of Markham and York Region District School Board to create a space for Black youth to share their voices.
Members of the Black Youth - York Region group and the upcoming panel discussion are supported by several active community volunteers, including Jon Aston, Josie Rose, and Vanessa Stoby.
Rose, who co-chairs the York Regional Police community advisory council and is a member of the Social Planning Council of York Region, said it was important to support local youth to ensure they have a space to speak.
“The adults have been speaking a lot, but the youth need to have a space to speak about the issues affecting them,” Rose said. “A lot of the racism that they’re facing is affecting their mental health, it’s impacting their way of living, it affects their schooling and overall health.”
There’s an urgent concern among the local Black community, who make up 3 per cent of York Region’s population yet are overrepresented in such things as school suspensions, that the window for action around anti-Black racism is starting to close, Rose said.
“We have a small timeline and that’s one of the things the Black community is very worried about because something bigger could happen in the next couple of months and all this talk is probably going to go away,” Rose said. “We’re really scared about that, so we have to try to do as much as we can in the next month or two that we have, before it’s going to be the next flavour of the month.”
Rose said if the systems themselves don’t change, then nothing will change in the lives of Black people.
“One thing I have to stress is it’s not us. I’m not saying we don’t have issues, but it’s the system,” she said. “If the systems don’t do the work that they need to do, we’re going to be talking about this again in another five years.”
Supporter Aston, who is part of the Unstoppable organizing committee and a local activist on issues such as social justice and climate change, said he was deeply moved by the lived experiences of local Black people he heard at several Black Lives Matter marches in the spring, most notably the Aurora event.
“The day was very emotional for me, everything I heard from the stage, the stories I heard, I came away from that one thinking we have a moment that’s happening right now, the spontaneous BLM events happening in Aurora, Newmarket and Bradford, this is powerful, something is happening,” said Aston. “I know the window of opportunity here is short, if there isn’t momentum, if we don’t accomplish something with the momentum, we’re going to lose the opportunity.”
Unstoppable, a youth-led online panel discussion on anti-Black racism takes place on Saturday, July 25 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Registration is required here.
For more information, email [email protected]
You can follow Black Youth - York Region on Facebook and Instagram @byryouth.
