promised land

21 Feb 2017 news 0 Comments

Tales-from-the-2.9-—-The-Black-Canadians-Sharing-their-Stories-in-a-Digital-Age-—-Vol.-2-20-Zetta-Elliott-PhD-Author-Educator-Featured-ImageCasey Palmer, Canadian Dad, has been posting profiles of Black Canadians all month long for his second annual Tales from the 2.9. Blacks make up less than 3% of the population in the Great White North (or as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. puts it, “Black Americans are a nation. There are more of us in the US than there are people in the country of Canada”) and Casey is determined to shine a light on the movers and shakers. Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday so it’s vital that Black voices are part of the conversation. I’m honored to be included because I haven’t lived in Canada for a long time and don’t have such a rosy view of my country of origin. Here’s a bit of my profile:


What does being Black Canadian mean to you?

I’m proud to be Canadian. I’ve been critical of the country and the limited opportunities available to Black Canadians, but I start every author presentation here in the US by telling kids that I’m an immigrant from Canada. The Black Canadian identity is all about hybridity for me—I participate in multiple cultures and I’m the product of multiple histories, and that confounds many White Canadians who don’t understand intersectionality and like to imagine all Black people stepping off a boat or plane yesterday. Being a Black Canadian means never forgetting the sacrifices made by my Caribbean ancestors who gave up their status and professions in the 1950s to start from scratch in such a cold (and often hostile) place. Being a Black Canadian also means honouring my African American ancestors who came north hoping for a better life in the 1830s. The racism they encountered was so severe that it pushed them across the color line; my job as a Black Canadian writer living on the other side of that color line and the other side of the border is not to judge my ancestors but to tell the truth (as I see it) about “the promised land.”