Writings

5 ways to address internalized white supremacy and its impact on healthDuring the summer of protests, workplaces, institutions and many businesses seemed to have finally “awakened” to the plight of Black folks and the injustices we face. But the conversation needs to...

Grief is a direct impact of racism: Eight ways to support yourself The cyclical realities of the impact of racism, anti-Black racism and other forms of intersectional violence on our health make breathing seem like a luxury at times. The full blunt impact of racism...

Racism impacts your health   Outside in public: Smiling, dressed real fine, manners on point. I am well schooled on how to be respectful, how to take up space, how to use silence when necessary. Travelling home on transit listening to music to drown out my day —...

Canadian citizenship study guide should tell the truth about racism At this crucial time of confronting systemic anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, the Canadian government must take responsibility for its enduring role in propagating racism. This includes through...

Coronavirus is not the great equalizer — race matters One of the first stories to use race-based data to talk about the risk that Black communities face because of COVID-19 came on March 30 from the Charlotte Observer. The article said Black residents in Mecklenburg...

Reparations for slavery and genocide should be used to address health inequities   As soon as I entered Elmina Castle (the dungeons) in Cape Coast in Ghana, I felt haunted by over 400 years of brutality and the enslavement and genocide of millions of African and...

9 ways racism impacts maternal health   As we celebrate our moms and mommies this Mother’s Day, let us not forget that for some, motherhood is not an enjoyed privilege. For many Black, Indigenous and racialized women in Turtle Island (North America) and globally...

What is intersectionality? All of who I am   “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” ― Audre Lorde (Sister Outsider)Last year at the Golden Globes, many Hollywood actors got on stage in an act of unity for...

Living and breathing while Black: Racial profiling and other acts of violenceRecently, Shelby McPhee, a young Black male graduate student presenting at the largest Canadian academic gathering, the 88th annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by...

World AIDS Day: Let’s stop criminalizing HIV statusIn Canada, people living with HIV can be charged with not disclosing their HIV status to their sexual partners. Since 2004, there has been a marked increase in the number of people who have faced charges related to...

As cannabis is legalized, let’s remember amnestyWeed, spliff, cannabis, joint, blunt, Mary Jane, ganja, reefer, marijuana, pot: no matter what you call it, it is almost legal in Canada. Many will benefit from the new right to grow, sell or smoke legally and freely....

Raising hope: Parenting in an anti-Black environmentThe world my children live in is divided in two, as Frantz Fanon wrote in 1952 in The Wretched of the Earth. It is a world divided in endless opposites, a world still pained by the atrocities of the past, the endless...