Black Communities Deserve More…Period

Don’t get your panties in a knot and think the title means we deserve more than non-blacks…it literally means we deserve more because we survive with less, those are facts. If you’re already disputing this opening line you do not understand the difference between a black community and a non-black community. Let’s shed some insight.

Black Communities have a uniqueness to them. I mean let’s be honest, black communities are built on the very foundation of everyone is family and everyone is welcomed. Black community members gather. They gather for church, for Sunday dinners, for games at the recreational centre, for fundraisers, for funerals and birthdays to celebrate life on both occasions, for weddings to celebrate new beginnings and the list goes on and on. One thing is for certain, they gather on all occasions and that is the way it has always been. We pop in just to say hi, to shoot the shit, get caught up on the latest “going ons” in the community. We sit down to eat because you don’t leave hungry and you’re not turned away when you knock at the door. Most doors are always unlocked, like I said, everyone is welcomed. I know in my neighbourhood I can’t go walk into my neighbours house, I can’t knock and walk in and I can’t just walk in without waiting for the door to be answered, that’s for sure…there is a difference, a huge difference when you are comparing communities.

Everyone is an aunt, an uncle, a sister, brother, cousin, nephew, niece, mother, father, grandparents…everyone knows everyone for the most part. You have your plumbers, carpenters, electricians, educators, health care workers, small business owners, artists, community leaders and so on, you can call on any of them at any time. Can’t find your kid? Just call around, they’ll be found.

You see, the point is…black communities inherently survive on social closeness. This is how the community stands together in the good and bad times and this is a major part of how black communities have been able to survive the unfairness of being “outsiders”. So now, there is something that can literally wipe out an entire community due to the very thing that has kept the communities thriving and alive in the past…closeness.

Social distancing is completely foreign to our black communities, to stay away from each other is unfathomable. I would expect the Councillors who have been chosen to represent their distracts (most have had consecutive terms) would have acknowledged this and would’ve planned and prepared the communities better than they have. I haven’t heard of any Councillor getting directly involved to assist in this pandemic. There are families that have 1,2,3 and perhaps 4 generations living together. Consider how it must register when they are told that nobody can leave the house unless they’re an essential worker or only one person can go to the grocery store and/or that one person tested positive and must be quarantined…It’s inconceivable when the heart of the community is based around family and cohesiveness. So what do they do? Where is help? Where is the information? How do they try to put the pieces together and make this adjustment in life? Well, as they always have, they fend for themselves. They try to figure it out. They use the resources they have and try to fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together. They have the “leave no man behind” mentality and there’s no shame in this…it’s how the Black Communities have always gotten through shit. I know personally how hard it was for me to deal with this change and I don’t have this type of community cohesiveness around me.

With the heart of the communities being that of the seniors, they’ve been through it all and are set in their ways. They have their beliefs and they have their ways of getting better when they are sick. They have been self sufficient for 60-70-80+ years now, so the focus should shift to the generations of Gen X’s, Xennials and Millennials to curve the knowledge that may be lacking in the older generations. It’s a must, but it was not even considered otherwise Councillors would’ve already dealt with the lack of resources and ensured these communities were protected.

So here we have the Premiere all gun ho to call out some of our black communities for being “hot spots, party goers” and so on as if there hasn’t been any white folk having their own “gathering” spots. The beaches and parks weren’t shut down because our black community members were flocking to them, but if it was because our black folk , you sure would’ve heard it described as such. The headlines would’ve read…”Blacks won’t stay home so now we have to close the parks and beaches”. My gawd have you seen the lines at Costco? Not even 6 ft apart, come on. There are plenty of street gatherings by other communities that have not even gotten the “hot spot, party goers” shout out like the black communities have gotten.

The impact of his statement, even though the Premiere tried to justify it, cannot simply be taking back. In fact, his statement about health care workers specifically may end up causing many to lose their jobs and have future impacts on how society and their current employers and co-workers treat them. Their non-black co-workers will be sure to blame every case on “the black person from the hot spot.” Say it isn’t so and I’ll call bullshit right now!

So yeah, thankfully they FINALLY do have testing centres in the black communities and yes they deserve this. There is more to be done though. There are now cases in the black communities, finger pointing, blaming it on this or that is simply pointless. We need to heighten the seriousness of this situation within the community, as mentioned earlier…this literally could take out an entire community, so it’s serious.

Community leaders are “showing up”. People are rallying together to do what they can to protect each other. There are plenty of things we can do to help in this situation, the small things are just as important as the big things.

You can order groceries online ahead of time and drive up to to the designated pick up spots and have your groceries brought right to your vehicle. There are grocery delivery options however I have noticed that all of the grocery delivery businesses I tried to use do not deliver to my area (Lawrencetown) and I suspect it may be the same for some of our black communities that are outside the “city limits” so the better option may be to order online and pick them up outside of the store. It’s important to designate one person from each household to go to town for groceries and medication pick ups, don’t forget to wash ALL items purchased with hot soapy water…literally everything because you have no idea if someone with the virus has touched those items. Here are links two commonly known places to shop for groceries that offer this:

https://www.atlanticsuperstore.ca/online-grocery-shopping

https://www.walmart.ca/en/grocery/N-117

Watch parties on Facebook could be utilized to keep community members up to date on what is going on, updates about the resources in the communities, to share local news clips, videos etc. If you’re interested in getting to know about this feature on Facebook here is a link:

Not into watch parties? How about those with YouTube channels utilize them to post updates and share the links with others via text, email and/or social media. There are plenty of youth who are great at YouTubing.

Designated locations for people to be quarantined would be extremely helpful for those who have to quarantine themselves for 14 days after testing positive. My one thought on this is what about the province co-coordinating this with local hotels that are currently closed for business. This would be an ideal situation to utilize empty hotels for the health and safety of others. The province can afford to do this to save the lives of its community members. It’s just a thought, I don’t know how to action this item but I know someone in the community would know the ins and outs of trying to get this as a valuable resource to save lives.

Youth are tech savvy. We can search for everything under the sun online…use your search skills to increase your level of awareness about what is going on in the world right now, sometimes it takes seeing the entire picture of what the world is facing to bring it to reality. Then have open discussions about ways to stay safe, symptoms, emergency numbers and contacts should be known by all in the household. Be annoying if you have to be, it’s okay…it’s all about saving lives and if you have to be annoying to get your point across, oh well.

In the end the communities deserve to come out of this unscathed, without a new negative perception of the communities, they deserve all of the resources that every other person receives but within the communities themselves. They deserve the respect and attention from the Premiere, the Mayor, the Councillors, the doctors and so on…The question still remains will they get it equally? If not, the black community will come together, figure it out as they have always had to take care of themselves and will continue to do so….but help from the government would definitely be a contributing factor for the communities to survive this horrible crisis.

So how about those stereotyping the black communities just shut “the blazes” up and ensure they receive the resources they deserve to come out of this situation not losing any members of their communities to this virus…How about trying your hardest to give them a fighting chance. #sherryannecrowe