The Conversation That We Need to Have

By Shamim Ahmed

I was sitting on the couch, reading a popular “Bengali”^[1] fiction, and all of a sudden heard my daughter mumbling “brutal”. I looked at her once, and again went back to my reading when I heard her infuriatingly saying “that’s totally unacceptable”. I took a pause from my reading, sat back properly, looked at the television and saw that horrid image of a policeman sitting on the road with his knee placed firmly on a person’s neck with a stone face. I was a little startled whether my 12-years old daughter should be watching this, but then she left on her own without saying much. I inquisitively continued to watch the news and came to know about the horrific act of killing George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American, during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. To be frank, I came to know about the allegation at least two weeks after the killing, as I was not curious about the reason why a person could be killed so brutally. I had no idea why a person should be treated so inhumanely as if he was not a living object. I was shocked. 

In the following weeks I kept thinking about the words my daughter expressed while she had a look at the photo on the television first – “brutal”, and “unacceptable”. I could not agree with her more. George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, and we were still very much concerned about the pandemic that trembled us with its devastating effect on peoples’ lives. I could see posters hanging on the windows of the University Family Housing of University of Toronto saying, “Stay Strong Toronto”, “Stay Home”, “We are together”, “Take Care Toronto” etc. Within the next few days, I started seeing new posters saying, “Black Lives Matter”, “They Can’t Kill Us All” etc. I was still at home. Staying safe with my family whenever I could, while mourning the death of another black life that was taken far too soon by police brutality and systemic violence. My wife on the other hand was working almost every day, walking down Yonge Street, working with her colleagues from different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and regions. She too was shattered too sad about this miserable act of brutality against another human being. 

A rally was later organized at Queens Park and it was going past the building we live in. Nowadays we usually avoid a crowd, put masks whenever we go out, and try to discuss the deadly adversity of coronavirus with our daughter. So, it was obvious in the last three months that we would not go out unless it was absolutely necessary. I saw people chanting and yelling against the cruelty towards Black people. Not only in USA or in Canada… but around the globe.  

It reminded me of my undergrad life back in my home country. Though I was never active in politics, I never missed an opportunity to protest any unjust act of the state, organization or individuals. I remember when police attacked hundreds of female students in their hostels after midnight just because they were vocal against some initiatives of the university administration. The University authority asked the police to act against the student protesters. However, we came to know about this heinous act of police the next morning, decided to boycott our classes and started a month-long protest demanding justice. Students gathered at the “Shahid Minar”^[2], a national monument within the university campus, where students gather to protest and share their views, ideas and concerns about state, policies and legislations. The first few days, there was only a handful of us, but within a week thousands of students joined the movement and the administration was bound to step down and investigation took place. This movement was a perfect example of the power of the mass and what could be achieved through organized protest and peaceful activity. 

Although we had previously decided not to go out in crowded spaces, after watching the rally going towards Queens Park protesting antiblack racism, I could not hold myself back. I wore my mask and joined the crowd and had shown my solidarity. As I joined the crowd, I realized that people have different ways to raise their voices and share concern for injustice. I have decided to write about this as I felt the need to share my feelings and reach more people who share these concerns and frustrations. We are all worried and we want to reflect solidarity against antiblack racism. Black Lives Matter – and there cannot be any “but”, or “if” within this statement. I decided to talk to my wife and looked for online resources to share with our daughter who was clearly frustrated at the situation. We talked to her about what was going on, we asked her how she was feeling, and listened to her carefully. We were happy that she thought people needed to stand up and protest whenever they could against such a dreadful act by police or anyone else. I looked up for some online resources to share with her and luckily the Redefining Traditional Blog helped me to find some excellent resources which are age specific.^[3]   

My daughter has already finished reading the book “Can I Touch Your Hair” written by Irene Latham and Charles Waters. She is now ready to read several others, including the one we shared with her titled “Ghost Boys” written by Jewell Parker Rhodes very recently. We believe this book will help her to have more insights as the context has some similarities. However, there is no prescription that fits all in the same way. There prevails systematic oppression towards religious minorities, or Indigenous communities and some disadvantaged people in almost every society, in different degrees. We always tried to discuss this with our child and let her know that though these incidents are not uncommon, they are in no way acceptable. We also try to honour that starting these conversations isn’t necessarily easy or done perfectly, but it’s important to begin so that we continue to reflect and navigate what we need to learn (or unlearn). The world is not a place for brutality or discrimination. We need to be kind. We need to be active. We may or may not demonstrate our protest on the streets, but we need to somehow speak up in our own ways and make this world a better place. I believe that together we can stop this brutality and the antiblack racism that exists, and we can agree that this is completely unacceptable. Stay healthy folks.   

^[1] Language mostly spoken in Bangladesh and some parts of India  

^[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaheed_Minar,_Dhaka 

^[3] http://blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca/redefiningconference/2020/06/12/raising-and-teaching-anti-racist-kids/ 

Shamim Ahmed is a PhD candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

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