Race to end discrimination not over, speaker declares

Jessica Yee says it’s time for her generation to push anti-discrimination to another level.

Yee, a self-described multi-racial, indigenous, hip-hop feminist, reproductive justice freedom fighter, said for too long Canadians have glossed over subtle racism that exists in communities large and small, instead pointing to progress on the obvious stuff.

“I get frustrated when we try to mark things as diversity and multiculturalism,” said Yee, the founder of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, speaking Wednesday morning at the Thunder Bay’s annual breakfast in celebration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

“A lot of us get forgotten in the categories it’s supposed to cover. I’m not interested in being included and tolerated after the fact. I’m interested in being in the centre of where things come from.”

Yee, who said she won’t be silenced, adding her message is that the race to end discrimination isn’t over yet and that people should be made to feel uncomfortable with some of the truths that exist in society.

Until people are willing to talk about why diversification and multiculturalism have to exist in the first place, true progress can’t be made, she said.

And that makes her angry.

So do a lot of things, though she views it as strong passion rather than anger.

“I don’t think it means I’m violent or agitated – although sometimes yes, I get angry. I guess I’m angry that as a young person, there’s still a whole lot of mess to clean up and I think that so many people don’t get the chance to dialogue about the real issue going on in terms of reality,” she said.

“We very much mask the different issues that young people are facing by saying, ‘You can do anything,’ or ‘It’s not you,’ without saying let’s take a hard look at these issues and let’s not wait until university before you understand what things like colonization are.”

Gurleen Chahal, president of the Regional Multicultural Youth Council said changing the mindset of the people when they’re young is the best way to ensure that way of thinking sticks into adulthood and beyond.

“In actuality the youth are the future, and if we are to change how the youth think, how the youth act around each other and make them co-operate more with each other, in the future that’s going to reflect in what we do for us as a community and as society as a whole,” she said.

RMYC vice-president Nathan Ogden pointed to an example at local schools, some of which have adopted a racial incident report that keeps teachers at arm’s length unless needed.

“This enables teachers to be aware of the racial situations and monitor them, but it allows students to deal with their own solutions,” he said.

A head start is always the best plan, Chahal said.

“By practicing prevention rather than intervention we can make a difference in the youth of tomorrow.”

Coun. Rebecca Johnson, who entertained the crowd with a Sesame Street favourite, The People in Your Neighbourhood, said the fact 300 people showed up at 7:30 a.m. shows the city is moving in the right direction.

“Our city is working on this, along with the crime prevention council and along with a number of different initiatives,” she said.