“I am responding to the offensive racist cartoon in your paper on Monday Feb. 18th, the first family Day holiday, no less.
This cartoon caricature exposes a deeply racist Euro-Canadian mindset that shamelessly promotes these stereotypes of Afrikan/Blak people, much less a teacher. This type of racism is fueling the hysteria toward Africentric schools, a desperately needed option for learners and their families who confront racism everyday at school.
This cartoon is exactly why we need Africentric schools where learners are ’safe’ from such blatant racist behaviour from educators and administrators. In a mainstream school this probably wouldn’t even be talked about but could be the basis of an entire unit on Race & Racism in Canada in an Africentric school.
Not only does this betray ignorance & hate, it also exposes fear that Africentric schools will actually make a difference that threatens the status quo.
For a national paper, you should be ashamed and owe the collective Afrikan/Blak community an apology. Furthermore, the person who created this cartoon should be fired and made to undergo anti-racism training as well as community service in the Afrikan/Blak community!
All Canadians should be outraged by this not just those who are for Africentric schools. Everyone who is committed to anti-racism should hold this paper accountable!
Yolisa also penned her own response to the so-called apology:
“The response you sent regarding the racist ‘cartoon’ by your staff person does not even begin to address the real issues and is further insulting. We Afrikan/Blak citizens and those who are committed to anti-racism and social justice are sick and tired of being told people who come from thousands of years of racist histories “didn’t mean to be racist”. This is always used as an excuse to pacify, dismiss and not take responsibility for their racist actions. This ensures the necessary measures needed to repair the damage done continue to get side-stepped at the expense of those who have been victimized, injured and disrespected.
This so-called “cartoon” belittles, insults, violates, injures, profiles, ridicules ALL Afrikan/Blak people and the notion of what an Africentric school can offer and achieve. It frames what we have been fighting for for decades in this countrys failing education system as something ridiculous, unnecessary and ignorant.
Furthermore, your “cartoon” displays the typical historical mindset of racist colonizer enslavers who like everyone to believe Afrikans are incapable of any genius and ‘high thinking’ particularly when it comes to mathematics. This lie has been imposed on ALL nations denying the truth that in fact, Afrikans CREATED mathematics. Not only that, the ORIGINAL AFRIKAN ways of teaching mathematics, pedagogically, are far more enlightened, progressive, engaging and success-oriented to the point where learning math is actually FUN and enjoyable! There are numerous research accounts of Afrikan toddlers and young children being taught algebra and calculus before the age of 6. That is genius!
Hence, it is even more ironic how utterly ridiculous this racist “cartoon” profiles us knowing Afrikans created not only mathematics but also science, astronomy, religion, geometry, medicine…even writing! You all are still trying to figure out how we built the pyramids and that is all about mathematics! Of course Europeans later stole this genius and claimed it was theirs. Our great and brilliant Ancestor Imhotep is an example of the embodiment of Afrikan genius. Look him up and do a piece on him and the Dogon peoples who taught Europeans not only how to read the stars but also told them about and showed them planets they didn’t even know existed in the unvierse!
Your racist cartoonist and paper bank on the fact that we Afrikans/Blak seemingly don’t know our his/her-story but far more than you can ever imagine DO and we will not let you off the hook so easily.
I’m thrilled to inform you that as a result of this racist propaganda your paper decided to publish I’ve heard at least 1 subscriber has cancelled their contract with you and I hope others will do the same if you continue to deny this wrong. That’s so old and tired – ‘dog’, which by the way is Ebonics, a creative language again through the genius of our Ancestors during and after slavery as a way of survival!
You owe all Afrikan/Blak communities a public apology and your “cartoonist” should be penalized equal to the level of injury cause by his actions. And we do not for a moment believe this was accidental. It is this type of behavior that fuels more ignorance, violence and racism which one would think your paper works to prevent through education based on truth.
I do not accept your apology and suggest you take this far more seriously and DO something meaningful to address the spirit injury and casual emotional violence caused by this highly offensive “cartoon” of what you want Afrikan people to be in your own racist imagination. In closing it’s funny how Euro-Canadians and every other ethnic group are desperately appropriating Ebonics to be “cool” yet when it suits you you act as if its barbaric. “STOP THE MADNESS” as an activism mentor and friend always says.
Yolisa”
[...] Letter from Yolisa re: Racist Cartoon ← Response from Globe and Mail re: Racist Cartoon [...]
“You all are still trying to figure out how we built the pyramids and that is all about mathematics!”
Actually, the “How” of the Great Pyramids has long been known. The only real debate that still exists is the “Why.”
Your letter is a rambling, incoherent mess that itself is borderline racist, attempting to minimize the achievements of other cultures in order to attribute them to an Egyptian civilization that was by all accounts multiracial, not uniformly African.
Also, you do not spell Africa with a K, and the word black always includes a C.