Raymond Sheppard nominates Eddie Carvery for African Nova Scotian of the year, and makes some wishes for 2021: Fire Chief Dan Kinsella, reparations, collect race-based data, a CBC that pays attention to the African Nova Scotian community and more.
Rachel Zellars is an African-American academic, lawyer, and community organizer who has lived in Canada for more than a decade and a half, and in Halifax for the last couple of years. Wendie Wilson is an African Nova Scotian teacher, artist, writer, and community advocate whose family has been in the province for at least eight generations. Scott Neigh interviews them about the African Nova Scotian Freedom School that they were part of organizing this past summer.
Wayne Desmond: “The idea of Black spaces and the need for inclusive education have always been important to me. Why is it that it wasn’t until I went to university that I began to feel fully validated as a Black learner?”
African Nova Scotians with the extra burdens of racism and marginalization to contend with have nowhere to turn. Raymond Sheppard writes on the urgent need for Africentric mental health services, situated in the community and run by the community.
Raymond Sheppard: “It is African Heritage Month. Our struggles continue, yet now it is time to celebrate our glorious history. It is also time for the government of Nova Scotia to step up to the plate and do the right thing as it pertains to African Nova Scotians.”
Raymond Sheppard on what would make 2019 a better year than 2018.
Raymond Sheppard continues his investigation of an Afrocentric counselling practice, what that entails and why it is urgently needed. “African Nova Scotian history has never been seriously discussed in the therapeutic process and therefore has denied African Nova Scotians an understanding of our identity. Counsellors must be aware that the effects of slavery, racism, hate and marginalization are still a part of who we are as a people.”
Raymond Sheppard on the need for Africentric mental health services: “African Nova Scotians suffer in silence, not being privy to programs and services they can identify with. With differences in heritage, culture and lineage, the time is past due for services and programs that accommodate the unique differences of African Nova Scotians.”
A video entiltled Africentric Math Cohort isn’t really clickbait, and I am not sure why I clicked it. But I am glad I did. We’ve heard a lot lately about the politics of education, and most of it pretty depressing really. It’s time for a little reminder of some of the great work happening at our schools right now.