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Black history month in Canada

 Why is there a black history month in Canada?  Don’t want to sound racist but whereas 16% of Americans are black. Here in Canada the numbers are rising but are far lower.  As of 1999, 2.5% of Canadians were black, and as of the end of 2022 it’s around 5%, there is no Chinese history month, and yet the account for nearly 5% of Canadians.  

Moreover, the history of blacks in Canada is far different than in the US.  Of course there was slavery in Canada, which ended in 1807, as in the rest of the British empire.  Moreover, the vast majority of black Canadians are not descendants from slavery, let’s be clear as early as the mid 18th century slavery was poorly seen in Canada (especially upper Canada). 

I grew up in Montréal that was essentially a white city, there we few if any blacks anywhere, certainly not in the service sector as in the US.  My first exposure to black people were refugees from Haiti.  They quickly took over the taxi industry (no joke intended here it was just a job that required no qualifications— many eventually migrated to jobs for which they were trained) and eventually fully integrated into society and the job market.  

If we are going to honour racial minorities why focus on black people?  Yes they are a more recognizable minority but it seems to me that a whole month seems to be a cross over from the US.  I’ve literally never heard the N word used in any context here the relationship with black Canadians is that of any relationship with a Canadian, you are one of us!

As an aside years ago (late 90s) my company had a get together in Montreal and manu “insular” Americans came up and one commented, in jest, that there was something weird with our hotels— a day later he said “cleaning staff in the hotel are all white”. 

As a young man, I was not aware that there had even been slaves in Canada (it was certainly not mentioned in history class) granted it was a small number, still it was a surprise to me.

So maybe Black History month is not such a bad idea, after all…especially as a way for all visible minorities to be seen and appreciated 

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