Carrie Best: Nobody, Jim, in Nova Scotia, or in Canada, or in the world has the power
to rob me of my personal dignity.
Whether it’s my next door neighbor, or whether it’s the Premier of Nova Scotia.
FANFARE
Jim Nunn: Carrie Best grew up in New Glasgow.
She’s been kicked out of public places.
She’s been arrested.
And she’s fought back every time.
How old are you now, Carrie Best?
Carrie: 88 and a half.
Jim: And have you, as I’ve heard, spent your lifetime fighting racism in Nova Scotia?
Carrie: You could say that, yeah.
Racism began with me, I would say at birth.
But I fought on my own terms and with my own weapons.
And I would not allow my hatred of racism, and I hate it with a vengeance, I would never
let that prevent me from doing anything I could to help anyone.
Well I had been going to the Roseland Theatre for years.
My son and I would, uh, in those days that’s about the only entertainment that you had.
And I would pick him up at school and we would go, and I’d sit in that same seat for years.
And one day the usher just walked in and said to me you can’t sit here any more, you’ve
got to go upstairs and all the black people have to sit upstairs, and, shocked of course,
and of course I refused, and they held the show up for about half an hour while they
went to get a policeman and they literally dragged my son and I out of the theatre.
I don’t think it will change one bit if they put 20 black men on the police force.
I don’t think it will change one iota.
I think it will complicate matters because it will be similar to South Africa where you’ll
be pitting black against black violence and it will be even fiercer than a white policeman.
Because these men are being forced, for a paycheck, to battle their own race, and maybe
in their hearts, their heart is not there at all, but they will have to do it.
I was a member of the task force on The Status of Women, and by no stretch of your imagination
did I represent 30…30,000 black people.
But people thought I was.
Well they’re satisfied, there’s one black face on that and that’s it.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being a token, if that token is a person of quality.
Jim: Who can produce something.
Carrie: Who can produce something.
You have to, you, you get your foot in the door, and after that you open the door for
others, and you don’t try to close the door once you’re in and to feel that you’re
something special, because you are not.
Jim: You, you mean, Carrie Best, winner…Member of the Order of Canada, holder of an honourary
degree from St. FX, Dr. Carrie Best is followed around in..
Carrie: Yes I am.
Jim: …in the store.
Carrie: Dr. Carrie Best certainly is.
And Dr. Carrie Best has made it quite known, to the one who followed me and to the manager,
that I don’t appreciate that.
Yes, I’ve gone in stores and I’m scarcely in the door, to look for something, maybe
I’m looking for a sweater, and the clerk will leave, probably ten people waiting, and
come and say, they’re so polite.
They’re so polite it’s sickening.
Ah, “Can I help you?”.
And that’s when, that’s the only time that I forget that I am Dr. Carrie Best and
I tell her quite frankly no, she can’t help me, that I’m, I came in to make a purchase,
when I see what I want I will let her know, and as for paying for it, she can have it
any way she wants it, cash, Chargex, Master Charge, or the Gold Card.
Twenty years ago, in Sydney, a student who was hired for summer, told me, at one of the
affirmative action programs, that the boss said, “now you watch those n---gers when
they come in here, because they’re all they all steal”.
That was in Sydney twenty years ago.
Someone who works in a hotel in a Halifax told me that she once worked as a clerk and
the manager told her “you watch those n---gers when they come in because they’re all thieves”.
Jim: God, you use that word, that just it just it makes me
Carrie: It’s awful.
It is really awful, and it, it’s its not it’s not my imagination.
Although I’m looking for it and I’m ready for it.
Believe me.
I’m ready for it.
But it, it shouldn’t exist.
Nobody, Jim, in Nova Scotia, or in Canada, or in the world has the power to rob me of
my personal dignity.
Whether it’s my next-door neighbor, or whether it’s the Premier of Nova Scotia, I am not
a n---ger.
And those who have called me have learned, I mean exactly what I say: I am a person,
born in the image of God, I have intelligence, I am honest, I am honourable, and I am as
good, if not better, than anybody that walks the face of this earth.
And when we as a black race of people, teach our children that, and to live by that rule,
I think the ignorant whites will learn the lesson.
Certainly those that I have contacted with over the last few years, have learned their
lesson.
Jim: I’m very pleased to meet you.
Thank you.
Carrie: You’re welcome.