if both of your parents are still married.
♪ [dramatic]
Take two steps forward
if you grew up with a father figure in the home.
♪ ♪
If you've been surfing
you've probably seen this meme before.
But why is everyone taking two steps?
Well, understanding two words
can help explain what you're seeing here.
White privilege. So what is white privilege?
Right now white privilege seems to be the buzzword.
When you have white privilege,
the meaning that's attached to white skin is positive.
And so it gives you great advantages.
So when people see white skin,
they see someone who is presumed to be competent,
someone who's presumed to be smart,
someone who's presumed to be
trustworthy and safe and friendly.
Because of the colour of your skin
and because you're white and you're not black,
you are treated differently.
A whole lot better than black people.
Hi, my name is Quentrel Provo. I'm founder and CEO
of Stop the Violence here in Nova Scotia.
It does not matter about money or status
or where you're at in life. You could be poor
standing next to a rich black man
and they're still going to look at that white man first
because of the colour of your skin.
It all starts with racism.
Racism is when a person discriminates against someone
on the basis of how they look
and what ethnic group they belong to.
Even though you may think racism does not exist in Canada,
it does.
The anti black racism we see today
is actually the result of racist decisions,
some that were made a long time ago,
and today it lives on in our systems.
I want to talk a little bit about what systemic racism is.
So can you define that for me?
There are many systems that allow our world to operate.
So, systems of government, systems of policing,
systems of schooling.
And so when we talk about systemic racism,
we're talking about the ways in which
a system operates to
disadvantage people based on the colour of their skin.
Have you ever experienced any
racial injustice or racism when you were growing up?
When I was a kid, 10 or 11, playing at my aunts
and everything and
there was a description again of black kids that had
did a little break and enter.
And then you know the police car pulls up.
We're playing hide and go seek and they come and stop us and
basically was like you guys fit the description.
We don't know what's going on. We're 10, 11 years old.
We're just playing hide and go seek.
They see the first group of black kids
and they pull up to us and they're ready to question us.
Well, not all black kids look alike.
It hurt, you know, especially at 10 and 11
and you don't really know why and they're saying because
the colour of our skin. It hurt.
Look. Privileged doesn't mean you've had it easy.
Nobody has it easy.
White privilege means
you've not had to worry about things that black kids
have to worry about just because the colour of your skin.
It means because you're white,
you're automatically two steps ahead.
We are racing for a hundred dollar bill.
Before I say go,
I'm going to make a couple of statements.
If those statements apply to you,
I want you to take two steps forward.
I want you guys up here in the front
just to turn around and look.
We would be foolish to not realize
we've been given more opportunity.
We don't want to recognize
that we've been given a head start.
One video that is helping to create awareness
and create change is, you may have heard of it,
but it's the hundred dollar race challenge.
I'm not a guy of trends and stuff
on
but if it's raising awareness
and it's making some sort of difference, I'll support.
That trend is actually helping, so I'm all for it.
There is some change in everyone's listening right now
but we still have a long way to go.
Right now people are speaking out loud.
People are fighting for their humanity.
It's important for kids to have their voices heard
and when their voices are not being
invited to the decision making table, especially in schools,
to ask their principals and vice principals,
"Can I be on this committee that's planning the assemblies
for the whole school that has no kids on it?".
You have a voice as kids
and I think kids need to be taught how to use it.
Take two steps forward if you had access
to a free tutor growing up.
♪ ♪
So how many steps forward have you taken?
Count them and let us know.
For cbckidsnews.ca, I'm Elijah Sandiford. Peace!