By Camille Aubin
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Black History Month is a time for understanding, open-mindedness, dialogue, and celebration of Black culture. But let’s not forget all the work we still have to do as individuals and as a community in order to break down the barriers that still exist today and affect Black people all over the world and in Canada.

In 2019, a study published by Statistics Canada looked at Canada’s Black population’s education and job market. Here are some highlights of the research carried out in Calgary: “Unemployment rates for Black women and men were more than one and a half times higher than those for women and men in the rest of the population. The gap in median annual wages between Black men and men in the rest of the population was over $20,000, and the gap between Black women and women in the rest of the population was close to $13,000. Nearly 3 in 10 Black children in Calgary were living in a low-income situation, compared with 1 in 10 children in the rest of the population.”

These few statements say a lot about the education, labor and income characteristics of the Black population, but they are far from representing every barrier experienced by a Black person.

Each year, seemingly all of a sudden, in February, Black people make headlines all over the media. They receive invitations to deliver speeches, talk about their lives, about history, and about every day struggles of being a Black person in this country, where racism still persists. Then as fast as the craze starts, it disappears. This, of course, is because February is Black History Month. Black people are still dealing with the same struggles the other 11 months of the year, but media coverage is not as focused.

In February, many members of the white population send a message to Black people: we see you and want to do our best to help you. What happens the other 11 months of the year? Underrepresentation of the Black population is a huge problem. We need to see and hear Black models in politics, on news channels, in our social networks, in short: everywhere and every day of the year. The diversity of people living in Canada must be better represented.

By saying ‘look at how far we have come’ as a population, we are placing ourselves right at the centre of the problem. Our progress over the past century is certainly something to be proud of, but that’s not what Black History Month is all about. Instead, we should say ‘look at how far they (Black people) have come’ and acknowledge the past.