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Young black activist has press for lunch
The press came to a Ryerson University meeting room yesterday morning to hang the leader of the New Black Panther Party for his published racist comments against Jews.
And when Malik Zulu Shabazz, the incendiary American, was denied entry at the border on the technicality that he had a misdemeanour charge a few years back, the ravenous scribes raised their sharpened swords to pick apart the Toronto youth group that had invited Shabazz to address them.
The journalist found instead a young, angry black woman every bit their equal – and 26-year-old Nkem Anizor basically had the press for lunch.
Coursing through little-heard accounts of history, anthropology, the behavioural sciences, and whatever discipline the reporters' questions evoked, the young activist didn't give an inch in her basic message: black youths are not gonna beg and plead for equality like their parents did.
"We're not trying to go along to get along," said Anizor, president of Black Youth Taking Action.
"This generation of black youth, we went to school. We are not like our parents. We don't want your approval. We don't want to get tapped on the head. We don't want to move to the suburbs and be comfortable. What we want is freedom, justice and equality and we're going to use our education to get it."
Her group partner Yafet Tewelde outlined the demands of the day of Queen's Park protest and night lecture at Ryerson, the events Shabazz was to address in a proposed visit that stirred up passions and pitted Jewish groups against the black youths.
"Immediate establishment of K-12 black-focused schools; change in the current K-12 curriculum to establish truth; immediate diversion of the $250 million from Brampton (super) jail; and immediate repeal of Safe Schools Act," under which an inordinate number of black kids have been suspended and expelled from school, Tewelde said.
But why invite such a controversial figure? Shabazz brings heavy baggage, one the Jewish Defence League, B'Nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress rushed to make public.
"We expected there would be some issues. But the idea that the entire community would mobilize against a simple rally by black people?
"They cannot cite one incident of violence in any place he's spoken ever. Yet, our permit's being denied at Queen's Park. He's a registered lawyer, practising attorney in Washington, DC., not your average riff-raff showed up off the streets to cause a riot."
They invited Shabazz because he is a brilliant and charismatic organizer and "passive" Toronto youth needed a catalyst.
Call it naiveté or a dodge.
Pressed, Anizor said black people can decide for themselves who to listen to and judge what they hear.
"But the idea that someone can pick and choose who can speak to the black community is ridiculous. Slavery is over. We are not on a plantation. If he turns out to be an anti-semite and a hater, we as adults can determine ... and reject what he tells us."
Another reporter tried another angle, challenging the need for black-focused schools.
The school board has sat on report after report even as the drop-out rates among black kids rise, she said.
"You have a population of black youths that are being kicked out in droves and you're gonna tell me that we're still begging to get one black-focused school and black people are paying taxes like everybody else."
But isn't it divisive to be teaching black kids one thing and others something else, one reporter asked, maybe mischievously, as Anizor had said she wants the entire curriculum overhauled to reflect black achievement and history.
"Don't think for a second that black people did not give education to the world. We civilized the entire planet," she said, from the Greeks to the Romans, thanks to the Egyptian civilization that predates Europe. "So if anybody knows how to teach it's us."
Every advance in the history of the world is a result of black people?
"Absolutely. Yeah. We were here first. Doesn't mean you haven't used technology and developed yourself. Want to challenge me, go head, knock yourself out. But if you were confident of the truth you would not have deleted it from the history books," she said.
Instead, the image that's propagated is the doctrine of white supremacy: "We did it all. We got you all in the jungle. Thank God, play ball and dance."
Sounds like a conspiracy, one reporter said.
"Right. Right, Right. When one group is in control, and the other is not, they can write the story. His-story. Not ours. Is that so strange? What, we don't have any history of this? Groups subjecting another group and rewriting the history to suit their purposes; or taking scripture to suit what they want to do?
"Is this so strange?"
You should've seen the faces of the reporters. Strange doctrine, indeed.
The press came to a Ryerson University meeting room yesterday morning to hang the leader of the New Black Panther Party for his published racist comments against Jews.
And when Malik Zulu Shabazz, the incendiary American, was denied entry at the border on the technicality that he had a misdemeanour charge a few years back, the ravenous scribes raised their sharpened swords to pick apart the Toronto youth group that had invited Shabazz to address them.
The journalist found instead a young, angry black woman every bit their equal – and 26-year-old Nkem Anizor basically had the press for lunch.
Coursing through little-heard accounts of history, anthropology, the behavioural sciences, and whatever discipline the reporters' questions evoked, the young activist didn't give an inch in her basic message: black youths are not gonna beg and plead for equality like their parents did.
"We're not trying to go along to get along," said Anizor, president of Black Youth Taking Action.
"This generation of black youth, we went to school. We are not like our parents. We don't want your approval. We don't want to get tapped on the head. We don't want to move to the suburbs and be comfortable. What we want is freedom, justice and equality and we're going to use our education to get it."
Her group partner Yafet Tewelde outlined the demands of the day of Queen's Park protest and night lecture at Ryerson, the events Shabazz was to address in a proposed visit that stirred up passions and pitted Jewish groups against the black youths.
"Immediate establishment of K-12 black-focused schools; change in the current K-12 curriculum to establish truth; immediate diversion of the $250 million from Brampton (super) jail; and immediate repeal of Safe Schools Act," under which an inordinate number of black kids have been suspended and expelled from school, Tewelde said.
But why invite such a controversial figure? Shabazz brings heavy baggage, one the Jewish Defence League, B'Nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress rushed to make public.
"We expected there would be some issues. But the idea that the entire community would mobilize against a simple rally by black people?
"They cannot cite one incident of violence in any place he's spoken ever. Yet, our permit's being denied at Queen's Park. He's a registered lawyer, practising attorney in Washington, DC., not your average riff-raff showed up off the streets to cause a riot."
They invited Shabazz because he is a brilliant and charismatic organizer and "passive" Toronto youth needed a catalyst.
Call it naiveté or a dodge.
Pressed, Anizor said black people can decide for themselves who to listen to and judge what they hear.
"But the idea that someone can pick and choose who can speak to the black community is ridiculous. Slavery is over. We are not on a plantation. If he turns out to be an anti-semite and a hater, we as adults can determine ... and reject what he tells us."
Another reporter tried another angle, challenging the need for black-focused schools.
The school board has sat on report after report even as the drop-out rates among black kids rise, she said.
"You have a population of black youths that are being kicked out in droves and you're gonna tell me that we're still begging to get one black-focused school and black people are paying taxes like everybody else."
But isn't it divisive to be teaching black kids one thing and others something else, one reporter asked, maybe mischievously, as Anizor had said she wants the entire curriculum overhauled to reflect black achievement and history.
"Don't think for a second that black people did not give education to the world. We civilized the entire planet," she said, from the Greeks to the Romans, thanks to the Egyptian civilization that predates Europe. "So if anybody knows how to teach it's us."
Every advance in the history of the world is a result of black people?
"Absolutely. Yeah. We were here first. Doesn't mean you haven't used technology and developed yourself. Want to challenge me, go head, knock yourself out. But if you were confident of the truth you would not have deleted it from the history books," she said.
Instead, the image that's propagated is the doctrine of white supremacy: "We did it all. We got you all in the jungle. Thank God, play ball and dance."
Sounds like a conspiracy, one reporter said.
"Right. Right, Right. When one group is in control, and the other is not, they can write the story. His-story. Not ours. Is that so strange? What, we don't have any history of this? Groups subjecting another group and rewriting the history to suit their purposes; or taking scripture to suit what they want to do?
"Is this so strange?"
You should've seen the faces of the reporters. Strange doctrine, indeed.
(umm... for Mali or the Zulus?)
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