On Friday, protesters marched from Kensington to the steps of the Calgary Board of Education’s downtown head office, pushing for policy reform around racism in schools.
Shuwan Porter, founder and CEO of the United Black People’s Allyship, led the protest by saying the CBE is responsible for not hiring Black people to represent minorities and not teaching Black history in schools.
“The school systems are where our Black future leaders start and they should not feel oppressed,” she said.
“It’s about teachers and how they interact with Black students, there’s a whole board for the CBE and not one Black person sits on it.”
Last week, a petition to change the name of the CBE’s William Aberhart High School surfaced. They said his philosophy and what he stood for didn’t match today’s social ideals.
Porter goes on to say she recognizes the CBE isn’t in control of the curriculum taught to students but said racism is shown towards the Black community across Calgary’s major institutions, not only the CBE.
“We want people and black leaders from the community sitting on your boards,” she said.
“We don’t want you to put someone out there and say ‘you can talk for the community,’ we want black people representing the black community.
Future BLM parades?
Kayl, one of the three Calgary BLM leaders at the protest said they wanted to bring light to the racism taught to students in schools today.
“We were here today to try and change the curriculum so Black history is taught in schools.
“The kids grow up not knowing what really happened, you know a lot of these people that are glorified were actually evil people.”
He along with the BLM Calgary chapter, plans for more protests to continues so the movement will continue to gain traction.
“We are going to plan a protest like once a week,” he said.
“We are going to work with the city and try to plan a BLM parade once a year so the movement doesn’t die down when nothing is happening.”
