{"id":30900,"date":"2022-03-03T19:52:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T00:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30900"},"modified":"2022-03-10T18:43:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T23:43:20","slug":"black-history-month-closes-with-challenge-to-maintain-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/black-history-month-closes-with-challenge-to-maintain-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month closes with challenge to maintain momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Black History Month was a time for celebration and reflection, celebrating heroes past, present and future while also building opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that February 2022 is in the history books, community leaders are looking at ways to keep the momentum going throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFebruary is Forever\u201d was the overriding theme when community leaders came together on Saturday evening for a Black History Month closing gala hosted by the Aurora Black Community (ABC) Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no race or competition for who owns Black History,\u201d said Phiona Durrant, President of the ABC. \u201cSometimes we don\u2019t get enough cohesion and collaboration because we\u2019re thinking it needs a particular ownership. With over 60,000 people in Aurora, we know that it needs everybody coming together making this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underscoring this message was Dawn Gallagher Murphy, representing Deputy Premier Christine Elliott, who provided a message on behalf of the Newmarket-Aurora MPP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we reflect on the accomplishments of Black Ontarians that enrich our lives here in Newmarket-Aurora and Ontario, we must remember that many of these accomplishments were achieved despite racism and discrimination,\u201d said Ms. Gallagher Murphy. \u201cMany Black, Indigenous, and other racialized people experience racism and hate on a regular basis. Our government continues to ensure all communities have equitable opportunities to fully participate in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo build a more inclusive Province, we are strengthening anti-racism efforts to identify and remove barriers that stand in their way. Building inclusiveness is a collective effort. It takes exchanging best practices, creating networks and amplifying voices to create meaningful change \u2013 and that is what\u2019s happening this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essential in making that happen was local business leader Colin Campbell of Keller Williams Realty who led a panel discussion on just how the community can keep the momentum experienced during Black History Month going all year round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating in the talk was Aurora-Oak Ridges Richmond Hill MP Leah Taylor Roy, advocate Yvonne Kelly, educator Meshell Lynch-James and Staff Sergeant Kolin Alexander, Unit Commander of the York Regional Police\u2019s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The conversation is to] demonstrate to our community that Black History will not just be a window dress for February that is soon forgotten in March or later on,\u201d said Mr. Campbell. \u201cThis conversation is to demonstrate the commitment and the work that is needed in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout her career as an educator, including in her current role as Principal of Bill Crothers Secondary School in Unionville, Ms. Lynch-James said she has always pressed upon students that \u201cBlack History is Canadian History.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was hard to find someone else who would echo those other than the Black History Society of Ontario,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a school leader\u2026 we call it Black History 365\/24\/7 and we incorporate that into all we do, not just in February but throughout the school year and celebrate all the wonderful things that Canadians have done since 1603 coming to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, as a Province, we struggle because the curriculum doesn\u2019t reflect the Black experience. It doesn\u2019t reflect the richness of our Black communities. It shows us in a negative light, so we have been working at our school to show us in a positive light and show all our school community what Black communities have done in Canada since 1603.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurrently, we\u2019re very proud to say we have offered our first Black History course at our school but once again it is a struggle with the Ontario government and the Ministry of Education to hold that course so it is recognized for students who want to go on to post-secondary studies in university. Right now, it is an Open course, which means it is not counted as a university or a college credit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working really hard to ensure Black History is a solid part of the fabric of Canadian culture and that all students, all staff, and our whole school understands that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Kelly agreed that part of this momentum begins in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is just saying over and over again that this is Canadian history and we need to talk about it, we need to learn about it throughout the year. It will be interesting to see if we can start hosting celebrations that don\u2019t just happen throughout a given month for Black History, for example. More opportunities for learning, more opportunities to have conversations around things like economic or social justice from a Black perspective, I think it is really putting those things out in front in every opportunity we have and make it happen so we won\u2019t only think of it as something you talk about during February.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black History Month was a time for celebration and reflection, celebrating heroes past, present and future while also building opportunities. Now that February 2022 is in the history books, community leaders are looking at ways to keep the momentum going throughout the year. \u201cFebruary is Forever\u201d was the overriding theme when community leaders came together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2022-03-03-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-82o","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 17:17:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}