Last week, Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin gave me my “told-you-so” moment of the month when she shared her concerns that legalizing marijuana could make Nova Scotians lazy like Jamaicans.
Smith-McCrossin said in a subsequent apology post on Facebook—since deleted—that her comments “were criticized as racist and insensitive.” Of course, they were.
Many quickly came to the defence of Jamaicans including Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil and Halifax’s new poet laureate Afua Cooper. Jamaican Cultural Association of Nova Scotia president Olive Phillips told the CBC Smith-McCrossin’s comments were “really disrespectful” and her generalizations have “no basis in fact.”
And what is even more egregious is that we all know that Jamaicans are some of the hardest working people around. The Netflix series Luke Cage had a character opine, “this brother got more jobs than a Jamaican!”
There were those who defended the MLAs statements as simply being conjecture. Many were shocked by her utterance. Not I.
The problem we have is that many people believe racism needs to be malicious for it to be called racism. We need to change this perception.
Growing up in Jamaica, Nova Scotia was spoken about with ecclesiastical reverence. The 1796 relocation of Maroons to Halifax is a solid part of the local primary school history curriculum.
Participants in the annual Farm Work Programme want their placement to be in Nova Scotia because they know about the historical connection that Jamaica has with the province and wish to experience this amazing land for themselves.
Regardless of their level of education, Jamaicans can tell you about Nova Scotia welcoming Black Loyalists and escaped slaves from the Underground Railroad.
For many Jamaicans, Canada is Nova Scotia, Toronto and Vancouver—the rest might as well be terra nullius.
After spending over a decade living in Toronto, I was really excited to become Haligonian. Really excited.
“You know Halifax is the Mississippi of Canada, right?” said one friend. “Have you thought this through? Halifax is hella racist!” said another.
I should have known something was up when all the warnings were coming from my woke white friends. But the siren call of beaches, more craft beer than crosswalks and affordable rent outweighed their negativity.
And then I got here. I quickly realized that Nova Scotia’s motto—“One [hand] defends and the other conquers”—should be changed to “Defending micro-aggressions and racist behaviour since the 1600s.”
I love living in Halifax, but being Black, especially being Black with a foreign accent, is just damn hard here.
One night last summer as I was walking down Agricola four white men trailed me, heckling. They were asking why is it that I can say “nigger” (they used the hard R) but they cant.
I’ve never had this happen before, and as a mountain of a man, I immediately felt frail and afraid. I went home and cried.
During the third round of interviews for a local job, for which I was headhunted by a Toronto-based organization, I was told that “you are a great candidate but I am worried that you won’t fit in with the rest of the team because you weren’t born here.” That day I also went home and cried.
Having someone you thought was a friend call your outfit “thuggish” felt like a stab through the heart, and yes, you guessed it, that day I also cried.
I didn’t even cry during the opening scene of Up but there I was regularly feeding the north end my tears.
Saying that we have a race problem here in Nova Scotia sounds trite, especially with the troubled history that the province and the city of Halifax have had with Black and Indigenous peoples. But here we are in the age of easily-accessible information still having to deal with Proud Boys and statues of abominable men and sweeping generalizations about Jamaicans.
Don’t just apologize, do better.
Opinionated is a rotating column by Halifax writers featured regularly in The Coast. The views published are those of the author.
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City hall employees protest racism in the workplace
How Halifax welcomed the Maroons
The last ship to transport Africans to slavery was helmed by a Nova Scotian
DNA does not define us
Former employee files human rights complaint against Smith-McCrossin
A monument for the Maroons
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2018.
I believe many of your happenings aren’t due to your accent , but shows the racist attitude of many Nova Scotians !
Face it, we suck.
U must be talking about White Scotians because Black Scotians know their history
Your a brave soul. I tip my hat to you and your courage.
Wow….being born and raised in Nova Scotia….but have been living in Toronto for 24 years. I find your article not only disrespectful but also wrong. Does Nova Scotia have racism.. .sure…no more…no less than any other part of the world. We were the first province to join confederatconfederation. While Ontario was the 4th. The east coast of Canada is the most historical part of Canada. I am proud to live in a country that accepts all…no matter where you are from…
I remember my first year in public school. I had attended Catholic school up to grade 8, & then to Sackville Heights Junior High. There were many differences. Student behavior was terrible. Also, although I had friends from other races, creeds & colours, it was the first school I had attended with black students. I didn’t then, & still don’t, understand prejudice. Although, I’ve been treated with extreme prejudice by many when n I moved to Rawdon by many members of many generation families, as were my children. I’m “white”–silly, as my skin has many colour tones!–& primarily of Irish descent. Also, some French folk in the Ottawa Valley treated me with disrespect because, although I spoke French, I was English. Prejudice & hatred are varied but everywhere. Human beings will always find a reason. Witness the recent deaths perpetrated by an “Excel. If someone wants to be mean, hateful, &/or violent against another/others, they will latch on to any excuse they can to absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions. Most unfortunate, but true.
My dear friends it is not just Jamaicans that are not accepted in Nova Scotia.
People outside of Nova Scotia themselves could be Ontario could be Quebec it could be England in all honesty I have lived in this province and Nova Scotia people are extremely racist and downright cruel it is sad to say but the education system here is beyond lacking it’s a beautiful place to live but very cold and callous Nova Scotia Stu not want to let anyone in to make their land a better place to live for their families and for the children
Thank you for sharing! I’m sorry for the terrible experiences you’ve had in my beautiful home province, that is not what I would wish to show you!!
I know it may not seem like it but we have made progress, very slowly!
Thank you for your kindness and patience
Hate is hate and when perpetuated, will always come back around!!!
Choose LOVE everytime time, it too comes back around
I am a black woman from the Caribbean living in Halifax and prior to moving to Canada I didn’t know what racism was . I’ve had incidents where I felt racism toward me .. places like Starbucks on Spring Garden rd Casino Nova Scotia, Canada post office down town Dartmouth on Queen st. All that experience I try to put behind and move forward because I know I’m not the problem and I won’t let bad people define my happiness..
So I know exactly what you mean.. cause I’ve been there.
And I’m glad that MLA woman opened her mouth ..that shows her true colour.
Well, the author nails it here. This is so worth sharing (and I have) – if people manage to take away just one thought, I hope it is this one: “The problem we have is that many people believe racism needs to be malicious for it to be called racism. We need to change this perception.” Omigod, yes! You don’t have to INTEND to be awful for your words or actions to ACTUALLY BE AWFUL!
And as an aside to the writer: I’m sorry that this has been your experience in NS. I hope it is getting better.
It hasn’t always been like this in my world, I grew up in the city circa 1970’s lol but it’s changed, Jamaican history from Salassi to Garvy I have read and big up up up to many on the most beautiful island in the world, hard working people if you think working 60 hours a week for 125 bucks is not hard working? Inbox me ……out of many……one people…….one love
It saddens me in the twenty first century, this still exists. Hold your head high and be proud of your heritage. Dont listen to the uneducated and small minded trolls. They are everywhere and try to pull anyone who doesnt not fit in their small box down.
It starts with education. Teach our children to learn about people places and things, educate ourselves. The best leason I ever learned, we were on holidays. My mother told us to go play with the children. We said, but they dont speak english, she replied you dont need to speak the same language to communicate. Different is good was her message! We had an amazing vacation and made some very good friends.
A person’s gender, race, sexual orientation, height, weight, wealth, social status and everything imaginable will always be the target of some asshole who thinks they’re better than, or let’s face it, feels threatened by you, but what you can’t do is condemn an entire province as “racist”. That’s stereotyping, the root of racist behavior, much like saying all Jamaicans are lazy and unproductive. I think we can all “do better”.
What I find much more sinister than a ridiculous, uneducated and culturally inappropriate generalization, based purely on conjecture by this idiot running for the leadership of the provincial PC party, used this as the reason we should continue to criminalize people because she disagrees with pot’s legalization. I hope the PC party can do much better than this arrogant, naive wingnut.
Melinda there are black nova scotians who are racist too. Not everyone of course. Not every white person in nova scotia is racist either. But I have definitely seen black nova scotians be very intolerant of other people of colour who are not nova scotian and also of black people who choose to date and marry white people.
I always grew up believing the myth that nova scotians are so friendly and welcoming when in reality the opposite is true. Nova scotia is very closed off and not accepting of others. Nova Scotian society and systems are ingrained with racism that is not always overt or in your face but is definitely there and is so deep down that it is going to take a lot to change it.
No wonder the population is shrinking and the economy stinks, you have closed yourselves off from the world. And in your face racism is still going very strong in Nova Scotia too, kids in cars screaming out the n word at people walking on the street, people believing and thinking it’s ok to use racist stereotypes as long as they pretend to be joking or say “no offence”.
This is why I left Nova Scotia and will never live there again. I miss the beach and the seafood and my family but it’s not worth it to live in such a closed off backwards society.