Blacks in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) identify them only by their skin tone: Study

The Black Experience Project was started in 2011 with an aim to explore the experiences of dark skinned people, particularly of Caribbean or African origin.

The project was conducted jointly by the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University, United Way, YMCA and York University.

Making up 7% of the region's population and representing the highest proportion of Blacks among any census metropolitan area, and more than half of Canada's total Black population, the Black community of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has the potential to greatly influence the socio-economic competiveness of the entire GTA and beyond, said the project report.

In the course of the study, out of 1,504 self identified Black people, 53% of them identified themselves as "Black" instead of naming their heritage, origin or any other identities.

One of the participants, Carl James, when asked about his racial identity, called himself "Black" while originally he belongs to Antigua.

James, who is the education professor in York University, divulged his origin and said: "I generally see myself as a Black person who happens to be from the Caribbean." He is living in Toronto since 1970 when he came as a university student.

Citing the reason for calling himself "Black" along with a generalised view, the professor said: "It's the politics about being Black that we are thinking in skin-colour terms. That’s the way we have come to define and see ourselves in our struggles."

The participants were asked 250 open-ended questions with an aim to understand the experiences of the Blacks in GTA.

Marva Wisdom, the project's director, whose family moved here from Jamaica four decades ago, was surprised to see the experiences shared by all Blacks are very much similar.

Two-third of the participants revealed that they faced racial intolerance solely because of their skin colour.

Wisdom said: "Teenagers growing up feel they’re experiencing all these things on their own. You feel you have to work hard to prove Blackness is a positive thing. Now we can confirm and validate our experiences with data."

The study suggested that four in five male participants between ages 25-44 admitted that they were stopped in a public place while three out of five said they were harassed or man-handled by police.

Joseph Junior Smith, who is a teacher by profession, confessed that he was stopped for playing in the courtyard when he was just six.

He even said to have faced the similar harassment recently, too. "Why is it so hard to believe we’re not criminal, that we are just regular citizens?” the 28 years old teacher asked.

In order to overcome harassment and hurdles, according to university professor James, people belonging to the Black Community often engage themselves with community activism.

Four out of five participants said they are engaged to at least one community group. The rate of joining the community group by the Blacks is reportedly higher than the Canadians.

Making up 7% of the region's population and representing the highest proportion of Blacks among any census metropolitan area, and more than half of Canada's total Black population, the Black community of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has the potential to greatly influence the socio-economic competiveness of the entire GTA and beyond

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Image: Creative Commons.