Anti-Racism

Toronto’s Africentric Alternative school has been a topic of debate since before the school’s inception in 2008. The pro side explains that an African infused curriculum will better support and flourish the minds of children of African decent; furthermore, it will help preserve and promote African heritage in the province of Ontario. Those who oppose the idea, cry segregation and fear racial inequality problems in the city.

Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, where 49% of its population was foreign-born. With a diverse array of cultures spawning across the city, multiculturalism is fully promoted and very visible. Many other communities have developed culturally specific schools in order to teach the youth of their specific heritage alongside the general curriculum. Just to name a few, you can find Catholic, Japanese, French, Greek, Jewish and Islamic schools within the GTA.

None of these schools have promoted hatred, bigotry or segregation in the city; in fact, the schools are officially open to students from all races and cultural backgrounds. These culturally specific schools allow the children attending them to further explore their heritage and identity, thus preserving many rich histories and traditions that belong to the many communities in Toronto.

While these schools play an important role in our community, it is also imperative to further develop Toronto’s general curriculum to include stronger multicultural content. The lack of such education in our schools clearly displays the remnants of a “once” racist educational system, whose goal was to ignore African heritage in an attempt to keep the public ignorant. If we do not make the necessary changes to the school curriculum, the result will be that we will continue to breed a society completely oblivious and dumb-minded to the second largest continent on our planet. Africa is home to 53 countries and its history is paramount in our society.

“Education is the discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant

For further reading please visit these links:

Official Website of the Africentric Alternative School

The African Heritage Educators’ Network

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To begin to find the resolution of any problem, you must start by recognizing and understanding that there is in fact a problem. The infamous step one of any get-help series. We as a human race have been battling a cancerous problem that has been eating at our global community since the beginning of time. This cancer is known as racism and it is one of the largest pandemics that our world has ever faced; claiming the lives of billions throughout time.

Unlike many other cancers and pandemics, you need nothing more than genuine goodness to defeat racism. Racism comes from humanity’s instinct to form tribes and communities. Long ago, before travel and civilized intelligence, we formed these tribes and villages based on our similarities out of comfort and security. As centuries pass, we continue to study civilization and psychology and as our world becomes more and more accessible, we now understand that this fear of others (or the unknown), is nothing more than ignorance.

Education is paramount in destroying this pandemic, but many who are educated still remain ignorant. It is important that we also shed this ancient instinct, or tradition if you will, that keeps us in small family units. We must understand that we all have similarities that go beyond our physical characteristics and religious beliefs and that there is only one race in this world and that is the human race. Once we can grasp this concept, many of our world’s most devastating problems will cease to exist.

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The Importance of Toronto’s Africentric Alternative School

A Tradition Of Racism

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