Why don’t we hit a little closer to home and talk about AFRICVILLE!

You all know that cute green space right off the end of Barrington? With the little sundial? Around the shore of Bedford Basin? You’ll probably see the sign and the off ramp when you’re driving home from the city

Yeah so for over 100 years, that area was a black settlement in Halifax! It had shops, a school, a church; it was an entire community.

They paid taxes to the city.

Despite paying taxes, they were constantly denied municipal services. Garbage collection, road paving, electricity, fire and police departments, etc. It was also near impossible for them to get permits to do needed renovations to their buildings.

The city also decided this is where they should place a GARBAGE DUMP, along with a ton of other industrial buildings. The environmental racism imposed on Africville was *astronomical*

Over time, the neglect and oppression of Africville at the hands of the city resulted in the community deteriorating. It became (again) bothersome to white folks, and to the municipal government

When the municipality decided to demolish Africville, they sent in the same garbage trucks the community begged for for years to pack their belongings into. Garbage trucks. Their personal belongings were packed into garbage trucks.

THIS HAPPENED IN HALIFAX LESS THAN 60 YEARS AGO.

LESS THAN 30 YEARS BEFORE THE MAJORITY OF US (people my age) WERE BORN, BLACK HALIFAX SETTLERS WERE FORCED OUT OF THEIR COMMUNITY OF OVER A CENTURY AND THEIR THINGS. WERE PACKED. INTO. GARBAGE TRUCKS.

The decision to demolish Africville was largely due to the optics of a segregated black community that lived in squalor. It is incredibly important to remember that this squalor was the result of systemic racism from the city and its white residents.

It was a political move.

Africville was bothersome to white Haligonians so the municipality wanted to get rid of them and took different approaches, each one more obvious than the last, to achieve that goal. DO WE ALL SEE A PATTERN HERE?

Canada was NEVER “the promised land”. It has shown time and time again that it prioritizes the social comfort of white racists over the safety and humanity of black people.