Decades from now, here's how Robert Wright wants to celebrate African Heritage Month

Nova Scotia's yearly celebration of African heritage tends to overlook the contributions of Black people today, says a member of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition.

"In fact, it is a bit of frustration that when we start to celebrate Black History Month that we have to go back to Viola Desmond to find a Black person who's doing or has done something tremendous for the Black community," social worker Robert Wright told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Monday.

Wright spoke with host Jeff Douglas about the kind of celebration and recognition he wants to see 10 or 20 years from now, and why he believes more must be done to combat systematic racism in the justice system. 

Their conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You can listen to the full interview here:

Do you think that we as a province do enough around celebrating what it is that African Nova Scotians and Black Nova Scotians, the culture, that they've brought to Nova Scotia writ large?

I don't think we do ... There are lots of folk who are living with us currently who are actively still in their careers and in their communities, making significant contributions … There are Black lawyers and Black judges and Black medical professionals. We have a long history of Black people in nursing, largely Black women and … [they're] making significant contributions in hospitals and in our communities as leaders.

And then of course Black mothers and how they are continuing to support and care for Black children and are the primary buffer between Black children and some of the racism that children experience in the community, still. I don't think we really highlight what that is like, the daily lived Black experience.

What would you like to see being celebrated in a couple of decades down the road?

One of the things that comes to my mind is that whenever we talk about Black history, we always talk about the 52 land-based Black communities that existed in this province. And the reality is that those communities are dwindling. Like other parts of rural Nova Scotia, they are depopulating, the economy in those spaces is dwindling. And particularly for Black folk, who at one time had their own homes and were settled in that land, the land base of those communities has been dramatically eroded.

So one of the things I'd love to see is thriving Black communities, not just here in metro, but dotted around the province like they used to be, you know, 100 years ago. Thriving places where Black people can live in community with each other, not in order to be segregated, but in order that they can sustain their institutions — Black churches, Black grocery stores, Black corner stores, Black firefighters serving in largely Black volunteer fire departments. This was a vibrant kind of community that really allowed Black folk to excel within the comfort of Black community and grow up in confidence and in groundedness in their culture. That enabled them to go into the larger community as confident adults who could make larger contributions. 

Have you given any thought to what would accommodate that?

Probably the most interesting development that's been happening in recent years is the idea of community land trusts, and municipal development processes that acknowledge special communities. And so I know Lynn Jones, for example, a well-known African Nova Scotian, is developing a community land trust in the historical Black communities in Truro, something that would be able to secure the land for Black community members to continue to live on and have as a resource in perpetuity. 

We're still fighting an uphill battle when it comes to the recognition of systemic racism in policing and in courts and sentencing.- Robert Wright

As we come to the end of the month, Robert, is there anything else that's on your mind?

I think that people would know that I've done a fair amount of work in the field of justice and criminal justice. And I would say that we're still fighting an uphill battle when it comes to the recognition of systemic racism in policing and in courts and sentencing, and in the way our jails and our prisons operate. 

When I look forward 10, 20 years, it would be great to be looking back and saying, you know, we have finally figured out that the foundations of this carceral system, this criminal justice system, was really erroneous. It was rotten right to its core. It was developed during a time when there was an us-them mentality in our society. And so these systems supported a small sliver of the population and policed the other sliver, where Black people were dramatically over-represented. And as a community, as a society, we have evolved to the place where we are less dependent on the criminal justice system for us to have safe and vibrant and well-connected communities.

That, I think, would be a thing I would be wanting to look back on and see.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.