Poll: Africentric school opens in Toronto

[Lonan]

Here's a nice acticle I found about how a school is now opening in Toronto which focus's on the "African experience" or something. Because all other schools in Canada focus on the "European experience" surely. Actually, they focus on the Canadian experience, and these Canadian children should have their education based on it like everyone else, instead of focusing on our distant ethnic origins which no longer have any relevance. It's ridiculous. My heritage is Canadian.

When I asked my grandmother what her ethnicity was, she said Canadian. She said it with a lot of pride. She had signed up for the military the moment WWII began when she was 18. Eventually she said that her ancestors were from Scotland, but utterly stressed that this was of no importance, and it made me feel that I should have never asked in the first place, and should have already known the best answer. I wish the parents of the parents who lobbied for this school also feel this strongly. Perhaps they do, if their grandchildren ever ask them what their ethnicity is, they too will be told, indirectly, the best answer to that question. In the meantime, let's all start calling each other "whitey" and "blackie" and "brownie" just as some Americans call each other a "blond" or a "brunette" and otherwise substitute people's given names for their physical characteristics.

For people outside of Canada, do you have an Africentric school in you're country? What would you're reaction be if one came in? For people in Toronto, do people honestly feel loyalty to their skin pigment? Can you offer insights into what is motivating this? I live in Calgary, so I don't know what's going on in Toronto. When I was young I always referred to others as "people with white skin" or "people with brown skin" for their skin colour because the concept of people essentially being what they look like never crossed my young mind. Have people really started to separate themselves because of skin colour? What's going on?

Here's the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/09/08/africentric-alternative-school.html#socialcomments

For the poll, if you wish there were options other than "Yes" and "No" please share you're thoughts.

 

[Insanum]

The thing is im going to assume that the school is going to predominantly African-Canadians.

Im going to have to throw the "diversity" card into proceedings (as much as i hate using it).

 

[Lavi]

Yes, because everyone else has their own fucking schools. Catholics, Muslims, you name it, there's a school for it. You want it? Go for it because I'm not gonna storm in demanding you accomodate for me.

But yeah, we shouldn't segragate ourselves according to any of those.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Let me put it this way: The 'African' way of doing things sucks. It's slow, lazy, inefficent, and usually corrupt. And if this seems like an indictment of Africa, it is because it comes from one who lived as an African for three years. There are good people in Africa - and like in most places, the good far outweigh the bad. Unfortunately, however, the good also tend to do foolish things, like vote for idiot politicians who ruin there countries (Yes, you, Mr Mugabwe).

 

[cobra_ky]

if it keeps kids in school, fine. though i wonder how much public money is supporting this.

Let me put it this way: The 'African' way of doing things sucks. It's slow, lazy, inefficent, and usually corrupt.

Sounds like the American way to me.

 

[matnatz]

I hate the term African-American when it's applied to people who aren't immigrants. If you're born in America, you're American, no matter what your race. African-American almost feels like people are getting race and nationality confused.

If a white man from African moves to the U.S. does he then become African American? Or just American.

 

[El Poncho]

Well that may make racial problems worse if all the african-canadians go to one school and the canadian-canadians to another since they haven't grown up with eachother.

 

[Octorok]

Definitely not, mainly for the obvious reasons stated, but never back down from your Scottish heritage. Be proud of it - we're a fine race of angry, ginger drunken fighters. If you go back far enough we're all from Africa anyway, but hey, nobody does go back far enough.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

i don't think it's a very good idea, simply because it won't address the issue of them dropping out and i'm sure the rate for students dropping out of this school will be higher

 

[hernanday]

Here's a nice acticle I found about how a school is now opening in Toronto which focus's on the "African experience" or something. Because all other schools in Canada focus on the "European experience" surely. Actually, they focus on the Canadian experience, and these Canadian children should have their education based on it like everyone else, instead of focusing on our distant ethnic origins which no longer have any relevance. It's ridiculous. My heritage is Canadian.

When I asked my grandmother what her ethnicity was, she said Canadian. She said it with a lot of pride. She had signed up for the military the moment WWII began when she was 18. Eventually she said that her ancestors were from Scotland, but utterly stressed that this was of no importance, and it made me feel that I should have never asked in the first place, and should have already known the best answer. I wish the parents of the parents who lobbied for this school also feel this strongly. Perhaps they do, if their grandchildren ever ask them what their ethnicity is, they too will be told, indirectly, the best answer to that question. In the meantime, let's all start calling each other "whitey" and "blackie" and "brownie" just as some Americans call each other a "blond" or a "brunette" and otherwise substitute people's given names for their physical characteristics.

For people outside of Canada, do you have an Africentric school in you're country? What would you're reaction be if one came in? For people in Toronto, do people honestly feel loyalty to their skin pigment? Can you offer insights into what is motivating this? I live in Calgary, so I don't know what's going on in Toronto. When I was young I always referred to others as "people with white skin" or "people with brown skin" for their skin colour because the concept of people essentially being what they look like never crossed my young mind. Have people really started to separate themselves because of skin colour? What's going on?

Here's the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/09/08/africentric-alternative-school.html#socialcomments

For the poll, if you wish there were options other than "Yes" and "No" please share you're thoughts.

The Canadian experience = white eurocentric experience and excludes blacks if you are going to play semantics. Or rather secludes and excludes blacks and relegates them to the role of slaves and unimportant to the human experience. Canada is a cultural MOSAIC, we are not America. A cultural mosaic means we can all stay in our cultural bubbles in our centric schools with our centric grocery stores and be hypenated canadians. We are the OPPOSITE of America in this regard. To you those ethnic origins are distant, to these children it is as relevent if not more so than ever.

Your grandmother is white, so what applies to here cannot transfer to modern black children.

The best answer to the question in a cultural mosaic is you are what your ancestors are. Africentric is about african and carribean culture rather than skin color per se, but they do align nicely. People have been seperated from skin color before you were born and likely after you die in Canada, INDIAN RESERVES HMM HMM. ALL those race based laws of the past like a china man can't marry a white woman or a japan man can't have a white women work in his shop due to racist canadian views of the past that asian yellow peril men would had an unrequitted lust for the rape of white women. Or internment of Japanese or no non-white immigrants or the race riots etc.

Toronto is heavily segregated on skin color and culture. Most people stick to their own kind here. We have 70+ speciality/cultural schools, so that should give you an idea of how we prefer to seperate ourselves from each other.

Its unnatural for cultures to mix who are fundamentally opposed to each other and cannot agree water is wet. Eurocentric and afrocentric scholars can hardly agree on much besides water is wet and the sky is blue.

Has it ever occured to you that african canadian parents must view the eurocentric system as extremely bad to take the time and effort to lobby government and setup their own school system? The black community in Toronto is the most integrated of any group. IT IS the only major group who chose not to all live in the same spot. The eurocentric system is just anti-black student.

 

[Zontar]

Auto Segregation is what it is. Of course African-Canadians don't have that much representation in the education system, they make up less then 3% of the population. If you where to have a classroom of students, and only one of them was black, the kid wouldn't be a token, he's be equal representation.

We already have a national problem with Auto Segregation with the natives due to no one wanting to change the reserve system, and in Toronto and Vancouver we're already seeing ethnic enclaves spout up, do we really want the education system being set up to enforce this?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I actually remember this thread. Old necromancy is old! O.O

MODERATOR EDIT: Thread locked to avoid further necro-ness.