GRIOTS REPUBLIC - AN URBAN BLACK TRAVEL MAG - AUGUST 2016

to be a part of building something sustainable
and strong – something that can truly
ensure victory. This is the time to think
about how to do this right.
How is racialized policing experienced
in your community or region?
DANIEL: In Vancouver, much of the racialized
policing is directed toward Indigenous
people. Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside,
disproportionately Indigenous, is currently
being gentrified at breakneck speed.
The gentrification process means displacing
people in at least two ways: by raising
rents and by physically removing people
from public areas that are meant to appeal
to investors. The police, of course, serve
as the primary enforcer of the latter [displacement].
CASSANDRA: I have been stopped under
the assum[ption] that I was in sex work,
which is not problematic in and of itself,
but conflated with the misogynoir stereotype
that Black womxn are constantly hot
to get fucked, it becomes a race-based
premise and a prejudiced act. I have also
had police assume I might exchange sexual
favours to get out of a bogus marijuana
possession charge. I have known people
who have faced physical violence. I have
known people who have been harassed almost
daily through routine carding practices.
There are schools in communities
across the city that have police presence
regularly, to surveil and curtail “problematic
behaviour.” I know specific communities
that have a disproportionate number
of cruisers and bike cops lingering, again
for surveillance. There are close ties between
Children’s Aid services, welfare, and
other government institutions with the police,
which yield […] disproportionately
problematic ways in which police interact
with racialized people.
HAWA: Mustafa Mattan was a 28-year-old
Somali man who had moved from Toronto
to Alberta, as many have, to search for better
employment. Mattan was shot through
the door of his apartment building on February
9, 2015. No killer has been apprehended
and media (including social media)
have been entirely silent. His death follows
the fifty-odd other Somali young men between
Toronto and Alberta, killed, shot at,
left to rot. The Somali community is notoriously
under-represented in Black organizing
across Ontario but overrepresented
in jails. In the case of Toronto, if we are
speaking about racialized policing, carding,
or over-policing and militarization, we
would be remiss if we did not pay careful
attention to Somali community pockets,
through which these things run rampant.
How is racialized policing not experienced
by Black communities? We need to instead
be asking why Black communities continue
to be subjected to extreme police violence
and the ways in which this can be
dismantled.
For some, sharing images and videos
of police violence against Black people
on social media is an effective tool
to raise public awareness. For others,
it’s painful and violent to have the videos
shared and rewatched. What’s your
take on the role of technology and videos
in the Black Lives Matter movement
and anti-racism organizing?
DANIEL: During the heyday of lynchings in
the United States, the press used to publicize
these murders in gratuitous detail. It
was done to keep people informed about
the actions of the oppressor. It was meant
to tell Black people: “Look at what can
happen to you if you get outta line.” Today,
few things have changed. Black people are
still murdered for nothing. And the media
(with some exceptions, of course) are intimately
tied with corporate and state power.
I wouldn’t put it past the media to – if
only subconsciously – give Black people
that same lesson today. So, in that light, I
don’t know that the seemingly endless parade
of images of Black death is good for
us.
I personally feel deeply and negatively affected.
Some days it’s hard to do much
else other than stew about what I’ve just