Many Black, racialized and immigrant women work with elderly patients as healthcare providers. Their jobs, already arduous and underpaid as it is, have become even more exhausting during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some public commentators have described them as overrepresented in this sector because of their culture, and hailed them as “guardian angels,” what do they themselves have to say? This cross-sectional portrait of some of these women takes the form of a meditative essay.
Come and sit with us for conversation and stories with Shanese Steele (Afro-Anishinaabe Métis) about what kind of experiences Black Metis people have in our communities.
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what s right.
110 years ago Reverend Henry Sneed led 194 African Americans to Amber Valley, Alberta, to establish one of the largest and most prosperous Black communities in Canada.
Josh Crooks is a promising teen hockey star in a sport where Black players like him are chronically underrepresented. Ice Breakers reveals the buried history of a pioneering Black hockey league in Atlantic Canada, as Crooks discovers that his unshakable passion is tied to a rich and remarkable heritage.
Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal, William O Neal, to betray him and the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality. Hampton was inspiring a generation, which put him directly in the line of fire of the FBI and Chicago PD. To destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside and the inside. Facing prison, O'Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton s fiery message draws him in, he cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his betrayal.
Filmmaker Cazhhmere is a seventh-generation black Canadian. Despite this deep history, she’s constantly asked to explain where she’s from — even though the answer is always “Canada.” Cazhhmere is a proud Canadian. Her ancestors were among the first black settlers to come to Canada — her family has spent hundreds of years weaving itself into the fabric of our nation.
Alberta has a long history of white supremacy and Black civil rights activism. Bashir Mohamed — and any other student in Alberta — learned nothing about it in school. Fueled by a racist encounter with an Edmonton driver, Mohamed started digging through archives to prove that his experience wasn’t a one-off. What he uncovered was a long and consistent history of segregation and other institutional barriers, and an equally long and consistent history of Black resistance.
An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism.
Activist journalist Desmond Cole puts racism in Canada front and center in the new CBC documentary The Skin We’re In. Cole visits the sister of Andrew Loku, the 45-year-old South Sudanese man slain by Toronto police, and the Michael Brown memorial in Ferguson, Missouri, while tracing the legacy of anti-Black racism past and present. The program offers a glimpse, too, into the world of Cole the activist and his at times wearying fight for social justice.