A Black Community in distress

Submitted by Rhema Walters

In memory of Shawn Birch and all the other Blacks killed by other Blacks.
My young nephew was stabbed in his heart by another black teenager. He was stabbed on February 28, 1993 late
afternoon in the Cote Vertu Metro station after he surrounded by the same group of Black youths thrown off the Vanier
Collage campus earlier that day for assaulting young Black women at a Black History Month Celebration.
Black Lives Matter….. which ones ?
What we see is more and more Black mothers losing sons and daughters.
Think about the young Black woman shot and beaten to death on Grand Blvd. in NDG a few years ago?
In Lachine… Lasalle… Cote des Neiges… NDG and across the city, there is no part of Montreal that our Black community has not felt the loss of hundreds of Black Lives taken at the hands of other Blacks.
When will their lives start to matter to us. Is it only lives taken by the hands of white cops that deserves a protest march?
On that rainy April day in 1993 when my 15-year-old nephew was buried there was also.
another 18 year old Black female being buried . She was stabbed to death by another Black female in a night club on Cote des Neiges over a no-good black man.
There is also a young mother that was beaten to death by her husband in Lasalle, which means another Black mother and father mourning their child.
Truth is my nephew’s murder affected me so deeply as it did his grandmother, mother, aunts, brother, sisters, uncles, cousins and friends.
My Grandmother Mrs. Medora Rowe taught me “the thumb principle” at the age of 14.
She said, stay focused on where my thumb is pointing ( at yourself ) and I would never lose my way .. I must always start with myself.
It should be thew same for our community, all Black lives should matter to us equally.
How then, can we ask others outside of our community to respect our sisters and our brothers lives, if we do not first show by our actions the respect that we are seeking.
Why are there so many of our Black youth in jails and youth detentions centres while mothers and fathers driving around in
expensive cars, wearing expensive clothes and sneakers.
Think of the difference it would make in the lives of our youth if each Black mother and Black father took full responsibility of for their children …..
emotionally, spiritually, financially and in their education offering them guidance, and giving them the feeling of being wanted and feeling safe.
Things are especially bad for our English speaking youth. Where will they find work if ,they do not learn French, living in Quebec.
We are now seeing Blacks working at the tax office pension office but without French, nothing doing.
Big up to Miss Karen in NDG as one of the first Black female bus drivers as well as the other young Black drivers around the city.
Another truth is that thousands and thousands of tax and government dollars pass through our community each year, can we say that we see or feel any difference in the lives of our Black youth.
Why are there not more of our young brilliant Black college graduates getting running our Black
organizations ?
Are they not better equipped to guide other Black youth.
Isn’t it time to engage our young bilingual financial and business wizards as our leaders.
So much of our money is spent on the plastics for our head and hands from China… expensive fake nails, hair and eye lashes. Recently saw a young black lady at a supermarket using her knuckles on the cash register because of long fake nails .
All Black Lives Should Matter To All Blacks in all areas of life.