Laura Mae Lindo

It was May 2015 and I had just come back home to Kitchener after an amazing conference held by the Canadian Association for the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment in Higher Education (CAPDHHE), featuring a keynote address by the one and only Angela Davis. It was the power of her words and the strength of her convictions that moved me most. She had spent a lifetime fighting for Black communities to be truly free – to build a world where Black lives truly mattered (although this movement had been one of another name when she first began her grassroots organizing).

When I arrived home, a flurry of excitement greeted me. Having been away from my husband and three kids for four days to attend the conference, I was overflowing with ideas and learning and teachings that I wanted to share. Throwing my luggage down, I quickly pulled out my computer, and searched YouTube for videos of Angela Davis speeches. It was not long before my family was as excited as I was. One daughter asked to watch Malcolm X and another asked to see the Rosa Parks movie. That night we stayed up late, watching both and reflecting on what it meant to be Black in the world… to be Black in Canada… to be Black in Ontario.

That week, one of my daughters shared her excitement about watching Malcolm X as a family during circle time at her school.

She was told that stories like that didn't belong in the classroom.

She was told that racism no longer existed.

She was told that talking about racism was hateful and that the classroom was a place of love.

For three days my daughter kept this experience to herself. When she finally disclosed to me what had happened, she was absolutely crushed.

"Why doesn't my teacher like me," she asked, tears streaming down her cheeks. She told me that she was proud of being Black, and that she wanted others to know that people like Malcolm X worked hard to end racism.

So what had gone wrong? Why had my daughter been shut down in the classroom?

And with that, my journey began to find out what was at root of the decision to exclude my daughter's experiences of being Black from the day-to-day classroom discussions.

I spoke with the teacher, the Vice Principal and the Principal. My academic background helped me to navigate this difficult dialogue. With a PhD in Education, I was able to speak to the school about more than just my daughter. I spoke with them about pedagogy and the need to use classroom spaces to encourage open and honest discussions about different lived experiences among the students. I voiced my understanding that some educators were scared of facilitating these open discussions, but suggested that the impact of the approach taken to shy away from questions about race and racism was far too harmful to not commit ourselves to learning how to step into our discomfort and use our power as an educator in the classroom to talk about racism.

As a mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old Black boy, I cannot help but worry about what the future will hold for him too if we do not learn to take seriously the fear that many Black communities grapple with each day. Will he experience the fear of being presumed guilty when he walks home from grabbing Skittles from the store? Will he be presumed guilty when he's driving his car? When he's trying to protect a client at work? When he's trying to cross the street? When he's trying to read a book after a long day at work? Who will be there to help him if we remain unwilling to talk openly about nature of anti-Black racism?

I believe that our government can serve as a model of what these conversations can look like. I also believe that we can do better… that we must do better. Our lives and the lives of our children and our children's children depend on it.

So, on June 22, I sought and won the nomination to be the next NDP candidate for Kitchener Centre. I chose the NDP because they are the only party to consistently name the oppressive forces that bind us.  They have given me new tools to work with, and I am truly grateful to them for their courageous work. In this new arena, I can use my voice to address racism or sexism (or any other "-ism" or "phobia") not only by showing how it operates in our current system, but also by working with others to build a truly inclusive community – one where no matter our race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or abilities, we can truly call home.

Laura Mae Lindo is an educator who has a broad vision of where "education" can happen. For that reason, she is taking a leap of faith, and entering the political arena in order to continue her journey to continue to envision and build a more inclusive world, one community at a time.