Target of blackface video to file complaint
Two Pointe-claire high school students taunted Black teenager, used racial slurs
The mother of a Black teenager who was taunted in a racially charged video using the N-word is taking legal action against the students who produced it.
The video, which features two female students who attend John Rennie High School in Pointeclaire, shows them in blackface dancing to a song that repeatedly uses racial slurs. It was circulated on Twitter and aimed at the boy, who is Black.
“It was shocking,” the woman named Natasha (whose last name is withheld because her son is a minor and does not want to be identified) told reporters on Thursday. “Not only was my son’s name mentioned in it, the N-word was used repeatedly, blackface was used throughout and there are several different negative stereotypes that are just hard to take.”
Natasha said the girls used her son’s name — and he has a past history with them — so he knows the video is targeting him.
“My 15-year-old son has been singled out, insulted, humiliated and abused by the racist video made by two young women, which far too many have seen,” Natasha added. “The video is vile and its contents amount to a violent attack on a child, my son. Not only is it offensive, but it’s also divisive at a time when anti-black racism and discrimination have rightly been brought to the forefront, again.”
With the help of the Center for Research-action on Race Relations (CRARR), Natasha and her son are filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission against the two teenagers who produced the video. The commission can levy fines if the pair are found to have violated his civil rights, or offer mediation between both parties. The boy stood near his mother as she spoke to reporters, but elected not to speak.
“My son stands confidently to say, ‘I’m fed up and this needs to change,’ ” Natasha said.
Montreal police investigated the video as a hate crime. However, no charges have so far been laid. The suspects’ identities are under a publication ban because they are minors.
Fo Niemi, the executive director of CRARR, said the complaint is being filed against the girls for their use of the N-word and for being made up in blackface. He said if the complaint is successful, it will mark the first time that blackface is recognized as a hate symbol or a symbol of racism.
Niemi said it’s incumbent on the school board to show that it has taken action against the authors of the video and make it clear that this kind of behaviour won’t be tolerated.
“(Because) the lack of firm and fast action can contribute to the creation of a racially poisoned work environment and a racially poisoned learning environment,” Niemi said.
The Lester B. Pearson School Board, which governs John Rennie High School, issued a statement denouncing the video, but said the nature of the consequences handed out to the girls, if any, won’t be made public since they are minors.
“The abhorrent content of this video has caused major distress in the community,” the statement read. “Be assured that the (school board) has, and continues to be, in close communication with John Rennie High School’s administration on how we will meet our obligations
The video is vile and its contents amount to a violent attack on a child, my son.
to these students, while also respecting the genuine hurt that their actions have caused.”
The board also announced it will launch a task force this fall to find concrete steps to deal with racism.
West Island Black Community Association chairperson Kemba Mitchell, who originally reported the incident to police, said she wants to work with the school board to root out this kind of behaviour.
“We hope we will be called upon to work within the task force to make sure that what needs to take place does take place immediately, and not wait until another victim is treated as this family has been,” Mitchell said.