Ayan Kailie, organizer of the inaugural Stop Racism in Swansea march.
This is about people coming together as friends and neighbours to say we won’t accept racism. We don’t want it here. It doesn’t belong here.
Wearing face masks and carrying colourful signs, about 350 people yesterday took to the streets of Bloor West Village and Toronto’s wet-end Swansea neighbourhood to oppose racism in their community.
Organized and led by longtime area resident Ayan Kailie, the inaugural Stop Racism in Swansea march also aimed to be a show of solidarity with Black Lives Matter and a demand for justice for Black, Indigenous and people of colour.
The family-friendly event was inspired by another recent antiBlack racism walk, organized by the Black Student Success Committee at Parkdale’s Queen Victoria Public School. The school is currently at the centre of an investigation into a racist letter.
During yesterday’s march, various community leaders who have been affected by and are working to overcome racism shared their stories of strength and resistance. Local politicians MPP Bhutila Karpoche and MP Arif Virani were there and lent their words of support.
“This is about people coming together as friends and neighbours to say we won’t accept racism, we don’t want it here, it doesn’t belong here,” said Kailie, a mother of three who is actively involved in her Swansea neighbourhood.
“This march is a chance to meet your neighbour, to make a difference … If you’re wondering what you can do, come out and connect. This is what you can do.”
Standing before the large crowd, Kailie, who was the firstever Black Muslim parent council chair at Swansea Public School, which her children attend, spoke about the racism and discrimination she’s experienced both with the Toronto District School Board and in her community.
Kailie, who has lived in the Swansea Mews complex for about eight years, pointed to constant reminders of her family’s socio-economic disadvantages. She also shared the feelings of otherness she’s experience being a Black woman in her west-end neighbourhood.
“I was called many derogatory and disgusting names. My Black children were brought up unnecessarily in racially charged conversations. There were references to disgusting hate groups in conjunction with my children,” said Kailie, who also pointed to instances where “privileged white parents” attempted to tell her what she, as a Black person, should or shouldn’t find racially inappropriate.
“My children were ostracized and were not included in many things, after I spoke up against racism.”
For these many reasons, Kailie said there’s no better time than the present to mobilize people in her community to do something meaningful to combat racism and promote justice. She said today’s march was the start of that grassroots effort.
“I want this to be more than just a march. I want this to be a movement. An organization,” said Kailie.