Post by Dean Robinson on Feb 19, 2008 11:43:19 GMT -5
Segregation should be thing of the past
Premier Dalton McGuinty's decision to stand by and do nothing while Toronto opens a race-based school is truly shocking.
The premier won an election just four months ago by loudly proclaiming that all of Ontario's students should study and play together. There are many who think his opposition to faith-based schools tipped the scales in favour of the Liberals.
But when the Toronto Public School Board decided to open a school for black students, McGuinty did little more than whimper about it. The argument in favour of so-called 'Afrocentric schools' is that they will help reverse a worrisome dropout rate among black students.
But to me, the whole thing smacks of segregation. It may be voluntary segregation, but it's segregation nevertheless.
If Ontario's curriculum needs to include more stories about the African-Canadian experience, so be it. Let's go that way.
But don't separate the kids.
People who know one another are far more likely to get along than those who don't.
Besides that, African-Canadians aren't the only ones who need to know about the achievements of the nation's black people.
Students of every ethnic background can take pride in the story of Tony McKegney, the Sarnia native who became the first black star in the NHL. McKegney was slated to play for Birmingham in the old WHA, but the plan fell through at the last minute because the team feared a black hockey player would not go over well with Alabama fans. Instead, he went on to play 13 seasons in the NHL, scoring more than 600 points, including 320 goals.
Or Josiah Henson, who escaped from slavery in the United States to help form the Dawn Settlement just outside Dresden.
Or Cookie Gilchrist, the trailblazing football star who came to Sarnia to play with the Imperials after the Cleveland Browns broke a promise to include him on their roster.
Gilchrist was constantly at odds with American football managers because he refused to play the role of the submissive Negro athlete. After winning the Jim Shanks trophy as the Imperials best player in 1954, he went on to set several records with the Buffalo Bills.
Or William Hall, the black Nova Scotian who became the first Canadian sailor to win the Victoria Cross, our highest gallantry award.
Or Mary Ann Shadd, who was the first female newspaper publisher in Canada and a woman who opened one of the first integrated schools in this country.
I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.
Segregation is something we should only read about in history books. Let's not bring it into the classrooms of our schools.
Dan McCaffery is an author and reporter at The Observer. Contact him at dmccaffery@theobserver.ca