The Ethnic Aisle is on Patreon. We are creating a magazine about race and ethnicity!
Let me tell you a story that started four years ago. Actually, it started nearly 20 years ago when I immigrated to Canada.
I was born and raised in Trinidad. I was the majority, the minority was white people. Yeah, they existed but there weren’t enough to really take much notice of them except to note that they were white or to slyly point out to a few that we all knew about their East Indian granny so, really…
Then I came to Canada and became a visible minority. A person of colour. A woman of colour. Exotic. Asked if I attend Caribana or asked to say something in my Trinidadian accent. Telling cab drivers that no, I’m not Indian and for the love of god, I don’t know if I have relatives in India because my ancestors came over on a goddamn boat just like the white and the black ones, shut up, I don’t give a rat’s ass about your opinion, jesus christ almighty, just let me buy this postcard.
Watching the news and hoping to god that the suspect wasn’t going to be a black or brown man (of West Indian or other descent). Reading as mainstream media attempted to contemplate and explain multiculturalism and these diverse communities.
Reading a newspaper article that used the word ‘Somali’ 17 times.
It was four years ago that I saw a tweet about the Ethnic Aisle. It came from Denise Balkissoon and it was asking for people to get involved. I immediately did and four years later, we’ve produced some brilliant, brilliant work. As Denise said, it was four year of people doing it for free.
This is an request for donations. The Ethnic Aisle is crowdfunding and I’d love it if you could help us out. And yes, it’s small business-related.
Four years and 20 years later, Toronto, the GTA and Canada still is in its infancy when it comes to race. Look at the conversation about the Toronto Police and carding. Look at the Truth and Reconciliation committee on Residential Schools. The Ethnic Aisle has taken a hard (and light look) at race and culture. We’d like to do more and to pay our writers to really dig into their communities and provide a first-hand account of what it means to be Canadian.
Would you support us?
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