Evert on Black Lives Matter as a Personal Mission
Meet Evert
We sat down to talk about the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement with Evert, an African Canadian and Master of Social Work student who is based in Yellowknife and completed her practicum with CDLI and carya virtually this past summer.
Interviewer: Can you us about what anti-racism and decolonization work means to you? What does the Black Lives Matter movement mean to you?
Evert: The importance of anti-racism and decolonization work is just dawning on me because I have two children, two Black children. As an adult, I can defend myself. But what about my children? What future do I want my children to have? For me, it has become a personal mission. I want to be involved in and see a future where my son can go out and feel safe and not be a target. To go out and do things that other children his age can do and come back home without feeling like he was out of place or feeling like he was targeted for unknown reasons.
We are just beginning to build the Black Lives Matter movement because we need this in the North. For the first time in the North, there was a record number of Black kids that graduated from high school. And that has brought us together and starting to realize that our community is growing. If we can have this record number of Black children that just graduated from high school. What do we do to support these kids so that as they are entering adulthood so, they can enter it safely and knowing how to present themselves in the community? So, they can be fully integrated and be part of the community, without having to deal with the discrimination or silent systemic discrimination that will put them already at a disadvantage in comparison to their peers.
Black Lives Matter is a personal mission for me right now, especially for my children and for the future of young people. We all want to build a better community. We each have to contribute to doing something that can bring a positive influence on the life that we want to live now and for future generations. -Evert, Summer 2020 Social Work practicum student with CDLI and carya.