A mother of two and her girl friend in a building, near the Stadium LRT Station in Edmonton, had their wild Raptors victory celebration cut short by a man shouting down at them from his balcony overlooking them on the main floor:
“Go back to Africa…You don’t know who I am. I will hit you and the kids. I do it all the time…I don’t like women…I beat women…Keep your kids indoors or else…”
The family was celebrating the first ever NBA Championship victory of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA, in the midst of the celebrations from other neighbours, before the sudden interruption. The angry man went back into his apartment after the two ladies and two children challenged him to come down. The neighbour on the floor above the man witnessed the incident speechlessly. The incident has left the family shaken and considering moving to another neighbourhood after a short time in Edmonton.
A police report was filed by the family with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), but humourously, a warning is the most the man will get for a clear criminal act, threatening to kill an entire helpless family because they are of African descent and because she is a woman. Really? Well, yes really!
The Toronto Raptors team represents diversity, in all its splendor, success, inclusion, and glory. Everyone can connect with the team as it represents them, and successful it has been. No doubt many multicultural communities support and connects with the Raptors in endless ways on social media.
When a clearly dangerous man, who does not appreciate the historic success of the Raptors, or chooses to celebrate it otherwise, picks you out of the crowd because of your ebony mahogany sparkling black complexion, and also because you are a lady, so you must be a weak and an easy target, and promises to wipe you out and your entire family, it’s fair to believe everything that he says and act accordingly because these ideas must have been hatching in his mind and the Raptors victory only gave him an excuse to pass the message to you. The ladies were courageous to challenge the man. I will however advise otherwise as this man is certainly dangerous to make such an experiment when your family, your community, and city and country needs you alive. Its better to call 911 and outsource such a dangerous person to the police without any confrontation or exchange.
As you can tell, these kinds of occurrences are common and the police treats them close to a comedy show as you can get. Well, that should never make you doubt your value to your family, you community, and your city and country. Your kids know no other country but Canada and you owe them a duty to help build a better Canada for them and others, irrespective of who is assaulting you racially.
You can only question your value if you are not maximizing your full potential and work towards that and not worry about what ever skin complexion that the great designer blessed you with. We are all capable of greatness. We all have potential to be great, if and only if, we can harness that greatness by utilizing our full potential. Your skin colour or your gender might attract negative energy from some dangerous troubled people, but it’s not enough reason for anyone to stop you as there are millions that will support you in this country despite your skin colour or gender. It’s too superficial for anyone to use it as a barrier. It has never been, and will never be. Just look at yourself in the mirror everyday, again and again, and again, and you will find many reasons to be proud of yourself, and why you should harness your full potential. Get to work guys.
