The Snake Under The Grass: Why Black History Month?

By: Ben Kwashigah

As Black History Month draws to a close, you may wonder why we even honour this annual observance. I mean, black people aren’t slaves anymore, we can vote, one of us is even a president! Yes, our society has progressed a lot since the 1960’s and does (most of the time) reject blatant racism, but what about when it’s hidden behind subtlety? In Ghana, there’s a saying that the snake under the grass is more threatening than the snake on the tree. You can see the snake on the tree and deal with it accordingly (fight it, or run away), but, you can’t escape from the snake under the grass. It kills you before you even see it. Modern day racism
exists similarly to this.

For most of our lives, we’ve been taught that racism is prejudice and discrimination based on one’s race. It is. But it’s much more complex than that. The expanded definition of racism recognizes that it is systemic, institutional, and normalized within our culture. It’s covert, and like the snake under the grass, it can be more sinister. In the form of profiling, racism can become deadly, as seen by the tragic and unnecessary deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and countless other black men and women. But don’t fool yourself into thinking covert racism is just an American problem - it’s a Canadian one as well. In 2009, researchers doctored 6000 fake resumés, all with the same experience, to 2000 job postings in the GTA. They found that resumés with English names such as “John Smith” were 40 percent more likely to be offered an interview than names such as “Sana Khan”. In a study done in 2012, it was found that a Canadian man who was a part of a visible minority earns 18 percent less than a Canadian white man. In a report done by the Correctional Investigator of Canada, black inmates were discovered to be “over-represented in maximum security and segregation, incur a disproportionate number of institutional charges, and are more likely to be involved in use of force incidents.” Racism is alive, well, and existing in our own backyards.

Racism also creeps its way into our entertainment. For example, the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings, which takes place in Egypt (in Africa), is made up of a primarily white cast (except for the slaves, of course). Even the Great Sphinx of Giza was altered to have more “European” features. At the Oscars, all 20 of the acting nominations were white, with 94 percent of the Academy being white. Looking through other movies and TV shows, it becomes hard to find adequate minority representation. Why is that?

All in all, racism is an issue that still exists today. There are multitudes of issues that affect black people, and other people of colour, right here Canada. That’s why Black History Month is important. We must recognize that certain groups of people are oppressed, while other groups benefit from this oppression. After all, the snake under the grass is more dangerous than the snake on the tree.