Former SHS student posts about racism in the school

Ben Callender | Jun 17, 2020

(the followng was posted on Facebook by Ben Callender, a former Sydenham High School student. It is associated with a Change-Org petition that accuses the school and school board staff of inaction in the face of racist acts in the school. As of Tuesday (Juine 16) it had garnered 4,000 signatures.)

If you are someone that doesn’t think racism occurs in Sydenham and white privilege is not real, here is my story. I hope it changes your mind.

I went to Sydenham, a school that was primarily white as I could count the amount of people of colour that went there with my hands. As I went through my years I quickly learned how different I was in the eyes of those around me. I grew interests that the “stereotypical black person” would not have, whether it was the clothes I wore or the hobbies I had. This made me a target of many racially charged comments including “white washed black boy” or “I am the whitest black person”. Despite growing up doing similar things to those in my community I could not escape the racial discrimination and I could not stop racists from being racists.

My 3rd day of ninth grade at Sydenham, I walked through the hall alone and an older white kid decide to call me a n*****.

In grade 11 when I played soccer an opposing player said, “I could buy you”, as if I were for sale, as if I were a slave.

My sister received threats by a group of guys to our home phone suggesting that she belonged hanging in the tree outside our house.

My brother got called out at parties for being black and threatened by guys he had never even spoken to before.

Its easy to believe racism doesn’t exist if it is not happening to you, however if you didn’t know this went on you know now, so do something about it.

There are some still in the limestone district school board who struggle, there is a petition that tells the school board that kids of our colour need help and they need the school boards help to get through what they are going through. The link to this petition is in my bio, sign if you want to help us with this movement.