AfroToronto.com - On My Mind: On Violence

ON MY MIND: On Violence
By Anne-Marie Woods
Posted Thursday, September 1st, 2005

I remember my first trip to New York. I was 20 years old. I lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the time and we didn’t even have a crime rate then. I made the mistake of watching the news. Someone had been stabbed on the A train in Brooklyn, and I was afraid to go outside. I had never seen anything so tragic before.

In 1997 I lived in Philadelphia. I lived and worked at Freedom Theatre one of the oldest Black Theatres in America. It was an amazing experience, but the realities of living in North Philly were constantly around me. One day while two students went to Pizza Hut for lunch (a 2 min walk from the theatre), they were robbed at gun point for their lunch money. During my first week in Philly, I went to the grocery store at Progress Plaza (a strip mall across the street) around 8:30pm. In the grocery store, many women walked around completely high out of their mind. Some were in front of me in the checkout line, having conversations. Then all of a sudden, like a scene out of a movie, a man carrying several packages of meat in his jacket leaped over the other counter. Security confronted him. He proceeded to grab a woman’s baby. Security held him back, took back the baby, as meat fell all over the floor and both the man and the security guard rolled all over the grocery store floor fighting. All I wanted was some bottled water and I found myself in the middle of a scene from COPS. I wasn’t afraid. I felt like I was watching a movie. I paid for my water, walked over the man who stole from the store, as he lay bleeding on the floor. I then walked through the grocery security checks which were now torn out of the floor, through the door and outside. Once I was outside, I was in a sort of a trance. “Did that really happen?” I thought.

I used to be a bully. I now do a lot of work in schools with a show called Artivationally Speaking where I address my youthful out of control behavior. I cross section it with examples of what we see on TV, the influence of pop culture, gangsta rap, etc. It’s fascinating how young people respond. The show is one hour in length and I perform for Junior High and High Schools. But what’s even more fascinating is that our own young people are completely desensitized to violence. They see it on TV all the time, in music videos and these days they can even catch it on the news. Many of these people sporting guns and killing one another are young Black men, and I think it’s a sign of the times. This is a direct result of many things: parenting, the Education System, society, cutbacks, and many other things.

I was on a very violent path as a young person too. Had it not been for a group that taught me Black history and culture and instilled in me a sense of pride and self esteem, I feel I was well on a path to juvenile delinquency. At the impressionable age of 14-15, my brother introduced me to The Cultural Awareness Youth Group of Nova Scotia. With this group, I not only learned things I was not learning in school, but I got to interact with other Black Youth in a positive way through; Debating Teams, Quiz Teams, Exchange Trips, and Leadership Retreats. There are hundreds of us that passed through this program, and we are all doing well to this day. In 1994 I had the honor of being the Director of the same organization my brother started and working with youth instilling positive values in them. It was during this time that we did an exchange trip with Tropicana, The Jane and Finch Youth Group and Fresh Arts… all programs based in Toronto, and again I saw what a positive environment can do for young people. I was especially thrilled with Fresh Arts. Back in 1988 Harambee had come to Nova Scotia for an exchange trip with Black youth, and back in the day there were a lot more programs that existed for our young people to have an outlet.

I am deeply disturbed by what is happening in Toronto these days. Almost everyday, there is a drive-by shooting and as a result, the police is taking care of our communities instead of us. I was deeply moved by the words of Pinball Clements who recently launched a new initiative called "Stop The Violence We Are Toronto." The campaign is designed to give youth an alternative to gangs. I see now that community meetings are popping up everywhere. I find it sad, that for us to come together it takes a drastic situation. This generation came from our generation, and something must be horribly wrong or missing for this level of crime and violence to be taking place.

We need to not only look at what these young men are doing, but we also need to look at ourselves. If we as a community ignore one another, what do we do when we see youth on the street? Do you stop and talk to them? Or do you ignore them and stay in your own world. Working with young people has always been a priority with me, and I’m glad that people are now stepping up to the plate. It should not take extreme violence however for us to take a serious interest in this generation of young people. The interest should have been there all along. It is my prayer that as a society, we find more unity and seriously fight to continuously instill positive values in our youth. I also hope we understand that there is hope even in people wo come from from single parent homes at what is labeled “At Risk Neighborhoods” .

I am looking forward to positive outcomes. I am looking forward to seeing fewer people like “Uncle Thompson” (the city counselor I never heard of before the past few weeks) on the news. I am looking forward to hearing more positive stories.

Tensions will rise with the crime, racial profiling may increase, but we need to take our youth back. It takes a village… So let’s come together not for a minute in crisis, but let’s work on being a part of the long term solution.

Anne-Marie Woods is a Freelance contributor for AfroToronto.com