Open letter by Winnipegger Kojo Williams, community activist re: A sister who appears to be against Black-focused schools which is being discussed and ready to be tested in Toronto, Ontario where black youths seem to face more than the usual problems of racism, violence etc.

Hi Elma:

Greetings my Vincentian sister!!! I will be very brief with my response.

I think you and the other Blacks and anti-blacks are dead wrong on this issue. There are Black focused schools working well (for years) in the United States of America. There are Aboriginal, Jewish and other socused schools all over Canada. There is the Catholic School Board with Catholic schools all over Canada. There are schools dedicated for girls and schools dedicated for boys all over Canada. These special focused schools were established and maintained for good reasons. So why all this fuss now that - for some of the same reasons - Black focussed schools are proposed?

The fact is: the regular school system has failed Blacks all over Canada. Their curricula do not include the Black Canadian experience. They rape and rob our children of their self-esteem and self-worth. They graduate our kids at Grade nine and ten and leave them without education and by extension marketable skills, hence the reasons there are so many single Black mothers, unemployed Black males (particularly youths) and "Black youth crime".

Those Blacks who believe they "have arrived" and live in a society above the Black community need to understand the real issues that drive real Black leaders to try to try to establish Black focused schools - which are not exclusive to Blacks. They should work with the Black (and other) leaders who really care about Blacks and Canada, to correct Canada's racist systems and the attendant problems those who manage those systems so want to maintain.

As I see it, Black focused schools could be remedial places of learning which prepare Blacks - and other youths - to find an equal space in society. There is nothing racist or discriminatory about this. It simply makes sense for Blacks and the rest of the Canadian society.

My sister, I plead with you to re-examine this issue, as well as the state of the Black segment of our Canadian society. Your commentary may be music to the ears of those who benefit from the status quo, but equally so, it is pain in the heart of every Black mother and father whose youths have been failed by the present system.

Cheers!!!