I have to begin this post with a picture of my boys, who will one day be men, not just men, but men of colour. One of my sons is very fair, and could easily pass for white, along with the fact that I named him after a comic book character, you wouldn’t think he was of Indian descent. My younger son is a little darker, more like my own skintone, his name is pretty westernized also, but he cannot easily pass for white. keep in mind that the picture taken above is taken after a very dark tan from vacation for all three of us, so it doesn’t actually show how fair all of us can be. I want to show people that in fact whether they pass for black or white shouldn’t matter, either way their lives should matter…

My best friend is black, in fact growing up I’ve had two black best friends, since I was 2 years old. I was raised in the great colour-blind 80s! My best friend in the whole wide world is a Black Woman, she and I were pregnant at the same time. We joke about how when our kids are teenagers they are going to be a crew of kids up to shenanigans…but in reality that won’t be the case. In reality we will tell our boys that no matter how much someone might disrespect them in public, or if a police officer tells them to do something they better do it, get to a phone and call us, so that at the very least they will be alive…that is my reality.

I’ve seen people sharing this All Lives Matters crap, and I’m so sorry to tell you friend, but you just simply are fueling the hate. In case you don’t know this, because common sense is a little hard to come by these days, but OF COURSE ALL LIVES MATTER, but what the #BLACKLIVESMATTER group was trying to do was show that their lives matter and for the longest time, black people, no matter their shade of black have been shown that their lives don’t matter. People in the US are notorious for culturally appropriating black culture for Music, Fashion, and basically everything else.

I DARE you to think for a minute if you would switch places with a successful black man in your exact position in life. Most people wouldn’t and that is why at this moment in our history of the human race Black Lives don’t matter. If you would happily switch places with someone who is black and in the exact same position as you in life, then you my friend aren’t the problem.

I will give you a perfect example of how people of colour are discriminated against everyday, even here in Canada. I am a teacher for one school boards in the GTA. Since having children, rather than teach full time, I supply teach. I get calls to come in and supply or pick up a job in our system. My name is an ethnic name. You can tell by the spelling of it very clearly that I am of Indian descent. I’ve contemplated many times to change it to my married name to see if things will be different but to be honest I could never give up my Father’s name, being his only child. Anyway, in the last two years, I’ve gotten supply jobs, in advance, and EVERY single one was cancelled a few days before the day of work by the various white teachers (I know they are white because I’ve worked with them in the past full time). So I go about finding child care, and prepping for my supply days only to have my job cancelled. I got pissed because why is it that every time those jobs were cancelled, they popped back into the system within minutes, so I grabbed them again, can you guess what happened? Yup, Cancelled! I called my HR in my board to complain and let them know that this was happening on a regular basis, and of course I was brushed off by saying “No, No, that’s impossible, it isn’t a race thing, most likely the teacher doesn’t need to take the day off.” I told my HR lady respectfully call the school and ask the Principal if the teacher is still off that day. Within 5 mins I got a call back telling me to go in and have a great day and if anything like this happens again to call them right away again.

The icing on the cake is when my former White co-worker (mind you who has only half the experience I do within this board) who decides to sneak into the class that I’m supplying in (her regular class) and then saying “Oh my God, it’s so good to see you, I didn’t realize it was you who was covering for me” With a huge smile on her face almost relieved, that I wasn’t some fresh face Indian Auntie who smelled like curry, who couldn’t use a projector in her class. If you think I’m playing the race card here, please enlighten me, because this is something that I’ve had to deal with all my life.

Of course there are non racist white people who aren’t prejudice, but there aren’t many that can relate to just beginning the race of life at a disadvantage just because your skin is a different colour. Please don’t promote the phrase all live matter, I beg of you, I’m imploring you, please, PLEASE. If you care anything about the lives of all coloured children, mine included, you just won’t. Of course the people who created the dumb hashtag all lives matter did so out of hate, and bigotry, and sheer and unadulterated racism. You can go and see for yourself, by simply going on twitter and reading everything attached to that hashtag.  That is how a hashtag works. Even if you mean it in a Loving and Hippy way, the people who created it, certainly do not and you are promoting them!

People oh and ahh over my children now, but when they are adult men, who have facial hair and are hopefully over 6 feet tall will you still think they are cute? When they are big Indian looking men sitting next to you on a plane will you ask to switch seats or flights? It breaks my heart that you might actually be scared of them, depending on what they look like. It breaks my heart as a mother that my best friend’s son, might not be given the benefit of the doubt that my son who is fair might get. You might even be saying you are Indian why are you fighting for black people? I will tell you that truly racist people cannot tell the difference between brown people and black people, especially since we come in so many overlapping shades. I will stand by Every single one of my Black friends, people whom I consider my family.

Of course ALL LIVES MATTER, WHEN #BLACKLIVESMATTER TOO! right now they don’t, and no one is saying that only #BLACKLIVESMATTER, no one is saying that you should be anti-cop, you just have to open your eyes and your mind.