What about us? — A joint statement for Emancipation Day from overlooked African men in prison

We put forward this joint statement for Emancipation Day from overlooked African men in Collins Bay Institution in Ontario. What does this day mean to us?

It has been 187 years since slavery was abolished. In the California penal code, section 187 refers to the crime of murder. Even as we celebrate our freedom, we know that Black people continue to be murdered by police and in all of these racist systems. 

To begin, we express our solidarity with Indigenous people. We recognize the continuation in the modern-day prison system of the colonial violence of residential schools. We watch with sadness and horror as more and more dead bodies of murdered Indigenous children are unburied. 

Indigenous youth continue to be oppressed in youth jails. We have seen dead bodies leave the institutions we live in, or our comrades die on the outside due to lack of supports or resources. Today we remember warriors like Cory Cardinal and all prisoners who have fought for freedom from these unjust institutions. 

We live the reality that anti-Black racism and discrimination cannot be separated from colonial histories that continue to oppress, harm, displace, and criminalize Indigenous people. Our freedom is bound up with our Indigenous brothers and sisters. We say there is no justice for any of us on stolen land. 

Today we are conflicted, because this day represents a historic moment in our ancestors’ struggle for prosperity and striving for self-determination. Yet we cannot lose sight of the struggles Black and Indigenous people still face across so-called Canada.

Canada likes to talk about freeing Black people in the past. But what about us? What about our children? What about people being deported? It is easy to celebrate the end of slavery in the past, while continuing to kill, exploit, and harm Black people right now. 

We are still met with systemic bias, even according to the Prime Minister. So why is nothing being done other than token acknowledgements and meaningless recognitions? Many of us are wrongfully convicted or facing miscarriages of justice. Often, we are serving the most serious sentences, We are accused of gang membership on no evidence, and convicted by white juries. The courts of appeal refuse to hear our cases. Inside prisons we are segregated, surveilled, and disciplined. Whatever the worst punishments are, we face them. 

How can it be? The inequality still persists.The courts and their racist structure still remain, and are the biggest caveat to our self-determination or preservation. We are banding together to advocate against the racism that convicts us not because of our crimes, but because of our skin colour. We are fighting to draw attention to the conditions inside these prisons, and the inequality that places us here. 

As an example, in one of the hottest summers, where fires are burning everywhere, there is no air conditioning in this facility. We have asked for fans and been denied. Black men are baking in these prison blocks just like we did in the fields in slavery. 

Recently, we requested space to be able to see our children. We simply wanted an area where we could build our bonds with our children and their mothers without our children having to see prison walls and wire. This request has not been met.

We watch the news and see hundreds of police being sent to brutalize people living in encampments and we wonder how there can be so much money to destroy these homes and no money for Black people’s homes, just like there is always money to hold us in prison but no money for our children, or just for us to live freely and safely. 

We cannot allow today to just be a symbolic gesture like the government is making it out to be. 

George Jackson said every Black person is automatically a political prisoner because we get dealt with distinctly differently from everyone else. This is true for incarcerated Indigenous people as well. 

Why are these government-funded agencies not doing their due diligence and addressing the known systemic barriers we face? In case after case there has been racial bias and white supremacy. Recently, we watched a discussion on TV of media bias in the case of General Vance - where is the discussion of how Black people are unfairly represented in news stories and talked about as though we are animals? 

We have been failed by every institution in society, from the racial bias in schools, to the lack of jobs and opportunities, even in how we are treated in the healthcare system. 

If you consider yourself a justice activist, you cannot forget about us brothers and sisters who are wasting away in prisons. The prison has always been used as a political tool to alienate and segregate the people who speak up. It is a myth that only guilty people are behind bars. It is also a myth that prisons do anything to rehabilitate or help anyone. 

Sadly, no justice organization is doing enough for Black people. We are being left behind. 

Today, we say that it is your obligation and responsibility to work to free up prisoners in theise jails. Look at the lengths we had to go to to free Assata. We are still trying to get Mumia out. We are still trying to get rid of the power structures that take our potency away from our neighbourhoods. Just as we were human trafficked in slavery, we continue to be exploited today. 

We have nothing to lose but our chains. There is no emancipation until all of us are free.