After living in Thunder Bay 20 years, a local woman says she still experiences racism.
Amina Abu-Bakare, who is formerly of the Anti-Racism Committee, tells us she was in a store not long ago and recalls a staff member following her around.
“I had to turn around once and tell the girl ‘You just stand by the cash desk, and you will see if I’m lifting anything because I’m six feet tall, so you will see if I’m taking anything’, and she just backed off,” says Abu-Bakare.
As for Thunder Bay police, she says she has never had a problem, while the world reacts to the shooting of black man Jacob Blake by police in Wisconsin. “We are not saying everyone is racist, and I’m not saying every cop is racist. I know a lot of cops in Thunder Bay who are absolutely amazing, and they are doing their best.”
She wonders why the officer who shot Blake did not feel one shot would have been enough, not seven, which has sparked more violence in the US.
She also gives a sobering explanation of why racial tensions keep boiling over.
“We’re dealing with a generation of people who are raised believing blacks are nothing, blacks do not deserved to be treated equally, and the same thing with Indigenous people,” says the local woman.
Abu-Bakare also recalls a shocking experience with a neighbour, an elderly woman. For years, Abu-Bakare worked on her garden, and the elderly neighbour would often walk by and compliment her work. Then, one day, she approached the neighbour, and was shocked to find out the elderly woman thought she was the caretaker. Furthermore, the neighbour wondered what the living arrangements were like in the house. Abu-Bakare says both women were stunned by each other, at which time Abu-Bakare further explained she’s been in that house for 20 years, with four girls, and her husband, a doctor, owns the house.