Keynote speaker Robyn Maynard reminded the community that really beautiful work is done by everyday people at the #ChangeStartsNow anti-racism summit on Saturday.
Maynard, an activist and writer of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, reflected on the past year where one can see how thousands called for cities across Canada and the US to address the crisis of policing, and policing in schools.
“There's a renewed understanding across Canadian society, across North American society, but it's not over policing. It's not racially disproportionate policing that is the problem, but the problem is policing itself,” said Maynard a her event, Looking back to look forward: Beyond Police and Policing.
Maynard said young Black people have addressed the crisis of policing since the summer that resulted in real change where school regions across the province eliminated their police programs.
“And that means that all of us as everyday people have the capacity to jump in and become part of a collective struggle. Abolition is not just re-imagining new worlds, it's in our everyday practice,” said Maynard.
Maynard’s event on Saturday was a BIPOC-only event hosted by the Love and Liberation Conference Team at the University of Guelph in collaboration with the Guelph Black Heritage Society for the four day #ChangeStartsNowanti-racism summit.
Maynard took questions from viewers that discussed change during the past year, change during COVID-19 and how people can bring change in the world around them.
She spoke about the importance to understand one’s historical lineage because it is not possible to reform institutions that were designed to exert racial and gender controls.
Building a better world can involve a range of actions, from prisoners, writing press releases, finding housing, supporting families, sorting out paperwork. For some it has meant having their lives taken by police.
She said whenever the question of what a person can do arises, the answer is to evolutionize where one lives.
“So I think that imagination is something crucial as we work toward what it means to a build new, more livable world for all of us, and Toni Morrison reminds us if you can't imagine it, you can't have it,” said Maynard.
She said that COVID-19 has showed how incredible people can be.
“So it's a very exciting time I think to be alive,” said Maynard.
