The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times—all because I’m black
The summer I was nine, my teenage cousin Sana came from England to visit my family in Oshawa. He was tall, handsome and obnoxious, the kind of guy who could palm a basketball like Michael Jordan. I was his shadow during his visit, totally in awe of his confidence—he was always saying something clever to knock me off balance.
One day, we took Sana and his parents on a road trip to Niagara Falls. Just past St. Catharines, Sana tossed a dirty tissue out the window. Within seconds, we heard a siren: a cop had been driving behind us, and he immediately pulled us onto the shoulder. A hush came over the car as the stocky officer strode up to the window and asked my dad if he knew why we’d been stopped. “Yes,” my father answered, his voice shaky, like a child in the principal’s office. My dad isn’t a big man, but he always cut an imposing figure in our household. This was the first time I realized he could be afraid of something. “He’s going to pick it up right now,” he assured the officer nervously, as Sana exited the car to retrieve the garbage. The cop seemed casually uninterested, but everyone in the car thrummed with tension, as if they were bracing for something catastrophic. After Sana returned, the officer let us go. We drove off, overcome with silence until my father finally exploded. “You realize everyone in this car is black, right?” he thundered at Sana. “Yes, Uncle,” Sana whispered, his head down and shoulders slumped. That afternoon, my imposing father and cocky cousin had trembled in fear over a discarded Kleenex.
My parents immigrated to Canada from Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the mid-1970s. I was born in Red Deer, Alberta, and soon after, we moved to Oshawa, where my father was a mental health nurse and my mother a registered nurse who worked with the elderly. Throughout my childhood, my parents were constantly lecturing me about respecting authority, working hard and preserving our family’s good name. They made it clear that although I was the same as my white peers, I would have to try harder and achieve more just to keep up. I tried to ignore what they said about my race, mostly because it seemed too cruel to be true.
In high school, I threw myself into extra-curricular activities—student council, choir, tennis, soccer, fundraising drives for local charities—and I graduated valedictorian of my class. Despite my misgivings about my parents’ advice, I was proud to be living up to their expectations. In 2001, I earned admission to Queen’s University. I was enticed by the isolated, scenic campus—it looked exactly like the universities I’d seen in movies, with stately buildings and waterfront views straight out of Dead Poets Society. When I told my older sister, who was studying sociology at Western, she furrowed her brow. “It’s so white,” she bristled. That didn’t matter much to me: Oshawa was just as white as Kingston, and I was used to being the only black kid in the room. I wasn’t going to let my race dictate my future.
At Queen’s, I was one of about 80 black undergrads out of 16,000. In second year, when I moved into the student village, I started noticing cops following me in my car. At first, I thought I was being paranoid—I began taking different roads to confirm my suspicions. No matter which route I took, there was usually a police cruiser in my rear-view mirror. Once I felt confident I was being followed, I became convinced that if I went home, the police would know where I lived and begin following me there too. I’d drive around aimlessly, taking streets I didn’t know.
I had my first face-to-face interaction with the Kingston police a few months into second year, when I was walking my friend Sara, a white woman, back to her house after a party. An officer stopped us, then turned his back to me and addressed Sara directly. “Miss, do you need assistance?” he asked her. Sara was stunned into silence. “No,” she said twice—once to the officer, and once to reassure herself that everything was all right. As he walked away, we were both too shaken to discuss what had happened, but in the following days we recounted the incident many times over, as if grasping to remember if it had really occurred. The fact that my mere presence could cause an armed stranger to feel threatened on Sara’s behalf shocked me at first, but shock quickly gave way to bitterness and anger.
As my encounters with police became more frequent, I began to see every uniformed officer as a threat. The cops stopped me anywhere they saw me, particularly at night. Once, as I was walking through the laneway behind my neighbourhood pizza parlour, two officers crept up on me in their cruiser. “Don’t move,” I whispered to myself, struggling to stay calm as they got out of their vehicle. When they asked me for identification, I told them it was in my pocket before daring to reach for my wallet. If they thought I had a weapon, I was convinced that I’d end up being beaten, or worse. I stood in the glare of the headlights, trying to imagine how I might call out for help if they attacked me. They left me standing for about 10 minutes before one of them—a white man who didn’t look much older than me—approached to return my identification. I summoned the courage to ask why he was doing this. “There’s been some suspicious activity in the area,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. Then he said I could go. Another time, an officer stopped me as I was walking home from a movie. When I told him I wasn’t carrying ID, he twisted his face in disbelief. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Sir, it’s important that you always carry identification,” he said, as if he was imparting friendly advice. Everywhere I went, he was saying, I should be prepared to prove I wasn’t a criminal, even though I later learned I was under no legal obligation to carry ID. When I told my white friends about these encounters with police, they’d often respond with skepticism and dismissal, or with a barrage of questions that made me doubt my own sanity. “But what were you doing?” they’d badger, as if I’d withheld some key part of the story that would justify the cops’ behaviour.
When I was 22, I decided to move to Toronto. We’d visited often when I was a kid, driving into the city for festivals and fish markets and dinners with other families from Sierra Leone. In Toronto, I thought I could escape bigotry and profiling, and just blend into the crowd. By then, I had been stopped, questioned and followed by the police so many times I began to expect it. In Toronto, I saw diversity in the streets, in shops, on public transit. The idea that I might be singled out because of my race seemed ludicrous. My illusions were shattered immediately.
My skin is the deep brown of a well-worn penny. My eyes are the same shade as my complexion, but they light up amber in the sun, like a glass of whiskey. On a good day, I like the way I look. At other times, particularly when people point out how dark I am, I want to slip through a crack in the ground and disappear. White people often go out of their way to say they don’t see colour when they look at me—in those moments, I’m tempted to recommend an optometrist. I know they’re just expressing a desire for equality, but I don’t want to be erased in the process. When I walk down the street, I find myself imagining that strangers view me with suspicion and fear. This phenomenon is what the African-American writer and activist W. E. B. Du Bois described as “double-consciousness”: how blacks experience reality through their own eyes and through the eyes of a society that prejudges them.
I hate it when people ask me where I’m from, because my answer is often followed by, “But where are you really from?” When they ask that question, it’s as though they’re implying I don’t belong here. The black diaspora has rippled across Toronto: Somalis congregate in Rexdale, Jamaicans in Keelesdale, North Africans in Parkdale. We make up 8.5 per cent of the city’s population, but the very notion of a black Torontonian conflates hundreds of different languages, histories, traditions and stories. It could mean dark-skinned people who were born here or elsewhere, who might speak Arabic or Patois or Portuguese, whose ancestors may have come from anywhere in the world. In the National Household Survey, the term “black” is the only classification that identifies a skin colour rather than a nation or region.
There’s this idea that Toronto is becoming a post-racial city, a multicultural utopia where the colour of your skin has no bearing on your prospects. That kind of thinking is ridiculously naïve in a city and country where racism contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of criminalization and imprisonment. Areas where black people live are heavily policed in the name of crime prevention, which opens up everyone in that neighbourhood to disproportionate scrutiny. We account for 9.3 per cent of Canadian prisoners, even though we only make up 2.9 per cent of the populace at large. And anecdotal evidence suggests that more and more people under arrest are pleading guilty to avoid pretrial detention—which means they’re more likely to end up with a criminal record. Black people are also more frequently placed in maximum-security institutions, even if the justice system rates us as unlikely to be violent or to reoffend: between 2009 and 2013, 15 per cent of black male inmates were assigned to maximum-security, compared to 10 per cent overall. If we’re always presumed guilty, and if we receive harsher punishments for the same crimes, then it’s no surprise that many of us end up in poverty, dropping out of school and reoffending.
About a decade ago, the Toronto Police Service established carding, a controversial practice that disproportionately targets young black men and documents our activities across the city. According to police parlance, it’s a voluntary interaction with people who are not suspected of a crime. Cops stop us on the street, demand identification, and catalogue our race, height, weight and eye colour. Until early this year, these fill-in-the-blanks forms—known as Field Information Reports—also had slots to identify a civilian as a “gang member” or “associate”; to record a person’s body markings, facial hair and cellphone number; and, for minors, to indicate whether their parents were divorced or separated. All that information lives in a top-secret database, ostensibly in the interest of public safety, but the police have never provided any evidence to show how carding reduces or solves crime. They’ve also failed to justify carding’s excessive focus on black men. The Toronto Star crunched the numbers and found that in 2013, 25 per cent of people carded were black. At that time, I was 17 times more likely than a white person to be carded in Toronto’s downtown core.
In late March, the TPS revamped their carding policy, announcing with much self-congratulatory back-slapping that they’d rebranded the FIR cards as “community engagement reports,” implemented a plan for racial sensitivity training and eliminated carding quotas for officers. But when you look at the fine print, it’s clear that little has changed. Under their new procedures, police do not have to inform civilians that a carding interaction is voluntary, that they can walk away at any time. Cops won’t be required to tell civilians why they are being stopped, and their internal justifications for a stop are so broad they might as well not exist. Worst of all, the database where police have been storing this information will still be used.
In a recent report to the Toronto Police Services Board, residents in 31 Division, which includes several low-income and racialized neighbourhoods in northwest Toronto, were candid about their views of police. Many said our cops disrespect them, stop them without cause and promote a climate of constant surveillance in their neighbourhoods. Some respondents to the TPSB survey said they now avoid certain areas within their own neighbourhoods for fear of encountering police. Black respondents were most likely to report that police treated them disrespectfully, intimidated them or said they fit the description of a criminal suspect. “Police are supposed to serve and protect, but it always feels like a battle between us and them,” one survey participant said.
I have been stopped, if not always carded, at least 50 times by the police in Toronto, Kingston and across southern Ontario. By now, I expect it could happen in any neighbourhood, day or night, whether I am alone or with friends. These interactions don’t scare me anymore. They make me angry. Because of that unwanted scrutiny, that discriminatory surveillance, I’m a prisoner in my own city.
When I arrived in Toronto in 2004, I had no idea what I wanted to do other than escape my suburban hometown and the bigotry I’d faced in Kingston. For the first few months, I crashed with my childhood friend Matthew at his grandfather’s East York home. I didn’t have much money, so I spent a lot of time wandering downtown, sitting in parks or coffee shops, marvelling at the diversity I saw on the streets. I was enjoying an anonymity I had never experienced before. One night I set out, journal in hand, to find somewhere to write. Less than a minute into my stroll, a police cruiser stopped me on Holborne Avenue, near Woodbine and Cosburn.
“How are you doing this evening?” one of the two officers asked from the car. By now I was familiar with this routine. I’d been stopped a dozen times in Kingston and followed so frequently I’d lost count. “I’m okay,” I replied, trying to stay calm. “What are you doing?” the officer continued. “Walking,” I said with a glare. When he asked me if I lived around there, I replied that I didn’t have to disclose that information. My mouth was dry and my heart was racing—I didn’t usually refuse police requests during confrontations, but my frustration had got the better of me. “Could you tell me what street we’re on right now?” the cop asked. I was quaking with rage at this unsolicited game of 20 questions. “Anyone can tell you that,” I shot back, trying not to raise my voice. “There’s a street sign right in front of you.”
My parents would have been furious—they’d always taught me to politely answer any questions I was asked. The police had the upper hand. But I’d lost patience. I demanded to know why I was being stopped. “We’ve had some break-and-enters in this area recently,” the officer replied, as if that explained everything. “Well, unless you think I’m the culprit, I have the right to walk in peace.” The officer seemed taken aback. He quickly wished me good night, and they drove off. I was so shaken I could have sat down and cried, but I realized the street I was living on was no longer a safe place to stand at night. I walked briskly to the Danforth, where I escaped into a bar.
After bouncing all over the city trying to find work, I eventually got a job at a drop-in centre for homeless youth at Queen and Spadina. As I settled into my life in Toronto, unwanted attention followed me everywhere I went. That year was 2005, the Summer of the Gun, when a streak of Toronto murders made headlines around the country. Most of the shooting victims and suspects were young black men, many of them alleged gang members, and the surge of violence stoked a culture of racial anxiety. I read about these shootings with sadness, but also with fear that people were reflexively associating me with gun crimes. If someone ignored me when I asked for directions on the street, or left the seat next to me vacant on the streetcar, I wondered if they were afraid of me.
In Kingston, I was used to women crossing the street when they saw me approaching, but until I moved to Toronto, I’d never seen them run. One night, I stepped off a bus on Dufferin Street at the same time as a young woman in her 20s. She took a couple of steps, looked over her shoulder at me, and tore into a full sprint. I resisted the urge to call out in my own defence. In 2006, I ran for Toronto city council in Trinity-Spadina. As I canvassed houses along Bathurst Street, a teenage girl opened the door, took one look at me, and bolted down the hallway. She didn’t even close the door. When her mother appeared a moment later and apologized, I couldn’t tell which of us was more embarrassed.
That same year, I was denied entry to a popular bar on College Street. The bouncer told me I couldn’t come in with the shoes I had on, a pair of sneakers that resembled those of countless other guys in the queue. Fuming, I began to object, but I quickly realized that a black guy causing a scene at a nightclub was unlikely to attract much sympathy. I didn’t want to embarrass the half-dozen friends I’d come with. We left quietly, and I’ve never gone back.
Shortly after my (unsuccessful) election campaign, I went to a downtown pub to watch hockey with some friends and my girlfriend at the time, a white child-care worker named Heather. The Leafs won, and the place turned into a party. Heather and I were dancing, drinking and having a great time. On my way back from the washroom, two bouncers stopped me and said I had to leave. “We just can’t have that kind of stuff around here,” one of them informed me. I asked what “stuff” he meant, but he and his partner insisted I had to go. They followed closely behind me as I went back upstairs to inform Heather and my friends that I was being kicked out. My friends seemed confused and surprised, but none made a fuss or questioned the bouncers who stood behind me. People stopped dancing to see what was going on and, recognizing that security was involved, kept their distance. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone as the guards escorted me out of the bar.
I have come to accept that some people will respond to me with fear or suspicion—no matter how irrational it may seem. After years of needless police scrutiny, I’ve developed habits to check my own behaviour. I no longer walk through upscale clothing stores like Holt Renfrew or Harry Rosen, because I’m usually tailed by over-attentive employees. If I’m paying cash at a restaurant, I will hand it to the server instead of leaving it on the table, to make sure no one accuses me of skipping out on the bill. If the cops approach, I immediately ask if I am being detained. Anyone who has ever travelled with me knows I experience serious anxiety when dealing with border officials—I’m terrified of anyone with a badge and a gun, since they always seem excessively interested in who I am and what I’m doing. My eyes follow every police car that passes me. It has become a matter of survival in a city where, despite all the talk of harmonious multi-culturalism, I continue to stand out.
I was carded for the first time in 2007. I was walking my bike on the sidewalk on Bathurst Street just south of Queen. I was only steps from my apartment when a police officer exited his car and approached me. “It’s illegal to ride your bike on the sidewalk,” he informed me. “I know, officer, that’s why I’m walking it,” I replied edgily. Then the cop asked me for ID. After sitting in front of the computer inside his car for a few minutes, the officer returned nonchalantly and said, “Okay, you’re all set.” I wanted to tell him off, but thought better of it and went home. I still don’t know what he saw when he ran my name.
Over the next seven years, I was carded at least a dozen times. One summer evening in 2008, two friends and I were stopped while walking at night in a laneway just north of my apartment, only a few hundred metres from where I was carded the first time. Two officers approached in their cruiser, briefly turning on their siren to get our attention. Once they got out of the car, they asked us what we were doing. “We’re just walking, bro,” I said. The cops immediately asked all of us to produce identification. While one officer took our drivers’ licences back to his car, the other got on his radio. I heard him say the word “supervisor,” and my stomach turned. Within 60 seconds, a second cruiser, marked S2, arrived in the laneway, and the senior officer at the wheel got out to join his colleagues.
The officer who had radioed for backup returned and asked us to empty our pockets. As the supervisor watched, the radio officer approached us one at a time, took our change and wallets and inspected them. He was extremely calm, as if he was thoroughly accustomed to this routine. “I’m going to search each of you now to make sure you didn’t miss anything,” he explained. I knew it was my legal right to refuse, but I couldn’t muster the courage to object. The search officer approached me first. “Before I search you, I want you to tell me if I’m going to find anything you shouldn’t have,” he said gravely. “I don’t have anything,” I replied, my legs trembling so violently I thought they’d give out from under me. The officer patted down my pockets, my pant legs, my jacket, my underarms. He then repeated the search with my two friends, asking each of them before touching them if he would find anything. One of my friends spoke up: “I have a weed pipe in my back pocket, but there’s nothing in it.” The officer took the pipe and walked with the supervisor to the car with the officer who had taken our ID. As the policemen huddled for what felt like an hour, my friend apologized. “It’s not your fault,” I replied. I cursed myself for choosing that route rather than staying on Queen Street, where hundreds of people would have been walking. Here, we had no witnesses.
When the officers finally came back, they returned the pipe to my friend. “Are any of you currently wanted on an out-standing warrant?” asked the search officer. We all said no. “Okay, guys, have a good night,” he said. I was still too scared to move, and apparently my friends were too; we just stood there and looked at the cops for a second. “You can go,” the officer assured us. I made sure not to look back for fear they’d interpret some outstanding guilt on my part. I was certain that the police had just documented my name along with the names of my friends, one of whom was carrying a pipe for smoking an illegal substance. This information would be permanently on my record.
Another time, as I smoked a cigarette outside a local community centre on Bloor West near Dufferin, a police officer sat parked in his car, glaring at me and scribbling notes. After five minutes of this, I walked over to his cruiser. “Is there a problem, officer?” I asked. The cop, a 30-something white guy, asked, “Oh, are you lost? You look like you’re lost.” His response was so ridiculous I almost laughed in exasperation, but instead I just repeated that I was fine. After a brief pause the officer rejoined, “Really? ’Cause you seemed lost.” I had to remind myself that I wasn’t going crazy. “I know why you’re doing this,” I told him before dashing my cigarette and going back inside. Whether it was motivated by ignorance, training, police culture or something else, the officer’s behaviour sent a clear message: I didn’t belong.
When I was a boy in Oshawa, my parents always greeted black strangers we passed on the street. As an adult, I have taken up this ritual in Toronto—it’s an acknowledgement of a shared (if unwanted) experience. These days, when I meet other black people who want to talk about race, I feel comfort and reassurance. I was shopping at my local grocery store recently when an elderly white fellow tapped me on the arm and pointed to a black clerk shelving goods down the aisle. “You guys, you brothers,” he said in broken English. It was one of those moments I was grateful for dark skin, to hide my embarrassment. “What do you mean?” I asked him. “You know, you and him, you guys brothers,” the man repeated. “But aren’t we brothers too, you and I?” I asked. He paused and smiled. “Oh, yes, yes!” As he left, the clerk and I exchanged a smile. It’s nice to be around other people who know what you’re going through.
After years of being stopped by police, I’ve started to internalize their scrutiny. I’ve doubted myself, wondered if I’ve actually done something to provoke them. Once you’re accused enough times, you begin to assume your own guilt, to stand in for your oppressor. It’s exhausting to have to justify your freedoms in a supposedly free society. I don’t talk about race for attention or personal gain. I would much rather write about sports or theatre or music than carding and incarceration. But I talk about race to survive. If I diminish the role my skin colour plays in my life, and in the lives of all racialized people, I can’t change anything.
Last winter, I asked the cops if I could look at my file. I was furious when they told me no: that the only way I could see that information was to file a Freedom of Information request. Each one can take months to process. One of my friends, a law student at Osgoode Hall, recently had his FOI request approved. When he finally saw his file, he learned that over the years cops had labelled him as “Jamaican,” “Brown East African” and “Black North African.” They said he was “unfriendly” with them, and that he believed he was being racially profiled.
I have no idea what I’ll find in my file. Does it classify me as Black West African or Brown Caribbean? Are there notes about my attitude? Do any of the cops give a reason as to why they stopped me? All I can say for certain is that over the years, I’ve become known to police. That shorthand has always troubled me—too many black men are “known” through a foggy lens of suspicion we’ve done nothing to earn. Maybe if they really got to know us, they’d treat us differently.
This is not the type of city I wish to live in. I am sorry for your experience Desmond. I understand society needs policing, but it’s hard to see any positive effect of the current policing model.
our city is lucky to have a writer, and citizen, like mr. cole.
I’m ashamed of my city when I read things like this. thank you for sharing it!
I’ve been looking for someone who at least shared the same thoughts as me on the community. While I may have not been constantly carded, I’ve been restrained for worse things, where I wasn’t even involved in. I wondered why. I wondered if there was anyone else who understood. Back then I wouldn’t know that people avoided me, or got up next to me on the bus rides if I sat beside them.
I avoid top stores just like this because the Eddie Bauer at Yorkdale, when I applied the manager had came out after my interview and the store walkthrough and said, “We don’t hire ‘your kind’ here.” I was shocked. Then I asked myself if it was because I was black that I didn’t get the job. I didn’t see any other reason. I was well dressed for the job and looked like all the other applicants. Some of my teachers won’t even live down some of the things that happened to me, despite the fact that I was innocent all the time. I thought it was a case of, ‘wrong place, wrong time,’ but every time when I look back at it, or even think about the recent times, there was no wrong time or wrong place.
Sometimes, I’m okay with being the way I am, but because I am mentally sick, I go to really dark places and wonder why I was born with such tribulations when I do nothing wrong.
Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. WOW. Should be mandatory reading.
Spread the word – if cops ask you for your ID, just say no and keep moving. It’s your right.
I cannot even start to understand what this feels like, however we cannot forget that “carding” has a purpose. It’s purpose is to keep the streets safe. How do you think the police service gains the information to find people when they need to? Finds out where the “bad” guys are? For every innocent person they “card” there is a not so innocent one that gets “carded” too. So to stop carding for any reason would mean that a lot of people would get away with more crimes and more people that should be off the streets will stay there.
I feel for you and what you have gone through but there must be a better solution, and a way to keep Toronto safe.
I’m sorry Annie – what exactly is the purpose of carding? Collecting information about law abiding citizens is all carding does. If it collected information about those doing wrong, the “card” wouldn’t need to exist because a “report” would.
I am a mixed-chick, married to a white toronto cop. I have a brother who is “know to police”. We have with three mixed daughters and I only hope that our new police chief is capable of doing something to STOP the practice of carding.
How many times have you been stopped by the police walking down the street, demanding your papers, Annie? Just out of curiosity.
I’m sorry Annie you are out to lunch, Even if the ratio of “bad” to “good” cardings was 1:1, which it isn’t, it is a million miles from that… no one deserves excessive scrutiny.
Maybe he’s committed a crime, have people ever thought of that? People accuse cops of being ‘racist’ all the time – doesn’t make it true, one bit. Not saying there aren’t cases, but I doubt this is what the guy is what he’s made it out.
Wow, that’s bold: just flat out accusing the writer of being a lair? How dare you trivialize this man’s experience?
Secondly, it’s one thing to accuse the cops of being racist, and another to have STATISTICS to prove it. Mr. Cole references the Toronto Star investigation to breaks it all down.
This is some serious bullshit and makes me livid. You should not be able to treat people this way!
Let’s pretend for a second that he had committed a crime… how would the police officers know that when stopping him? They wouldn’t, they’re just stopping him because he LOOKS (to them) like he’s committed a crime. Which is what you’re doing, which is exactly the kind of racism this article is about. You should be ashamed of yourself for even asking this.
For all that I love Toronto, the saddest part of this story is that it doesn’t surprise me at all. Slavery and Jim Crow might be done with, but there’s still racism a plenty everywhere, and it’s going to take a lot of work to get people to stop being bigots.
^ No offense but this is the stuff that white people can do and get away with it. Trust me, if you’re a young black man, you just can’t.
Black man writes a 5,000-word feature about racism in the GTA.
“Nah, he’s probably a criminal.”
smh
As a Black man, I’m not going to accept that. Next time I get stopped, I’m pulling out my phone and immediately asking if I’m being detained.
This should be required reading for everyone in this city who thinks this is such a tolerant and forward-thinking place to live. Clearly, we have a long way to go. Thank you for sharing your experience with us all, Desmond.
Desmond, you are a credit to Toronto, and I hope this article opens the eyes of the privileged and blind.
Well in his defence most criminals have a 2100 S.A.T. score vocabulary
Hi, you are racist.
How do we fix this?
Sharing this is a start
Time and time again, the idea of stopping everyone for no reason other than to look for “something bad” has been ruled unconstitutional. Policing cannot be one giant fishing expedition.
Very sorry for these experiences Desmond. I’ve heard the same experiences many times before from black (male mostly) friends. It’s a smear on this city, on this country. From the sounds of it, nothing will change with Saunders at the helm. What goes on at the police academy? Do they intentionally screen for white supremists?
Good point Annie. We should just throw all the people we deem to look suspicious to our eyes (i.e. anyone with black skin, brown skin, anyone who looks Middle Eastern, anyone in Islamic garb of any kind) and throw them in jail – can’t be too careful!
Great story Mr. Cole.
I’m sorry to hear about the black experience. It’s unsettling to say the least.
You have come a long way and yet you still have many miles to go. Do not be discouraged. The work that you are doing is important and meaningful and relevant.
You are an awesome young man that will achieve great things for this city, and no doubt for Canada. You already make your family and your community proud. Hold your head high, go forward and just keep moving. You are heading in the right direction.
Hey everyone, my racist grandma from the southern U.S. learned to use the internet!
Even if there’s justified fear of retribution I hope anyone I know that’s black can find the courage to refuse being carded.
This is some dark stuff, no question. However, more than anything, I’m overjoyed that the issue of racially-motivated abuse at the hands of law enforcement has entered the realm of public discourse. More and more people, once exposed to the POC experience, are beginning to ask the tough questions. Cultural change — and not just the illusion of cultural change — seems to be on the horizon.
When faced with the horror of reality, one should always think “imagine for how long this wasn’t even talked about??”
Desmond please file the Access to Information request and publish the results.
Try this line: “I don’t have any ID on me, but I am wearing a hidden camera.”
Bye bye coppers
I can’t believe you would even write that. You can’t possibly believe that. I’m 46 years old and I have never been “carded”. And yep, I’m white.
Did you even read the article?!?!?!?!?!
I know Des and he is an upstanding citizen. You, on the other hand, have proven in just one comment that you’re not.
Please don’t do it. They won’t hesitate to be violent with you.
Look the fact of the matter is, blacks commit five times as many crimes as whites. Statistics are based on historical information. I really feel bad for this guy, but he sounds like he might be one of the few who can make change for the future. Also, a lot of his stories are from a decade or two ago and things have changed. We all get stopped, I have been – the police are only out to keep the public safe, let’s not make them out to be the devil because then we are insulting the very people keeping us safe from crime.
Your first two sentences are contradictory. If the purpose of “carding” was merely to keep the streets safe, then the odds are good that you would have at some point been carded, thereby gaining an understanding of “what this feels like”.
Not because you’re black, but because they’re racist. I realize that’s a fine point of distinction, but one view subtly places the essential point on you and the other on the police that harassed you. This isn’t about anything you are, it’s entirely about everything they are and it saddens me that, in this day and age, it’s still such a problem. Just my $0.02…
do you really think this city is crawling with criminals? and young black male criminals, at that? just waiting to be scooped up while walking down dufferin?
A tremendously important post by one of Toronto’s best journalists.
Thank you for this Mr. Cole.
I’d prefer it if voters, city politicians and the Police Services Board could find the courage to stop carding people. It is an extremely unfair (and probably futile) burden to demand the victims produce the change that is needed.
Assuming the number behind the statistic is right, your description of the statistic is off the mark: Blacks don’t commit five times as many crimes… blacks are *caught* committing crimes five times more frequently than whites.
I have been stopped for speeding three times but have only been given a ticket once… so two of those times won’t show up in the stats. If I’d been scrutinized by the police as much as Desmond Cole has, the chance of me being charged for some crime or another would be muuuuuuch higher.
Look, the fact of the matter is, I lived in Kingston the same years that Desmond did. I and my friends experienced a number of assaults, sexual and otherwise, of varying severity over the course of those years, all of them by white dudes from RMC and Queens.
The cops, never, not once, stopped to ask me if I was OK walking home with any white guy, not in five years.
That is definitely not “the fact of the matter” – and no reputable historian would say your claim is based on “historical information”. It isn’t difficult. Google can be your friend, if you are serious about wanting to know why POC and First Nations people are so over-represented in crime stats.
We all, as a community, need to stand up against this. This kind of “papers please” should have died with Nazi Germany, or the old Soviet Union!
There is NO reason for this kind of treatment in a modern democracy. Period.
As a white guy in Toronto, I actually attract a more-than-normal amount of police attention (same for border services at airports). Even in the most ludicrous situations, I’m always aware that it could be so much worse: I could be black or middle-eastern.
That said, I’ve been carded (even before the carding changes), and I’ve actually had previous stops/interactions brought up once they’ve checked my ID in the system. It’s scary what they’ve made notes on…
I’m a white male in my late thirties, and I’ve lived my entire life in Toronto. I’ve walked streets and laneways, alone and with friends, during the day and at all hours of the night, hundreds (if not thousands) of times. I’ve criss-crossed the entire city by foot, bike, transit and car, and only once have I been stopped by police for anything other than speeding (it was the middle of the night on a deserted street; the cop used the ol’ “broken taillight” excuse – in my case, actually a burnt-out headlight).
Mr. Cole, thank you for your story and for sharing it with us. The nature and extent of police profiling of people of colour – and in particular, young men of African descent – is something that is met with shock and sadness by many who have long heralded Toronto as a city that wears its diversity as a badge of pride, a city of tolerance and inclusion that embraces and welcomes people of all ethnicities and walks of life.
The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and far, far too many others have served to open the eyes of many who have been heretofore blissfully unaware of the systematic profiling and targeting of racial minorities by police forces throughout North America, all under the very thin guise of community safety and crime prevention. Never have I been stopped because of “suspicious activity in the area.” Never have I been baselessly suspected of a crime, or told that a perpetrator “matches my description.” Never have I felt that I am being watched or regarded with suspicion by police, by security forces or by my fellow citizens for no reason other than the way in which I look or the colour of my skin. That you have, repeatedly, angers me. The unjustness with which you have been treated over the course of years and decades leaves me ashamed.
Mr. Cole, please keep writing, keep sharing your story, and continue to pursue justice. Know that many others anticipate the day when, as Dr. King so famously said, “people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
funny that they remove my comment, repost [freedom of speech]: maybe he committed a crime, ever thought of that? Everyone is quick to call cops racist, but it hardly turns out so.
I did read the article, but you should know that journalists are often swine for a story.
it’s racist to give the cop the benefit of the doubt? It’s part of the COURT system to give the benefit of the doubt. Are you against the court system, now?
Thank you for writing this and sharing your experience.
“…In the National Household Survey, the term “black” is the only classification that identifies a skin colour rather than a nation or region.”
Actually, ‘white’ is also used as a classification. Which is equally limited and homogenizing. Question #19 includes 2 colours, 3 regions, 1 continent, 1 ethnicity, 4 nationalities, and “Other”. It is problematic on many levels.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2016/ref/questionnaires/questions-eng.cfm
and it’s sad that moderators will delete NON-violating comments on “news” articles, simply because they disagree with them. It was not inflammatory, by any means. Just shows the true colors.
Perfect response … I am remembering your comment and will quote it in the future … ty
lol what trial WHAT TRIAL IS THERE A TRIAL OF POLICE AFOOT
(The court of public opinion can assume whatever the fuck they want. And the statistics on carding is actual evidence, as opposed to your racist conjecture.)
You’ll note, however, that Desmond has never been arrested nor stood trial for the (50) crime(s) you assume he has committed that justified his police harassment. Not once.
I’m talking about trial against police. It’s hypotheticals, not a prediction. I’m not assuming he’s committed it. I’m simply stating that you don’t know, by only his side, that he did NOT. So ANYTHING is possible, you can’t tell at this point.
WHAT TRIAL THERE IS NO TRIAL
Wow, very profound and deeply troubling. I think the biggest shocker to me is that I am unaware that this happens to this extent in Toronto.
PS presumption of innocence of the *accused* is the central tenet of our court system. You’re supposed to make the *police* prove their case.
but if there were, it’s a comparable analogy. Giving someone the benefit of the doubt, until AFTER you know the facts [and knowing one person’s story for it, doesn’t count as “knowing the facts”]…
and this, by definition, is a trial of public opinion. the same principles apply.
NO IT IS NOT. AT ALL. LEARN TO THINK CRITICALLY.
Truly eye-opening. This practice is so grotesque. Don’t they have anything better to do than to stop and harass someone who is just WALKING? If this happened to me just ONCE i’d be so indignant. Can’t imagine 50 times!
actually, you’re the one not thinking critically. You’re taking one guy’s word for it, and with no proof/evidence, except say-so. That by definition is NOT critically thinking.
No, the court of public opinion does not have the same principles because the court of public opinion does not have the ability to strip someone of their civil liberties and imprison them. WHAT EDUCATION SYSTEM FAILED YOU.
the policy goes BOTH ways.
NO. IT. DOES. NOT.
then how come feds and cops have been indicted before? how come they were shot in NY and Ferguson? In being fair, it’s called giving BOTH sides the benefit of the doubt. It’s common courtesy.
I’m taking one guy’s word for it, backed up by the fact that he has *never actually been arrested.*
And also this is a widely known phenomenon that if you asked any black person about, they would confirm
but you do, if you dehumanize them and open them up to potential public danger. Death threats by themselves, are a form of challenge. My education system didn’t fail me, you’re just incredibly biased.
by the way, when you try to preach “equality,” how come I’m the one who’s calm, and you’re the one who’s attacking me with no evidence, just because you disagree? You’re not even being rational or calm…
You’re a nutbar. A racist, stupid nutbar.
and you’re an idiot kool-aid drinker.
never been arrested isn’t proof. A lot of people aren’t arrested for crimes they DID often commit.
statistics mean nothing. Blacks being arrested more often doesn’t denote a racist intent.
Yes, when the feds/cops ARE INDICTED, and ON TRIAL, they get the presumption of innocence. Not when they are on the prosecutions side. Christ, you are THICK.
no I actually look at every case with scrutiny, regardless of who’s the writer. It’s called analytical reading.
it wasn’t a question, it was rhetorical.
but as said, judgement is both in trial as well as through public opinion. if a court gives them the right to be given benefit of the doubt, why not give them it, before judging them publicly? it’s the same thing.
Like a whole bunch of cops right (non arrests for crimes they DID often commit)? If Black people are 5-10 times more likely to be “carded” what does that mean to you?
Who’s said that cops don’t commit crimes? All I’m stating is you can’t be certain that they did this time…
There’s nothing analytical about blindly accusing someone of being a criminal.
Reading this I’m reminded of all the times, as a First Nations person, I was followed, harassed, generally treated differently for no admissible reason other than “just because”. As a teen, I learned to simply accept that my white friends had to “sneak” into my community for a visit and that I was condemned to forever apologize for getting everything “free” (which isn’t true..but when you hear it so often you just nod and hope the other person shuts up)…anyhoo…even though I’ve never been carded, I can truly sympathize with your frustrations. Great article!
In a vacuum, no — but blacks being carded significantly more often than whites does.
only with context, however.
I suggest forming a community of men that have been experiencing this kind of treatment, to petition and lobby the powers that be to look into these matters. Form some sort of public awareness body, relentlessly and respectfully agitating for change. Change will not happen if you remain in isolation recounting and suffering mentally. Get together brothers and make the change happen. I’m so sorry to hear about what you have been going through my brother. God is able to do all things if you put your trust in Him, and invite Him to intervene. With God and Christ on your side, all things are possible. God’s guidance, peace and prosperity on you all my brothers, in Jesus name.
I didn’t say he definitively did, I’m just saying you can’t be certain he isn’t, without knowing the facts [for which one side only doesn’t account]
Religion has not helped and has probably hurt over the years. What is needed is organization, but I have a feeling they already exist, so find them and don’t reinvent the wheel.
They’ve (Desmond specifically, and others) actually been doing that for years. John Tory and the police board reaffirmed carding practice this week after numerous public meetings.
And God and Jesus have nothing to do with this; they’ve been letting racism run amok for literal centuries.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/04/16/toronto-police-board-passes-revised-carding-policy.html
That is the question, from my perspective. Make the senior cops explain why this approach is used. Use body cameras to gather data.
But that’s the thing: we can be certain. There are plenty of facts out there. It’s a fact that people of colour are four times more likely to get carded than whites — i.e. law enforcement are much more likely to target black and brown people; our skin colour inherently makes us more suspicious in the eyes of the police. This. Is. A. Problem.
Did you even read the article? You can’t put this on the victims!
but then, what’s wrong with having ID, on the other hand? I’m not in favor of carding, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still not fair to call a cop racist because he’s carrying out a procedure which is bureaucratic….
I guess you mean well, but it’s patronising. It does nothing for him.
The entire point of the carding program is that it requires no context; individuals are stopped at random by the police. If it was indeed a random process, people of all races would be carded equally. However, we know — based on empirical data — that this is not the case. Police have been targeting black and brown folks disproportionately. There is really only one reason why that is.
Thank you for writing this. Too many people still have their head firmly up their rear ends about what racialized youth go through in this country. It’s only because I have had the privilege to grow up with friends from different backgrounds that I have witnessed first hand what you collectively go through on a far more frequent basis than I can probably still yet imagine. Carding is revolting and needs to be stopped immediately.
I wish you had named and shamed those two bars so I could make sure I never step foot in them when I visit Toronto.
I’m saying that you don’t really know what happened in this case, by taking one guy’s word for it. I’m not saying he did look suspiciously and I’m not saying he didn’t. Simply, I am stating that don’t judge EITHER side without knowing an OBJECTIVE source’s side of it.
“pretty sure” – I thought you were the one accusing me of hypotheticals?
This isn’t about whether or not we should carry ID around. Not even close.
I’ve never said that people of color are looking suspiciously. Cole =/= all black people. I can, for instance, dislike Obama as a politician without being racist, and with all due respect, a lot of white people also look suspicious, but that doesn’t make me anti-white, because, well, I am white…
that’s what they’re being required to show, however. If they have it, what’s wrong with showing it? There’s nothing wrong with it – you have to, to vote and to buy alcohol, tobacco, etc.
If this was a story of a single incident, then I would be more inclined to agree with you. However, Mr. Cole describes decades worth of harassment, and strengthens his argument with empirical, 100% quantitative data.
Again, the carding program has been revealed to (to use your words) objectively be a failure. The statistics bare out the fact that it has developed into a racist policy. You can accept that — but you can’t accept an individual’s testimony of his experience with said racist policy? I don’t understand.
a lot of “cybercrime” cases are also overly pursued and abused, but it doesn’t make every case the same as one case. And again, being black and happening to have been stopped by it, doesn’t dictate it is a racist policy. Women also live longer than men, but I wouldn’t say that the Universe is “sexist…”
Sure. But, again, the data reveals that people of colour are targeted four times as often, right? Meaning that the police think people of colour are “suspicious-looking” four times as often. That’s a racist sentiment and is undeserving of support.
you’ve still put words in MY mouth: I’m not a cop, nor have I carded people, so by saying one person MIGHT’VE been suspicious doesn’t warrant putting words in my mouth.
Fair enough. He may have been referencing this report, though: http://globalnews.ca/news/991471/correctional-investigator-calls-on-prison-system-to-keep-up-with-diversity/
You’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t believe this one Black man despite the mountains of evidence showing that carding targets Black men.
I don’t believe it is clear that one case should be spoken because of some “statistic.” You were assuming what my intent had been, where it hadn’t been.
Firstly, this isn’t just one case; this is one individual experiencing many, many cases of carding and racial profiling.
Secondly, a single instance of a black man being stopped by the cops doesn’t necessarily dictate that it is a racist policy. However, years upon years worth of data does, in fact, indicate that carding is a racist policy.
Thirdly, that is the falsest of equivalencies.
I see you throw the word “statistics” in quotations. Tell me: what are your thoughts on the empirical data? Do you not trust it, or believe it?
I didn’t say it’s only one case: what I AM saying is: it’s still one case you’re judging because of what other cases have had happen. Just because it happened elsewhere doesn’t mean it happened here. I’m not saying it didn’t either, but no one can be sure from just ONE side of the story. I’m trying to put aside all other cases, and only look at this case, objectively, not subjectively.
Wouldn’t the context provided by the very real statistics help you to look at Mr. Cole’s experiences objectively? Nothing is more objective that quantitative data.
yet you’ve stated you’re not entirely sure from where it came.
I don’t trust any statistic provided for political purposes. Many, of both sides and of any color, are usually distorted.
I mentioned the Toronto Star investigate report several times. I also shared with you a link to a Global News article detailing a report on the incarceration rate of minorities in Canada. So, on the contrary, we do have sources.
they’re also media. Media is notoriously ….just … MEDIA….be skeptical in any “news” article.
So does the Toronto Star, or Howard Sapers, count as politically-motivated sources? Neither are on any side in particular.
but they are *A* side. Any side is threshold for bias.
The data used in the Toronto Star report was provided by the police themselves. Do you not trust the police data, either?
So you simply don’t trust anything or anybody, then.
not without clearly independent evidence from something OTHER THAN a political figure or newspaper.
just because they say that they got it from the police doesn’t mean they did.
and as said, raw statistics aren’t relevant without context, even if they WERE gotten from police.
Aaaand scene.
Amazing article. Really sucks to have to live in fear of the people who are supposed to “serve and protect” us.
I, too, went to Queen’s University but in the 90’s. I was dating a man from Sudan but living in Toronto. He experienced racism when he came to visit me. It was not ok then, and it’s definitely not ok now. I’m sorry that you’ve experienced this from those who are to serve and protect us. And thank you for sharing your story. It made me cry.
Thank you so much Desmond for sharing your experiences – I can imagine that they are incredibly painful to call up and write through. As a white woman, my experiences with enforcement officers could not be more disparate. I’ve even been waived through security at the airport after setting off the metal detector by explaining that it was probably my watch, which I had neglected to take off. No further inspection. Just a wink and a smile.
Anyone who thinks we live in a post-racial or post-colonial state lives a shuttered life. How can we be when we still have a statute in place called “The Indian Act”. Racialized people are living under a literal manifestation of the Foucaldian surveillance state. And it’s terrifying.
Us white folk need to do a better job of conveying our disgust with racist enforcement tactics and standing in solidarity with these brave people who live under constant threat of psychological violence.
Absolutely excellent article – thank you!
Yeah, barely two hours ago I was across the street heading to the corner store to get a pack of smokes. An elderly woman out front fell over, had a hard time getting up, but refused my help. I asked her if she was ok, she insisted she was fine, and seemed more embarrassed than anything. As I’m standing there, a cop car pulls up, the cop apparently saw it from from down the block and came over to help. The cop says “is everything ok?”. I replied “I don’t know, she fell over just now”. She (the cop) pulls down the the block to find a spot to park the cruiser, the old lady carries on around the corner, i go into the store for my smokes wondering if i’d done the right thing or whether there was more I could have done/could do.
I come out a minute later, the cop has caught up with the old lady and is trying to make sure she’s ok and her help, and now there’s some black guy standing there outside the store (about 20 metere back), looking on the cop/old lady situation muttering about “police harassment”, “this is bullshit:” and generally trying to incite other passers-by to be outraged like he is (in retrospect I should have said something to him, but instead i chose to ignore him).
So for that guy, a cop helping an old lady falls squarely in the “police harassment” column. I wonder if he’ll write an article or make a blog post about all the unfair police harassment he sees every day.
What is your point, Ham Sandwich? (See, I’m taking the approach you wish you had taken: saying something to you, rather than choosing to ignore you.)
This kind of crap is why it’s so eyeroll-inducing that Toronto’s First Black Police Chief™ apparently doesn’t see carding as such a big deal.
Assuming we’re not all dead of old age first.
This may just take the prize for “most obtuse response not posted by an obvious troll.” End justifies the means? Straw person? False equivalence? Unwarranted assumptions? You’ve got enough logical fallacies in this short couple of paragraphs for a goddamn bingo card.
Thanks Desmond. Wow. Your story is seriously depressing.
As a Canadian born, brown woman, I relate to some what you’ve written – particularly the parts about getting followed in Holt Renfrew (or any store).
But as painful as it is to read your accounts, I cannot imagine actually living it. I just can’t.
Ya, I was reading it kinda thinking the same thing. I’m like – is he serious or is he patronizing or is he just socially awkward.
My point is, take all this with a grain of salt. People see what they want to see. So don’t take their word for it.
This is the article that the police union tried to put an injunction on? I don’t trust the cops. I’m white, I have 2 kids. Live midtown. picket fence. I think the union makes them corrupt.
So every white male(and a few women) I ever knew from Toronto (and cop relative) has gone through these same things as Cole!! Repeatedly! WHO HASN’T?? Three times a year at parties, there is a 1/4ly running story of being pulled over and questioned numerous times by the cops!! AND taken in to sober up for one. Everyone else have done nothing wrong ever & yet…….were stopped and questioned coz of break ins or some rot! We teach our white kids to stop, stay still and be respectful to cops & for gosh sakes…DO NOT EVER yell and try to explain to a cop YELLING AT YOU!! You can explain you did nothing wrong ,better without a bullet in you!! Oh and wives are being followed in stores as well, c’mon!! We only bitch to our closest girlfriend coz of the embarrassment, but happens to okay -dressed whitey too! LOTS Sheesh`I did make an example of a guy who followed me around years ago and was right behind me and sniffed that sweater was $400.00 NOT $40.00 I purchased it and then immediately returned it-everything charged had 2B filled out by hand then!…….. Cole,when a white person says they do not see colour..BELIEVE THEM!! It IS true and never a condescending act! Your whole being screams at you that you are black and I could never get up every morning and look in the mirror and see a “colour”and then “me” after! A black relation did that~depressing and extremely selfish! Spend all their energy looking for imagined slights and bloody nano aggression like an OCD!! Very unhappy…See white people in the middle of festivals of non-white’s culture-not caring if only white people there as having fun!. …..You have no idea if a woman who avoids you has been abused or any other person’s experience! It is NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!!
You rule. You’re my personal hero, an inspiration.
Always putting into words the things I wish I had the energy to express.
There has been no other person who captures how I feel, being a person of colour, living in North America. This more than resonates.
The traveller came upon a monk and asked what kind of people are in Toronto, where I am moving to? The Monk asked what kind of people were there, from where you came from? Oh they were liars, scammers, takers says the traveller. Oh, well said the Monk, There are liars, scammers and takers in Toronto! Another traveller came across the Monk and asked what kind of people would he find in Toronto? What kind of people did you leave the Monk asked. They were kind, generous, down-to-eath said the traveller. Oh Well said the Monk, you will find kind, generous, down-to-earth people in Toronto! (I know, old one~couldn’t help it!)
I am white canadian, but I HATE our racist nazi cops- I am law-abiding, peaceful, quiet, respectful yet every encounter I have had they proved themselves to be despicable shameless liars. Something about the injustice of racism makes me seethe with rage. It is a good thing Im not black, Id be dead long by now- I honestly dont know how you deal with it.
It’s just a sh-ty country that needs a long hard look in the mirror.
How do you know?
Well stated. Thank you for sharing your experiences with readers. I think it’s incumbent on our generation to put pressure on our government at all levels, as well as the law enforcement community to let them know we need to see a systemic change in how community safety is addressed in this city and province. This is an issue of broad provincial interest, regardless of race/religion/country of origin. It’s very scary to think how close we could be to an American model of law enforcement, racial profiling (already underway) and excessive/unwarranted use of force. You don’t address community safety and security by systematically demeaning, belittling and stigmatizing persons from select communities. You slowly erode the sense of community and sense of confidence people have in the enforcement community. Not where we want to go at all if the intent is to uphold public confidence in policing and keep communities engaged. Keep up the great work in bringing this issue to the forefront, Mr. Cole.
“WHO HASN’T??”
Me. And every one of my white friends I’ve asked. To my knowledge, none of us have ever been randomly stopped on the street by the police. (Frankly, I’ve been too much of a chickenshit to ask my black friends.)
I’ve lived in downtown Toronto for 30 years, sometimes in high crime neighbourhoods. I owned an new home on Poulett Street, a laneway one block from Regent Park, before the area was redeveloped. I’ve had to call the police on several occasions to report break-ins, drug dealing, prostitutes turning tricks in my back yard and other crimes in progress. I’ve witnessed other men walking near me being briefly stopped and questioned by police (seemingly at random) exactly as Cole describes while I have never experienced it myself.
I have no doubt that I’m presumed innocent while white and that everything Cole describes about carding is true.
(And I sincerely doubt that “every white male…you ever knew” has been carded by Toronto Police. Your HYPERBOLE!! gives you away.)
Aside from the racism shown by the cops, his experience exposes the complete lack of endeavor, intelligence and investigative ability of street-cops. When I lived in Vancouver (in the ’90’s!!) the cops routinely questioned long-haired “white” people, Asian men with flash
cars and Native people. I was told almost exactly the same thing as Desmond one night when a cop drove his car onto the sidewalk, almost pinning me to a wall to prevent my “escape”: In Desmond’s words:
“II summoned the courage to ask why he was doing this. “There’s been some suspicious
activity in the area,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. Then he said I could go. Another time, an officer stopped me as I was walking home from a movie. When I told him I wasn’t carrying ID, he twisted his face in disbelief. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Sir, it’s important that you always carry identification,” he said, as if he was imparting friendly
advice”
Lucky for me, I ended the harassment by cutting my hair.
We need better cops.
The experience of Cole (and his father’s fears) suggests that refusing to.cooperate with police may not end well, especially if there are no independent witnesses.
If it were truly that simple, black parents would be teaching their kids to just stand up for their rights.
White bystanders should be the ones standing up to the cops when they see black men being stopped at random.
Toronto – home of ridiculously lefty Now magazine, old, lying hippies, and free-thinking millennial hipsters – is incredibly P.C. and uptight. This is why I find it surprising that many people – that anyone at all, actually – would ask, “Where are you really from?”. And cops everywhere are cops, but Toronto cops are infamous. Anyone, especially someone running for public office, should have been aware of this. Finally, initially I was skeptical of the “over 50 times” claim but, as I recall being stopped in Japan 7 times in six years (I am white, but they believe “foreigners” – non-Japanese- cause all crime there), I can imagine it would add up over a lifetime.
“The fact of the matter is” is a dead giveaway that an unsubstantiated opinion will immediately follow.
Can u say multi-cultural bigots??
You persevered much longer than I would have. Trying to reason with willful ignorance is futile.
Well,
At least the writer didn’t get gunned down in the street like a dog.
I’ve never said Canada is without issues or without its problems. These facts are manifest.
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been sure to pester the relevant authorities with your story.
This is bovine feculence and will not go unnoticed.
My heart goes out to you, but don’t for a moment deny your ethnicity. Black is Beautiful, any shade, light to black – God created us all in his image. Stay strong Young Brother!!
Great article. It’s hard for me as a white male to fully understand what it is you go through, but the incidents you described are unimaginable. No one should ever have to go through life in fear, especially from the very people who are supposed to be protecting us. This really put things in perspective for me. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for writing this article! It opened my eyes to a reality that I didn’t think existed in Toronto. I am originally from Montreal, and my friend who still live there, was sharing a similar story with me recently, and I told him that it was probably specific to Quebec as it would not happen in Toronto…apparently, I was wrong big time. It is very sad.
When a Toronto Police Board-appointed lawyer, asked Toronto Police Services how many times they used carding information in a successful police investigation, the answer was ZERO.
Try being black in Vancouver, Edmonton, anywhere for that matter Canada is as discriminatory as anywhere and the shame is it happened my entire life all over Canada to myself a woman young girl, to my friends. Canadians are more covert about their racism that is the only difference from the many other Countries I have lived or visited.
I have had many disagreements with Canadians on social media during the black lives matter campaigns glad to see more people are shining a light on the darkness pun intended.
I am in Australia currently and as racist as I find some at least they are not in denial they are very out spoken about their dislike of many races deplorable as it is at least they do not pretend.
Stop the colour blind line it is ridiculous unless you legitimately are even then you can see black and white. It’s a pathetic attempt to prove you are not racist. If you are not you have nothing to prove.
I love the “oh your not that dark line as well.”(Sarcasm)
Desmond, consider getting a Go-Pro and start recording these events. Make this a case study and shed some serious light on this. I grew up just north of Toronto in Richmond Hill, and this hits very, very close to home for me.
Stay angry good sir, and channel it to a positive result. I hope you are happy with what you read from the police report, although I suspect you’ll be disappointed and infuriated. Make a difference Desmond.
Easy buddy. Don’t lump all Canadians in as a generic hand wave with your blanket statements. It’s not like you’re French. :)
We still have so far to go. There is no justice and this prejudice is so invisible to white people, generally. You are beautiful. You are a physically beautiful, gorgeous person and an exceptional writer. Keep doing what you’re doing. More people need to read this.
I agree that Kingston has alot of bigotry to offer. I remember hearing about the harassment of Mr. Cole and ‘Sara’ over a decade ago, through the Kingston activist rumor mill. The Kingston Police Force has at times admitted to a policy of racial profiling and a quota system. I’m not sure if this is still the case.
As for women crossing the street when I walk by…I’m a white male and it happens all the time!
This doesn’t just apply to black people. I’m brown skinned (Canadian born & raised; my folks are from Pakistan). Desmonds story is that of my own. It was a bit painful to read. When I was younger, I’d blame white people. By the time I hit my mid 30’s I realized it wasn’t a racial problem. Every race has its share of morons who like to judge others based on a persons skin color, religion, the way they dress and yes…even in this day and age….their sexuality. The truth is we like to think of ourselves as “evolved” but stories like this prove we still have a long long way to go.
It’s awful that Mr Cole gets so much prejudiced attention from police. I wonder if visible minorities realize that *everyone* fears them, at least some… I’m about as white as possible, and so don’t get harassed, but I certainly do whatever I can to stay away from proximity or scrutiny…
It would be great if we could cure prejudice, but that won’t be happening any time soon. The least we can do is demand our public servants to behave better: the kind of behavior Desmond describes isn’t helping public safety. Crime rates are at historic lows, so why do we need invasive, pervasive “law enforcement”? Even if it did raise crime rates slightly, I’d rather not have a menacing, potentially dangerous police force.
Desmond – an incisive, brutally honest article about carding and profiling. thank you. from a Parkdale resident and lover.
This right here is what its like to be a black man in this westernized world. Clearly the war on black boys isn’t only in america. Black people have to stick together and be strong. A new revolution has begun .
I remember the day my friend and his children stayed over at my place in Kingston on their way to the jazz festival in Montreal. In the morning, he went to his vehicle to gather some belongings. The cops showed up and placed him in the back of their cruiser. When he demanded to know why they were holding him, they said they had a report of a suspicious black man in the area. His ancestors actually hail from India, so I guess Kingston police consider anyone with any amount of pigment “black” and worthy of intense scrutiny. They also gave him a very hard time about not carrying his wallet and he thinks that the only reason they did not cart him off was that his cap matched the logo on the side of his van. Even worse, instead of allowing him to retrieve his wallet from our place, they questioned him for around 30 minutes while they ran background checks. This never once happened to me or any of my friends with European ancestry. I have also witnessed Kingston police cars pulling up beside black youth to question them while leaving the white youth to go their merry way. No racial profiling my as$. I also noticed a distinct difference when crossing the border with any non-white Canadian, especially one with an accent. The increased level of suspicion, scrutiny and hostility displayed by the border guards was are real wake-up call for me. I have no doubt of the veracity of everything Desmond has written and I hope that he can internalize the fact that he is 0% at fault for any of this. Furthermore, I am jealous of his eloquence. Wish I could express myself that well.
What a horrid way to be treated by the Authorities. That said, I can understand anyone’s reluctance to question why they are being stopped. To question the authority of the Police is just asking for trouble….no matter what colour you are. A person could end up shot or dead.
Sad! Makes me angry! I have different friends who are black Canadians, some born here , some immigrants!
I live in Burnqby B.C.! Some of the dancers qt pub i go to are black. Fortunately they didn’t have a problem & enjoyed their evening to a live band.
It’s not. (The number, true.)
Great article. I think this is a bigger problem than just the police. This is a societal problem. The police are governed by our laws and policies. Our laws and policies are written by our politicians. Our politicians are voted in by our society.
Desmond, when people look at you, they see what the police see… From the cashier at Safeway to the Judge in Court; They see the colour of your skin before anything else (which is extremely unfortunate).
I hope this ignites change in people so that our kids can grow up together in a non-prejudicial society where everyone is truly equal.
We should exprience the same thing cause were both black right? ive lived in toronto for 36 years ive been everywhere and done just about everything and yr experience baffles me, ive never experienced any not even one of things you mentioned in your entire story, so whats the difference with yr life and mine if its just about being black and these things automatically just happens to you, never been stopped or questioned or pulled over by police for no reason never been followed in a store or denied service anywhere for anything, so why is yr story so different fr mine if its just about being black.i know these things do happen and sorry for yr experience, im still trying to connect the dots.
This was fascinating and horrifying; I think it was one of the most important things I’ve read in a long time. I would endlessly express my outrage on your behalf, but I actually think it might be more beneficial to discuss the points of intersection and relation that I noticed as I was reading. I hope you will hear me out, and understand that I am not trying to say we’re equally disadvantaged. I’ve been FAR more privileged by being white than I can even begin to appreciate. But I really have to say, there was so much that reminded me of what it’s like to be a visible female in public.
When you mentioned W.E.B. Du Bois’s insight about “double-consciousness”, it reminded me strongly of how I, in walking down Queen street or in that same area south on Bathurst that you mentioned, have both been conscious of my own mind and of the reductive, hateful way I’m perceived by male strangers. I value my walks at night since they’re emotionally valuable times to process my thoughts, but that reflective state is almost impossible to maintain because of how male strangers will feel free to comment on my body, importune me for attentions, or threaten me simply for being audacious enough to be in public.
Reading your article, I felt a strong kinship because I know what it’s like to feel like you’re being punished simply for exercising your freedom to be in public. The fear that you describe being around cops made me feel sick in an empathetic way. “Will they decide to arrest me?” reminded me of how sometimes I’ll wonder “Will they decide to attack me?” when I’m walking home alone, even in the seemingly-safe Annex.
Or that time you just wanted to go write somewhere? I’ve done that too, and an aggressive stranger has approached me and made me so scared and angry that no further writing is going to get done. And I wonder, what would he have written that night if that asshole cop hadn’t made him feel like a criminal? We’ll never know, and that pisses me off. They invade on your mind, spirit, and corrupt your ability to lose yourself in thought when they intrude onto your evening with assumptions and ignorance. Everyone deserves the space to relax and transcend, and both sexism and racism prevent either women or visible minorities from enjoying the same peace of mind that the rest of the world gets to enjoy in public spaces.
I hope that my expressing these feelings of kinship is not offensive to you– I just want you to know you have an ally who also knows what it’s like to feel powerless, have your fate in the hands of someone else’s entitlement. To wonder if your biological surface identity is going to be the only justification someone needs to treat you like an animal.
As a white person, I didn’t realize how uncomfortable I was talking about race until I saw an article entitled “White People Are Uncomfortable Talking about Race”. I realized that was true about myself– as erudite and intelligent as I could be on many other subjects, race is a topic that I feel squeamish about for several reasons. First of all, it doesn’t matter what a smarty-pants know-it-all I am– I can’t offer anything to the discussion that I trust to be truthful. Any insight I offer could actually be ignorant, and I wouldn’t know. Anything I think is sensitive and empathetic could actually be hypocritical. Secondly, I’ll never know what obstacles I was spared in being white. I had a lot of disadvantages growing up– picture how well Hermione Granger would have fit in in a potato-farmer elementary school. And yet despite knowing what it’s like to be bullied every day, I still am aware that I must have been spared some challenges just by not being black as well as weird.
I think my point is, I don’t want to pretend for a second that we have quantifiably comparable experiences. But perhaps it’s important to look at the similarities between sexism and racism. They’re both irrational prejudices adopted by a more powerful demographic that cause fear, outrage, and even self-rebuke. We both end up wondering “Am I doing something wrong? Are they right? Do I deserve this?” Both include victim-blaming, and a sense of the part of the individual that they are transgressing just by being visible.
I wrote this response to let you know that this was so important for me to read. It will help me be aware of how to be a better ally; your rhetoric will empower me to speak more confidently against racism without feeling like an ignorant intruder. I WANT to be an ally, and I think identifying these points of intersection between our experiences will help me do so sensitively and more effectively. Thank you so much for sharing.
This is a beautifully written and heartbreaking article, and unfortunately not surprising. No matter how much we claim to be a cultural and ethnic mosaic, there are many prejudices and biases that persist about people of certain ethnic and religious groups. We should be ashamed to take pride in multiculturalism, because true multiculturalism would mean actually connecting with each other regardless of race or religion or social strata, NOT pretending we don’t look different or practice different religions. Unfortunately for some minorities, such as those who are Black, it’s not simply an inconvenience or irritation at an ignorant statement, it actually has far-reaching implications for the way you live your life. Please keep writing and keep talking about this. The worst I’ve ever had to deal with is being told that people may not hire me because they think I have an accent they won’t like (Indian) and one woman who asked if I was Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter and told me that I looked like him (his daughter is blond and fair I am brown-skinned with black hair). More of a funny story I tell my friends, and relatively tiny in comparison with your quite traumatic experiences. There are pleasantly few people on this comment thread insisting it is all in your head, but the more we talk about it, the more awareness we spread. Change takes time, generations even, but it doesn’t mean we should give up on it.
This is why we must smash white supremacy and capitalism!!!
I dont know why the police stop black and brown people more often that white people. After all, look at all the white people shooting up the city! Oh my bad, they aren’t. Why is it so shocking that police are out talking to people in the most at risk neighbourhood? The ones which have a higher population of black and brown folks. It sounds to me like Mr Cole’s father was racist himself. When you expect to have a negative reaction with someone based on the colour of their skin, I’d say you’re part of the problem. Black or white. Everyone needs to relax on the race issue and realize we don’t live in the US. Thanks to the Toronto star and the rest of the media for making an issue out of absolutely nothing, and driving a wedge between people in this city.
Look in the mirror, if your head isn’t permanently stuck in the sand: you are the problem.
Until this article, most of Toronto didn’t care about carding and was ready to let John Tory and the police continue with their profiling and harassment. “Not all Canadians” is inappropriate here.
This isn’t about you being black.. It’s about those idiots that pull you over that can’t get get past the 1930s. There’s nothing wrong with you at all, Mr. Cole. This is all on them.
What a racist liar!!Not only a liar but he plagiarizes the title,,”The skin i’m in” form an admitted plagiarist.Yeah 50 times?,if true then must be a reason,could it be you have the always pissed off look?As seen on the telleee when your going off on the police?
Looks like you have too much black privilege to me.
Deleted?..When the truth comes out it gets deleted?Bunch of whiny racists.
Mr Cole is a lying plagiarizing racist..i just proved it.
Da skinz i’s in…lol RACIST!!!Where you taught by marxist jews in skool?.
Liar Liar pants on fire…i bet you got that pissed off look,are you sucking through your teeth?
Blacks are carded at 5x the rate as compared to the whiteman?..seeing as they commit 20x the crimes and 1000x plus the rapes there seems to be a discrepancy in these heah percentages of black carding,the police ain’t doin day jobs.
Oh by the way,the whiteman built the pyramids in Egypt and was the first in North America 12 thousand years ago.Looks like the secrets out.
My Condo building was recently broken into. It took 5 days for the police to show up the first time. The next day the criminal was found in our lobby and the police called once again with a resident updating them while chasing the perp for 5 blocks. 3 hours later the police showed up. Both times they complained that they were just too busy to come onsite any sooner. They have time for this racist BS though.
Was he black?..the odds are he was!..seeing as they’re 2.5% of the population.
Quick,quick,delete the truth before everyone reads.
We post the truth,you can’t handle the truth.
Our white history would take 2 thousand books of the size of encyclopedic largess to show everything we’ve accomplished in technology,sciences etc: what you got that needs a whole month of black history every year?..nothing,i ‘ll save you the energy.
I love being white..God made the white man in his image..notice all our advancements and brilliance? who made the black man in his image?…seeing as there’s not 1 claim of anything advanced in sciences or anything for that matter we all know the answer too this one…SATAN…yeah i’ma racist and i’m Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Thank you for writing this. White people have no idea how it is or how it feels. Its outrageous that this Nazi-like behaviour is condoned. I hope Mark Saunders stops this practice!
It’z the nazi fascists appearing to come to save the black man.
Yeah stopping carding is gonna save the black man.
We have no idea how it is or how it feels?ahhh yes the old marxist feely.
30-40 thousand white women are raped by blacks in the USA,now these are only those that press charges..so in actuality it’s much more…how many white men rape black sisters in the USA?…0 that’s right children zero!..when that one white boy goes off his meds and rapes a sister we’ll all know about it,the media will claim it’s an epidemic…we are here and you will not win with you marxist secrecy. we have had enough.
I live and work in Kingston and as a white male have never had to feel the indignity or disrespect that you have faced, I can only imagine what humiliation and fear you must have felt.
We are all brothers, the sooner society understands that the better we will all be.
If you are ever back in Kingston please look me up (I am easy to find), I would like to buy you lunch…
See not all whitemen are racist!!!..yeah we get it you marxist liar.
Yeah we all brothers?..not according to DNA studies we ain’t,,unless your talking about the asians you silly caucasian.
Why would he ever go back to that racist Kingston?Haven’t you read all the problems he had in Kingston?
Watch all the white guilt avatars start appearing…one works at the the human rights commission no doubt
Clovis man,they lying to you
Thank you Mr. Cole for an eloquent if highly disturbing piece. Required reading for EVERY law enforcement officer, and for that matter every citizen who thinks we really live in a fully open democracy. I am trying to share this story as widely as my networks allow – this needs to be better understood by those of us (i.e. white) who have no idea what it is really like, even in our “progressive” cities.
Hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaaaaaaa why no asian make noisy noisy bout racist YT?..could it be the IQ?
Yeah it was disturbing alright..as soon as he appears in any city there’s rampant racism and he getting attacksd by the evil whiteman..or did you mean the fact that he plagiarized the title “da skins i’s in”???
Clearly not YOUR IQ….
I have lived in North America now for over 25 years including a few years in Alabama. Not once was I stopped by the cops, so this experience as documented is unfathomable for me and must be debilitating for any human being. Crime correlates with poverty, petty crime correlates with utter poverty. Race and Poverty correlates even in Toronto. So conflating race with crime and thus focussing crime prevention by dehumanizing Black men is utter bankruptcy of our morals. This is disgusting and for the new Police chief to talk about “collateral damage” as opposed human dignity being damaged is cowardice.
I wish i was black and starving,dying of disease in africa,then i could go to a nice white country”i know,you’ll all whine,but remember it is a white country cuz we were here first”
and then i could claim all this black porivelage and turn it around and claim oppression by white privelage.would be interesting….
I liked the part about “wile e coyote” I think?? don’t quote me though cuz i ain’t sure.
Listen,dehumanizing black men?..you mean like if my house is over run with roaches i should go and buy a mouse trap?..so the powleese should just card whitemen?
“crime correlates with poverty”,,i think poverty and crime correlate with low IQ..for example,the highly intelligent asians are getting along just fine in our wonderful country.as opposed to the lower IQ’s of the black man…but i better not type this cuz it’s racist.
Desmond, I have no doubt (or surprise) at your experience and would also be extremely angry at these ‘interactions’. I don’t doubt that your skin colour gets you an extreme amount of ‘police attention’, but it’s a mistake to think that it’s only black people who have negative experiences such as you describe. For what it’s worth, I’ve always advised my children much as your father did… the police may be wrong or offensive or aggressive but they have guns and friends and they will win any confrontation. My advice has been to suck it up and deal with it later. I’m old enough to recall when true community policing existed (there were always abuses, of course, as the words “Cherry Beach” will evince) but police officers mostly lived with the people they served and knew people because they were actually part of the community. Now we are all strangers and treat each other as strangers. Too bad.
Thanks for letting us know, was looking at Queens as a potential for a University for my kids. Not anymore.
I think ole desi is lying.50X..must be a reason,,cmon 50x..he must take a course in “smiling”..instead of the course he took in black grimacing,maybe it wasn’t a course but they just snuck it in on him?…i say we start a fund for poor ole desi..we’ll call it the Smile Dsi fund.cmon let’s help out a brother.
That;s what’s needed”Cherry Beach”.i knew a lot of Portuguese friends that ended up in cherry beach..and they all admitted they deserved it.i mean cmon,one took a dump on a cruiser once,he couldn’t take a dump for a week after that little cherry beach vacay.
You are an asshole.
Obviously, it is not fun for Cole to get scrutinized, but don’t blame it on racism. Blame it on the fact that too many members from the black community commit crimes.
Cole himself say that he has developed a negative attitude about the mainstream community because of his past experiences. If that is reasonable, then why is it unreasonable for the the mainstream community to have a heighten sense of alertness when dealing with an unknown member of the black community?
What ever happened to that racist plagiarizer?..you all know him?he worked as a big boss in the school system?..did they take away his nursing title?..yeah teaching white children hatred of their own race was a no no.Someone must snitched about his incompetence.
Yeah,we really don’t like them..i for one can’t stand even looking at them and all the vitriol and lies they make up.
You were here first??? Your grasp of history is as abysmal as your attitude. You are a disgrace to those of us who really are “proud” white men.
Now i must go to work,i have to pay these slave electricity bills the marxists are planning for the whiteman,,,blacks continue as usual about your oppression and living without seeing a bill.we’ll take care of it.your all welcome for the food,freedom,medical,and all the rest.enjoy yourselves.
Oh that’s the best you can do?..not a truther?.it’s all true and can be proven in a court of law.
They should also have metal detectors at the eaton centre…check every black man that displays that whitey is out to get me grimace.
Delet,delete…let all the BS stay..it ain’t going to work…we know who the enemy is.they figured it out in the USA and we have figured it out in Canada,you will loose.
No wrong answer..you must have been educated by marxists..i mean brainwashed by the marxists.
Don’t judge us by our skin colour..ohhhhh never mind.,,another quote by a womanizing plagiarist that got to deep in the marxist brainwashing.
Yeah it’s heartbreaking that only the black no matter where he is is always oppressed. Where are the indians today,they need a piece of this racist pie.
I say every black man should be installed with a camera,as soon as they’re born,slap one on.Oh and bill it’s mother,i was gonna say daddy but then the whiteman would have to bring up the payment outstanding.
Throw away your chains man and leave this oppressive city..stick it to the honky cracker the mfukcer!
Actually all the oppressed black men should leave this racist sheithole and really stick it to the man!!!!!!
I’m trying to wrap my head around your bigotry and the irony of calling this man a, “grimacing racist” as you continue to post unnecessary hate speech all over this article’s comment section.
Hate is good for you..you haven’t read the studies?
I know that this is a serious article but your user name and avatar are hilarious.
Now i must go take a desi.way too many tacos last night.or is tacos now considered racist?
Great post. I totally agree. I would like to think that perhaps more community engagement in these communities will occur under the new police chief.
There will be problems” he said at the police conference.oh there’s gonna be problems alright.we have had enough.we taxpayers are pissed off.
As an African-Canadian man and a fellow Torontonian, this experience is not a surprise to me. Like Desmond, I’m deeply saddened by it when I think of how we like to look at Toronto and perhaps Canada as a post-racial utopia. That is categorically, false.
For people who are not aware of this, I wonder if privilege, indifference or a combination of both accounts for your view. Know that we are not there yet. Racism is a terrible psychological disease that’s inhuman. To think some people are more accepting and loving of animals than they are of other humans from other ‘races’ should put it in perspective for you.
Let’s love more…
Yeah “racism is a terrible psychological disease” don’t worry we have our brightest white scientists working on a cure,and a couple asians,won’t be long now and you can set yourself free of these chains,we’ll figure it out.
“African Canadian”..really?..your a ungrateful african at best period.
Never fear doing something that is lawful, otherwise you do not deserve the rights and freedoms you possess.
Another traitor that doesn’t deserve the rights and freedoms afforded to them.
This article is frightening and eye-opening. I admit that in the past I have mostly thought of this kind of systemic racism as more of an American problem than a Canadian problem. But I’ve been reading this perspective more and more. It is a problem here, and I have no idea how we can begin to work for change. Will Mark Saunders, the new Toronto Police Chief, be able to tackle this?
Thank you for sharing. You’ve been treated terribly and it makes me angry and sad to hear further evidence that this is happening in my country.
Cops scare me too and I’ve only been stopped three times in Canada and all when I was a teenager (teenagers also apparently are automatically suspect). I can’t even begin to imagine how nervous and jumpy all that pressure would make one over time.
I know that most cops are probably not bad, but isn’t it awful that we live in a world where cops are scary instead of comforting?
I have worked in a number of large retail stores in Nova Scotia, Georgia and Toronto. I am proud of the fact that my Toronto store seems to be colour blind in our approach to customers, who represent the the rich cultural mix of downtown Toronto. In fact, when one newish employee was identified as someone who was uncomfortable with this, he was outed by his colleagues and no longer works there
I can’t say the same for the other businesses in other cities I ave worked in. My experiences as a manager watching our business – which was the target of thefts through break-ins, smash and grabs and shop lifting, taught me something about the reality of visible minorities. All of the serious thefts – the ones that had people put in police cars in handcuffs in the middle of the night – and almost all of the shop lifting was carried out by white people. The ratio was likely even higher than the ratio of whites to blacks living in the city. Yet many employees on the floor would immediately be on guard if a couple of young black males entered. I was even told that the young men looked “suspicious”. I would explain to the staff that this didn’t jive with reality.
Perhaps Desmond’s story sheds some light on why they may have felt uncomfortable or even angry as they picked up the vibes that they were being watched. It was easy for white employees to remember the one or two thieves of colour and to become alerted through the obvious marker that Desmond is describing. Very few of the employees would identify as prejudiced – but the fact of their behavior could not be denied.
The person who commented that this was not because Desmond is black, but because he lives in a society such as he describes has nailed it – and it runs deep. I will note that in a very general sense, the intermingling of cultures in this city seems much more comfortable and mutually accepting than any other place I have lived – but this piece tells us that we have a very, very long road to travel. Perhaps the new police chief can move us a step or two forward.
Yeah yeah white people are thieves..BS..percentage wise your lying now step away from the library keyboard.Another liar.
Any more feel good stories about the always oppressed desi in whichever city the poor dear finds himself in?I rally have to take a shit and don’t want to miss anything cuz the marxist sensors are deleting all these great poor black stories….oh wait.nevermind.
Booooo…are you now frightened even more..actually you marxists are really scary that you think all this time we been sitting back without a plan.
Yeah he’ll be tackling this here,he’s the road runner or wile e coyote,or he;’s ahhhhhhhhhh actually i don’t think he has a clue how to tackle all this white privilege,or white,ahhhhhhh damn i really have to take a shit!!!
Well Desmond has written all I have .experienced as a Blackman since being stopped by the police since 1978 to present. Back in ’78 up to the early ’90s as a black man you could raise some concern with the officer about his approach and most times then it end in your favor. Now a days some times young black youths get abused and charged and lied on by these policemen and women. I must say, I still get stopped occasionally by the police, however I don’t let it bother me much. The comment by spqr_ca said it best of my reaction to them when they stop me for no reason.
Starved for attention?
Thank you so much for saying something that matters. This is one of the most relevant articles I have read in a long time. How can we save the world if nobody is giving us the proper tools to save one another.. We all deserve to be treated as if we bleed the same and feel the same pain, the color of your skin should not ever be a justification to treat someone any differently.
Are you?..Oh the oppression!!!! so much oppression in these evil,evil,evil white lands that they come in floating on doors.
Yay desi!!!! a kind of Barack i black,i black,i black “She would cross the street when a black man approached”Obama.
Of course his grandma would cross the street seeing as there were 3 black men in all of hawaii and 2 were in prison.
Yeah thank you Desi you racist.Now it’ll be required reading for every white cracker…hey what happens if we refuse this refuse?..will we be brought up before the hate commission that’s run by the grey people? don’t be fooled crackers,they ain’t white they’re grey.
A nice gold star for you.
Access to information of all the crime and rape and everything else by race that we’re not allowed to talk about?I doubt he’d do that…
Yeah don’t worry, the police soon won’t be taking any sheiet from these professional race hustlers here and in the USA.
The rulers here,and main stream media are from the soviet union,or at least just act that way…FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t i tell you you could leave once already and stick it to the evil whiteman?..must be the moderators deleting the truth.
Once again every black child should be slapped with a camera when born and the mother givin the bill,i was going to say father but seeing as they just fukem and leavem,unlike even the lowest animal..hey they’re insects!the whiteman would be given the bill so let baby momma pay.
i have to edit this:::Disregard the bill to the welfare baby momma…the whiteman would just end up paying for it through payroll taxes…we should have a community meating and figure something out.
Yeah i can see all the eye rolling, a white community leader?..Me acommunity leader…hey why not?..what’s good for the goose is good for the gander newfoundland..i bet desi would be harassed in newfoundland real good..go desi break your record!!!!
They will shoot you if your hands are in your pocket
Thank you for sharing your experiences and spotlighting the persistent racial issues we still need to address.
“The grey people”? Are you referring to space aliens? Weird…
Anyway, this hate-troll’s pollution of the comment section is further evidence that racism remains pervasive in this city. Thank you, hate-troll, for demonstrating that bigotry is indeed alive and well in Toronto.
it’s better not to engage with trolls. His jealousy of Des is transparent and embarrassing
“too many black men are “known” through a foggy lens of suspicion we’ve done nothing to earn”
As individuals, that can be true. I had a good jazz musician friend who was on the receiving end of suspicion because of his race.
On an aggregate level, you have to realize that black males have WELL earned a reputation for being more prone to violent crime. The FBI stats in the United States are very clear that blacks are massively over-represented in violent crime, particularly inter-racial crime.
Those stats are also an under-estimate, since they only track a subset of actual crimes. For instance, there were no less than 14 major malls shut down by rioting black people during the past holiday season. Despite tens of thousands of participants smashing stores, looting, fighting and firing guns, there were only something like 10 charges. Hence, only 10 potential entries in crime statistics, for thousands of actual crimes.
In Toronto, black males are massively over-represented in gun crime.
I just seen the racist desi on city 24,i don’t think the host believed any of the supposed oppression that continually follows this racist from city to city.
Desmond thank you for telling it like it is. Your experiences rings very true to me as I’ve experienced similar racial intolerance. It never ceases to amaze me how people that arent black feel that they can tell me how I should feel living and experiencing what it is to be black in Toronto…. Jerry Agar are you listening?
This is Toronto and not 1968 in South Africa so I don’t see why I need to be carded. It’s great to see the Dr King’s dream still lives, hopefully someday we will get to the point where we truly are judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin.
Foggy lens? is dat kinda like a eoropean lens when they realized they could’t compete with whitey and the asians in our skool system? and claimed racism through some eurolens,cuz math is racistya know when they created that fraud of a afrohocentric skool? whatever happened to the afrohighskool? you all remember,6 teachers 2 principals and 5 students..for our math challenged,that equals welfare fraud.
Just looked up the fraser report and looks like they doing really,really bad.bringing up the back,i also notice that last year they were 7.9 and all of a sudden they down to 3.2…and the other years are blank,hmmmm must got caught cooking the books like in Atlantas skool system..oooops that makes me racist.Actually they should find a low IQ well tanned asian”won’t be easy” and bring up that report card for next year
I grew up in toronto..33division cops used to belittle black people in front of crowds of white children…hell beat blacks all the time…threatened there immigration status if they talked.even murdered and they only got moved to other divisions…its small town philosophy ..”there here taking advantage of the welfare system” cops always have reasons to hate people…bullies… and they just get moved to different communities to tone it down…so to speak…since the introduction of the young offenders act…cops beat children as young as 6yrs old…i could go on for hours…sickening…but you just have to remember this…this is canada…not the U.S.A. we have no unalienable rights
To what extent do you think this is largely about Canada aping its wildly popular big bro, America? The gun crimes we see are more about lower-class/inner-city demographics than about ethnicity. Black communities in the suburbs are not disproportionately found in the crime book. So when you say ‘black males are massively overrepresented in violent crime’; how confident are you that the application is valid to Canada? I haven’t had anything near the kind of police attention this guy has, but more of my meagre sample size happened in rich areas (where I ostensibly stick out) than in the poor areas (where I’m more likely to be caught in crossfire). Do you think urbanity (and its downstream issues) are a better shorthand for violent crime, or are you very convinced that it’s black men? (Not rhetorical, I really want to know). A friend of mine said something like this in University once, and I ignored him to go his own way. He’s a cop now, and that makes me wish I engaged him them.
Yeah it’s just like this…BS.
Oh white privelage?..yeah sure sure…asian privilege is next!
Another graduate of the grey teachers of academia.
Baahhhh..another sheep.
DIng,ding,ding,we have a winner!..but then what would prince racist write about?
white people? F you..failed racists each and every one of you.you gotta booboo?blame your marxist grey professors.
Whom are you talking about? What does that even mean?
Yeah don’t do it..remember, hands up don’t shoot! your mouth off you racist.
Twice,and then shoot you again when you pull them outta your behind
“In toronto,black males are massively over-represented in gun crime”
No worries,the marxists will get long guns registered again.
I can say with sincerity that in working with immigrants and international students over the past 10 years, my born and bred Canadian worthiness dims in comparison to their resolve, tenacious spirits and absolute determination in being “Good Upstanding Canadian Citizens!” This article has opened me up further to my own activities and how my behaviors can affect their perceptions. I’ve been the girl whose asked the question “where are you from, no where are you originally from?”. I’ve also been the girl who has crossed the street in fear. We cannot change things if we are not open to the realities of those who are different from us. While it is very clear that Desmond has experienced discrimination and scrutiny it is not just his race that suffers. There are clearly defined differences in perceptions of the “white immigrant” versus the “immigrant of color”. The truth is our world would be very dull and boring if we all had the same values, perceptions and appearance. Desmond Cole, keep moving forward and shining your bright light!
Your grasp of the english language, whether written or spoken is questionable. Your grasp of being human is non-existent. Did you not get enough hugs and attaboys when you were a young person? I watch you typing, going through the list of other’s comments. You are looking to get a rise out of people. Must be a very difficult and horrible way to exist. I feel for you; not sure it is empathy but I do feel for you.
Big circle jerk for a BS artist!
Alive and well.and there’s more awakening every day.
My experience and concerns, as a West African dude in the GTA, are sort of angular to what Desmond has written here. I haven’t had nearly that much police attention, and so I find myself more patient with awkward police encounters (provided they don’t question me aggressively). So I can understand how bitterness can seethe over the decades, and yet it’s not that visceral for me. It’s understandable that humans in charge of policing urban pop’ns will develop shorthands. Even if all the present cops were scrapped, should the new crop start to see crime more from one demographic, I would expect their biases to lean that way–mine certainly would. That is inescapably human.
It seems to me, then, that a productive way forward would be to wage (and win) the argument that there are better shorthands for targeting crime (or criminals), than ethnicity. Neighbourhood-effects come to mind, for instance (And then a convo can be had downstream of that, about how to organically protect poor communities rather than poke & prod its members under a blanket suspicion). As it stands, for my wellbeing, I’m consigned to expecting extra scrutiny and being situationally aware as much as possible. It’s not ideal, but I have a life to live regardless of what police think of me. As a middle class univ grad, what affects my life more, anyway, is the perception & behaviour of fellow citizens.
The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates has devoted at least the last couple of years to arguing that respectability is not a cure for the slight of black people in the Americas, b/c America was built, & has grown on the backs of black people–with that wealth compounding today. He’s starting to convince me, on the aggregate level. But on the personal, and combined with the fact that our history is NOT America’s history [this is criminally under acknowledged, IMO], I think there is room for proactive engagement. An aggressive downtown cop may treat me, Desmond, and a bullet-spraying West African in similar ways. But when that interaction is over, two of the three–at least–can do something productive about our slight. I’d wanna hear more stories from black men (do black women get similar police attention too?), so I think this is a solid start. Could be years before I can properly decide what I think is the best way forward (for Canada!), lol.
Btw, good writing, Desmond. You describe well :)
I’ma white man,the greatest thing to ever happen to this planet,the discoveries,the amazing accomplishments in science,technology,everything around us..why would i be jealous of someone that has never contributed to human society except for spouting off racist nonsence to a bunch of grey marxist taught sheep?
Nope no hugs or attaboys or any marxist participation trophies .there were no marxists back when i was growing up,just hard working mortgage suffering folk.
OMG Mr. Cole was my french teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer H.S. in Oshawa!
So you only speak english then?
That’s great that you are not trying to blame others for your behaviour. Thankfully, the other 99% of us hard working mortgage suffering folks, do not spout off despicable, hurtful words like yours. Internet trolls, like yourself, hide behind the anonymity of an online profile, clicking away on your phone or computer. Very, very few of your type have the balls to behave like this in person. I’m guessing that you behave more like an ass kissing pussy in your real life.
I’ll tell it to anyone you want right to their face…what?you believe the black man is powerful marxist propaganda?..the black starves and dies from disease by the millions on it’s own without the great brilliance of the whiteman…yeah i’m a eat some real pussy in life,i sense your marxist dried up tunnel has been vacuumed bare.
Hey anyone else notice how pathetic and jumpy the great oppressed desi was on the cp24 show?..if someone would just say”BS” he woulda started biting.
This hurts my heart. There is only one race, the human race. This knee-jerk reaction to skin color must be educated out of all officials, out of all humans. We must use these experiences to move forward.
We can start by teaching children about our inherent oneness. Go to http://www.unityworks.org for a wonderful resource.
You’re right, what would I know. I’m just another guy who grew up black in Toronto.
And “Aren’t we brothers, too?” Beautiful question.
^-^ IDIOT TROLL ALERT
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Actually I am or je suis une peu. That’s the I am not that dark comment.
Lol and obviously I am not lumping all Canadians that would be unreasonably idiotic unfair and untrue. So if you felt a blanket wave I am not sure why.
I was referring to various areas in Canada I have lived and experienced or witnessed these abuses of badge power and I also lived a few years in Toronto. Great memories there for me personally that has nothing to do with the minimization of the systemic racial profiling across beautiful Canada.
I am glad there is has been attention drawn to an issue I have and others been notifying others about since my teens. The racism in Canada began when I did. However this is not my story this is someone else’s journey.
As stated in original comment if you are not racist you have nothing to defend. The only thing to do is fight that these inequalities are not ever allowed to take root again in Canada.
^-^ IDIOT TROLL ALERT!!!!!!
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“Never fear doing something that is lawful” is a great line in an ideal world. In this world, being stand-offish can be used as an excuse for escalation of force. There are perfectly justifiable reasons for ‘going along to get along’. Not everyone is in a position to be a hero, not everyone can afford getting arrested for no reason, even if that might make them complicit.
^^ IDIOT TROLL ALERT ^^
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Grow up.
The white guilt on this board is sickening.
I disagree because I’m concerned about the response of some cops and the personal safety of the person stopped. I think the person should remain calm, as the author of the article did, but then its really important to complain and go through the lengthy and frustrating process of accessing personal date (i.e. carding) through official channels. As well, blog blog blog so everyone continues to know what is going on. Maybe constant questioning and complaining will make it better for future generations. Here’s hoping anyway!
What if they think you’re pulling out a gun!
You have a bigger right and responsibility to keep yourself safe.
I’m sure if simple refusal was so effective we wouldn’t be worrying about carding right now because it wouldn’t exist.
Hey ART! I’ll call out an idiot biggoted rascist troll as many times as I damn well please! Thanks for the shout out ART!
It’s disappointing that in 2015, discrimination/racism of any kind is perpetrated, no less by an institution paid by the public to ‘serve and protect’. How comforting to know that Mr. Cole has the great privilege of paying his taxes in exchange for harassment and ridicule.
As a follow up, I would like a concrete action plan that informs how I can combat these institutions fraught with archaic attitudes and entitlement.
For more reasons than this this is not a tolerant City, there is so much subtle racism here that it is astonishing. ALL humans are racist no more what they do for a living or where they are from. Not just a black and white issue. Things have gotten so bad here that your ability to get a job in this city depends on who interviews you. If ethnic then they tend to hire someone from their backgrounds
Veryproud, everyone’s racist no matter what colour they are
Ian, racism is everywhere, yes even in Canada and this country keeps importing many of the most racist groups of pple anywhere. Get a clue!
I hate that term white privilege. Most of the homeless I see in Toronto are white so what da hell are they talking about!?!
And that’s the best you can do..”Idiot Troll Alert”,,that’s it? no really that’s all you got?.not one mention of what i wrote?..yeah your awakening from your marxist slumber is upon you.
We prefer to be called the great white ghosts..not “white people”show some respect..the asians in china called us the great white ghosts when we build them bigger pyramids.
You’re a bigot and your post needs to be removed.
^^ IDIOT TROLL FARMER ALERT.