Students urged to delve deeper when it comes to skin colour

He went around the room asking each teenager how they would label themselves based on their interests. They had nametags on their chests already, but Sobaz Benjamin was delving deeper. There were self-described bookworms, athletes, gamers and funny kids in that Grade 9 classroom.

Benjamin pushed on. He wanted to talk about race; after all, it was the international day for the elimination of racism, but also because race often gets in the way when people try to relate to each other. It affects how you connect with strangers, he said, asking the Wolfville students where they thought he was born. Rightly confused, they

couldn't connect his dreadlocks with his proper British accent. The stereotyping didn't work.

Born in England of Grenadian parents, Benjamin picked out some students of Mexican, Chinese and Middle Eastern ancestry and pondered how youth might look beyond colour. The class suggested that there are big differences between kids from Gaspereau and Wolfville when colour isn't even a factor.

One of his labels is filmmaker/educator and Benjamin was skilled at getting that class to think about how little an indicator outward appearance is. "It's not necessarily accurate,” he said. “You have to dig below. I encourage you all to continue asking questions - politely. I get the sense that you’re very open about cross-cultural engagement.

Coming to terms with facial identity

In his latest film, Race is a Four Letter Word, the Halifax filmmaker explores several facets of black stereotypes and his own personal reactions to skin colour. When the documentary screened at Acadia University, I appreciated his willingness to show his own conflict. "I realize that as much as I'd like to step away from race, it’s part of me," Benjamin said. Making the film was his method of coming to terms with his facial identity.

The second night on racism at the university featured RCMP Cpl. Craig Smith, who spoke about his history of blacks in the Mounties. The book, entitled You Had Better Be White By 6 a.m., tells the unvarnished and unofficial story of people like Hartley Gosline, the first black member in 1969, and Andrea Lawrence, the first black woman in the force in 1987.

Today there are about 260 black RCMP officers in a force of over 16,000. Smith has been a member for a decade after he joined at age 35. He recalled his shock at the lack of any reference to people of colour at the Regina depot where he trained. Blacks, he suggested, want to be included in the Canadian mosaic.

So Smith set out to research and document the marginalization of black people in the RCMP. One of his aims was to show black youth that the police can be active role models in a society where they often feel disconnected. Black officers often feel like they are under a microscope, but this Yarmouth-based police officer is willing to talk about achievements as well. He hopes his book can become an educational resource in the high school system.

Benjamin and Smith were in town to mark a day burned into history in 1960, when white South African police killed 69 people, mostly youth, participating in a peaceful demonstration.