After Prince George City Council voiced its support for the Black Lives Matter movement at it’s most recent meeting (June 15), a Prince George woman says more needs to be done.
Council opened the floor for an impromptu discussion at the meeting following two Black Lives Matter demonstrations that saw hundreds of Prince George residents attend in solidarity.
The first demonstration took place downtown on June 5, then another at Mr. PG the next day.
Soili Smith, a Black woman born and raised in Prince George and a current PhD student in American Studies at Rutgers University, wants things to move past just identifying racism as a problem.
“I would like to see some coordination between City Council and the communities that have spoken out, particularly at the two rallies, about what they would like to see,” said Smith.
“I think in terms of Black and Indigenous people they are already underrepresented in municipal government, so it would take some coordination between them and the communities that have expressed desires for change.”
As of 2016, approximately 10 percent of Prince George’s population identified as a visible minority.
“The problem is that acknowledgment becomes a trap, where we begin to think of it as productive, and it is in some sense, but it doesn’t actually produce the change. It is sort of the foundation that produces the change but it’s not the first step,” said Smith.
“Perhaps the first step is, in the case of Prince George, a lot of research about what other municipalities are doing because other places have been pushing for these changes for a long time, we don’t need to start from scratch.”
Once a plan is settled upon, Smith says the changes should be implemented ‘as soon as possible’ rather than extending that process with ‘further acknowledgment.’
“We do have instances of police brutality and intimidation and violence in Prince George, often that is racialized. That would need to be addressed right away,” she explained.
“We would need to review and perhaps rethink the city’s contract with the RCMP. I think that’s a good place to start, (…) the first step to addressing police violence is knowing what our relationship with the police is.”
People have told her that imagining a world without police is ‘utopic’, said Smith.
“I would say that with all social change that has always been the response, right? When Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech, the biggest criticism was that it was utopia. ‘Oh, little black boys and girls holding hands and judging each other by the content of their character.’ That in itself is utopic,” she added.
“So I would say, if we are not working towards utopia, then I’m not sure what the point is. I think that should be the goal of all of us.”
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