07/25/2024
I was lied to as a child.
I grew up in Sarnia just outside the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve, where I was ‘taught’ to believe the racist tropes about Indigenous peoples. As a child I naively accepted these racist ideas.
I lived on the border across from the US where ignorant fear-based Black stereotypes were propagated daily. I lived my early life believing that the inequity thrust upon Black people was appropriate and deserved.
These anti-Indigenous and anti-Black narratives built unconscious racist biases within me, and it has taken me many years to accept my inherent racism and work towards unlearning all the lies that I was taught.
I have also lived my life in a world where I was repeatedly told that all people wearing Keffiyehs were terrorists and that Arabs should be feared.
I have been doing the work and taking the time to educate myself, through workshops, readings, podcasts, news stories, and through dialogue with colleagues and friends.
I am unlearning the lies I’ve been raised with. I can no longer look away from the children who have historically been ignored by the Western world.
I am not comfortable remaining silent. It is appropriate to use my voice as a pediatrician to speak out against these historic lies that allow the Western world to silently accept what is happening.
Whether it is in Palestine, the Sudan, or the Congo, killing children is wrong.
The North American voices speaking out against the murders of children in the global south have been too few.
I will continue to use my small platform, and my voice to advocate for these children.
Saxena 👊🏽
🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩
