A chain of people will be marching down No. 3 Road on Saturday afternoon – a physically distanced demonstration with a message about fighting racism.
Richmond resident La Toya Barrington, who recently spoke to a 3,500-strong crowd in downtown Vancouver at a Black Lives Matter demonstration, wanted to bring the movement to her hometown and is organizing the “Black Lives Matter Chain Protest.”
While she struggles with anxiety, Barrington said she recently realized she has a voice to highlight the struggles people of colour face.
“Now that I found that voice, I want to use it,” she said, adding she wants people to know what is happening in the U.S., that Black people are being killed.
She said she also wants Canadians to realize there is racism in this country, against Indigenous, Black and Asian people.
Barrington wants Caucasians to educate themselves, to teach their friends and children about racism and to speak up if they witness a racist act.
“It’s not enough not to be a racist – we want to be pro-anti-racism,” she said, quoting Martin Luther King who said “silence is betrayal.”
Barrington also called for schools to teach more about racism in Canadian history, to teach “raw” history and not sugar-coat what happened in the past.
The U.S. was gripped by anti-racism demonstrations for weeks after a Black Minneapolis man, George Floyd, died after being pinned under the knee of a police officer for nine minutes.
At the Vancouver demonstration in reaction to Floyd’s death, Barrington spoke about how she struggled with racial abuse growing up in Richmond and how her life might have been different if she didn’t face this discrimination.
“People who are Caucasian don’t really understand how much easier their life is just based on the colour of their skin,” she told the Richmond News.
The “Black Lives Matter Chain Protest” is meant to be a line of people, not people bunched together, to protect against the spread of COVID-19, Barrington explained.
Barrington said the chain will go along the sidewalk as they don’t want to block traffic.
The march organizers will start at Brighouse Park at Granville and No. 3 Road on Saturday around 1 p.m. and will walk down No. 3 Road.
Organizers will bring signs and poster board to write on for those who don’t have their own, Barrington explained.
