Once bitten

I received an email last night informing me about the testing of the new FM station CARN 98.7 FM here in Toronto. Strange name I thought, is that short for carnies or Carnival, I'm assuming the latter. The email went on to state "CARN is aimed at servicing Toronto’s vibrant Black and Caribbean population in the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding environs."

Now not to heap scorn on CARN and its developers, props to you all cause it sounds like it wasn't an easy road to get on the air but I will readily admit that I am a bit skeptical about any new station purporting to be aimed at the Black and Caribbean population of the GTA. Why you ask? Well once bitten twice shy is what I would say.

Way way back in the day about 10-15 years ago when mi hair was still black, full n lucious and mi knee bones din used to mek noise when I walk and I was still in University all we had in Toronto to listen to black and Caribbean music was a few specific shows usually early, early in the morning or late late at night on the local college community radio stations. Big up CIUT, CKLN and CHRY, the one at York that nuhbody east of the DVP can pick up clearly at all. We also had WBLK out of Buffalo which was our defacto rnb, mainstream hip hop station.

Along came an enterprising businessman who fought with the CRTC (Canadian Radio Television Commission) and with great support from the entire black and Caribbean community of the day won the rights to have our first ever Urban station in Toronto. Horns blew, trumpets sounded, high fives were exchanged etc. Finally we thought, 24-7 music from all over piped into the diaspora. Calypso, reggae, african riddims, zouk in abundance! Yipee, hurrah, huzzah etc etc etc.

The station FLOW 93 point something started off in fine fashion. In the early days it was living up to what we thought it was going to be. We was getting calypso, dancehall, reggae, zouk, all sorts of African tunes, real hip hop, nice r n b and all was well with the world. Almost had me believing that "If you believe it you could achieve it." Cue the R.Kelly why dontcha.

And then like so many dreams and schemes from entrepreneurs and businessmen who are quite like politicians in their own right, the dream turn sour. I remember one trip from downtown to Scarborough spent listening to Flow where I heard the same three or four rnb top forty songs about three times in the space of a 40 minute journey. And FLOW has since been like that continuously. Calypso and dancehall once again relegated, not a peep of african music and nothing but girbage (that is gibbrish mixed with garbage, I juss mek dat up add it to de lexicon) pumped steadily. Pure payola top 40 radio type crap.

So when I hear about CARN 98.7 like I said sorry I don't mean to be harsh but I think back to the days when Flow was supposed to be doing what CARN say they going do and to how my youthful idealism soon got crushed by the reality that this radio station thing ain't about no love of community is about getting that cash. How long before CARN becomes Flow Too. hmmmm

Discrimination

A groundbreaking study, to be released today, estimates that about one in four black, single parents and households on social assistance face moderate to severe discrimination in Toronto's tight rental market. The same is true for South Asians.

Read more here.

Everytime I read about one of these studies I think to myself well whats groundbreaking about this? Its just a waste of time and money to prove the already known. Then I read the comments responding to articles like the one above on the Toronto Star's website and realize most Torontonians truly are clueless to the discrimination that persons of color and those on the lower end of the wealth spectrum face in this community.

Maybe they just live with their heads in the sand or maybe they just accept all the stereotypes and the scary news items they see every day in the media about those that don't look like them. Maybe they're all we are the world and Kumbaya and think we live in a post-racial world. Well newsflash that post-racial crap is b.s. I don't know what they actually think but what I do know is that renters bias is all too real having faced it in the past myself.

And I'm not alone, in fact forget a one in four most of the black folk I know can tell you a story or two about renters bias. How the apartment suddenly was rented when they showed up for a viewing because the landlord didn't realize they were black when they phoned or how they suddenly needed to book an appointment when they walked in to see a place even though someone else they knew had checked the place out the day before by just walking in off the street or and these two happened to me personally, my girlfriend's potential apartment ended up being apparently already rented when she showed up with me (scary black dude that I apparently am) in tow (even though I wasn't going to be living there) or how one landlord told me and I quote "his Jamaicans don't cause trouble".

This is everyday life. We dont like it, but it happens. We get angry when it happens, we complain, we get ignored but we minorities, persons of color know it happen. And we deal with it and we survive. We cope, we grow thicker skins, we gain a knowledge by experience of what kinds of landlords will discriminate, we look where we think we'll be accepted and ignore other areas where we know we'll be discriminated in and end up in mini-ghettos, we do what we have to do to get by.

And its not like so many on the Toronto Star's message board surmise that we aren't rented these apartments because we're on welfare or we destroy property or we're bad neighbours and have loud raucous parties or we have bad credit or we default on our rent and then the landlord has hell to evict us. Most of us don't get a chance to disprove these stereotypes because we aren't given a chance. We don't even get to see the apartment let alone rent it. Or we get to see it but unless the deal is consummated on the spot when we return or call again the place is gone (which is why when I was looking at places I learned to walk with my cheque book ready to close a deal on the spot). It starts and ends at the beginning, with a judgment call made by those with the power based on our non-Canadian accents or our non-Canadian skin tones. Nope its rented, or we wont rent it to you, meaning sorry we don't want your kind here now go away.

Just cause your racism isnt the in your face stuff the US faces doesn't mean everything is hunky doory up on your doorstep. It does still exist. That's the real. Toronto I wish y'all would wake up and realize that instead of living with your heads up your proverbial butts.