Stephen Dorsey gives his perspective on racism in Canada in new memoir
In his new memoir Black & White, Stephen Dorsey gives his perspective on racism in Canada, based on his feeling that he was “a white kid growing up in a black body.”
Dorsey says the inspiration to write the book came from a sign at his local hardware store. He says it was just after the death of George Floyd when a local hardware store put up a sign reading “All Lives Matter.” Many consider the phrase to be a protest of “Black Lives Matter” which is a movement that was sparked by the death of Floyd and other black people who lost their lives at the hands of police officers.
“That started a lot of noise online, on social media, and instead of just chiming in, I actually went and talked to the gentleman [who put up the sign],” said Dorsey. “We had a conversation which led me to write an article and eventually led me to a bigger discussion and write a book.”
Dorsey grew up in the suburbs of Montreal with a white French-Canadian mother and a Black American father who had left by the time he was born.
In Black & White, he offers readers intimate and unfiltered access to his lived experience of anti-Black racism around the world, including Canada, the United States and Europe. He focuses on his formative years growing up in the 1970s as a black child in a white family headed by a racist stepfather. He details his personal awakening inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dorsey says when he saw the video of George Floyd being killed, it brought back all the emotions in regard to his own past experiences with racism.
“I really got involved, people started calling me and asking me how I felt and what I thought,” said Dorsey. “Most were white people, asking what they can do…so that’s when I really started looking back at my history, at my life and my experiences with individual and systemic racism.”
Dorsey says Canada is making progress when it comes to combating racism of any kind, but there is always more room to do better. He says people need to raise awareness of the history of Canada and discrimination and systemic racism.
“Then we need reform, we actually need to fix those systems,” said Dorsey. “We are taking little steps…corporations are doing some things, governments are trying to take some steps, individuals need to have the responsibility to do what they can to become more aware and awaken themselves.”
