Executive Director @EasyThePianoMan starts off by acknowledging #WetsuwetenStrong protests happening across the country #HamOnt
Greg from the @BCSS_HWDSB Black Youth Council introduces himself as the night's emcee 
Gachi Issa and Sabreina Dahab introduce Desmond Cole to facilitate a conversation about the book The Skin We're In
@DesmondCole reads parts of the September chapter, and the Community Policing Chapter in the the schools #HamOnt
@DesmondCole "The range of our experience doesn't get explored in the media. We're treated as a monolith. Canada's media isn't honest about the experience of black lives in Canada. These institutions benefit from anti black racism"
"I had to do kinds of research that was difficult for me. I had to listen to 911 calls of people reporting violence against black people...I try to be as careful as I can, but I share these details to honour the lives of the people whose story I tell." @DesmondCole
@DesmondCole talking about Dafonte Miller "these men inflicted terrible damage to Defonte and he lost his left eye. The Durham police arrived at the scene to see him beaten and bruised yet attested him. White supremacy informed those police officers" #HamOnt #onpoli
@DesmondCole @desmondcole about the chapter Negro Frolics. "Black people were enslaved in Nova Scotia even though they fought the British in exchange for freedom. A bylaw was created to forbid "Negro Froliks" stopping drinking, dancing in public. It still happens today. #HamOnt
@DesmondCole speaks to the white allies in the room: "visible poverty, homelessness, police patrolling in #HamOnt can't be unseen. They are upholding the policing of us to build a city for you. These youth are looking to you for leadership."
@DesmondCole "We learned in Toronto that police in our schools were having weekly meetings with the Canada Boarder Agency. They want us to beleive the myth that police in schools transform. But the police still report children's immigration status in sanctuary schools" #HamOnt
@DesmondCole"The rates of domestic violence by police officers are higher than the general public. People want us to beleive we're unsafe without police, an institution. An institution that responds to mental health crisises with guns. We sre told violence is safety. It isn't."
@DesmondCole "Everywhere I go I get asked "What do we do now?" What you should do is read this book and ask yourself what the central conflict is and what people are doing to fight back. What would you want people to do if you were Dafonte Miller?" #HamOnt
@DesmondCole talks about the July chapter called The Unsettling on the Resistance 150 protests. There is a need for solidarity between black and indigenous peoples. We are in prisons and in group homes together. The children pay for the neglect of the institution. #HamOnt
At the @DesmondCole book launch in #HamOnt, we raised $416.25 in solidarity for Wet'suwet'en and Tyendinaga and Six Nations. This money will go to the blockade in Caledonia. Join the action tomorrow at Highway 6 12-2pm - show up and show out! #LandBack
