Thread by @LoveWilmot

On #MLKDay2021, some thoughts about racism in Wilmot. A thread 👇 1/

Former Waterloo-Oxford student Bryan Peralta, who is Black, said he eventually became desensitized after being called the "N-word" so many times at school.
newhamburgindependent.ca/news-story/100… 2/

Our granddaughter used to take the school bus to W-O. When it passed Pfenning's Farm, she would often hear racist comments directed at the workers in the field, many of whom are Jamaican. 3/

A few years ago, when a group of Jamaican workers from Pfenning's Farm visited the Canada Day celebrations, someone warned the organizers about a "suspicious group of men". 4/

A mixed race couple had back-to-back medical appointments in New Hamburg. The wife, who is white, went in first, and her husband, who is Black, waited in their car and closed his eyes. While he was napping, someone called the police to report "a man acting suspiciously". 5/

An Indigenous woman was wandering around a New Hamburg store, looking at merchandise. A worker in the store walked close behind her, following her around. She turned to face him and said, "I'm not going to steal anything". 6/

A gay couple held hands as they walked in New Hamburg. One of them is Mexican, and they had offensive names yelled at them several times - including "rice queens" - by passing drivers as they walked home from MeMe's. 7/

During the summer of 2020, posters promoting the Proud Boys - a far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group - were put up in New Hamburg and Baden. The posters were promptly removed. 8/

In July 2020, graffiti - a swastika and Confederate flag - was sprayed in Baden's Sir Adam Beck Park. newhamburgindependent.ca/news-story/100… 9/

In June 2020, a small group of the white supremacist Urban Infidels, who the Canadian Anti-Hate Network describes as a "hate group," gathered in Baden. One of them has a conviction for assault with a weapon. They shouted obscenities and racist slurs at locals. 10/

When I call out the township's mayor for refusing to denounce a small group of white supremacists in Wilmot, I'm not doing it to attack Les Armstrong; I'm doing it to so the group doesn't get bigger.

11/11

A comment that followed my FB post.

A DM I received on FB: "There was a swastika written in pen on the wooden bridge at the end of Tannery not long after it was built. Tiny act but noticeable."