Hundreds rally for Black Lives Matter

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This article was published 11/06/2020 (1866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Antonia Kelsey went bald trying to look like her peers.

As a young girl, Kelsey thought it was easier to have long, straight hair like her white counterparts; she braided it and chemically treated it in order to keep it sleek. This was her idea of what ‘beautiful’ looked like. After years of this, Kelsey noticed dime-sized patches of hair falling out and eventually lost it all.

It was only last year she chose to stop wearing wigs.

“I felt like I took off a layer of a mask,” she said. “It was the final draw of being who God created me to be, and being ok with that.”

Kelsey’s story was one of five shared to a crowd of approximately 300 folks of all colours and ages before they took to the sidewalks of Main Street for a peaceful march.

The crowd’s cheers and chants of “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police” were only drowned out by the sound of honking cars in support of the marchers, and far-away rumblings of thunder threatening to rain out the protest.

Even a severe storm warning for the region of southeast Manitoba did not deter the group from showing up and standing in solidarity for George Floyd, the African-American man killed by the Minneapolis Police Department which sparked worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism.

The protest garnered attention from onlookers of nearby businesses and cars parked in lots to take photos and videos before wrapping around and back to K.R. Barkman Park where the gathering began.

Taylor Friesen, one of the organizers for the event, hopes events like this will spark conversations that wouldn’t happen otherwise.

“It’s not really enough to not be racist anymore, you need to be anti-racist,” Friesen said. “We need to listen to each other and take care of each other.”

Kelsey said while Monday’s protest may not initiate immediate change, it will certainly get the ball rolling.

“I don’t expect people to change right away; it’s a slow and continuous process,” she said. “There’s something that we can do, and that’s be aware.”