During my stay in Edmonton, one of my friends invited me over to his wedding, he decided to hold his reception on a small island, called New Castle Island, where I got to drive from Edmonton to New Castle Island. The experience was breathtaking, I remember the first time seeing a 500-year-old cedar tree, it was simply inexpressible. I was inspired and wanted to move to Vancouver.

My friend was jokingly asking me to move to Vancouver, then I told him If he could find a job for me, I would move in a heartbeat, considering the weather is good, as Vancouver is not as cold as Edmonton.

After the wedding, I drove back to Edmonton and went back to my daily routine. It didn’t even last 3 months, my friend called me to inform me that there is an opening in the movie set, he gave me a number to call one of the supervisors. Surprisingly I got the gig, I didn’t think twice, I packed up my things, jumped into my car off I went to Vancouver.

Vancouver was Not What I Expected!

We can all agree that everything comes at a price because Vancouver is the warmest city in Canada. A lot of people try to move to Vancouver, as a result, almost everything is expensive, maybe except for food. But rental prices have skyrocketed over the years, and for a lad like me who moved from Edmonton, it was unreal. Immediately after the first month of staying in Vancouver, I started to see things I didn’t like.

Things I didn’t Like about Vancouver

1. Cost of living, living in Vancouver is very expensive, the fact that Vancouver is among the most beautiful cities in North America, the cost of living is so high, that average people cannot afford to live in the city.
2. It just rains way too much, even though Edmonton is among the coldest cities in Canada, it has clear skies during summer. I remember the first week in Vancouver it was raining the whole week, as a result, people became depressed.
3. Drug and Homeless situation, I cannot point my finger at the actual cause of drug abuse in Vancouver yet, But I believe it has a lot to do with the lifestyle. I was surprised that my coworker was openly talking about drugs and how he would like to have a ‘line of coke’. 
   I was driving on East Hastings one day, little did I know it was the famous homeless street, then I couldn’t help but noticed a crowd of people along the road, I first thought there was a festival, but these people looked dirty and high on drugs, accompanied by a smell. I then saw an old woman, The first time I thought she was talking to someone else, but she kept on doing these signs and winking, then I was like OMG, she is a prostitute! It was 11 AM, I got scared she might come to my car, so I made sure all my doors were locked.
4. Loneliness, after staying in Vancouver for over six months everything became clear, why things are the way they are, and why people behave the way they do. The place is expensive, the wealthy have segregated themselves, it becomes hard to trust anyone because everyone has tons of bills and problems to take care of, so no time for someone else but self. Making friends becomes hard because people stay in Vancouver for a year, then after seeing the reality of the place they just leave. In Vancouver, people are not even willing to make eye contact, while in Edmonton people would even hug a stranger.
5. Racism, it was interesting being an African person in Vancouver, I was mostly among the social preferable because the majority of people hate Asians more than blacks. They blame the Asians for the rise of house prices, someone would randomly come to me start blaming the Asians for all their problems, they would call them names. Something that I never experienced in Edmonton.

The video clip shows the homeless situation in Vancouver, East Hastings.

My experience living in Vancouver as a Black Person.

As an African person, I’ve always been ‘color blind’, I’ve made friends from almost every background, I believe because I lived in Edmonton, I had embraced the idea of multiculturalism. But I had a different experience when I moved to Vancouver, everything changed.

I have a couple of incidents that I was surprised about. One day, one guy was defending himself about him being called out for racism, by his coworker that because I am black, he shouldn’t have said anything about whipping me. At the time It just didn’t hit me, because growing up as an African, I simply don’t know the racial terms or the words. Then another day, he was saying ‘the cops are going to get you’, again another person called that out. He was telling me how much he loved Mr. T from the series the A-team and some of his other African American celebrities that I didn’t even know.

Little by little the awareness of how people perceived me began to surface in my consciousness. I then started to collect a series of past incidents that could have meant someone is being racist.

Not all Blacks likes to be asked the sizes of their Penus

It was a habit when people become close to me, they would then start asking about the size of my genitals, it happened to me so many times, that I almost lost count of it. One person was holding a banana trying to slide his arm around it for me to tell him the size of my genitals. Then another person was holding a metal rod doing the same thing asking me to tell him the size of my rod. Again, there was another person who just met me, he came straight to me asking me, hey, what is the size of your shaft?

How did I realize I am Black?

I was never self-conscious about my race until I started to have those experiences in Vancouver. My conclusion is that most people don’t even know they are being racist, because of their social circles.

Like the dude mentioning something about whipping, it was clear to me that he never grew up around a multicultural community, because he would have got over his curiosity about other ethnicities a long time ago, now when he gets to see a black person in his adulthood, he simply can’t control himself.

What can a person do to prevent being misunderstood as a racist?

Here are things that a person can do being around other races to avoid being called out as a racist.

1. Travel a lot. I believe when you get out of your comfort zone, you see things out of your perspective, when you travel to other countries you learn a lot more about yourself as well as others.
2. Learning about other cultures, it is a guarantee that you can always find something interesting that you never thought about from every culture around the world. If you spend a few minutes a week learning a thing or two about other cultures, it will remove the cultural gap in your conscious.
3. Make friends from other races. When you have friends from different backgrounds, you will learn about their innermost feelings and develop empathy towards all humanity.
4. Accept the fact that racism is a reality. When we accept that we are all racist to a certain degree whether we accept it or not, we can then learn to deal with it in a mature level than trying to deny it.
5. Treat others as you would like to be treated. I think if we treat everyone as your family, then even if you do them harm, you will take the time to apologize and try not to repeat again, if you find yourself being a racist, just think of yourself as that person experiencing the same as them.
6. And stop basing your reality on movies and porn, being around a multicultural community, a lot of immigrants assume that all white women are the same, they conclude it based on what they saw on porn. And a lot of people assume All Black guys are the same.