Darren & Mo spoke with Travel blogger and friend of the show, NATALIE PREDDIE on her experiences of dealing with racism in her own life.

On Tuesday night she posted this online:

To my face, I’ve been told that my children aren’t mine and I can’t travel with them.
To my face, my family has been refused service at a restaurant.
To my face, I’ve been told that I’m black enough to be a token but white enough not to offend anyone.
Online, I’ve been called a disgrace to both the black and white races.
Online, I’ve been told that my parents should be ashamed of themselves for not sticking to their own kind.
Online, I’ve been called ugly, a mongrel, a mutt.
Online, I’ve been told that I don’t have a voice. But I do have a voice.
My heart is heavy, I feel a sadness and guilt that has lingered in the background throughout my entire life sitting at the forefront of my day to day. I have realized that my father’s insistence on education, presentation, constantly playing the chameleon, adapting to the environment to make everyone else comfortable, a mistrust of police, have all come from a continually raw and painful place.
Being a black man growing up in Toronto has affected my father’s ability to feel like a free man in his own body. He has been the subject of racism, ignorance, fear and judgement for no other reason but his skin Colour. How do we expect black children to grow up without a sense of resentment for a society that tells them how little they are valued from the moment they are born?
What is happening now is a product of hundred of years of systemic racism. How can we expect black people not to protest, riot, take a stand, after centuries of persecution and a society built on black oppression?
So what now? What is our next move? Listen. Support. Donate. Educate. Love. My parents never told us that we were black or white. They just told us: you are love.  #blacklivesmatter

Filed under: #ICYMI #DARREN&MO