The funny thing about movements is that they tend to be defined by the last major event to take place. People today talk about the Black Lives Matter movement as beginning when George Floyd was killed. But that’s not quite how they occur, is it?
Just one week before George Floyd’s murder, I sat in my condo near downtown Austin. Everyone was still under quarantine due to the Covid outbreak. As a result, I found myself frantically trying to get the last of my work completed, because all gyms were closed and I knew that the only workout I could do right now — going for a run — would not be a good idea for me after dark.
I finally finished the last of my work and hurried to put on my running shoes. As I opened the front door, I noticed the sun had already begun setting. It would be completely dark before I finished my run. Is it worth risking it anyway? After debating for a few seconds, I finally convinced myself not to be silly. I’ve lived here for a few years now. Yes, Texas is an open carry state and recent new reports indicated people can be trigger happy, but it’s just for 30 minutes or so. Nothing is going to happen during that time. So I went for my run.
The next day I woke up to footage on all the major news network of a man around my age, in South Georgia just like me, who was Black and decided to go for a run. His name was Ahmaud Arbury. In the video, three White men who thought he looked suspicious chased after him in a truck and ultimately killed him. The video made headlines around the United States, and sparked a “mini-movement” of well-meaning people around the country deciding to “Run with Ahmaud”. Shirts were made, running clubs were created, it was supposed to be a show of support that Black lives really do matter. A week later, George Floyd was murdered.
Who knows why George Floyd’s murder sparked the worldwide protests, murals, and calls to action, and not Ahmaud Arbury’s murder. But it was the moment that the world shifted, even if only momentarily.
This also describes how Janna and I ultimately decided to leave Durham, NC for a previously unknown town in Canada called “Halifax.” George Floyd’s murder did not end the prevalence of unarmed shootings. Notably Breonna Taylor sat in her apartment unarmed when police mistakenly broke into her home and killed her. 20 year old Daunte Wright was killed when the police officer says she mistakenly mistook her taser for her gun and killed him.
These stories continued to come out at a feverish pace over the next few years. For Janna and me, the realization continued to grow within us that if a worldwide fury of protests and calls for action couldn’t protect Black people from these senseless killings, does it make sense for us to continue to stay?
Despite everything over the past couple of years, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and the John Lewis Advancement in Voting Rights Act continued to collect dust. A Democratic House, Democratic Senate, and Democratic President jointly decided that the laws advancing Black civil rights was not worth their political capital. And as a result, black people continued to be gun down. Does it really make sense to stay?
Yes, we love Durham, but ultimately Durham is still within North Carolina, which is still within the United States. Do we really believe that we can find a safe haven here?
Then came our final straw. On May 14, 2022, an 18-year old White Supremacist gunman drove 3 hours to a black community in Buffalo, New York, setup a live stream and entered a grocery store and killed 13 people. This attack occurred in New York, one of the most liberal states in the US. It occurred in a black community, where I’m sure each one of those 13 people felt safe and inoculated from the tragedies unfolding around the country.
Most importantly, this time there were no protests, no calls for action, no collective anger from allies. The collective conscience of America had moved on, and it wanted us to move on as well. But we’d had enough. It was in this moment, we knew would be leaving the United States.
Earlier in Austin, Texas when Janna and I made the list of the cities where police shootings of Black people were least egregious, we stumbled across an interesting study comparing the United States and Canada. While fatal police shootings in all of Canada equalled approximately 15 per year, fatal police shootings in the United States totalled nearly 1,000 per year. 3 times as many people are killed by police in California alone than in all of Canada.
Moreover, in a poll conducted a couple years prior to our decision to move to Canada, in which the pollsters focused on trust and confidence in the police, nearly 90% of Black people in Canada reported having some or a great deal of confidence in the police. While this percentage was slightly lower than non-visible minorities, the overall percentage differed significantly from Black Americans, where only 40% of Black Americans expressed confidence in US police (half the percentage of White Americans).
For us, the decision couldn’t be more clear. If we wanted to raise a family free of the fear and concern for safety that is felt by so many Black Americans, we had to leave. And to us, Canada was a great option. After this decision was made, the only thing left for us to decide was where in Canada was right for us.
Read more about how we choose Halifax in the “About Halifax” section!
