Let me start by saying this: If you have never had to go home and try to tell your kids that life will be okay, while knowing that someday they too will have to see how ugly the world is when you’re discriminated against, then you don’t get to argue with me.
In 2020 we moved to the Valley to give our family the life we both dreamed of: gardening, beautiful scenery, and most of all, peace. For the most part it’s been amazing living here, but there’s just this one thing we can’t shake as an issue and will never apologize for: and that’s being black. While so much of the Valley is growing and diversity is becoming a norm, you’ll always find ignorant people here and there wherever you go. However, this one was within Dylan’s workplace. We’ve silently tried to deal with this for the last year and a half, but after the situation has escalated, Dylan has made the decision for the safety of his life to quit. People don’t want to talk about racism because it’s uncomfortable? Because you get tongue tied and stupid, and can’t relate or understand? Just be quiet. Listen. Let it go.
The following is a prime example of how racism escalates when it’s not handled the first time:
After Dylan and I moved here, he started a new job at a spot I will refer to as “The Hatred Crepe”. Right from the jump, the owner's friend who works the back kitchen has given Dylan a hard time. So many countless nights he would call me or snapchat me frustrated with how this guy would speak to him after the owner left for the evening. Referring to him as “boy” when he didn’t like Dylan’s refusal to cater to his demands. How dare he stand up to him and simply do the job he was told to do, right? Dylan brought this to his employer time and time again, asking for it to be handled— which it never was. I soon after joined their workforce as their social media manager, which allowed me access to the work chats and see the things happening in real time. It was my job to photograph foods and create content for socials, as well as run all social media pages and create a website. This of course means I have to have contact with the kitchen to know details about the food, soup of the days, etcetera. My attempts at communication often failed due to the fact that this man in the back kitchen refused to speak to me, even though he had no idea who I was and had never met me face to face. He’s only seen me in the restaurant, and he has ALWAYS stayed out back.
We found other ways to get things done and tried to pretend all was fine while we spent months taking screen shots and writing down dates and incidents that happened in an attempt to organize our thoughts and confront this problem. After a year of this non-stop disrespect, and even after Dylan requested not to work with this man, nothing changed. They continued to work shifts together. When this man complains about Dylan, the situation is the opposite: the owner, even if he wasn’t working to see it, will always back his friend up and be the first to give Dylan attitude or threaten to have a “talk” to him about these "issues” he’s causing by going to work and doing his job. This has mentally drained our entire family. Watching Dylan become impatient and angry because he’s constantly in such a toxic environment has been extremely difficult— and right now, let’s face it: it’s hard to find jobs in Nova Scotia along with a place to call home. This man and this situation have made it impossible for us to enjoy the peace we came to the Valley to find. 80% of our lives are spent at work, so let that sink in. 80% of your life existing in a toxic environment, where no matter what you do or what you say, you are always the one that’s wrong, simply because of your skin colour.
One night after this man constantly harassing Dylan, Dylan went outside to cool off. Thankfully his best friend works with him, and that night he was there to comfort Dylan and witness what happened. Dylan, in frustration, marched outside for air. What Dylan didn’t know was that this man was coming right behind him, and when Dylan swung the door open, it swung closed onto the man who has been harassing Dylan. Of course, this man ran to tell the boss and report that Dylan had purposely hit him with the door as a form of assault and claimed that he didn't feel “safe” working with Dylan. He claimed that because of this door bump, he was in fear for his life from Dylan. Mind you also, this man is six foot something and has been constantly stoking the fire of this situation. This pattern continues for months and escalates to the events of last week, when this man body checks Dylan as Dylan is crepe spinning. Dylan snapchatted me telling me about it. We both shared our feelings about it, but he had to continue to close the kitchen and get things done, as is his job.
Sometimes we do things that may not be the best idea; but when you’ve gotten so backed into a corner, can you really blame the mouse that snaps at the cat? Story time: This racist man is allergic to the buck wheat that they use for their GF (gluten free) batter, so waiters or whoever is putting it away have to clean it and keep it away from him. When Dylan was finished with the buck wheat batter, he placed it beside the sink. Now, he could have been malicious, but he wasn’t. He simply left it there like, “well I’m not helping you figure it out after all this— I’m done!” This small, reactive gesture resulted in this racist co-worker reporting Dylan once more, claiming workplace harassment and saying he would make sure Dylan went to jail "where he belongs" and that Dylan was a “threat” to him. However, this same man spent Friday night in front of my own eyes threatening Dylan to his best friend, telling him that if Dylan came down to work, he would “beat the f*** out of him, fold him in half and turn him to the cops” himself. This is right after claiming that Dylan is a threat to him and had made him fear for his life. Meanwhile, Dylan had become so depressed with every shift he had to work in that Hell hole. This was affecting him deeply.
I reached out to the manager and told her I was done— I will not work for a business that sees racism happening within their establishment and chooses to turn their face away. After I said I was done, I was told I would receive my pay for the website I built them which I hadn’t officially handed over, as they hadn’t paid me for it when I built it A YEAR AGO. The owner's wife did however have the password to go in and look at it as it was being created.  Within fifteen minutes of my last text sent to them, my email notification goes off and lets me know that his wife has changed the email and password to the website I created. I saw their IP address, windows 10 computer and all! I have never had any personal issue with her or her husband. I’ve played nice and watched what happened with Dylan. I’d never given them a reason to feel they need to steal my work via the website that I built, nor that I would do something malicious! When I reached out to them regarding this, I was told the owner and his wife were not paying me a dime, and that I had been paid for my work within the agreement we made for me running their social media. The website was NOT a part of that deal, and if they weren’t willing to pay for it then why change the email and password for my work? Simply decline and move along and keep your website as is! I could care less.  Instead, I was told that she was worried I would do something malicious to ruin their image or social presence. Why would I do that? When have I ever shown you that I was loud and malicious? That I was a threat? “When have I been the loud black woman?”, I asked. Of course she had no answer but many empty apologies. I wish I was a fly on the wall to see her face during this conversation. I could have contacted the domain and had the website removed, but I decided against it as I didn’t want to jeopardise my work as a whole. I reminded her of copyright laws and let her know that if I was not paid for my work, I would be going public and calling a lawyer. The money was deposit within 15 minutes.
The next day messages start to roll in: threats that Dylan would be taken to court, that this man who had been harassing him was pressing charges against Dylan, and at work this man was telling lies about Dylan to anyone who would listen to him. Once again, he claimed that Dylan was a threat to his life and belonged in jail.
My honest question is this: Have y’all not seen the shit happening to black people all over the world? The brutality, the injustice, the violence against us? In this climate, a white man calling the cops and claiming that my fiancé is dangerous and hostile, as well as an actual threat to his life! Do you understand the danger you could potentially place our entire family in? Myself, Dylan, and our children? The pain you could cause from the ripple of your actions? All because of the colour of his skin. All because of something he will never be able to change and will never apologize for! To say we spent an entire weekend in fear was an understatement. We reached out to everyone we thought could help us. To this day a week later, none of them have responded or called back. Nova Scotia Human Rights were called day one and every day since, and still nothing.
Eventually, messages came in from others in this circle, letting us know that messages were being removed from the online work chat. After booting us both out of the work group chats, the owner’s wife then began to sign into all staff accounts (which she cannot do without giving notice first) and began to go through all the conversations of anyone who has talked to Dylan. The group chat messages either of us had written about wrong doings and more, all erased. Why would you go through such measures if you have nothing to hide? Other staff members have left due to the owners constantly allowing bullying and racism within their business. People mentally are feeling drained and so worn out, but they have stayed because they don’t have an option to leave at the moment. My heart breaks for the people who genuinely just need to pay their rent and are stuck working in this toxic environment.
Over the three days of hell when this first came crashing down I was emotionally a mess, crying off and on all day. I busted my ass trying to make enough to do it all so Dylan wouldn’t have to ever be there again. I wish it was enough but the price of LIFE itself makes things hard!
I needed air, so I went for a walk to my girl's house and thankfully our men work together. They planned to come to our home that night to chat about all this and what we needed to do to get the right support. We walked around downtown Wolfville, chatting and sharing our emotions as two black women, as two spouses, as two pissed off human beings! We reached the bistro at a quiet time with only one customer, so we decided it would be safe to go inside to get her hubby. When we arrived, everyone was just hanging out and we sat and inquired when he would be ready to drive to my place. He let us know he would be ready shortly as he was just finishing up. Within seconds, here came this racist man looking for a problem. I knew his games and I refused to entertain or engage with him. My hands began trembling as my anxiety rose. He continued to rush out and aggressively grab his phone and start typing like a child, over exaggerating every click for us to hear. I rolled my eyes and continued to chat with my girl, deciding to remain unbothered and not give him a reason to harass us. He went back and forth texting and running out back, then coming back again, looking at us and texting. I could feel myself getting heated, so I went outside to calm down. My girl joined me and tried to keep me calm while letting her hubby know “it is time to go right now!” As we stood outside chatting this racist man comes out of the side door behind us, watching us and texting, walking away, then coming back AGAIN to watch us and text. He did this four or five times before I got upset and yelled at him to keep his teeth out of my business!! He of course ran inside, but thankfully due to the large front window I was clearly able to witness him laughing casually, talking to my friend’s guy. My friend’s man threw his coat on and came outside, and let us know that this man had told him that now I myself was a threat, that I was threatening him, and that he was going to report me. He followed up with more threats to beat Dylan up, claiming he had a “third-degree black belt” and that he would personally deliver him to cops where he belongs. Having to come home and explain to my kids how serious this was, and that police could come to our home was the last thing we wanted to spend our weekend doing.  This stupid, racist ignorance. This reckless behaviour like all things, has a ripple effect.
Our house was full of questions. What will happen? I hugged Dylan a little tighter that night even though neither of us got much sleep. Emotions have been a roller coaster to say the least. I don’t know how many times I heard in my head “you’re a threat” while I stood on the sidewalk with nothing but a backpack on my back. No weapon. I’m a 5’3” mother, a little chubby and very sweet, and I’m sure this 6’ something man can at least run faster than I can. I’m anything but a threat, but when a white man has a group of other racist white men backing him up, does it even matter? Would they come to our home? Would they lay hands on Dylan? Would people even believe us? I still don’t know. I’ve been laying in bed, terrified that cops would come busting through my door. Would they shoot him? I couldn’t help but imagine them slamming my sweet man to the ground in the middle of the night, my kids being traumatized and our whole house and family just broken. I couldn’t sleep for two days— I just constantly had anxiety, pacing the floors, crying all the time. I still am having trouble eating.
I don’t know how to describe that feeling... That feeling like you’re in a dark room, and you’re terrified, yet you don’t know what exactly you are afraid of because you have no idea what’s coming. You are in the dark, scared to death, imagining all the worst things
Let me say it again: If you have never had to go home and try to tell your kids that life will be okay, while knowing that someday they too will have to see how ugly the world is when you’re discriminated against, then you don’t get to argue with me.
Thank you for reading our words. The story doesn’t end here, but we appreciate all of the love and support community has shown to us, and we won’t stay silent about racism.

 The owner , his wife and the man in the back kitchen are the problem! They know racism is and has been an issue for years in the establishment . Others have come forward with similar issues there ! It’s time to shut down racism by shutting down The Naked Crepe!!