Hello everybody, good afternoon.

We would like to share an update with you. Today, at around 2:24 pm, we were able to get across to the office of the Prime Minister of Canada. I was able to leave a message on the PM's assistant's line and summarize why I believe it is important to change the official name of people of African descent to AFRICAN/AFRICAN AMERICAN instead of "black". This is important to me, and a lot of people who want to raise this issue, but don't want to because it may be deemed as "unimportant". It's the little things in life that matter most.

I recently applied for a job at the City of Hamilton, and part of the hiring process was to fill out a survey which aims to pinpoint the diverse demographic of people who apply to the City of Hamilton. The options went something like this (PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL LIST. THIS IS A REPRESENTATION OF THE LIST. ACTUAL LIST HAS MORE DESCRIPTIONS OF DIVERSE ETHNICITY, THESE ARE THE ONE I COULD REMEMBER ON THE LIST):

Chinese

Japanese

Latin American

Black

South East Asian

Mixed

As you can imagine, I was put off by this. Not only can people not opt out of this questionnaire, the questionnaire has put in a name that people do not resonate with, but because they are desperate for a job, they go ahead anyway and click on it. That really shouldn't be so. I find it shameful that a city like Hamilton, home to diverse cultures and people, put an entire race under one "classification" as "black". How shameful. I reached out to the city of Hamilton via email and expressed my concerns, and the representative who reached back to me said that they were following the name approved by the federal government. In other words, the representative was telling me she didn't see my email as that which would concern her.

I haven't applied to any jobs at the City of Hamilton ever since. A country as great and diverse as Canada should be more open to the appropriate terms for a race of people. And more importantly, the race of people should be more accepting and more self-aware of themselves.

I don't know what "acting black" means, because I have never acted that way in my life. I have cultural values as an African woman. I am calm, I am good, I am respectful. At work, I was having a conversation with a co-worker and she called me "sis". Now, I'm not sure why she felt comfortable to call me that; she isn't my sister or of any relation to me. Moreover, she isn't even the same ethnicity as me, so why would she say that to me? I am not sure the people she hangs out with, but as an educated AFRICAN woman, I don't engage in colloquial or nonsensical talks. In African, we call each other by our names and have no colloquial or "urban" way to address each other, that originated in the West and I have no interest of abiding by it.

I am African, not "black". I always have been, and I always will be. I am speaking up if other people don't want to. Please stop calling us "black". If you can train yourself to know the difference between the different Asian countries and people, and train yourself to call people Arab instead of "brown", you can definitely train yourself to call me and everybody else African/African American instead of "black".

Let us help each other out here please. I know this may not seemlike a "big" issue to you, but it is something that has been on the minds of every African person and it's about time we spoke up.

If you would like to keep supporting my petition and help us make and get the change we deserve, please call the Prime Ministers office in Ottawa at: +1 (613)-992-4211 and as to speak with someone in charge of RACE RELATIONS. Your call will be directed to the PM's assistants line where you may have to leave a message.

The message I left said how I believed that as individuals, we have a right to appropriate official representation and made a reference to this petition. You can do it too.

YOU as individuals also owe it to yourselves to respect and love yourselves. Stop calling yourself "black" and elevate yourself and your mind, and your environment will follow. If you are scared of change, or scared that being "black" is all you know, try something new. Stop repressing yourself and change yourself. You'll thank me later.

<3 Cree.Ative

***NOTE*** All Images used found on Google