by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
Ever since the founding of the United States, many Black people have clung tightly to their claim to citizenship in the racist Republic. However, Kyle Canty, a Black man from Oregon, is seeking asylum from U.S. white supremacist violence in Canada. In doing so, “he has disturbed the centuries-long premise of unconditional African-American commitment to American citizenship – regardless of the intensity of oppression.”
Following the Underground Railroad: A Black Man Seeks Asylum in Canada
by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
“Then I heard that as soon as I was able to move I was to be sent with my brothers, in the chain-gang to the far South. Then I changed my prayer, and I said, “Lord, if you ain’t never going to change that man’s heart, Kill him…” – Harriet Tubman
“Kyle, like Mother Tubman, has turned towards Canada as a possible escape route from the organic violence incubated in America for centuries.”
Americans are denouncing their citizenship and taking residence in foreign countries at an unprecedented rate. The majority of these citizens, Euro-Americans, are leaving for financial considerations. However, a growing number of African-Americans are also leaving – not for financial considerations but rather to avoid state sponsored violence and human rights abuses. In particular, one African-American man, Kyle Canty, a 30 year-old Oregon man, originally from New York, appeared before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board on October 23 and said, “I’m in fear of my life because I’m black. This is a well-founded fear.” Kyle made it clear to the Canadian Immigration Board that he could no longer tolerate the macabre and pathologically twisted dance of life and death on the streets of America. His argument has merit.
As reported in the November 11 issue of BAR, New York Daily News senior justice writer and Black Lives Matter Activist Shaun King writes on his Facebook page that 2015 saw “the deadliest hate crime against Black folk in the past 75 years...” and notes that “more unarmed Black folks have been killed by police this year than were lynched in any years since 1923.”
“Kyle made it clear to the Canadian Immigration Board that he could no longer tolerate the macabre and pathologically twisted dance of life and death on the streets of America.”
Not every country is as dangerous as the US. The Economist reported that “last year, in total, British police officers actually fired their weapons three times. The number of people fatally shot was zero. In 2012, the figure was just one. Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britain’s population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014 the police force of one small American city, Albuquerque in New Mexico, shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period.”
The World Daily Clearinghouse has reported that despite refusal by the FBI to collect the numbers of murders by police, it is estimated that between 500 and 1,000 Americans are killed by police each year. “Since 9/11 about “5,000 Americans have been killed by police” according to the Clearinghouse. “This number is nearly equivalent to the “number of US soldiers who have been killed” in Iraq.”
A Washington Post article noted that, “In Germany, there have been eight police killings over the past two years. In Canada — a country with its own frontier ethos and no great aversion to firearms — police shootings average about a dozen a year. “ However, the US differs from its European counterparts in its acceptance of police and vigilante murder of unarmed civilians. Operation Ghetto Storm has revealed that every 28 hours an unarmed African is killed in America.
“Since 9/11 about “5,000 Americans have been killed by police.”
Harriet Tubman once said: “ I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer. I brought them all clear off to Canada.”
Kyle, like most African-American men, experienced surveillance and harassment by US police who kill unarmed Black people with impunity. He was stopped in bus stations and feared for his life simply walking down the street. He began to record these interactions while assisting other Africans facing targeting and harassment by police. Refusing to remain silent and miscellaneous in America he has disturbed the centuries-long premise of unconditional African-American commitment to American citizenship – regardless of the intensity of oppression. Kyle, like Mother Tubman, has turned towards Canada as a possible escape route from the organic violence incubated in America for centuries.
Kyle told Canadian television (CBC) after his Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing: “The United States of America is corrupt; they’re consistently killing black people.… And honestly, I kept on getting harassed by cops for no reason, false charges, false arrests – I’m not just the only one going through it. All black people in America are going through the same thing. It’s corruption.”
The US press found out about Kyle’s application for refugee status this week and, true to form, has dismissively treated his application as amusing. The framing of Kyle’s application to remain in Canada as a political refugee is symbolized by a Washington Post article entitled: “A Black American Man is Applying for Refugee Status in Canada, Citing Police Racism. Don’t Laugh.” And, the New York Daily News characterized his application for refugee status as: “He’s gone to Canada to get away from American’s cops.” At every turn, Africans in America are chided/derided for expressing a natural instinct to escape from white supremacist-targeted violence and the daily humiliation of living in an “open air plantation” where surveillance, murder with impunity, and sexual violations are central elements of the culture.
“Kyle, by seeking refugee status in Canada is attempting to escape the most virulent form of Europeanae Supremistia.”
In fact, Euro-Americans developed a medical term that attaches a pathological disorder to Africans who resist state-sponsored violence. It’s called Dysthaesia Ethiopiae.
Ota Benga, a Congolese teenager, was kidnapped by American businessmen in the early 1900’s. Ota was diagnosed by his captors with a manufactured disease called Dysthaesia Ethiopiae. The reason he was saddled with this diagnosis was because he fought back after being brought to the US in order to be displayed in a cage with monkeys at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and in 1906 at a human zoo exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. So, it should come as no surprise that Kyle Canty’s resistance to American white supremacy is being met with derision and curiosity. Clearly, Harriet Tubman was also inflicted with this disease.
Perhaps, Africans should manufacture our own version of Dysthaesia Ethiopiae by defining European and/or Euro-American behavior towards Africans as Europeanae Supremistia, meaning a pathology rooted in white supremacy which causes its victims to murder Black and people of color, kidnap innocents, impose cultural imperialism, commit genocide and exploit non-European peoples. Kyle, by seeking refugee status in Canada is attempting to escape the most virulent form of Europeanae Supremistia.
“Africans in America are chided/derided for expressing a natural instinct to escape from white supremacist-targeted violence.”
The Underground Railroad has taken many routes. Kyle’s strategy of surviving state-sponsored intimidation and murder of African people by leaving the US is another tactic that should be seriously considered. Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, WEB DuBois and others placed little confidence in America’s ability to control its insatiable thirst for Black blood.
Between 2003 and 2014, 4,631 Americans applied for refugee protection in Canada, but only 65 were accepted. However, the West African country of Ghana is more receptive to Africans from America finding refuge within its borders.
If you are an African living in the US and the focus of police surveillance, a victim of mass incarceration and/or fearful of being a target of state sponsored violence, such as murder, you may wish to consider applying to a country such as Canada or Ghana for refugee status.
For more information:
Canadian Immigration: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/index.asp
1-888-242-2100
Ghana Immigration Services: http://www.ghanaimmigration.org or
info@ghanaimmigration.org - Tel:+233(0)302-258250
According to recent reports, about 10,000 African-Americans visit Ghana yearly. Currently almost 3,000 American blacks reside in the capital, Accra, the major hub of Ghana. For more information, go to http://thegrio.com/2013/11/02/why-ghana-is-fast-becoming-a-hub-for-african-americans/
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated: No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA. She worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered South African vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). She is Director of Transparency and Accountability for the Green Shadow Cabinet, serves on the Advisory Board of ExposeFacts.com and coordinates the Hands Up Coalition, DC.
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