ACTIVISM
Lethbridge activist stands on guard against racism Creates the Group United Against Racial Discrimination
MEGAN CREIG mcreig@cjournal.ca
J
ordan Ledyit is no stranger to racism. However, she says her most striking experience with discrimination took place at an establishment that, like herself, is distinctly Canadian. It happened at a Lethbridge Tim Hortons where Ledyit and family, visiting from Strathmore, were treated quite differently than many other Canadians. As she approached the counter, Ledyit says the woman behind it called out to them: “We don’t serve your kind here.” They were told to “get out.” And so Ledyit and her family returned to her home instead of risking further conflict. Ledyit says her family didn’t wish to comment further on the incident. The location’s current owner says he had taken over after the incident occurred and as the previous owner never mentioned it, he didn’t know of it. The current owner declined to provide the previous owner’s contact information but promised to pass along a request from the Calgary Journal for comment. The Journal did not receive a response, nor did Tim Hortons respond to three separate requests for comment. This situation might be hard to imagine happening if you’ve never been discriminated against because of your race. But Ledyit, who is Black, and her visiting family, who are Indigenous, certainly have. And Ledyit is no longer willing to standby and let it happen. So she is using her voice to counter prejudice, having recently organized a protest against discrimination in Lethbridge. That city became her home after being adopted from Penticton, B.C., soon after her birth. Her adoptive parents are white but, despite the differences, Ledyit has always felt a connection to her roots. Ledyit believes her mother, who has Indigenous siblings, was good at making sure she understood her background because she was also adopted. “My mom is amazing. She took the time to learn how to do my hair which is a huge thing,” says Ledyit. “She learned how to do passion twists.
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CALGARYJOURNAL.CA
Group United Against Racial Discrimination organizer, Jordan Ledyit. PHOTO: COURTESY OF JORDAN LEDYIT She learned how to wash [my hair] properly. When I was little, she was always doing my hair, she would put me in front of a movie once a month and she would twist my hair.” Although Ledyit was raised to appreciate where she had come from and who she was, not everyone would be as kind as her family had. The opposite was true. As a visible minority, Ledyit can remember being treated differently by her peers from the moment she began kindergarten. “There was me, the Black kid, and my best friend was First Nations,” says Ledyit. “Nobody would play with us. Nobody would talk to us.” Still quite young, Ledyit didn’t understand the differences between herself and others. These differences
were made clear by a white classmate who had only been part of Ledyit’s class for a matter of days. Ledyit wanted to befriend her, so she approached the girl and attempted to do just that. But the girl stated that she did not “like Black people.” “I went home that day crying. Looking back on that, we were in kindergarten. There’s no way a little girl in kindergarten would say that unless they were taught to say that from their family. It’s ridiculous,” says Ledyit. She experienced much of the same small-minded behaviour as she grew up. For example, she would enter a store and, from that moment on, she would be followed by its employees. “They don’t do it unless you’re a
person of colour,” says Ledyit. ”When I worked [in retail], anytime a First Nations person came in, [my boss] was like: ‘Keep an eye on them, get them out.’ It made me livid.” Ledyit also faced difficulty finding a job. She says there have been several instances where she has made it into an interview only to be turned down almost immediately upon entering the room. “The applications are online, and they might like my resume, but as soon as they see me, it’s like the demeanour changes. ‘Oh, you’re Black,’” says Ledyit. “I’ve gone into an interview and I can see that they’ve already made up their mind just by looking at me.” Even on a day-to-day basis, the
