Helping people to understand and recognize racism is a major step in eradicating it and the younger that education begins the better.
That's why the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society (IMSS) focused on young people to anchor its annual event to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21.
The Wednesday evening event takes place at the IMSS office (their new location is at 1270 Second Ave.) from 4 to 7 p.m. and will feature door prizes, anti-racism and hate crime presentations and entertainment.
The organization also hosted a Paint Racism Away event Saturday afternoon, where more than a dozen kids invaded the IMSS office to paint T-shirts to wear during Wednesday's celebration.
"It allows them to express their opinions about what racism is," said Marguerite Bambi, IMSS's youth buddy program co-ordinator.
She said it was a pleasant surprise that not all the young people had concrete ideas about prejudice.
"Most of us here [at IMSS] are immigrants, but some of [the kids] didn't know what racism is," Bambi said.
While she said it was a good thing they hadn't experienced it yet, talking to young people about racism was also an opportunity to encourage a more inclusive society and embrace diversity and multiculturalism.
The event will also serve to celebrate those who participated in the organization's inaugural Anti-Racism Video Contest. The contest was open to those between the ages of 10 and 19 to share their thoughts on how to eliminate racism or their experiences with it.
The competition received three entries and while Bambi said she would have liked to have received more entries, it was difficult to promote the activity in schools during the teachers' job action. The three entries will be screened Wednesday evening.
"It's an issue that's fading away. We can minimize racism, we can work on it. It's a learned behaviour, it's a learned trait," Bambi said. "Let's make it history, let's move on."
