Regina teacher says social post suggesting he was stealing from his own car highlights racial bias

Christian Mbanza has experienced racism beforebut sayshe's laid back and usuallytends to let it slide.

This time, the 27-year-old grade school teacher from Regina, who is black,couldn't stay silent.

On Monday night, his phone was blowing up with messages from friends warning him about a social media post.It was a video of him, and the caption said "Just happened on Keller ave watched the whole thing happen lock your doors!!"

It was posted to the Greens on Gardiner Facebook group, an online group for members of the Regina neighbourhood where Mbanza lives with his mom.

"I'm laid back.I don't really like to say too much," saidMbanza, who teaches Grade 7atcole St. Mary Elementary School and coaches youth football in the city.

"But witheverything going on, I felt like this was absolutely the right time to speak up."

On Monday, he had headed out for a bike ride but needed to grab a few things from his car. He uses an app to unlock it, which wasn't working correctly, and so he was waitingby the car for it to unlockbefore eventually going for his keys.

Mbanza saidhe wasn't doing anything suspicious or wrong.

"If I was somebody with a lighter skin complexion, the results would have been different," he speculated. "I don't think they would have automatically assumed that I was stealing."

As rallies call out racism around the globe, a black man in Regina is dealing with a case of racial profiling on Facebook

4 years ago

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This video was posted in the private Greens on Gardiner Facebook group with the caption: 'Just happened on Keller ave watched the whole thing happen lock your doors !!'

The original post has been deleted, but screenshots of it have been shared hundreds of times. Mbanzasays he wants the situation to spark a conversation about racial bias and systemic racism in the community.

"You shouldn't react to your racial biases."

This isn't the first time he's experienced something like this, he said. Mbanza said people have called the police on him several times, sometimes when he was justcycling through city neighbourhoods.

Not just a U.S. problem

Mbanza reflected on what might have happened if helived in the U.S., where rallies and protests erupted in the wake ofthe May 25 death of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis black man diedafter he was detained bypolice officers, one of whom pressed his kneeagainst Floyd's neck for more than eightminutes.

"I could have easily ended up dead or something bad could have happened to me,"said Mbanza. "I'm lucky that it just ended up on Facebook."

Mbanza's 21-year-old sister, Grace, said Canada is not immune to the type of racial discriminationhighlighted by the Floyd case.

"Even though we're not directly in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement,it's still very much happening around us," she said.

"More than ever, we need people to support us and stand in solidarity."

'Educate yourself and talk to your neighbours'

Grace Mbanza said the Facebook video wasshocking not onlybecause of the apparent racial bias, but because of how the person who postedresponded to what they assumed was a crime.

"If something was really going on in the neighborhood like that, you wouldn't want to involve yourself and possibly stop it?Rather than assuming and putting it on social media?"

She said many people still don't understand that black people endure prejudice, discriminationand racial bias daily and have for generations.

"As a person of colour, it's like you're constantly striving to be, like, the best version of yourself just so people around you can be put at ease," she said.

"We do that just so we don't have to be a victim of our own race or our own skin colour."

Grace is hopefulher brother's experience will change how community members react to situations and their awareness of racism.

Her brother has seen messages from people who say they "had no idea" that this type of thing happened in Regina.

"I'd say educate yourself and talk to your neighbours, listen to their story," he said.

People need to call out racism when they witness it, he said."This isn't just an isolated incident. It happens to people of colour all the time."

Standing in solidarity

Hundreds of people have reached out to Mbanza since screenshots of the post went viral.

Ross Bearman, who lives in the area and was part of the Facebook group,became aware of the post and asked the moderator to take it down on Monday night. However, his own post got taken down. He reposted it, and it was removed again.

He ended up posting it publicly on his own page.

CBC contacted the moderator of the Facebook group for commentbut did not receive a reply.

The group is now private, but Bearman shared a screenshot of a reply he said was posted by the moderator.

"The community is made up of a multitude of diverse cultures, it sickens me to see people singled out as 'not belonging in this neighborhood due to their appearance,'" the post said.

"The person that posted the video is no longer in this group. Please get to know your neighbours, make each other feel welcome."

More moderation urged for local Facebook groups

However, Bearman said the incident speaks not only to racism that exists within the community but also the underlying problems of community groups that often "start with the intention of bringing people closer together."

"There is a tremendous amount of negativity, whining and racial biases that happen on a daily basis, and the trickle effect of that shouldn't be taken lightly," he said.

• For black Americans, the inequality that fuelled fiery protests more than 50 years ago remains

Bearman says the people who start neighbourhood Facebook groupsdon't anticipate they'll have to deal with racist or derogatory posts.

However, he wants guidelines put in place and enforced by everyone in the group. He's offered to help moderate moving forward to prevent something like this from happening again.

Looking at the bigger picture, he's asking people to check their own biases and to act when they see something wrong.

That's also Mbanza's advice.

"Check your racial bias, that's the first thing, and No. 2, when things like this [do] happen, it's important that a community rallies behind and calls that out."