The Ongoing Struggle for Freedom with Dr. Rosemary Sadlier

Recorded audio interview with Dr. Rosemary Sadlier, completed by Blessing Ogunyemi for the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Rosemary Sadlier: We are not away from it. It still exists. So I think that actually, just in terms of, you know, the John Tubman and his, what I perceive his personality may have been, I think will always have to be mindful that freedom is something that you don’t have, but you have to constantly work towards and not to become complacent in feeling that you’ve arrived or that things are okay or that you don’t need to bother. We all have a role to play in making sure that what we value in our society we’re able to keep. I think when it comes to Black Lives Matter, that was an incredibly important time, because it changed the discussion in a way, from being something that was just happening in Black spaces or university campuses to a discussion that was happening everywhere. The opportunity, the sad and tragic opportunity of seeing George Floyd murdered in real time, is something that no one could walk away from and not understand what that was all about.  

So, I think that it’s important for us to remember that even though we may not see this happening in such an egregious way on a daily basis, that there continue to be ways that inequity, lack of inclusion, lack of diversity have a negative impact on our experience as a group of racialized people. You know, this is a little bit off topic, but I’m just going to mention it. I just came back from the Philippines visiting a friend, and I, you know, it’s another language, and I was also in Thailand, and there’s other languages. I noticed the advertising, and I noticed some of the products that were available in drugstores and supermarkets, and those products were skin-lightening products. They’re very popular. And I mentioned this because it isn’t just people of African origin who have been negatively impacted, not just by slavery, but by the issues that emerge from slavery.  

And one of the issues that emerged was white supremacy. One of the issues that emerged was antiblack racism or anti-non-white anything. And the fact that in 2024 the prevalence of skin whitening products in countries where people are not white speaks to the critical importance of whiteness. And so, if whiteness is something that is being sought globally, it means that there’s something about the connection of whiteness to freedom, to beauty, to all things good. And if we are the furthest, as being people of African origin from whiteness, then these things affect us the most. So that isn’t going to change. White supremacy is firmly entrenched in everything, and that means that we have to work really hard at antiblack racism, because if we don’t, it will just… the extremes, the potential for violence against us or loss of rights is very high.