TORONTO – Life is full of ironies. Tuesday, for example, a certain Kike Ojo-Thompson, who operates the KOJO Institute: Equity, Anti-Racism and Organizational Change Consultants, decided to give an illustration of what it means to address the challenges of systemic barriers. She chided her neighbours (of Italian background) for not celebrating the 100-metre dash victor, an Italian, in the Olympics, with the usual elan that erupts for the national soccer team.
“Just asking questions”, she said. I doubt it, as do those who quickly brought her tweet to our attention. The Corriere responded accordingly as follows: No, With, all due respect – even as you show none – you are not just asking questions about why the Italian community did not take to the streets with flags and trumpets when Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs won the 100- metre dash at the Olympics. Your not-so-subtle innuendo is that Italian Canadians are racists and do not care about the achievement of one of their mixed-race athletes.
Please reiterate that this was not your intention and explain why you felt the urge to express yourself thus. You may not know it, but Jacobs was featured prominently on the FRONT page of North America’ s only hard copy Daily newspaper, the Corriere Canadese. Italians respect, admire and celebrate excellence, drive, determination and “class”. Your tweet regrettably falls short on all counts. Please familiarize yourself with the Italian culture and value structure before you embarrass yourself and all those who make genuine efforts to bring people together.
After you do, you will be welcomed as a guest columnist in our pages.
We are not holding our breath. When we posted the above on her twitter page, she “blocked” us within minutes (as you can see in the screenshot below). Such is the current state of debate or seeking answers.
Here below, the articles published on Corriere Canadese’s and CNMNG agency’s website on Sunday and the newspaper’s pages published today.
