Getting to university can be hard work. For the black youth of Toronto, the challenges are multiplied, and that is what the participants in the Rally for Awareness were bringing attention to on Wednesday.

Addressing the crowd of students from York, Ryerson, U of T and local high schools, organizer Amelia Phillips stated, “we are showing the critical mass of black students at university to encourage black youth about where they can be… they have real power and possibilities.”

Phillips wanted the event to help dispel “the myths that are overwhelming present in media and in schools.”

One statistic that Phillips shared with the cLousy grades, no savings, a lack of expectations from parents and even gender are just some of the factors that often deter potential scholars for reaching for that post-secondary brass ring, and thanks to a new survey on education, those demographics are becoming less of assumptions and more stark reality for Canadian students.

rowd was that 3.1 per cent of African-Canadian men have Master’s degrees, which is more than the Canadian population as a whole. Also, one in five African-Canadians is enrolled in university or has a bachelor’s degree, which at 20 per cent, is the same rate as the Canadian population as a whole. “In 2003 we have done some great things in the way of education,” She said.

There were various speakers and entertainers outside of the Koffler Centre and then later on along the march through the downtown area to Queen’s Park North. One of them was U of T English professor and poet George Elliot Clarke, who read a poem and discussed his personal experience of being a high school student in Halifax who was encouraged to go to school by a family friend, despite his fear of doing so and his family’s lack of money. “We do not have an egalitarian society and we never did,” said Clarke, “Education allows you to advance the struggle.”

Prominent Toronto lawyer Charles Roach addressed racism in Canadian culture and the hope that young black activists could bring to the fight against it. Roach told the students “You will be revolutionary intellectuals. That is my hope for you.” He also quoted Che Guevera; “The most sacred of the virtues is the struggle against imperialism wherever it is found.”

Many of the students present also had opportunities to share their personal stories. “Systemic racism is one of the factors keeping black youth out of university” said Kai James of the National Society of Black Engineers and member of the Black Student Association at U of T. James referred to the racial profiling of black students in high school that included streaming students from the Caribbean into ESL classes. “Students are being streamed into general classes and this is limiting their options later on.”

Behind a banner that read “Rally for Awareness” the students marched through the streets chanting slogans and made their way to Queen’s Park North spreading their message of inspiration.