Yves Sakila protestor explains how racism affects his life

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Me being black, this speaks to me pretty closely.

[00:00:04]Um, my father's from Nigeria, so I'm born here.

[00:00:07]So, obviously, it's something that we face all the time. I was born here, like I said. And yeah, I get constant questions about where I'm from, am I really from here? And when I'm into a shop, uh, security watch me closer than than usual.

[00:00:22]And the case sort of mirrored something that a member of my family went through at one point in life. They didn't pass away as if skilled, so it's still something that hit home, so I felt like I had to attend regardless of you know, time or rain or whatever.

[00:00:41]Regarding the race aspect, as I said, I'm black, so it's something that hit close to me. And it's it's just something that really something that black people go through all the time. We go into a shop, we get profiled, we get watched, we get whatever.

[00:00:58]And for this to happen so openly, and how much it mirrored George Floyd's death in 2020, it's just for a country like this that prides itself on, you know, we're not racist, we're color blind, or whatnot, this, paired with the recent rise in far right and right wing talk online and protests such in person, it's just it's horrible, so I think this protest was very much needed for our voices to be heard, our faces to be seen, and for us to say, "We're not we're not okay with this. We're not going to stand passive and just let this happen. We are here. We're going to speak out. We're going to protest and talk. So.

[00:01:46]Thank you very much.