Hi, my name's Alejandro. I am from Toronto, Canada, and my question is, have you ever dealt with racism or sexism?
And I've dealt with both. Even being a man in the city, it's not uncommon. This is more so an easy question. Living in Canada as a person of color, racism isn't uncommon. While Canada's more accepting, given that we have a history of helping people escape slavery through the Underground Railroad in St. Catherine's, that doesn't mean everybody is so accepting. Of course, now Toronto is a more multicultural city, but racism, again, it's not uncommon and hateful speech happens. I have worked as a tree planter, which has allowed me the privilege of traveling throughout so many wonderful different parts of Canada. And in these other parts of Canada, diversity is not as common and people aren't always as familiar with other cultures, other cultural practices, and they're not as accepting. I've lived in places like Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and I definitely felt a little bit out of place, and that's okay. It's all a matter of how people kind of accept you into their communities, and they were still accepting, although there was different levels of discomfort that I felt and somewhat a little bit of familiar unfamiliarity on their part as to how other people interacted with me. So there are different levels to this, but it happens in many different forms and it's not uncommon, but we strive. We strive, anyhow.
