Celebrate ‘otherness’ says Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder in Ancaster High mental health webinar
Photo: Ancaster News.
By Mike Pearson, Ancaster News
Coming to Florida as a young asylum seeker, Rodney Diverlus had to face the reality that he was different from many of his peers.
Diverlus, a Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder, and bestselling author of “Until We are Free,” was the keynote speaker for a mental health webinar, hosted May 6 by Ancaster High School students.
In his speech, Diverlus addressed the concept of “centring the other” and how it relates to discussions of diversity.
For Diverlus, who is originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his “otherness” meant that unlike his cousins who enjoyed football and wrestling, he was more interested in track and field. Diverlus described himself as a bit nerdy. He’s also a Black youth who identifies as queer on the LGBTQ spectrum.
“I was a Haitian immigrant, and I was navigating what it was like to be someone that didn’t speak English for the first time. And I was experiencing poverty and navigating what that was like to be one of the only people to be on the school lunch program,” he recalled.
In his Grade 10 year, Diverlus came to Hamilton and enrolled at Westdale Secondary School. Later, he chose dance as his university major.
Along the way, Diverlus realized that all of the things that made him feel “othered” are things he can now celebrate as an adult.
Diverlus calls himself an “artivist,” working full-time in art and activism.
“I got to take all of these things that made me an “other” and I got to make them my life,” he said.
In many ways while growing up, Diverlus experienced anxiety, depression and feelings of isolation. But those experiences led him to pursue his activism and his career.
“All of these pieces that I was hurt and damaged by, that caused me so much grief, and in many ways, traumatized me growing up, were things that became the pieces of myself that I could never see myself giving up,” he explained.
Diverlus said students should celebrate their “otherness.”
“If you are the only ‘out’ student in your grade, celebrate that. If you are the only person with a visible disability or the only person that wears a hijab or the only person that cannot afford to pay for that extracurricular activity, know that you can celebrate that ‘otherism’ about you and that piece of yourself is what makes you special,” he told students.
That “otherness,” said Diverlus, is what will lead to a post-secondary education, an apprenticeship, a rewarding career choice or a unique life.
“These are the things that will become your life, your income and your dream,” said Diverlus.
Updated on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.