Lucien Saint-Pierre woke up, stretched and yawned. Then he looked at the vast City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, from his dorm at the University of Toronto. Ten years ago his family left the City of Cap-Haitien, North Haiti, for the Ontario region of Canada. Today was the tenth anniversary of their Big Move across the continents. From the Caribbean to North America. Today was also the day Lucien felt he was ready to take a major step. In three months he would graduate with his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Toronto. Everything was going according to plan. His parents couldn’t be prouder. However, he felt like he was letting them down somehow due to who he loved. He’d fallen madly in love with Anupama Ashani Krishnendu. A tall, exquisitely beautiful young Indian woman whom he met at the University of Toronto. Lucien’s parents were disappointed that he wasn’t dating a Black gal. they wouldn’t be thrilled to hear he decided to marry a woman from the Republic of India.
The young Haitian-Canadian man felt torn. His family mattered to him a great deal. They sacrificed so much for him. Giving him a brighter future was the reason they came to Canada in the first place. At first they lived in the City of Ottawa, Ontario, due to the presence of all the immigration bureaus. The Capital of Canada was full of them. It was a government town after all. The hard-working Haitian family was determined to prosper in the continent of North America. They adapted to their new country, and slowly but surely made it their own. The family patriarch, Edouard Saint-Pierre, enrolled at Algonquin College at the age of thirty six. He earned his diploma in Police Foundations, and then worked for various security companies while waiting to become a Canadian citizen so he could work for the Ontario Ministry of Corrections. He started his career as a corrections officer at the age of thirty nine. He’d already been married for a decade and sired offspring. He was definitely not the average corrections officer, that’s for sure. Back in the day, Edouard Saint-Pierre was a policeman in his hometown of Cap-Haitien in Northern Haiti. The man was determined to find work in his field even though he had to adjust to a new country. And you know what? He succeeded.
As for Mirabelle Joseph Saint-Pierre, the dutiful wife of Edouard Saint-Pierre and the mother of young Lucien, she enrolled at La Cite Collegiale, a French college in Ottawa, Ontario. Two years later, she had her nursing certificate at the age of thirty five. She began working at Ottawa’s General Hospital. The hard-working wife and mother was determined to give her husband and son her very best. They instilled in young Lucien some old-school Haitian family values. They didn’t want him to grow up to be like the majority of the young Black men of America and Canada. A fool walking around with his pants hanging low, smoking weed, dodging the police and chasing fat white women. Young Lucien grew up Canadian on paper and Haitian at heart. He attended a Haitian church in Ottawa. He also attended a private school where many of the students were the sons and daughters of African, East Asian, Hispanic and Middle-Eastern families. Even in the lily-white little town of Ottawa, racial diversity was increasing. Lucien’s parents carefully selected the school. They didn’t want him to feel like an odd duck. And they wanted him to know that success didn’t always wear a white face.
Lucien Saint-Pierre was determined to succeed. He became the first Black male valedictorian at his private high school in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. His academic success garnered a lot of attention across the Confederation of Canada. Canadians weren’t used to seeing young Black men doing positive things with their lives. Lucien was the kind of young Black man who defied the stereotypes. He didn’t play sports. He didn’t smoke. He didn’t drink. And he wasn’t chasing white chicks left and right. He was focused exclusively on his family, his school and his church. Even though he stood six feet three inches tall and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, the build of a Football Player, he never showed much interest in sports. His parents drilled into him the fact that Black men who focused on sports instead of intellectual pursuits were dumb brutes and the mindless pawns of white men who controlled them. The educated, confident Black man was the one thing white men worldwide dreaded. That’s why they cheered Black guys on as they became rappers, basketball players and football players but tried to discourage Black men from becoming lawyers, doctors, scientists and politicians.
Lucien Saint-Pierre enrolled at the University of Toronto, which offered him a full academic scholarship. For the next four years, he focused on his studies. Occasionally, he dated but the majority of young Black women he met on campus simply weren’t understanding of a Black man who was a true gentleman. They expected him to behave like the caricatures of Black males they saw on international television. He wasn’t a thug. He wasn’t a rapper. He didn’t chase white women. He didn’t run around siring multiple offspring on women across multicultural lines. Nor did he run around committing crimes. The one time he got a speeding ticket from Constable Sandra O’Connell, a white female police officer in downtown Toronto he contested it in court, citing his exemplary record. The matter was dropped. He was told by the judge that he wouldn’t have to pay the ticket. The judge had been impressed by this tall, well-dressed, intelligent and polite young Black man who simply refused to back down. By sharp contrast, the white female police officer cursed before the judge when she didn’t get her way. Lucien smiled inside as she did that. She made herself look bad. He won. Lucien went home feeling good. His parents were right. As long as they stayed away from dumb sports, rapping, chasing sluts, drugs and all kinds of distractions, Black men could accomplish anything.
