Hey, there. My name is Joanna Jacques. I am a five-foot-ten, chubby and big-bottomed, dark-skinned young Black woman of Haitian descent. These days, I’m living in the City of Ottawa, Province of Ontario. I am also openly queer. I attend Carleton University and live in the Vanier area. My neighbours are mostly Africans, Asians and Arabs. Vanier is a small town near Ottawa which has long been a haven for immigrant families seeking a place of their own within the lily-White world of the Canadian capital. I fit right in here.
The life of a Butch Black woman in Canada isn’t easy. However, I do what I can. I’ve got no choice but to be myself. I have always been a tomboy. Skirts simply weren’t for me. And I like to completely shave my head. I do it every three months. Also, I was a wrestler and basketball player in high school. That alone marked me as different. Everybody knew I was gay long before I realized it. I came out as queer to my deeply conservative Haitian parents the night after graduation. That was three years ago. I live on my own now, and work as a security guard to pay the rent and other bills. I’m on federal student financial aid at Carleton University.
Recently, I met this tall, and absolutely sexy young Black woman named Samantha Ardent. She is six feet tall, athletic and sexy, with big tits and big round butt. I do love a gal with a big booty. Samantha, the short-haired, athletic beauty from the Republic of Senegal is a law student at the University of Ottawa. And guess what? She is Butch like me! I found myself intensely attracted to her. And it surprised me. Usually, Butch women aren’t attracted to other Butch women. Especially in the Black Lesbian Community. Butch women, also known as Studs, don’t date each other. It is strictly taboo. Most Butch women date Femmes. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Well, Samantha and I like each other. So to hell with the haters and naysayers. It’s hard to find love in Canada. I am a young Black woman who loves other young Black women. A lot of the Black women I find myself attracted to are either dating men or, if they’re gay, they’re dating White chicks. What the fuck? I thought only straight Black men had ‘White chick fever’. Damn. Now gay Black women have it too. No White chicks for me. In Canada, most White chicks you meet are so fake and covertly bigoted it’s not even funny. Don’t want them or need them. The Black woman is my standard of beauty. Give me a Serena Williams, a Lisa-Ray McCoy or an Alicia Keys over Britney Spears any damn day. You dig? Cool.
Samantha and I were very different people but we got along fine. A lot of people think all Butch women are the same. They think that deep down, we secretly want to become men. Or that we secretly hate men. I am a proud lesbian. But I am not a man-hater. I don’t associate with man-haters either. Growing up, I had a lot more male friends than female friends. I couldn’t stand the bitches in school. Mainly because I was secretly attracted to them but at the time I really didn’t want to be. We’re not all obsessed with men’s attire or contact sports either. I am really into sports, and recently started training as an amateur boxer while Samantha is really nerdy. She loves comic books and action movies. Especially iconic comic book characters like Hancock, Blade the Vampire Hunter, Storm of the X-Men and Spawn. See? We’re both uniquely different individuals, with individual tastes.
Samantha and I come from different backgrounds. My father Jeremie Jacques is a Tax Attorney who works for the Canadian Government. My mother Jasmine Jean-Pierre Jacques is a Deputy Superintendent with the Ottawa Public Schools System. I have an older brother named Louis who works as the Chief Counsel for the Ministry of Corrections. My parents moved to Canada from the Republic of Haiti in their youth and settled in the Ottawa area. They attended local high schools and met at Carleton University in the early 1980s. It was love at first sight, or so I’ve been told.
Samantha Ardent was born in the City of Preston, in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. The City of Preston has long been home to a sturdy African community. Since the 1800s it’s been known as the heart of the Black Canadian community. Samantha’s father George Ardent is a patrol supervisor with the Halifax Police Service. Her mother Justine Croix Ardent is an Investment Banker. Samantha has an older sister named Genevieve who’s studying business administration at the University of British Columbia in the City of Vancouver. Samantha moved to Ottawa because she has always been fascinated with the capital. Twenty five percent of Ottawa residents are people of African, Asian, Hispanic or Arabic descent. That’s a lot more diversity than the Province of Nova Scotia, whose only racially diverse towns are Halifax and Preston.
There are other differences between Samantha and myself. My family is new to Canada, sort of. We’ve been here since the 1980s. Samantha’s family is descended from Africans who moved to Canada from the United States and elsewhere almost two centuries ago. Oh, and her folks have dough. Samantha lives in a beautiful and very expensive apartment in the affluent town of Barrhaven, not far from Ottawa. Her wealthy parents pay for everything. She also drives a bright red BMW, model 2009. I use public transportation. I’m on the OC Transpo Bus every damn day. My last car, a beat-up old Toyota, got smashed while I was doing construction work in the village of Casselman, right outside Ottawa. Yeah, we come from different worlds. I still love her, though. The only thing I can’t stand about her is her fondness for the capital.
Personally, I hate the town of Ottawa. I swear folks in this place like the smell of their own shit. They’re that smug. As soon as I get my bachelors degree from Carleton University, I want to move someplace livelier like Toronto or Vancouver. I might even leave Canada altogether and move to the United States. My father’s brother Lucien lives in New York City, where he works as a manager for the New York Transit Authority. He lives there with some Asian woman he married and their three brats. I only met them once. Uncle Lucien was quite forgettable but I fell in love with New York City. It’s so big and diverse. And there are so many sexy Black women walking around the city. Wow.