The expression “street gang” does not attract any sympathy. But is that really how the Belangers should have been called when they started out? In the test We had to defend ourselvesMaxime Aurélien, helped by Ted Rutland (professor at Concordia University), recounts his career and the way in which he became, somewhat in spite of himself, the leader of a gang of young people who were called the Bélangers at the time. , and who initially had only one desire: to be at home in Montreal and enjoy all that this city had to offer.
But we were in the 1980s. The unemployment rate was high, even more when you were a young black person, towards whom society was particularly racist, in employment and in renting accommodation. I remember one taxi company that was proud to say that it had no black people in its fleet of drivers, and many bars refused them entry.
Even crazier, when a young black man wanted to get out of Montreal North or Saint-Michel to have fun downtown, he systematically received the “n-word” in the face. “We stood at the Paladium on Fridays, remembers Maxime Aurélien. As soon as we left the Berri metro, we were chased, we had names shouted at each other, we fought. »
What shocked me when reading this story is that Maxime Aurélien, who is only a few years older than me, frequented pretty much the same places of my adolescence – the Paladium, the discotheque Le 13e sky, his friends went to the Joseph-François-Perrault school in Saint-Michel where I did my secondary education – but he lived a completely different reality. His 1980s were anything but candy pink. Son of a Haitian immigrant who was very active in his community, Maxime found himself alone when his mother died, when his father left to live in New York. Because for him, his real hometown was Montreal and, barely out of adolescence, he returned to the metropolis to find his friends, bringing with him the hip-hop style discovered in the Big Apple, renting an apartment that he paid with the means at hand, including petty crime. Because he couldn’t find a job. “We weren’t hired,” he recalls. I called for a job, and I was hired because I spoke Québécois, because crisse, we are Québécois, but as soon as we saw you, we told you that the position was already taken. And if we kept you, you were called a n… and a job thief. »
A heavy label to carry
Maxime Aurélien welcomes me to his pawn shop in Tétreaultville, which is also a cozy little barbershop. He made the wooden decorations himself, while his wife painted the face of Bob Marley on the wall. He is the father of four children – including two from a union with the granddaughter of hockey player Maurice Richard!
Due to his criminal record, his small business is the solution he has found to earn a living. “I am able to work, and they hire me, but as soon as they see my file, tab…. And I’m not young anymore. »
Maxime talks to me with his childhood friend, Luigi Labarrière, who is a DJ and speaker. For two hours, the two men who are now in their fifties tell me, sometimes laughing, about their youth in a society that was merciless towards them. That’s kind of why, at some point, they were ruthless too, because they had to defend themselves, indeed.
“Quebecers, Italians and skinheads were running after us, enumerates Maxime. Black English speakers too, because we spoke French. So they went out in gangs, to protect themselves, and quite quickly, young people who had the same problems as them came to them to ask for help. Because they couldn’t go to the police, who harassed them.
“In the past, the police were anyone, notes Maxime. It wasn’t a school police. They took off their belts and they fought with you, one on one. » With such memories, I imagine they are not surprised when they hear the stories of brutality against Aboriginal people. No, and Luigi even went to Joyce Echaquan’s funeral.
It is well known that criminal groups are most often born in poor and marginalized communities. But for these young Haitians who started out as petty criminals, the label “street gang” came right away, and the media made a big splash about it. I remember that in the 1980s, everyone was afraid of “black gangs”, partly because it was a new phenomenon. “The term ‘street gang’ was first used to refer to Haitian gangs,” says Ted Rutland. However, gangs in Montreal, there have been since the middle of the 19e century. It is the translation of the term “street gang”, and a way of saying that it comes from elsewhere, that it is not our society which produced the gangs. That it is their non-integration that produces crime, but integration was not an option, it was desired by young people like Maxime, except that there were obstacles at every step! »
Yes, Maxime Aurélien committed crimes, but according to him, he was far from being “organized” and he didn’t really know what he was doing. He even had the impression sometimes of having a break when he was in prison, because he was housed and fed. He finds that, despite lingering issues of racism, today’s youth have it easier than him. “In the past, even to pick up trash for the City of Montreal, you didn’t see black people. Today, I’m just happy to see a black man working for the city. I was even happy the first time I was sentenced by a black judge. »
Suddenly, Maxime breaks down and tears come to his eyes. “Excuse me, it’s just that these were cases that we never saw. »
No need for apologies, it’s rather me who wants to offer some, and I don’t know how, except perhaps by recommending this book, We had to defend ourselves. This story deserves to be heard so that we come to understand that the phenomenon of gangs comes largely from the way in which non-white young people are treated in our society. And that it is not from yesterday.
We had to defend ourselves
Maxime Aurelien and Ted Rutland
inkwell memory
266 pages
2023-05-10 12:45:02
#story #1980s
