hypersexualization of Black bodies

A guide to avoid hypersexualizing Black bodies

By: Youeal Abera, Staff writer  As a young Black man who lives in Vancouver, a city where African-Canadians constitute 1.2% of its population, I discovered what it means to be “visually different” at a very young age. When I hit puberty, and when my friends began to date, things took an interesting turn. On my hockey team, in my high school, or even in my church, my white companions would talk about Black bodies in ways that, as a youth, left me profoundly confused. I wondered why the timid white girl in my grade 11 class emphasized her need to…

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