Black History Month Blog Series: Sheldon Bailey

By Sheldon Bailey on Feb 27, 2024
Sheldon smiles at the camera with his chin in his hand. He wears a blue sweater with a collar.

Meet Sheldon Bailey (M.Ed.), an Educational Administrator of the School of Health and Wellness at Red Deer Polytechnic.

What drives me is the desire to leave my corner of the world a little better than the way I found it. I believe that I owe my kids that much. I am a career Allied Health Practitioner who transitioned into adult education as an instructor, and now as an Administrator. I am passionate about creating an environment where aspiring professionals can discover and become their best selves as they chase their individual dreams. I am a lover of the outdoors, music, and vintage cars, though I am an expert at none of those things.

For me, being Black requires unwavering resilience. The black community has been side-lined, ill-treated, and undervalued for hundreds of years, yet we remain strong, proud, and relevant. Mediocrity has never been an option for our people and I do not intend for it to start with me.

Racism is a learned behaviour resulting from an unfair social construct that has been allowed to exist for too long. Too much has happened between privileged and minority groups for us to ‘unsee’ race at this point, but it is not too late for the humans within the racialized groups to be noticed and appreciated. While the oppressed have the right to speak out against injustice, the oppressors have the responsibility to speak with (and sometimes for) them. Remaining silent in the face of injustice is taking sides and joining ranks with the perpetrator(s).

A defining moment within the Black community that has impacted who I am is when Sam Sharpe led the Baptist War against slavery on my home Island – Jamaica, in 1832. This was 25 years after the official abolition of the slave trade, yet slavery remained alive and well. I remember this war whenever I meet oppositional circumstances that I am unable to change in the moment. I make every effort to do what I can whenever I can as there is no telling how today’s actions can impact tomorrow’s realities.

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