The name is Stephen Wilfred. A six-foot-one, big and tall, somewhat chubby but still totally sexy young man of Haitian descent living in the city of Ottawa, Canada. I recently moved from the American town of Brockton, Massachusetts, to Toronto. Leaving the United States of America was tough but it’s something which I absolutely had to do. Simply put, there are more opportunities available to people of African descent in Canada than in the USA. America remains a deeply racist country, even though a Black man is President, and there are African-American Governors in the states of New York and Massachusetts. Hell, the state of Georgia’s Attorney General will probably become its first African-American Governor.
People of color have made tremendous strides in the United States of America but white racism isn’t going away. And the fact that people of color will soon outnumber whites in this great and ever-changing country seems to have fired up the so-called conservative base, long known to oppose legislation favoring the rights of non-whites. That is so sad but that’s life in America for you. I moved to Canada with all of my hopes and dreams. For years I lived in America without any legal papers. You see, I came to the United States of America from the Republic of Haiti in the summer of 1999 for a family vacation. Massachusetts was to be our new home. My parents, Franklin and Ellen Wilfred decided that I would stay in America with my uncle Leonard, his wife Gina and their son and daughter. My parents even helped them buy a big house in the racially diverse city of Brockton’s quietly affluent West Side.
For many years I lived in Brockton. I graduated from Brockton Community High School in 2004 and enrolled at Brockton Community College. In 2007, I earned an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice. I still lived at home, doing odd jobs here and there. Yet I was unable to continue with my education due to lack of funds and legal papers. Without legal papers, I couldn’t even apply for federal student financial aid. And that sucked. You’ve got no idea how frustrating it has been for a brilliant young man like myself. Between 2007 and 2009, I authored nearly two dozen books and published them through a small, independent print-on-demand publisher. Many of my books are to be found in the African-American fiction section of the Brockton Community Library.
What did I write about? Oh, simply what I know. I’m a bisexual guy coming from a deeply religious and superbly conservative Haitian-American family. I am a deep attraction to Black women. I love Black women. Especially tall, curvy Black women with thick bodies, large breasts, wide hips and big butts. I am a fan of sexy Black female celebrities like Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah, Mo’Nique, Serena Williams, Drew Sidora and many others. Even though I love Black women deeply, I also like Black men. I think Lebron James, Usher, Tyson Beckford and L.L. Cool J. are hot. Yeah, I’m definitely bisexual. And I didn’t always accept it. I spent my entire life in the Black church. And you don’t need me to tell you how homophobic many members of the Black church are. I’ve heard gays and lesbians called abominations, freaks and mistakes of nature. And those words hurt me. They cut me deeply. So I wrote about the lives of Black men and Black women who happened to be gay or bisexual. I saw a lot of books by Black authors in libraries across Massachusetts but too many of them were books celebrating the thug lifestyle. I’m not a thug. I’m a college-educated, hard-working and church-going Black man. Even though I’m bisexual, I’m deeply conservative. I support same-sex marriage, of course. But I’m not in favor of things like legalizing marijuana or other crazy things folks in America seem to support. In my writings, I tried to bring new life to a neglected genre, Black gay and bisexual literature. For example, one of the heroes of one of my best novels is a Haitian-American college student and aspiring police cadet who struggles with his bisexuality. He’s madly in love with his girlfriend, the sexy tomboy next door, but he’s also got feelings for a guy he knows from his school days.
I also tried to diversify the most homogenous literary genres out there, science fiction and horror. I wrote about Black vampires, Black werewolves and Black magicians. I made them the protagonists of several anthologies I penned. I even created some unique characters from neglected ethnicities. How many African-American Angels, Demons, Pagan Gods, Monsters or Spirits do you know from horror novels or fantasy films? It hasn’t been easy for me, folks. It took countless hours of hard work to create these masterworks. The world of publishing is not exactly progressive. I recently read an article stating that African-American novelists had come into their own, and their financial success helped them gain acceptance into the mainstream ( lily-white) publishing world. People are such morons. Black literature is nothing new. Black men and Black women have been writing books for centuries. And not just in America. Look into the literature of Haiti, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Africa and Nubia, among others. Seriously. People need to start giving us credit for our contributions to humanity. Black people can and have accomplished great things. It’s simply the truth.
I come to the Republic of Canada with ambition to spare, and a degree in Criminal Justice from an accredited American college. I know that since I’m new to that country, it will take me a while to get back on my feet. I’ll be staying with a cousin of mine in the city of Ottawa. I’ll get myself a job, probably as a security guard or something along those lines. I’ve brought my college transcripts with me, and I intend to continue with my education. Someday, I’m going to be a police officer in a Canadian city. My experiences as a Black man in the United States of America have taught me to respect and value real justice, even though many men and women in law enforcement bring their racial bias to the profession and dishonor the job. That’s my goal for the future, God willing.