Examining the claim "Canadian South Asians love education more than the Black community"

 Have you heard these comments before?

1. South Asians are the model group. Look how many of us get into university! We value education!
2. If only Blacks got educated more! There's hardly any black students on university campus!

Recently, out of interest, I started to look into these claims. I found out two things.

1. Black Canadians only make up 3.5% of Canada's population (2016 census), so obviously you will see a low percentage of university students being black - this is reflective of their population percentage.
2. TDSB is the only board that tracks race based data on students and their university / college progress. One board out of ALL the education boards in this country. When they published their data, I took a look (I will link to the article below).

THE CONCLUSION FROM TDSB DATA IS PRETTY STARK:

1. We South Asians (desis) are starting to go less and less into universities and more into colleges. Yes, a lot of South Asian kids still go to university, but the percentage is decreasing every year. That means since this is now our 3rd or 4th generation's data, we are no longer driven by high achievers (usually immigrants or children of immigrants), and we are more approaching the general norm where college is seen as a viable option (and not bringing bad reputation to the "khandan"). It's a significant drop - almost 10%.
2. More and more black students are going into university, despite many challenges. These challenges include poor families (economic disadvantages), poor schools in poor neighborhoods, single parent families, low averages coming into high school, racial discrimination from education staff, etc. Even despite getting into university, many black students face significant racism and other challenges. And yet, most graduate and finish the degree.

I love data, so I am going to link to some data. These data show that it's incorrect to say we South Asians love our education (as an overall statement) and black community does not value education (in Canada). What is likely is that South Asian community here is the descendent of smart and hard working immigrants who did not face the hard poverty and racism to the same degree as black Canadians.

Data and sources:

1. TDSB report: https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/black-students-still-face-major-hurdles-getting-into-university/
   
   It should be noted that TDSB itself isn't really the best example as despite blacks and visible minority making a significant higher amount of Toronto's population (51%), TDSB staff is still 70% white.
2. Being black on campus: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/anti-black-racism-campus-university-1.5924548
3. StatCan: Canada's Black Population - Education, Labour and Resilience: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2020002-eng.htm

Port Union Waterfront Park

 Toronto is an amazing city. Every time you can find something new, despite decades of living here. Last week, while having a small (socially distanced) picnic lunch at Colonel Danforth Park in East Scarborough, we discovered the Port Union Waterfront Trail.

Now the Port Union Waterfront Park can be accessed by car easily, but it's a little bit of a hike from Colonel Danforth Park. Nevertheless, it's a good exercise.

When you finally reach the end of the trail (or should I say the bottom of the trail), you are rewarded with some great views of the beach and Lake Ontario.

If needed, you can go down to the beach and the water, although the Pickering Nuclear Plant is not that far away (just saying).

On a clear sunny day, it's a beautiful hike, and you can get to see a lot of interesting birds.

The hike back is not bad, and as always, feels shorter than the way there.

Overall, if you want a picnic, and then a nice walk, the Port Union Waterfront Trail from Colonel Danforth Park is for you.