Perspective of black Maritimers shared in Moncton-based podcast
Two Moncton men have created a podcast to talk about their experiences as black men living in the Maritimes.
Fidel Franco and Marcus Marcial try to cover a wide variety of topics, from news events such as the American election, to preconceived notions they encounter in their daily lives.
They say a major selling point for their Black in the Maritimes podcast is that they speak without filtering themselves.
Franco said the online nature of the show allows them to speak freely.
"That's the great thing about the internet," said Franco.
"We're not just one people, everybody is able to talk back. There's not going to be a backlash, there's not going to be a riot or anything. It's just going to be a conversation so we can all talk about it."
Marcial said people have expressed surprise that he plays in a rock band because of his race.
"I feel like there's this preconceived notion that if you're black you're supposed to be a rapper, an R 'n B or a dancer. Like those are the three things you can do," he said.
"You can't really be a CEO, you can't really be a cop, you can't really be a firefighter, definitely can't play rock music," are other preconceived notions, he said.
Common misconception
Franco said the most common misconception he encountered was people believing that black Maritimers are a homogenous people.
"As black men, we understand certain things that happen to black men or black women, and we understand that in New Brunswick, there's a whole diversity of black people whether you're African, Latin-American, European," he said.
"But to the common eye, we're just all black. So it comes to the idea that we are the same people, but really we're not."
The podcast is done on a weekly basis and Marcial and Franco plan to start bringing in people with different perspectives as guests, such as black women, and French-speaking Africans.
Black in the Maritimes is produced weekly and has amassed almost 5,000 listens across Soundcloud and iTunes in the four months it's been running.
