SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- A New Brunswick man’s powerful message to his children about navigating racism has been printed on a T-shirt to inspire others.
When Andrew Holmes saw a disturbing video of a racist tirade in Moncton during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest, his thoughts turned to his two young children.
“That kind of prompted me to think, OK, if this happens to my children, what should my advice to them be to navigate it?” says Holmes.
The Saint John man responded by making a video.
Holmes told his children, if they find themselves confronted with racism, to meet hatred, fear, and anger with love.
“Your answer is going to be loving over it. When they try to knock you down with those words and those actions, you need to love yourself more and you need to love them,” said Holmes in the video.
The video and Holmes’ message caught the attention of a local graphic apparel company.
“I watched the video and I thought, ‘This, this is good. This is positive, it’s profound. There needs to be more of this,'” says Gary Crowley, the owner of GAC Graphic Apparel.
Crowley reached out to Holmes and offered to make shirts that reflect his ideas. After some collaboration, the T-shirts are now available for sale.
“If people can just learn to get past maybe the unknown, or something that they're a little bit fearful of, and just kind of love through that and help themselves get through it, everyone would be a lot better off,” says Crowley.
Holmes says he wants his kids to know that they can love over any situation.
“I'm going to show them that love and I expect them to show that love to other people and they'll have a better life for it,” he says.
