I am a person who is able to function, despite a disability. At the time these events were happening, I was a functional zombie. My disability diagnosis was only given to me in 2008. Please keep this in mind.

One morning, in August 2001, I got on a plane with the destination of Durban, South Africa. From Toronto, I had connecting flights to New York City and Johannesburg. When I got to Durban, it was heaven. The hotel I was staying at was right on the beach. Also, there was an amusement park, as well as an aquarium.

Why was I in Durban? I had been invited to the culmination of many conferences of the previous several years. I was there to attend the 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR), hosted by the United Nations. I was so excited to be there, it never dawned on me that there would be trouble when I would be heading home.

A conference against racism

The WCAR in 2001 was the culmination of various conferences that had taken place all over the world since 1997. These conferences were held to develop conversations about anti-racism through the lens of intersectionality. The Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”.

The outcome document of the 2001 Conference was the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, a comprehensive framework for addressing racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances.

At WCAR, there were people from all over the world with stories to tell about their lived experiences and the history of survival from all types of perspectives. The conference was an international celebration of diversity, survival and solidarity. There were meetings with world leaders, keynote speakers and interactive workshops. The opening ceremony was a celebration of resilience through dance and song. Throughout the 10 days I was there, I also attended concerts, plays and a repatriation ceremony.

I attended a play that was part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the play. I do remember the content. The play was based on the experiences of the actors during the apartheid era in South Africa. Their stories were harrowing and heartbreaking. In the end, the play offered hope for a better future for South Africa, a future that included Racial Harmony and healing.

That play gave me hope that things like racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia would become things of the past. I thought, for sure, WCAR would be the catalyst for racial harmony.

On September 10, 2001, I began my trip back home. We made an emergency stop in Cape Verde, because the plane had to pick up additional passengers. Finally, on the morning of September 11, 2001, we were flying over New York City and were about to land at John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport.

We landed without incident. After disembarking from the airplane, we went into the airport building. It looked different than the last time I was there. The airport was empty of passengers. We went through Customs and not a word was said. It did not occur to me that there was a problem. I was so tired and wanted to get back to Toronto. I dreaded the four-hour layover we had.

On our own, indeed!

We got out of JFK Airport and took a taxi to get to LaGuardia Airport. The taxi driver was playing smooth jazz the whole time. When we finally arrived at LaGuardia, it looked deserted. No one said anything to us. We went in to get our boarding passes and confirm the departure of our plane. The ticket agent behind the counter looked jumpy. Of course, I had to make a joke: “Wow, that guy looks like he needs his morning coffee.” We chuckled.

At this point, I still had no clue what was actually going on in New York City. However, our four-hour layover thankfully turned out to be one hour; I was happy about that. With my boarding pass in hand, I could finally go have a cigarette.

As we were smoking and talking, a young woman who had also attended WCAR and was on our plane came up to the group. She looked like something was bothering her, so we listened to what she had to say. She told us a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.

Of course, I thought she must be mistaken. I went back to the ticket counter, and there was a short lineup. It did not occur to me as strange that there was only one ticket agent, the same jumpy one from earlier.

We were next in line when an inaudible message came through the airport speakers. We had no clue what was happening. The ticket agent, who was a portly fellow, did understand. He jumped over the counter as if it was nothing, and yelled out “You are on your own!” as he fled.

On our own, indeed. A security guard came and evacuated us from the airport. Finally, as we stood waiting to be let back into the airport, a parked van was playing the news. The newscaster announced that a second plane had hit the second tower. It was surreal. I had no understanding of what was going on.

We were asked to get on a shuttle bus because we could not stay on the airport property. LaGuardia is in Queens, and the towers were in Manhattan. As the shuttle bus drove us to a nearby hotel, we could see a huge mushroom of smoke that looked like something from a post-apocalyptic movie, and fighter jets flying above us.

9/11 has marked me forever

I had no money for a hotel, food or even a way back home. Luckily, I was travelling with kind, generous people. We stayed at a hotel while trying to figure out how to get back to Toronto. The next day, we headed to Manhattan. On the way into the city, we could see the mushroom smoke.

When we got into Manhattan, there was smoke and debris everywhere near Penn Station. I had never seen Manhattan look like a ghost town before. We got on a train that was headed to Niagara Falls, New York. It was standing room only, as there were more people on the train than there were seats.

Once in Niagara Falls, New York, we took a taxi to the border. We walked over the bridge to the Canadian border. In Canada, my boss had driven from Toronto to pick me up. It was such a blessing. Some other delegates had their planes rerouted; not everyone got lucky, like me. After my return, we kept working on post-WCAR conferences and other work as, despite such a tragic story in history, we did not want the hope of racial harmony to die.

September 11, 2001, has marked me forever. I am so fearful of acts of terrorism, but I do not let that get in the way of my hope that the future can be healthy, loving, prosperous, safe and joyful. And that one day, there can be racial harmony and equality, despite intersectional differences.

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image 1 Alexa from Pixabay 2 Die Bankie Gedagte by HelenOnline, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 3 Ken Chuang from Pixabay 

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