Point of View: How Toni Morrison inspired me, and why her life's mission matters

As black girl growing up in small-town Quebec, I've often struggled with finding books, movies, and art that represented or spoke directly to me or the experience of my ancestors. This reality has not stopped me from becoming an hopeless bookworm. But it has, at times, definitely hindered my love of writing.

When a child is only presented with models that are galaxies away from their lived reality, they may come to feel as if proper writing is a form of role play as if they have to embody someone else and imitate their voice in order to be heard, for their story to have worth.

But is that still their story? How can a child learn to express themselves, truly, fiercely, unapologetically, amidst a deafening litany of dominant narratives that do so little to affirm their unique experience of humanity?

With this question lies, to me, the great mystery of the life and work of African-American Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison. Born in Lorain, Ohio in 1931, Morrison managed to emerge from a time where very few black people in the United States, and especially black women, had had the opportunity to become authors.

Little black girls in popular culture were mostly portrayed in a gross, racist, caricatural or at best stereotypical fashion, if they were represented at all.

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Most black writers until that point had assumed their readership would be white; they had published slave narratives to gather abolitionist allies, or authored stories and essays that explained things with words that were meant to cross the social rift of American life. In interviews, Toni Morrison has recalled how the bookworm child that she was rarely, if ever, felt that writers were addressing her.

In many ways, she spent her career creating the books she had struggled to find. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, looks at the world from the perspective of three little black girls, one who has become so overpowered by self-loathing that her deepest, most cherished dream is to wake up one day with blue eyes.

Her second composition, Sula, is a moving ode to friendship between black women. Her masterpiece, Beloved, speaks of the impossible choices black mothers have been faced with in the midst of slavery, and of the dangers and beauty of letting oneself love and be loved in an unbearably violent world.

"I have had reviews in the past that have accused me of not writing about white people as though our lives have no meaning and no depth without the white gaze," Morrison once said. "I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books."

Of course, refusing to centre white perspectives does not mean that Morrison's novels are not for everyone: their worldwide popularity speaks for itself. Through her writing, the artist carved a space for her imagination to flourish outside the boundaries and narratives imposed on her by the dominant society.

Toni Morrison chose to focus on characters that most other writers had never deemed interesting enough to stand as heroes of great works of literature. She was unapologetic about that decision, and unbothered by those who are too narrow-minded to see that stories of grandeur, universality, tragedy and indomitable courage are found throughout black history.

In my own work as a human rights advocate and as a columnist, I most often assume that I am addressing an audience that is different from me. I do believe in the crucial importance of fostering dialogue and mutual understanding if we are to face the challenges of our time, and I am deeply grateful for the platforms I have.

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However, I've come to acknowledge that if too much of my energy is spent imagining a dominant group judging every word I utter, the pedagogical work I'm constantly doing may become unhealthy and I could lose my sense of self. Or worse, I could end up maintaining the dreaded status quo that the little girl I used to be, who Toni Morrison used to be, is not worth addressing, that her imagination is not worth nurturing. Striking a balance is key.

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it," Toni Morrison used to say. When she passed away last summer, she was fondly remembered and celebrated all over the world not only for her own writing, but for her ability to inspire thousands to find the language they needed to tell their own stories, and the wisdom and courage to actually share them.

Many things have changed since Morrison's time, but her life's mission must still be carried on today. As she wrote in Beloved: "Freeing yourself [is] one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self [is] another."