Synthesis of Key Themes

• Definitions establish a framework for language and a measurable, achievable goal (Chapter 1).
• To be anti-racist requires an understanding of racism and anti-racism definitions through lenses of policies, people, and ideas (Chapter 3).
• You can be racist today and anti-racist tomorrow; the goal is to remain self-critical and continually reorient your consciousness (Chapter 1).
• Your association with a racial grouping can help you gain a historical and political perspective. Conversely, this can feel like a limiting construct if you don’t associate yourself in this history (Chapter 3). Generalizing behaviour is a racist tendency where you see your race > the individual (Chapter 4).
• Ethnic racism is the script of the oppressor targeting an ethnicity. It perpetuates racist sentiments (Chapter 5).
• Racialized people’s categorization of other racialized people of the same race (suggesting a fabricated ranking of race categories) creates an ethnic hierarchy that reinforces racism (Chapter 5).
• People consume racist ideas about other groups of people so long as they maintain a position of superiority within this valuation (Chapter 5).
• White racists see policies that do not centre White lives as being racist. Therefore, when White racists read “Black Lives Matter,” they shout back, “All Lives Matter” (Chapter 9).
• To be anti-racist is to be feminist; rejecting the hierarchy of races must also include rejecting the hierarchy of race-genders (Chapter 14).
• Intersectionality gives us a lens to understand how oppression can simultaneously intersect different social categorizations, ageism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination (Chapter 14).
• Our focus should be on advocating for others rather than advocating to compensate feelings of guilt (Chapter 16).
• There is no healing or progress without experiencing pain (Chapter 18).

Discussion Points

• Brave, Safe, Ethical Spaces
  • De-centring Whiteness and holding space

• Race
  • The Floating Signifier
  • Social Constructs

• Definitions
  • Racist vs. Anti-Racist
  • Black
  • Gender
  • Queer
  • Racist, Assimilationist, Segregationist, Anti-Racist

• Applying Critical Race Theory
  • Double Consciousness
  • Intersectionality: Mapping the Margins

• Privilege
  • What Is Privilege?
  • How Does Your Privilege Impact Your Experience?

Steps to Being Antiracist

Reflective Questions

To Know

• What experiences led you to awareness of your own racial identity?
• How has your racial identity changed (or not) over time?
• How would you describe your first encounter with racism?
• How did you learn about racial identity?

To Be

• In thinking about double consciousness (Dubois 1903), how has your own avowal (self-perception) and the ascription (external perception) of others impacted your ability to share or be your authentic self?
• How have you impeded others’ expressions based on your ascriptions of them?

To Do

• How can and will you use your awareness of your privilege and space to apply an intersectional lens in your interactions in your classroom, curriculum, and campus community?

Activity

Suggested Resources

Articles

Lorde, A. (1981). The uses of anger. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 9(3). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1654&context=wsq.

Metta, J. (2015).I, racist. Those people. https://medium.com/thsppl/i-racist-538512462265.

Coaston, J. (2019). The intersectionality wars. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

Multimedia

Coates, T. (2015). Fear and the black experience. [Video]. PBS Religion & Ethics. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/11/20/ta-nehisi-coates-fear-black-experience/27488/

Morrison, T. (1998). Beautifully answers an “illegitimate” question on race. [Video]. Charlie Rose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kgq3F8wbYA

McIntosh, P. (2012). How studying privilege systems can strengthen compassion. [Video]. TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BY9UEewHw.

Deggans, E. (Host). (2020). Not racist” is not enough: Putting in the work to be anti-racist. [Podcast]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905515398/not-racist-is-not-enough-putting-in-the-work-to-be-anti-racist

McGregor, H. (Host). (2020). Being a demon bitch about justice. [Podcast]. Secret Feminist Agenda. https://secretfeministagenda.com/2020/06/26/episode-4-23-being-a-demon-bitch-about-justice/.

Brown, B. (Host). (2021), Brené with Emmanuel Acho on uncomfortable conversations with a black man. [Podcast]. In Unlocking us with Brené Brown. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-emmanuel-acho-on-uncomfortable-conversations-with-a-black-man/.

Definitions

Synthesis of Key Themes

• There are no race-neutral or non-racist policies. Every policy promotes either inequity or equity within an institution, community, or nation (Chapter 1).
• Institutional, structural, and systemic racism are synonyms – one reinforces the other (Chapter 1).
• Focusing on discriminatory “events” is a distraction from the central agents of racism: racist power policymakers (Chapter 1).
• Discriminatory policies that create equitable outcomes are anti-racist policies (Chapter 1).
• Race-neutral policies merely impede the advancement of non-Whites toward equity (Chapter 1).
• “Racism is a powerful collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity and are substantiated by racist ideas. Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas” (Chapter 1, p. 20).
• Business-as-usual climate policies are a form of environmental racism, as seen in the vulnerability experienced by the non-White Global South being disproportionately impacted by the anthropogenic (human-induced) activity in the White Global North (Chapter 1).
• It is easier to personalize racist acts as deficiencies in people rather than identifying the impact of policies and systems (Chapter 2).
• Cultural assimilation is a racist policy as it suggests that the dominant way of living is a benchmark based on a racial hierarchy (Chapter 3).
• To achieve anti-racism or a post-race world, we must first acknowledge categorizations — Latinx, Asian, African, Europeans, Indigenous, or Middle Eastern — as these six “races” constitute power identities, and race is a power construct (Chapter 3).
• Race creates new forms of power; it frames how you judge, evaluate, exclude, and include other racial groups as monolithic (Chapter 3).
• Racializing ethnic groups serves the core mandate of race, which is to create “hierarchies of value” (Chapter 5, p. 62).
• Social and cultural norms and standards dictate the hierarchy of what is acceptable, which leads to cultural racism (Chapter 7, p. 83).
• Colourism supports and promotes that superiority is attached to the lighter pigment and complexion of an individual. Thus, it attributes good behaviour to something that is closest to the White body (Chapter 8).
• Conceptions of beauty need to be liberated to encompass a diverse range of expressions (Chapter 8).
• White supremacy is a code of anti-human sentiment that is also an existential threat to human existence (Chapter 10).
• Black people can also be racist because there is also power represented in Black communities. It is directly connected to an individual’s power to resist (Chapter 11).
• Generalizations made at the intersections of race, class, and behaviour lead to class racism, which creates elitist policies that are often targeted at specific racial groups, justifying them by racist ideas and stereotypes about the given group (Chapter 11).
• We must consider racism at the intersection of capitalism – a problem that is really a function of economic exploitation and the problem of war (Chapter 11).
• Capitalism and racism are conjoined twins – neither lives in historical or material reality (Chapter 11).
• Power has racialized both people and spaces: (a) the ghetto, (b) the inner city, and (c) the “Third World,” all occupied by a racial majority (Chapter 13).
• Space racism justifies resource inequity. White spaces are seen as desirable; non-White spaces are less desirable (Chapter 13).

Discussion Points

• Race as a Concept
  • Race Origins
  • The White Mans Burden
• Definitions
  • Racist vs. Anti-Racist
  • Space
  • Class
  • Biological
• Contexts
  • Racist, Assimilationist, Segregationist, Anti-Racist
  • Case Studies from Around the Globe
  • Securitization
  • Canadian Time Line of Acts and Events
• Critical Race Theory
  • Micro-Aggressions
• Conjoined Twins
  • Capitalism and Business as Usual
  • Space(s)
  • Who Speaks for the Environment?
  • Intersectional Urbanism

Racist, Assimilationist, Segregationist, Antiracist

Contexts

Reflective Questions

To Know

• Reflecting on intersectional urbanism, what are some of the elements of space, class, and biology that you see and experience in your immediate environment?
• Thinking of your own urban or rural spaces, what stereotypes are associated with the areas that carry a negative stigma in your town or city? How has this impacted your perception, comfort, and frequenting of this space?

To Be

• What are some current societal structures, policies, pedagogies, or frameworks that suggest an improvement but have instead had a direct negative impact on a racial or ethnic group’s experience in Canada or around the world?
• Do these policies reflect an assimilationist or segregationist approach? What could these approaches look like with an anti-racist approach?

To Do

• Think of your relationship with policy as a decision maker or part of the electorate. Reflecting on your own context and individual privilege (economic, relational, spatial etc.), what actions can you take to amplify Indigenous and racialized narratives and advocate for their concerns to be reflected in policy?
• What are some takeaways from this Act that you can use to design and facilitate ethical spaces that embrace this type of local or global advocacy?

Activity

Suggested Resources

Articles

Sithole, T. (2016). The concept of the Black subject in Fanon, Journal of Black Studies, 47(1), 24–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934715609913.

Rashid, A.  (2021). “Racism & the Americanization of Canadian history: Why we shouldn’t look at ourselves through a U.S. lens, The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/racism-and-the-americanization-of-canadian-history-why-we-shouldnt-look-at-ourselves-through-a-u-s-lens-159974

Gray, A. (2019). The bias of ‘professionalism’ standards, Standford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_bias_of_professionalism_standards.

Multimedia

Deggans, E. (Host). (2020). Not racist” is not enough: Putting in the work to be anti-racist. [Podcast]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905515398/not-racist-is-not-enough-putting-in-the-work-to-be-anti-racist

Canadaland. (2020). The police #2 — The secret history of the RCMP. [Podcast]. https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/the-police-2-the-secret-history-of-the-rcmp/

‎Warrior Life. (2020). Desmond Cole on anti-Black racism in Canada & US on Apple Podcasts. [Podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/desmond-cole-on-anti-black-racism-in-canada-us/id1434096503?i=1000476463578

The Globe and Mail. (2016). Colour code: A podcast about race in Canada. [Podcast]. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-podcast-race-in-canada/article31494658/

CTV News. (2020). W5: Balarama Holness fights against systemic racism in Canada. [TV show]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsTcw0abhs

Hudson, S. & Loretto, N., (Hosts). (2021). Canada’s democratic deficit. [Podcast*]. https://sandyandnora.com/

* Sandy and Nora is a Canadian political podcast that discusses current events and has great episodes over the last year and a half on Black Lives Matter, White supremacy, and police violence in a Canadian context. See episodes 119, 117, 103, 104, and 99.

Books

Chariandy, D. (2018). I’ve been meaning to tell you: A letter to my daughter. McClelland & Stewart.

Cole, D. (2020). The skin we’re in: A year of Black resistance and power (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2020).

Diverlus, R., Hudson, S., & Ware, S. M. (Eds.). (2020). Until we are free : Reflections on Black Lives Matter Canada. University of Regina Press.

Saad, L. F. (2020). Me and white supremacy: Combat racism, change the world, and become a good ancestor. Sourcebooks.

Definitions

Synthesis of Key Themes

• Misbehaving racialized children rarely receive empathy from racist teachers. Instead, they are punished as if they were adults (Chapter 4).
• Biological racism leads to a hierarchical categorization of racial groups based on a belief that certain races yield superior or inferior behavioural traits (Chapter 4).
• Racism requires racialized people to need to be exceptional to achieve moderate success, and it has little empathy for “errors” (Chapter 8).
• Racist policies are built on the notion of a monolithic explanation of a racial groups behaviour (Chapter 8).
• Standardized testing is a function of racist policies as they do not account for historical or socio-economic barriers that can impact performance, nor do they allow alternate measurements of intelligence that reflect a racial group (Chapter 8).
• The suggestion of an achievement gap that highlights varied intelligence across races is premised on the belief of varied performances because of race (Chapter 8).
• Measuring the intelligence of how individuals are knowledgeable in their own environments and cultural norms is essential (Chapter 11).
• Gatherings of racialized people can be perceived as anti-White (segregation) instead of as a space of solidarity against racism (Chapter 13).
• Anti-racist approaches promote equal access and combine desegregation with integration. Thus, racial solidarity leads to greater diversity among all racial groups (Chapter 13).
• Race is rooted in the appropriation of power, not in an individual’s immorality or ignorance (Chapter 1).
• Moral and educational suasion believes that racist minds should be targeted first before fighting against policies (Chapter 16).
• Anti-racist research is about producing research to affect policies to benefit racialized groups (Chapter 18).

Discussion Points

• Definitions
  • Racist vs. Anti-Racist
  • Behavioural
• Academic Privilege
  • Transdisciplinary Approach to Learning
• Standardized Testing
  • SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT
• Curriculum
  • Combatting Imperialist Epistemology
  • Incorporating Global Perspectives, Literature, and Ways of Knowing, Learning, Being, and Doing
• Critical Race Theory
  • Standpoint Epistemology
  • Primary Accounts, Auto-Ethnographies, and Lived Experiences
• Pedagogy of the Opressed
• Blackspaces

Reflective Questions

To Know

• In what ways have you experienced academic privilege – positively or negatively?
• Can you think of a time that you attributed someone’s potential to their race?
• How is this reflected in how achievement is measured and the diversity of voices represented at all levels of your institution?

To Be

• How do your institution’s policies create gaps between access and achievement between racial groups? In the classroom, in faculty, and in senior levels of management?
• What current institutional standards that are considered “professional” may be biased toward a particular racial group?
• In what ways can you invite an alternate perspective into your curriculum, into your pedagogical approach, or in considering alternative forms of assessment?

To Do

• Plato said, “Those who tell stories rule society.” Reflecting on your own contexts, what actions can you take to create greater equity while amplifying Indigenous and racialized narratives that have been silenced in your classroom, curriculum, and campus community?
• What are some takeaways from this Act that you will use to design and facilitate ethical spaces that embrace this type of sharing while combatting imperialist epistemology (Thusu, 2010)?

Activity

Suggested Resources

Articles

Bowleg, L. (2021). “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”: Ten critical lessons for Black and other health equity researchers of color. Health Education & Behavior, 48(3), 237–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981211007402.

Dei, G. J. S. (2006). Introduction: Mapping the Terrain – towards a new politics of resistance. In G. J. S. Dei & A. Kempf (Eds.), Anti-colonialism & education – The politics of resistance. (pp. 1–24). Brill.

Gonzalez, J. (2018, December 2). 10 ways educators can take action in pursuit of equity. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/10-equity.

Matias, J. N., Lewis, N., Jr., & Hope, E. (2021, September 7). Universities say they want more diverse faculties. So why is academia still so white? FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universities-say-they-want-more-diverse-faculties-so-why-is-academia-still-so-white.

Showing Up for Racial Justice. (n.d.). Resources. https://surj.org/category/resources.

Tuck, E., Carroll, K. K., & Smith, M.D. (2010). About us and not about as: Theorizing student resistance to learning about race and racism from underrepresented faculty, Journal of the International Society of Teacher Education, 14(2). 70–74. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/557744ffe4b013bae3b7af63/t/5fa193f046d4646b2902890c/1604424688479/Tuck%2C+Carroll%2C+Smith_About+us+and+not+about+us.pdf.

University of Toronto Scarborough. (2021). Scarborough charter. https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/scarborough-charter

Zinn Education Project. (n.d.). Teaching materials. https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials.

Multimedia

Lindo, L. (2020). Why hugging out racism in education just won’t cut it [Video]. TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tifJElYkuYI.

Class, T. (Host). (2012). How is smartness defined in schools? [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXzgLTFJWM.

Gray, J. (Host). (2021). Open knowledge spectrums podcast – Exploring epistemic justice in open education [Podcast].https://knowledgespectrums.opened.ca/podcast/epistemic-violence-in-world-history-curriculum-with-dr-tadashi-dozono.

Book

Henry, F., Dua, E., James, C. E., Kobayashi, A.,  Li, P., Ramos, H., & Smith, M. S. (2017). The equity myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian universities. UBC Press.

Definitions

Synthesis of Key Themes

• An aspirational post-racial world must first consider the idea of race and the impact of race stratification (Chapter 1).
• Within the anti-racist agenda, eliminating race categorization is the last objective; without race categorization, you cannot identify racial inequity or challenge racist policies (Chapter 4).
• High crime rates in certain neighborhoods are a byproduct of low-income and poverty rather than race (Chapter 6).
• Behavioural racism makes an individual responsible for the perceived behaviour of a particular racial group and uses the racial group as a justification for the behaviour of an individual (Chapter 8).
• To be anti-racist is to separate an individual’s culture from their behaviour (Chapter 8).
• Although White people may benefit from racist policies, there is a distinction between White people and racist power and racist policymakers (Chapter 9).
• The focus needs to be directed at racist power and racist policymakers rather than individuals (Chapter 9).
• The powerlessness argument is used to justify that racialized people can’t be racist because they do not have power. Racialized people do have power with people at all levels of power. The powerlessness arguments do not consider this (Chapter 11).
• Racist ideas lead racialized people to think the power is consolidated in the hands of White people. This in turn produces more racial tensions, which reproduce racist ideologies while defending racist policies (Chapter 11).
• We can all uphold a racist idea or a racist policy regardless of the colour of our skin. Our ideas can be racist today and anti-racist tomorrow; we must recognize our faults and our language that supports racism (Chapter 11).
• We must realize race is a social construct, but more importantly it is created to serve the interests of those in power and allow them to maintain this position (Chapter 16).
• The history of the racially oppressed is a duel between racist and anti-racist progress (Chapter 16).
• Hate and ignorance do not promote racist power. Racist policymakers are driven by economic, political, and cultural self-interest (Chapter 16).
• Making someone change their mind about racism is not activism; the goal of the activist is to produce power and steer political change, not mental change (Chapter 16).

Discussion Points

• Definitions
  • Racist vs. Anti-Racist
  • Biological
  • Body
• Social Determinants of Health/Education
  • The Personal Is the Political Is the Professional
• Urban Planning
  • Surveillance
• Framing
  • As a Tool for Contesting Power
  • Restating the Narrative for “All”
• Success
  • Case Studies (image provocations)
• To Be an Anti-Racist
  • Individual
  • Organizations/Institutions

Eliminate Racial Inequity in Our Spaces

Racist, Assimilationist, Segregationist, Antiracist

Reflective Questions

To Know

• Where do you feel safe and unsafe? How is this experience a function of a feeling associated with being a threat or threatened or experiencing a form of discrimination?
• In what ways do you see your personal, political, and professional life and affiliations reflecting one another?

To Be

• Thinking of your own intersectionality and your membership in various groups and circles:
  • Who are some anti-racist leaders, and which tactics and specific forms of creative action or approaches have resonated with you?
  • What is the first step you will take in striving to be an anti-racist?
  • How is engaging in anti-racist work different for White people vs. racialized people?

To Do

• Considering the use of framing (Goffman, 1974) as a tool to contest power and to offer an alternate narrative:
  • What theories do you believe can help us to better understand our worlds and the impetus we have to affect change?
  • What are some ideas you have for facilitating exchanges that can help to effectively mobilize campuses, communities, and society at large to resist racism?

Activity

Suggested Resources

Articles

Vargas, J. A. (2011, June 22).  My life as an undocumented immigrant, The New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undocumented-immigrant.html.

Scott Gilmore, S. (2015, January 22) Canada’s race problem? It’s even worse than America’s, Maclean’s. https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-2/.

DasGupta, N., Shandal, V., Shadd, D., Segal, A., & in conjunction with CivicAction. (2020, December 14). The pervasive reality of anti-Black racism in Canada, BCG. https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2020/reality-of-anti-black-racism-in-canada.

Multimedia

Beautiful Trouble, Toolbox (n.d.), https://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox.

City of Saskatoon. (2011). Video 1: Tim Wise on the Legacy of Institutionalized Racial and Ethnic Discrimination. [Video.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0McOGoxf7Bo.

Government of Canada. (2019). Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2019/pch/CH37-4-29-2019-eng.pdf

Definitions