Systemic racism – Race matters

November 2024: What’s in a name? Why identifying the specificity of racism matters

Delia

In previous blogs I have talked about the politics of naming.

To recap:
Naming matters.
Why?
Because, if something isn’t named, then, it doesn’t exist…it is not in the
realm of possibility…

Oppression, discrimination, equity, bias, microaggression…

And so – it – goes…. All are important words, but we have to wonder why these words refer to
Anything.
But.
Racism.

The ‘disappearing’ of racism is an all too familiar tactic.
Why?
Because racism persists alongside its denial…

Talking about race is necessary because of racism.

Building on the initiatives that were outlined in the September blog, this month I want to discuss both the rationale and contents of the Foundations of Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism module that was done in collaboration with the production team at KnowledgeOne in Quebec.

The module will be available to members of the RFHS and the wider community at the end of this month (via UM Learn and Continuing Professional Development).

The motivation behind the course
An important point of departure was the recognition that we inherit the legacy of that which has come before: we live in a present created by dispossession, genocide, enslavement, and ongoing settler colonial projects.

We live these histories intimately, intensely, quietly, and, at times, grievously.

Another important consideration was the overall silence regarding the meaning and significance of race, and the persistence of racism, in all of our institutions – that includes universities. In this context, it was also important to outline the pervasiveness and ordinariness of racism and the associated need to activate systemic change.

Racism is a determinant of mental and physical health and well-being, and the impact spans generations.

Where we live now: The course addresses the politics of race and racism
I often say that there is no place to stand outside of racism – and so a key point of departure in this course is not IF race matters, but How and Why.

More often than not, in Canada, when racism is mentioned, it is framed as an individual matter or an aberration, as opposed to an integral component of the creation of the Canadian nation-state.

Following the murder of Mr. Floyd in May 2020, tens of thousands marched across the United States in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and inspired global protests against police brutality, anti-Black racism, and racial injustice. Many people wanted a toolkit, or a 1-hour seminar – thinking that was all that was needed to either “understand” or “solve” racism.

It took us several centuries to get here…There is no quick fix or toolkit that can solve racism – if it were easy, we would be in a different place right now…

Some of the topics covered are:
Why race matters
What is race?
White matters: The social construction of whiteness
Racisms and their impact
Racial ideology and racial identity
What is racism?
Impacts of racism
Continuing your journey: Next steps

The intended audience for this course
I appreciate that people have a varied understanding of the foundations of race, racism, and anti-racism. As a society, our racial literacy leaves a lot to be desired. The course is intended to encourage people to understand that anti-racism is a journey, not a destination.

Participants will not be experts upon completion of this module. Far from it – I recognize that people come to this material from different vantage points and that they are on different paths personally and within their units/programs/Colleges/organizations.

The materials provide a range of ideas, theories, and empirical evidence, some of which will be unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Some of the materials raise deep-rooted issues, and the materials may question the values and beliefs that we hold dear. Some may prompt a more visceral response than others, and one of the learners’ challenges is to ask why that is the case.

To disrupt and dismantle racism in its various forms, we must first understand it. This course allows learners to expand their understanding of the meaning and significance of race and the persistence of racism. I hope folx will recognize how the historical past shapes the racial present and that racism is entrenched in our structures.

The course is part of our general efforts to address racism in the RFHS
The Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy is a point of departure, not an endpoint.

By the same token, this course is a mechanism that builds on the Policy by providing people with a resource to cultivate their racial literacy by providing Faculty, staff and learners with a vocabulary for identifying and speaking to each other across our differences and facilitate the transformation of institutional and organizational cultures in the service of social justice.

The potential impact of this course on broader conversations and actions regarding racism and anti-racism
We have been in a long emergency with respect to acknowledging and addressing manifestations of systemic racism. The urgent need for organizational and institutional change has been laid bare as we have seen how race shapes who lives and who dies through the parallel pandemics of systemic racism(s) and Covid-19. As long the impact of racism(s) continues to be marginalized/ignored/denied, interpersonal and social relations will be compromised, talent will be lost, and Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority people will continue to suffer trauma and harm in a host of ways which includes death.

A new path forward toward racial justice is challenging but possible if we commit to new learning, building relationships, cultural shifts, and structural change.

I hope that it will motivate people to strategize on their responsibilities in addressing racism.

Lastly, I hope the course will encourage people to understand that anti-racism involves lifelong learning and that we all have a role to play in the disruption and dismantling of all forms of racism.

We will be taking a break in December.

See you in 2025.

February 2024: Black life matters

“Anti-blackness in Canada often goes unspoken. When acknowledged, it is assumed to exist, perhaps, but in another time (centuries ago), or in another place (the United States)” (Robyn Maynard, 2017, p. 3.) Policing Black lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present.
Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing.

Marcia

As Black History Month starts, I’m reflecting on what I was taught about Canada’s history with enslavement in school: that we were the utopian endpoint of the Underground Railroad. It wasn’t until much later in life that my unlearning and relearning happened, often at the expense of the labour of Black friends and scholars like Drs. Delia Douglas, Onye Nnorom, and OmiSoore Dryden. Dr. Douglas is the Director of the Office of Anti-Racism, and Drs. Nnorom and Dryden visited our faculty in 2022, providing education on Anti-Black racism, including the social and physiological health impacts of injustice.

I think about the weight of this labour as Black History Month begins, and knowing how that weight is amplified by ongoing experiences of Anti-Black racism and violence, and the recent tragic killing of Afolabi Stephen Opaso. I am reminded that our collective responsibilities to address Anti-Black racism and enlarge and protect space for Black flourishing last all year long and offer a return to our January blog on rest for those who need a pause from their labour.

Delia

Breathing while Black: Bearing witness

It is Black History Month (BHM) – I regard this month’s blog as an opportunity to have a conversation that needs and deserves space… breathing space – the space that recognition of our humanness demands.

Black History Month 2024 takes place amid the tragic death of Afolabi Stephen Opaso, a 19-year-old student from Nigeria who had been attending the University of Manitoba. Mr. Opaso had been experiencing a mental health crisis on December 31, 2023, when he was fatally shot by a member of the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS).

Machuar Madut’s family continues to wait for an inquest, five years after Mr. Madut, originally from South Sudan, was fatally shot by a member of the WPS on Feb. 23, 2019. Mr. Madut, aged 43 at the time of his death, had been struggling with mental issues. In 2020 the officer involved was cleared of any wrongdoing. In its final report into Madut’s death, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said it found the use of lethal force by the officer was “reasonable, necessary, justified and unavoidable.”

According to a WPS spokesperson use of lethal force is justified when the life of an officer or other person is in immediate danger, or the police member or another person is in immediate danger of grievous bodily harm.

Keep in mind that Black folx are overrepresented in use of force, fatal shootings, and enforcement arrests, and charge rates in Canada.

In 2016 a UN Report from the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada expressed their trepidation about police involved deaths of at-risk peoples of African descent who were experiencing a mental health crisis.

Breathing is necessary to life.

Anti-Black racism(s) is part of local/regional/national/global political landscapes.

In enslavement’s afterlife Black folx continue to struggle to breathe. Is it any wonder that Black people cannot live, owing to white supremacy and anti-Black racism given that breath is required for life?

2020 was both a moment and a movement. Following George Floyd’s murder, tens of thousands marched across the United States, in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM), and inspired global protests against police brutality, anti-Black racism, and racial injustice. Across Canada people organized and gathered to stand in solidarity with Mr. Floyd’s family and the Black Lives Matter movement, drawing attention to racialized police violence, systemic racism, and inequality. In Winnipeg, Justice 4 Black Lives organized a rally called for justice an end to state violence and racial injustice which thousands attended.

Reflecting B(l)ack

Black status and identity in Canada are linked to the country’s history of enslavement – of state sanctioned authorization and use of anti-Black racial violence.

The Atlantic slave trade involved the forced removal of millions of Africans which created a diaspora. The trade was fundamental to the economic and industrial development of Europe and North America, and the simultaneous under-development of Africa. Canada benefitted from the enslavement of Africans through profits accrued by the Hudson’s Bay trading company and the fur trade, and by the British Empire through traders of sugar, cotton, and the wealth generated by the colonies throughout the Americas. Settler colonial dispossession of the ancestral and traditional lands of Indigenous peoples was funded in part through the labour of enslaved peoples of African descent. The end of enslavement was followed by other manifestations of anti-Black racism such as racial segregation in schools, housing, and employment, the desecration of slave cemeteries in Ontario and Québec, and cross burnings on the property of Black families in Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and New Brunswick.

B(l)ack to the future: Moving forward

We inherit the legacy of that which has come before.

Knowing our racial past helps us to understand our racial present. It also encourages us to imagine/dream/desire and build our futures ….

I stand on the shoulders of many who have gone before – known and unknown. My father, the late Dr. Lawrence F. Douglas, is one person whose shoulders helped lift me to where I am today.

My father was a single parent and the most influential person in my life.

He was also the first Black faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the U of M, and one of its four founding members. He retired in 1989 after 22 years of teaching. The Department would not hire another tenure track Black faculty member, for 32 years: Dr. Joseph Asomah.

Representation matters.

Fast forward: of the nearly 50 000 faculty that work across the 40 post-secondary institutions in Canada, there are approximately 900 Black faculty @ 300 of which are Black women…Black – and Indigenous peoples – are the most underrepresented Faculty in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Racial equity matters.

In 2021 UM Law alumnus, David Sowemimo, established the David Sowemimo Law Entrance Scholarship awarded annually to Black undergraduate students enrolled full-time in the juris doctor program in UM’s Faculty of Law. It was the first scholarship of its kind at U of M.

Over the course of the past year, I have been working with Ekong Udobang in Donor Relations, to create a Fellowship in perpetuity for Black graduate students in the Department of Sociology and Criminology. The Dr. Lawrence F. Douglas Fellowship will be awarded for the first time in 2024-2025 academic year.

The Fellowship is a way for me to honour my father, and it is also an opportunity to pay it forward, to offer dedicated support to Black graduate students in their academic journey.

Where is the love?

The project of anti-racism is incomplete without addressing anti-Black racism(s). Nearly 4 years have passed since the events of 2020 – in many ways it seems like a lifetime ago. To paraphrase Janet Jackson – what have you done… lately? Or, more to the point, what will you do?

Breathing is necessary to life.

I can’t breathe

Is a proclamation…
A declaration…
A metaphor for the wounds/harms/effects of racism.
I can’t breathe is also
A protest statement,
and
A call to action…

If not now, then when?

Resources

Dunn, T. (5 April, 2018). In deadly encounters with Toronto police more than a third of victims are Black. CBC. Available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/police-deaths-blacks-data-1.4599215.

Olynick, H. (2021). UM Today. Alumnus creates scholarship for Black students. Available at https://news.umanitoba.ca/alumnus-creates-scholarship-for-black-law-students/.

Petz, S. 2024. (24, January). Nearly 5 years after fatal Winnipeg police shooting, Machuar Madut’s family still waiting for inquest. CBC News. Available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/machuar-madut-family-speaks-inquest-delays-1.7092571.

United Nations report of the working group of experts on people of African descent on its mission to Canada. Available at https://ansa.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/files/report-of-the-working-group-of-experts-on-people-of-african-descent-on-its-mission-to-canada.pdf.

“We do not accept your apology.” (16 June, 2022). CBC. Available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-race-based-data-use-force-strip-searches-1.6489151.

December 2023: Creating anti-racism pathways: Being the change

Delia

In August 2020, the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences Faculty Executive Council approved The Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy (DAFR), the first anti-racism policy to be passed by any Faculty or post secondary institution in Canada. In November 2023 the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences Faculty Executive Council approved revisions to the DAFR Policy.

The DAFR Policy constitutes a formal recognition of racial harassment, racial discrimination, racial vilification, and racism. It is an affirmation of a) the histories of dispossession, enslavement, genocide, and their legacies; b) ongoing settler colonial projects; and c) the humanity, rights, dignity, and safety of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority learners, staff, and faculty.

However, while the Policy is an important structural intervention, it represents a point of departure and not an end point.

In conversations about anti-racism, I often hear “I don’t know what to do/what should I do”?

This very question can place an added weight of expectations, responsibilities, and burdens associated with addressing issues related to racial (in)equity, racism, and racial justice on Black, Indigenous, and racialized minoritized persons. I mention this, because this question can be an expression of defensiveness/resistance, which can result in inaction.

You may be familiar with the phrase: the “only way out” is through… Some of the next steps associated with disrupting and dismantling racism(s) involve the active process of challenging one’s own biases and prejudices, as well as actively engaging in the work of disrupting systemic racism by dismantling the policies/social relations/attitudes/practices that promote and/or sustain racial inequality.

In response we have drafted a number of documents to guide and support you in your efforts to enhance your racial literacy and efforts to disrupt/challenge/eliminate the structural arrangements/policies/social relations/attitudes/practices that promote and/or sustain racial inequality and perpetuate racism.

Marcia

I spend a lot of time thinking about how anti-racist and social justice change will happen in our faculty and in the health care system. We have done a lot of work to offer educational opportunities and resources, and there are many more options to enhance your racial literacy online, at conferences and in the arts. However, as we know from every single behavioral health intervention ever, education alone is not enough. Like many aspects of organizational culture, racism is deeply embedded not just in policies, procedures and practices but also in the more invisible aspects like the stories that get told, the coded language that gets used, and the disapproval and even backlash people face when they try to speak up.

These parts of the invisible organizational culture are not things we can change from the Dean’s Office or the Office of Anti-Racism. These require us all to show commitment and leadership in meaningful action. The tools attached are meant to guide your work at the Unit, Department or College level as you seek to build your anti-racism strategies, hire more diverse candidates with anti-racism expertise, and build your own and your team’s racial literacy.

In November I launched a group coaching program to support Faculty Leaders in their anti-racism and social justice work. In 2024 the Office of Anti-Racism will be launching a council or community of practice to support you as you take action across Rady’s Units, Departments and Colleges. If we are going to have a New Year’s Resolution, let it be this: that we all develop a further understanding of our individual and collective anti-racism and social justice responsibilities, and begin (or for some continue) taking visible and meaningful action.

Resources

In November 2023, Dr. Marcia Anderson (Vice-Dean, Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism) launched a group coaching program to support Faculty leaders in their social justice and anti-racism work.

In 2024 the Office of Anti-Racism will launch an Anti-Racism Community of Practice- stay tuned for a formal announcement, name and dates.

This work requires all of us to understand and act on our responsibilities as members of the RFHS community.

We hope that the attached tools will help you on the next steps in your Units, Departments and Colleges. The toolkit contains the following resources:

Anti-Racism Strategy Template
Anti-Racism Resource List
Rady Equity, Access and Participation Strategy
Anti-Racism and Social Justice Terms of Reference Review
Anti-Racism and Social Justice Syllabus Statement
Guide for the Implementation of Anti-Racism and Social Justice Syllabus Statement
Suggested Anti-Racism Competencies for Job Descriptions
Rady Performance Conversation Review with Anti-Racism and Equity
Guideline to Anti-Racism and Equity on Performance Conversation Review

These materials can be found on the Office of anti-racism website.

October 2023: Racial mythologies, racial realities, and the damage done

“Unlike the United States, where there is at least an admission of the fact that racism exists and has a history, in this country one is faced with a stupefying innocence.”
Dionne Brand, 1998, p. 191. Bread out of stone. Toronto, ON: Vintage.

Marcia

The academic year of 2023-24 is going to be a year where we focus on supporting anti-racist change in the day-to-day environments that our Faculty community is learning and working in. Over the past few years (and building on decades of work before), we’ve passed a policy, learned some lessons through early implementation of it, and developed many supportive tools and resources. The Office of Anti-Racism continues to work on additional educational resources, but policies and education aren’t enough until they begin to result in different actions in our work and learning environments. Our focus this year is to help bridge that gap by working with leaders and by challenging some of the narratives or discourses that get in the way.

The work of anti-racism requires active UNLEARNING- a willingness to take in new information and let go of mythologies that we previously thought were true. Many of us were taught to think of Canada as a racial utopia- the destination of the Underground Railroad, after all. Few of us were taught about our own history of enslavement of African Peoples or of the anti-Indigenous racist narratives that underlined the first Prime Minister’s approach to Indian policy, including but not limited to his decisions regarding residential schools.

This month’s blog will help us understand why we have a hard time even seeing racism and why we often choose to only see intentions, but not the impacts of racism- but in the seeing is the possibility of change.

Delia

This month we consider racial mythologies to point out how these commonly held beliefs and practices work to distort and undermine the systemic and everyday nature of racial inequality.

Racism in Canada: The evidence of things not seen

The poignant title of Baldwin’s (1985) book, The evidence of things not seen, captures the essence of racism in Canada: that racism is not seen – or is more often denied. The refusal to believe that there is a connection between violence and prejudice is one of the consequences of narratives of a nation that continue to erase our heritage of dispossession, genocide of Indigenous peoples, the Residential School System, enslavement, the internment of the Japanese, the indentured labour of the Chinese, and racist immigration policies such as the Continuous Journey legislation, and the Domestic Scheme.

It bears repeating: We inherit that which has come before.

We’re not Racist, We’re Multicultural

“Things are not as bad as in the U.S.”

Our proximity to the United States and the attendant privileging of U.S. racial discourses, combined with its acknowledgement of its history of racial violence, supports Canadian narratives of racial guiltlessness/innocence. This has contributed to the belief that Canada’s national identity is one of racial virtue. In addition, promotion of multiculturalism and the fact of Canada’s diverse population convey generosity and goodwill. This thwarts recognition, making it practically impossible for many to acknowledge the existence of racism, or consider even the probability of racism and structured racial inequality.

It’s a thin line between tolerance and hate

I have long been wary of the eagerness to invoke the term tolerance when talking of racial relations in Canada. Does tolerance mean that we accept domination, or that we abhor it? (And who is tolerating whom here?) Who determines who/what should/should not be tolerated. I recall my father (a professor of sociology) saying that tolerance is not acceptance of difference. And therein lies the rub. We may very well be a tolerant nation, but this is hardly an admirable quality in and of itself because it does not indicate an unconditional embrace of difference; rather it suggests disingenuousness on the part of the dominant. On those rare occasions where racism is acknowledged, it is typically understood as hidden, understated, or an aberration (i.e., less harmful). We have embraced a very limited and limiting understanding of the nature and experience of racial oppression; we are virtually incapable of seeing that which stands before us.

Tolerance is a form of everyday violence.

Ways of (not) seeing

No doubt you have heard people say: “I don’t see colour, I only see people.” Growing up I was told “I don’t think of you as Black.” How does that work exactly? Or more to the point – Why?

Here is the thing – the performance of noticing, but not taking race into account is a fiction. This claim to colourblindness, or what CRT scholar Neil Gotanda refers to as “non recognition,” is not possible. In his words, “It is impossible to not think about a subject without having first thought about it at least a little.” He adds, “an individual’s assertion that [s/he/they] ‘saw but did not consider race,’ can be interpreted as a recognition of race and its attendant social implications, followed by suppression of that recognition. In other words, although non-recognition is literally impossible, colorblindness requires people to act as though it is” (as cited in Crenshaw, 1997, p. 101). In other words, colourblindness involves a particular construction of race rather than the elimination of racial difference and racial inequality.

“That was not my intent”

I want to revisit the attack on the young Black Muslim woman in the Olive Garden restaurant in Transcona earlier this year (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-olive-garden-stabbing-guilty-plea-sentencing-1.6958928). During the sentencing hearing the perpetrator apologized to the young woman, and repeated that his attack was not a hate crime.

The perpetrator and the police have stated that hate was not the motivation for the attack.

Is that it then?

Whose views count?

At the sentencing hearing, the young Somali Muslim woman provided a victim impact statement, recounting her emotional and physical struggles.

She described how she used to be active, but she now struggles to walk up stairs since she suffered a collapsed lung as a result of the stabbing, and she has difficulty holding up her head at times, because the muscles in her neck that were cut are still weak. She also described being “awake at 3 a.m. in the morning, clutching a kitchen knife under [her] pillow in the sweltering heat because [she] couldn’t bring myself to close the window for fear that [he] had somehow escaped and was waiting for the moment [she] might go down.”

“I can’t do anything except wonder why my life was so minuscule to you.”

Racism is about impact not intention.

The understanding of racism has to privilege those impacted by it, not the intentions of the actors of it.

Part of taking racism seriously involves shifting our focus from intent to impact. Why? – because the harm occurs whether or not the offender is cognizant of their intentions, and attitudes. This distinction is crucial because it decentres the feelings/claims of the perpetrators and acknowledges the experiential knowledge of the targets of racism(s).

The young Somali Muslim woman understood and experienced her attack as an expression of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia.

The notion that the targets of racism are not able to discern a situation of violence – of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia – means that the violence persists. That is how everyday racism(s) continue. The denial/the claim of knowing when and where racism enters, to impose a definition of reality where racism does/does not exist is the normalization of racism.

How many times have we heard people apologize and say that was not their intent? These are narratives of refusal. These are narratives that are integral to maintaining hierarchies of worth – hierarchies of humanness.

Until we prioritize the targets of violence we will protect and sustain an atmosphere, a social world, without accountability – a world where racism does not happen, except acts committed by mal-intended individuals. We will continue to engage in racial gaslighting – undermining, ignoring, and denying the experiences of those who are the targets of violence without remembering – their voices matter, their lives matter.

Nice/Good people aren’t/can’t be racist

I am sure you have heard people assert that a) they/a friend/colleague, etc. is not a racist/could not possibly be racist, because they are good/nice/educated/kind/well intentioned. According to this claim, they could not be racist, because racism consists of intentional explicit acts of hatred directed against someone because of their perceived racial gender sexual identity. This narrative is focused on the goodness or badness of a person and returns us to the idea that racism is an individual act that is the result of willful intent. So, if a person doesn’t set out to make racist statements or acts, then they are not racist, and racism did not happen. Nothing to see here. I would call this response an escape strategy. This claim is significant because we are taught to see how racism puts people at a disadvantage but, not how it simultaneously advantages others.

Racism is about impact not intention.

Making a claim that one is not a racist, is not the same as being an anti-racist. Anti-racism refers to ways of being and thinking that work to disrupt/challenge/eliminate the structural arrangements/policies/social relations/attitudes/practices that promote and/or sustain racial inequality. Anti-racism involves the commitment to eliminate all forms of racism as well as the discrimination, injustice(s), inequalities, and harms that are the result of racism(s). It refers to the active process of acting to challenge not only one’s own biases and prejudices, but to engage in the work of actively dismantling racism(s) as part of a system of oppression.

Moments of danger moments of possibility

Behind claims of a successful multiculturalism lies a much harsher racial reality. We are undeniably living in challenging times as local and global practices become more ruthless, intensifying existing inequalities.

Racism(s) may look different in Canada, but it is still racism. Seeing this, seeing these racisms, is where the possibility of change enters.

Resources

Baldwin, James. (1985). The evidence of things not seen. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. (1997). Color-blind dreams and racial nightmares: Reconfiguring racism in the post-civil rights era. In T. Morrison & C. B. Lacour (Eds.), Birth of a nation‘hood: Gaze, script, and spectacle in the O. J. Simpson case (pp. 97-168). New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Essed, Philomena. (2002). Everyday racism: A new approach to the study of racism. In P. Essed, & D.T. Goldberg (Eds.),Race critical theories: Text and context (pp. 176-194). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

McKendrick. D. (September 7, 2023). ‘I have been struggling’: Victim of Olive Garden stabbing shares horrors of attack, man sentenced. Winnipeg CTV News. Available at https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/i-have-been-struggling-victim-of-winnipeg-olive-garden-stabbing-shares-horrors-of-incident-man-sentenced-1.6552108.

September 2023: Racial equity matters

“How excellent can a department/faculty/university be if its curriculum disseminates to students only a very minuscule, highly-selected, self-perpetuating, gender [in addition to race, sexuality, and disability]-biased representation of our collective knowledge about human beings and the world in which we live?”
(Sheinin, 1998, 103)

Marcia

I’d been following the US Supreme Court case on race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities because of concern about potential impacts here, and in particular on the universities that have specific pathways under development or in place for Indigenous and Black learners. These pathways seek to mitigate the impacts of colonization and racism that have created inequitable access to the opportunity to enter health professional education, that is, to lessen disadvantage. Thankfully there have been more people who support the further refinement and advancement of these pathways than those who don’t, but there are those who question it, who get together and write op-eds about how diversity is weakening medical education.

So when the Supreme Courts said the use of race-conscious admission practices was unconstitutional and had to end, I was concerned that this might give strength to those who oppose these equity-focused pathways. However, the American Medical Association made a strong statement around how the ruling has the potential to undermine important progress towards equity in admissions and ultimately equitable health care:

“Recently established AMA policy reinforces our stance that medical schools must continue to make progress toward enrolling talented and highly qualified medical students in racial and ethnic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in medicine. Eliminating health inequity requires more commitment to, investment in and support for Black, Latinx and Native American and Indigenous communities, and LGBTQ+ people. Yet, today’s ruling undermines policy that was producing positive results and improving the health of our patients, as well as making all physicians better practitioners. This ruling is bad for health care, bad for medicine, and undermines the health of our nation.”

This is one situation where we need to continue the path we are on, recognizing the evidence base that supports this as necessary for eliminating racial health inequities.

Delia

The recent US Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action and race informed admissions offers an important point of entry for a conversation about equity in Canadian universities…

On the matter of equity – what’s race got to do with it?
In a word…. Everything…

We have over 30 years of evidence of the limited impact of federally legislated employment equity policies in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Out of the 4 groups identified by the government – Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, racialized minorities, and women – the greatest change occurred in the area of gender equity, with white abled women benefitting the most, resulting in the diversification of white folx, with little substantive structural change….

In addition, while Canadian universities make public statements and policies asserting their commitment to “equity, diversity, and inclusion,” they are governed by a leadership that remains predominantly white at all levels of administration, including deans, university chairs, and executive leadership.[1]

[1]https://www.thediversitygapcanada.com/diversity-gap-in-university-leadership.html

The gap between the academy and the community is increasing as the homogeneity of faculty stands in stark contrast to the ever-increasing diversity of the student bodies at these institutions and the changing composition of Canadian society.

Indigenous and racialized minorities constitute the youngest and fastest growing members of the population – they will soon comprise the racial majority in several of Canada’s major cities in the coming years. Yet, these young people will rarely, if ever, encounter faculty who are not white. Rather, they will continue to encounter universities across the nation that reproduce, rather than interrupt and transform, the exclusionary cultures of whiteness and racism that shape their experiences in so many ways.

Amid the nation’s increasing diversity, the predominance of whites in the academy simultaneously confirms white supremacy by reinforcing the belief that those who are there are effectively the top candidates for the job. Consequently, whites are readily understood as authorities, and they unquestionably believe themselves to be best suited for their respective professions. These patterned exclusions are significant precisely because it is white scholars and administrators who continue to make decisions about the relevance of race and the (in)significance of racism. As Queen’s university distinguished professor Dr. Audrey Kobayashi (2007) summarizes, the culture of whiteness is reflected in “the overwhelming power of white academicians which keeps the status quo in place in terms of the content and the standards of the university, in terms of research, in terms of who has access to positions.”

The underrepresentation of Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority faculty in Canadian universities has also placed an added weight of expectations, responsibilities, and burdens associated with addressing issues related to racial diversity and racial inequality. These forms of identity taxation, or racialized equity labour work, have become more onerous and more urgent owing to the perilous conditions borne of the pandemics of COVID 19 and systemic racism both in and outside of the academy.

Real talk: race consciousness has always a part of the organizational culture, institutional arrangements, and practices of Canadian universities…and beyond…

Predominantly white environments are racially structured environments – the assumption that race consciousness only enters the conversation when talking about Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx is one that renders whiteness the unmarked norm, the default category. We are all racialized – to only speak of so called ‘non-White’ people as raced ensures that racial hierarchies remain intact…

Nothing can be changed unless it is acknowledged…

We live in a present shaped by dispossession, genocide, enslavement, and settler colonialism…

Race is present whether or not it is named…

Achieving racial equity involves more than increasing racial diversity for appearances around the table, or in the pictures. Just as the fact of a racially diverse country does not signal the absence of racism, the presence of one or two Indigenous, Black, and/or racialized minority faculty or senior leaders does not signal racial equity, since it tells us nothing about Who we actually are, or how things are really being done.

Racial equity is about shifting the landscape and narrowing the gap between the community and the university. It is about disrupting and dismantling the university’s practice of white exclusivity and racial segregation that continues in plain sight, hidden behind the ostensibly objective criteria of “excellence,” “competence,” “best fit,” and “best qualified.” Racial equity is about shifting a pattern aptly identified by Dr. Malinda S. Smith, political scientist and the University of Calgary’s inaugural Vice Provost of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as “the social injustice of sameness.”

And for those who are thinking that employing racial equity will result in the university being full of unqualified faculty who come from racially underrepresented groups, the facts say otherwise. PhDs who are Indigenous, Black, or racialized minorities continue to have high unemployment rates in general. The data demonstrates that they have the qualifications, but they are un(der)employed.

…Racial equity matters…

Curricula reflect departmental cultures through allocation of teaching and research assistantships, the selection of courses. Curricula also socializes students to dominant social norms, values and ways of thinking and being. Consider that claims about “neutral” and “evidence-based health or medicine” do not take in to account how different skin disorders will present differently owing to an individual’s skin tone. A singular approach to health and well-being not only excludes, it enacts harm, sometimes with fatal consequences. Consequently, the absence of some subjects denies the existence of certain groups and/or gives the impression that one’s experience and history is not worthy of study.

The predominance of white faculty also means that there are few opportunities to provide Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority students with mentors, role models, and advisors.

What’s more, when these students do not see themselves reflected – and respected – in the curriculum they study or the professors they encounter, these exclusions reinforce notions of the inherent superiority of whites and the attendant inferiority of Indigenous, Black, and racialized minorities folx in ways that have psychological, embodied, symbolic, and material ramifications. Simply stated, the cultural identities of white students are affirmed at the same time as the cultural identities of Indigenous, Black and racialized minority students are marginalized, distorted, or rendered invisible.

I am mindful that the link between embodiment and knowledge production is neither simple or straightforward, but the lack of urgency over three decades demands that we consider the meaning and significance of the absence of certain bodies and the related absence of certain bodies of knowledge, since it is principally white scholars and administrators who make decisions about whether race matters, how it matters, and, in turn, if it matters at all.

Excellence flourishes in an environment that embraces the broadest range of people and reflects local communities. If we want racial equity, we must address racism.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated: “If you are neutral in situations of

injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

I leave you with the question: Whose side are you on?

Resources:

Ahmed, Sara. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Bowden, Olivia. (2020 September 10). CBC. Canadian university students use Instagram to reveal racism on campuses. Available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-universities-racism-instagram-1.5716603.

Bray, Nancy. (2016). The diversity gap in university leadership. Academic Women’s Association, University of Alberta. Available at https://uofaawa.wordpress.com/awa-diversity-gap-campaign/the-diversity-gap-in-university-leadership/.

Canadian Association of University Teachers. (CAUT). (2018, April). Underrepresented and underpaid: Diversity & equity among Canada’s post-secondary education teachers. Ottawa, ON: CAUT. Available at https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut_equity_report_2018-04final.pdf.

Douglas, D. D. (2021). Access denied: Safe/guarding the university as white property. In S. Thobani (Ed.), Racial (In)Justice in the academy. Toronto, ON: Toronto University Press.

Gutiérrez y Muhs, G., Flores Niemann, Yolanda, González, Carmen G., & Harris, Angela P. (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in academia. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.

Hyslop, Katie. (2021, March 26). Canadian universities have a racism problem. The Tyee. Available at https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/03/26/Canadian-Universities-Racism-Problem/.

Khosla, Risha. (2021, October 1). The entrenched racism in Canadian universities. Spheres of Influence. Available at https://spheresofinfluence.ca/the-entrenched-racism-in-canadian-universities/.

Kobayashi, Audrey. (2007). “Making the visible count: Difference and embodied knowledge in the academy.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, May 26-June 2.

Seatter, Erin. (2016, December 13). Canadian universities failing at diversity: Study. Ricochetmedia.com. Available at https://ricochet.media/en/1588/canadian-universities-failing-at-diversity-study.

Tomlinson, Asha, Mayor, Lisa, & Baksh, Nazim. (2021, February 24). Being Black on campus: Why students, staff and faculty say universities are failing them. CBC. Available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/anti-black-racism-campus-university-1.5924548.

August 2023: Unspeakable: The violence(s) of disavowal

“…how people get mad, how that escalation from prejudice, to hate, to violence occurs, what and who is hated, and how it is expressed, is not unrelated to the world around us.”
Ursula Franklin, 1991, p. 9.

Delia

Where we live now: Racial realities

On June 9 2023, we learned of that a young female employee at the Olive Garden restaurant in Transcona, MB was stabbed multiple times by a customer – a young white male. The Winnipeg police subsequently described the attack as “random” and “unprovoked.” Police Chief Danny Smyth later stated that the use of the word random was meant to indicate that the perpetrator did not know his target.

The attack was not random for the victim.

Far from it.

6 weeks later we learned the identity of the target of the attack – an 18 year-old Black Muslim woman – she was wearing an hijab. We learned of her identity because members of the Muslim community challenged police claims of the random nature of the attack. They called for an investigation into the stabbing – they wanted to know why it had not been identified as a hate crime, and why the perpetrator was charged with aggravated assault, and not attempted murder.

According to Police Chief Smyth, “There is no evidence that supports it being motivated by a hate crime…. That being said, this is a very serious crime, the individual was charged with aggravated assault, which is a very serious charge. People go to jail for that kind of thing.”

The charges were laid prior to the victim issuing a statement.

No evidence to support the motivation of hate….

So, what would evidence of a hate crime look like?

Correspondingly what exactly counts as evidence? And…Who is qualified to make that determination?

The victim, a young Somali woman, does not wish to be identified.

When she was able to speak, she explained that she was the only racialized minority person in the restaurant, and the only person wearing an hijab. She described how the perpetrator watched her for 30 minutes before the attack. In her words: “He didn’t go on a random stabbing spree. He went straight for me. I know I could have died.”

She understood and experienced her attack as an expression of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia.

A Black Muslim woman, in defense of herself.

It takes courage to speak publicly about experiences of violence. It is another form of trauma.

Intentional erasures and purposeful interventions

Whose view counts?

Naming is a mechanism of control.

If it isn’t named, then it doesn’t exist…it is not in the realm of possibility.

This is where the guiding principles of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are indispensable. To recap, CRT is a framework that recognizes that racism is pervasive and not an aberration. It is a lens that recognizes that the violence is already here.

In a Canadian context CRT allows us to critically assess how the historical construction of Canada as a white settler colonial society has been, and continues to be, protected and sustained. CRT recognizes that current inequalities, institutional arrangements, and practices are tied to past and present systems of racial exclusion, hostility, and violence such as dispossession, genocide, enslavement, settler colonial projects, and immigration laws. It is a lens that sees link between racism(s) and mass incarceration, housing education, health, and income inequalities.

CRT is a framework whose guiding principles are integrative, recognizing that other forms of inequality intersect and animate each other. It positions the elimination of racial oppression as part of the broader project of eliminating all manifestations of oppression.

And crucially, CRT recognizes the experiential knowledge of Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority peoples and communities.

When and where race enters conversations of justice matters.

Efforts to deny, obscure downplay the relevance of race are productive; they facilitate the conditions which preclude the likelihood/probability of racism, as well as the contemplation of the existence of racism, in Canada’s multicultural, multiracial society.

Racism is (re)produced through silence, invisibility, and exclusion, as well as through covert, entrenched, and cumulative actions.

Disavowal is violence.

Nothing can be changed unless it is acknowledged…

Indeed. The very definition of racism remains a site of struggle. As Dr. Wahneema Lubiano (1997) asserts, “central to the existence of racism, is the politics of its denial” (p. viii).

The ‘disappearing’ of racism is an all too familiar tactic. Racism persists alongside its denial…

And so it goes…. Anything. But. Racism.

The rejection of racism – of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia – to be precise, is significant because it obscures the unmarked white Western settler colonial arrangements, relationships, and practices that pervade all of our systems, while simultaneously reinforcing the national narrative that manifestations of racism in Canada are unusual. These disavowals do not exist in isolation, they are part of social relations, organizational cultures and institutional structures that work to maintain the status quo of inequality and the normalization of racism.

How we respond to violence has an impact on an individual’s health and well-being.

…the “escalation from prejudice, to hate, to violence” – “who is hated and how it is expressed” is inextricably linked to the legacies of violence to legacies which shape where we live now…. (Franklin).

Racial matters

As long as the reality and character of racism(s) are defined by the dominant, members of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities will continue to suffer trauma and harm in a host of ways, some of which will include death.

Anti-racism work involves the active process of acting to challenge not only one’s own biases and prejudices, this work also involves the dismantling of the policies/social relations/attitudes/practices that promote and/or sustain racial inequality and racial oppression.

Bold solidarity and courageous collaboration are acts of radical resistance –creating spaces that recognize the humanity, diversity, and complexity of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx.

Listen to the targets of violence…

As bell hooks (1996) reminds us: “The oppressed struggle in language to recover ourselves, to reconcile, to reunite, to renew. Our words are not without meaning, they are an action, a resistance” (p. 146).

We need language that is expansive, disruptive, and ultimately transformative.

Bigotry and hate crimes directed against Muslims are on the rise in Canada.

Recall…Quebec City, London, Ontario, Edmonton, AB, …Winnipeg, MB….

Anti-Black gendered Islamophobia.

See her.

Hear her.

Believe her.

Resources:

Bernhardt, Darren. (18, July 2023). Muslim community suggests Olive Garden attack on Black woman motivated by hate. CBC News.

Canadian Council of Muslim Women .

Douglas, Delia. D. (2020). Un/Covering white lies: Exposing racism in the era of racelessness. Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 7(2), 22-45.

Essed, Philomena. (2002). Everyday racism. In D. T. Goldberg & J. Solomos (Eds.), A companion to racial and ethnic studies (pp. 202-216). London, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Franklin, Ursula. (1991). Commemoration for the Montreal massacre victims. Canadian Woman Studies, 11(4), 9.

Greenslade, Brittany. (9, June 2023). Olive Garden employee repeatedly stabbed in ‘unprovoked and random’ attack at restaurant: Police. CBC News.

hooks, bell. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.

Lubiano, Wahneema. (Ed.). Introduction. The house that race built (pp. vii- ix). New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Thompson, Sam. (18, July 2023). Winnipeg’s Muslim community calls for investigation into Olive Garden stabbing of hijabi woman. Global News.

July Blog: Part 2: Identifying grammars of resistance and refusal on the ground

Delia

The Politics of Language

Thinking about language as a site of struggle provides new sets of questions and invites new way of thinking, speaking, and disrupting racism(s).

Case in point, we need to be attentive to the fact that anti-Black racism is not one thing.

Following the murder of Mr. George Floyd in May 2020, attacks on Black and racialized minority Muslim women in Canada increased. Identifying these attacks solely as incidents of Islamophobia does not capture the specific vulnerabilities, stereotypes, and harms different Muslim women face. The violence that these women experienced is emblematic of anti-Black gendered Islamophobia. We need to employ language that recognizes the specificity of Black and racialized minority Muslim women’s experiences as this provides clarity and furthers our ability to understand and respond to their needs. To do otherwise is to dehumanize the very targets of racial violence and terror further by denying them the supports and resources they require and deserve.

As Audre Lorde reminds us, “We don’t lead single issue lives.” In order to understand the full effects of racism, we have to see how race intersects with other forms of difference such as gender identity and expression, sexuality, dis/ability, etc.

Language matters.

Just as Black folx are diverse, so too are manifestations of anti-Black racism.

So, if our consideration and commitment to addressing anti-Blackness focuses solely on the violence done to cis Black heterosexual men, while ignoring the voices and experiences of Black Muslims, Black queer, trans, and gender diverse folx, and Black disabled folx, then we undermine the movement for all Black lives. We cannot disregard or erase those in our communities who are typically positioned on the margins – our language should take in to account the diversity and complexity of Black peoples.

A grammar of resistance and refusal refers to language that captures the nuances and complexities of racism(s) expands the conversation and enables us to attend to the fullness of who we are.

In 2010 Moya Bailey and Trudy introduced the concept misogynoir to capture the particular forms of discrimination Black women experience when anti-Black racism and anti-Black misogyny collide in popular culture. Their insights are a purposeful intervention, one that recognizes the gender and sexual diversity that exists among Black women and captures the unique challenges/experiences/violences that confront diverse Black women. They also coined the term transmisogynoir to describe the particular challenges and forms of dehumanization that Black trans women face.

Enter Eternity Martis: This past March the University of Manitoba invited Eternity Martis to give the Robert and Elizabeth Knight Distinguished lecture. Martis, a Black and South Asian journalist, author, and faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University discussed her 2020 memoir They said this would be fun: Race, campus life, and growing up. Describing how she was simultaneously exoticized, desired, and disparaged, Martis offered a critical lens regarding the intricacies and intimacies of how anti-Black misogyny, anti-Black gendered racism, and anti-Black sexual and gender-based violence are embodied. Crucially, she linked the all too familiar ways in which she was perceived and treated according to Canada’s history of enslavement, and the attendant white supremacist narratives about Black women’s sexual availability. Martis also offered points of connection and points of difference among and between diverse Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority women, providing potential pathways to establishing support for coalition and solidarity work in the areas of racialized sexual and gender-based violence and policing within Black communities and beyond.

The marginalization of violence against Black women and their disposability endures – these are some of the circumstances behind the activism of two Black women – namely Tarana Burke’s life work and her founding of the MeToo Movement, and the Say Her Name campaign initiated by Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Denial, disposability, and the damage done

In August 2022, Daniella Mallia, a 23-year-old Black woman, sought support and police protection from a violent former domestic partner. Ms. Mallia reported her concerns to two members of the Toronto police force. However, despite providing abundant evidence to substantiate her concerns about the threat her ex-partner posed, Ms. Mallia was cautioned: she was treated as a perpetrator rather than a target. Three days after filing a report with the Toronto police, Ms. Mallia was found in an underground parkade, the victim of a shooting. Her ex-partner has since been charged with first degree murder and one Toronto police constable is facing numerous charges including neglect of duty and making false or misleading statements related to his encounter with Ms. Mallia (a second officer is involved but the charges have not yet been made public). Ms. Mallia was not simply disregarded, she was criminalized. Ms. Mallia was not deemed worthy of protection – rendering her disposable. The absence of empathy demonstrates how the intersection of systemic anti-Black gendered racism, anti-Black misogyny, and gender-based violence contributed to the tragic violent end to Ms. Mallia’s life.

Expanding our circles of connection is part of an ethics of struggle.

Creating spaces that recognize our humanity, diversity, and complexity offer possibilities for Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx to find connections across our differences.

This journey towards racial justice invites a commitment to learning and unlearning. We cannot disrupt and dismantle all forms of racism unless we challenge the divisiveness of hierarchies of oppression and recognize the interconnectedness of systems of domination. Just as we have to recognize that people’s experiences of racism are simultaneously shaped by their gender identity and expression, class, sexuality, dis/ability, and spiritual practices, we have to recognize the ways in which our histories and our communities are simultaneously distinct and connected.

Holla if you hear me…

#Tarana Burke: #MeToo
#Kimberlé Crenshaw: #Intersectionality; #SayHerName

Resources

Bailey, Moya and Trudy. (2018). On misogynoir, citation, erasure, and plagiarism. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 762-768.

Beauttah, Biko. (19, April, 2021). Commentary: Black trans women need to be listened to, supported. Global News.

Carter, Adam. (29, March, 2023). Toronto cop who allegedly ignored domestic violence report charged after woman’s death. CBC.

Huncar, Andrea. (4, March 2021). Edmonton Muslim women rally in solidarity after hate-fueled attacks. CBC.

Martis, Eternity. (2020). They said this would be fun: Race, campus life, and growing up. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart.

Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Sengupta, Joyita. (28, June 2020). In a time of protest, Black LGBTQ voices rise.

Statistics Canada. (2021). Gender based violence.

Ware, Syrus M. (2017). All power to all people? Black LGBTTI2QQ activism, remembrance, and archiving in Toronto. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 170-180.

Yourex-West, Heather (2021). Why are Alberta’s Black, Muslim women being attacked.

February 2023: Black History Month: Meeting grounds of radical resistance, bold solidarity, and social justice

Delia Douglas

“The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors’ tactics, the oppressors’ relationships.”
Audre Lorde (1984, p. 123)

Black History Month 2023 takes place in the shadows of the in-custody death of Nicous D’Andre Spring, a 21-year-old Black man who had been illegally detained in a Montreal jail in December 2022, and the January 2023 murder of Tyre Nichols, a young Black man who died in Memphis, TN following a “routine traffic stop” where he was beaten by 5 police officers, all of whom are Black. Mr. Nichols died of his injuries in hospital 3 days later.

We live in a present created by dispossession, genocide, enslavement, and ongoing settler colonial projects. We live these histories intimately, intensely, quietly, and at times grievously (lateral and internalized violence).

Their needless deaths remind me of the fact that we are all exposed to images, ideas, beliefs, and practices (e.g., white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, dis/ability, capitalism) which structure our institutions and shape our relationships to ourselves and each other. Simply put, we need not be racialized as white (for example) to reproduce settler colonialism and uphold anti-Blackness.

The fact that we are not encouraged and taught to see ourselves as equals and the fact that we are not encouraged and taught to see ourselves in each other are examples of the normalization of racism. That is the very definition of systemic racism.

I am thinking about Black life matters, Black liberation, and lateral violence – within and across diverse Black communities and beyond…I am thinking about radical resistance and bold solidarity…

In 2014 – 3 Black queer women – Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors – established the contemporary #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) movement – a sociopolitical and ethical demand for action against state sanctioned anti-Black terror and anti-Black racism. Garza, Tometi, and Cullors advanced an expansive lens that sheds light on the experiences of those who have frequently been excluded as contributors to social justice movements and victims of anti-Black violence, namely Black women and girls, Black folks who are disabled, gender non-conforming and those who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Black freedom struggles are as multifaceted and diverse as are Black folx.

The events of the past few years have not only exacerbated existing inequities, they have also laid bare how racism is a public health crisis.

Racism lowers life chances. Racism kills.

The enduring legacies of residential schools are revealed in the uncovering of the bodies of the 215 children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School (and the thousands more graves identified since), the death of Joyce Echaquan, the murder of George Floyd, the rise in racism against people of East Asian descent, Islamophobia, and the death of Indigenous, Black, and racialized people in police involved shootings across Canada. These are not individual acts of racism, or the actions of a few bad apples – these are instances of systemic racism. These are acts that demonstrate how racism influences who lives and who dies.

This is not a zero-sum game – racism is not a competition to see who has endured the most harm – comparing ourselves to each other to construct hierarchy is itself is a form of violence. Lateral violence does just involve Black people, it occurs between members of different marginalized groups. Lateral violence also occurs when we don’t show up for each other – when we adopt the settler colonial strategy of divide and conquer…

Systemic racism requires a systemic response.

Solidarity requires courage. We cannot eradicate racial inequality and injustice unless we challenge the divisiveness of hierarchies of oppression and recognize the interconnectedness of systems of domination.
Bold solidarity is that which affirms and embraces the marginalized and excluded in our communities.

Movements such as Idle No More, #AmINext, #BLM, #Sayhername, #MeToo, and Dream Defenders make visible and affirm the lives of Indigenous and Black women and girls, 2SLGBTQQIA and those who live along the gender spectrum as targets of, and resistors to, oppression, creating space for the recognition of the humanity of all Indigenous and Black lives.

These are acts of radical resistance.

Our freedom struggles and futures intersect in complex and complicated ways owing to these histories of racial violence and their enduring legacies.

There is no time like the present to analyze our investments and allegiances and to commit ourselves to broadening our understanding of the diversity and complexity of Black identity and lived experience.

Consider this February/BHM as an opportunity to examine how anti-Blackness is manifest within ourselves and in within and across our various communities…

As political activist, scholar, and freedom fighter Angela Y. Davis asserts, “freedom is a constant struggle.”

…We…. can’t stop…We… won’t stop…

References

Cathy J. Cohen (1997). Punks, bulldaggers and welfare queens: The radical potential of queer politics. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 3(4): 437-
465.

Angela Y. Davis. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement. Chicago, Il: Haymarket Books.

Alicia Garza (2014). A herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.” The Feminist Wire. Available at: https://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/.

Audre Lorde. (1984). Sister Outsider. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press

Robyn Maynard. (2017). Policing Black lives. Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing.

December 2022: Accountability: The relationship between data collection and disrupting systemic racism in health care

Delia Douglas

The measurement, classification, surveillance, and analysis of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities in the service of white supremacy has a long history. While data collection involves achieving a balance between managing need and risk, it is clear that we are operating at a data deficit. The absence of data is a manifestation of systemic racism. In the absence of data, Black and racialized communities will be spoken for, our voices silenced, and racial inequities protected and sustained.

Marcia Anderson

My 2006-2007 masters of public health capstone project focused on developing a proposal to implement the collection of Racial/ ethnic/Indigenous identifiers in Canada because of a deeply held belief that without this we will never be able to close the gaps in health care quality and outcomes that occur by race and/ or Indigeneity. In its absence we create a health care space where we can pretend that color-blindness is good, that we serve everyone equally, and that none of us contribute to systemic racism in Canada. In reality, this further fuels racism because then we don’t examine the system design and actions that create unequal outcomes, and instead blame the people who experience them.

Marcia and Delia

Data collection provides invaluable information that can reveal patterns and guide solutions through resource allocation, quality improvement, and data-driven policy decisions, and participatory program planning. While this is not a new topic, the calls for data collection have certainly intensified over the past two years, as we witnessed the spread and disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities in Winnipeg, across Canada, and around the world.

Building on the data collection and governance in place to monitor and provide supports for First Nations, in May Manitoba 2020 became the first province to track the racial identities of Black, and racialized minority persons who tested positive for the virus. This data revealed how COVID-19 exacerbated existing inequities and provided invaluable information about the impact of the virus on members of Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities, demonstrating the profound inequities in terms of the social determinants of health, highlighting their vulnerabilities, and the urgent need for a targeted response.

In 2016 the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent visited Canada. Their report examined the history and legacy of systemic anti-Black racism. They identified that the lack of race-based data and research on the experiences of people of African descent, noting the need for disaggregated data to adequately address the diversity and complexity of Black identity and lived experience.

While there is no one approach that can be applied to all, creating race data collection standards and good data governance guidelines should be driven by researchers, social scientists, clinicians, and members from Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority communities and/or representative organizations. This approach will help address this systemic barrier that contributes to the economic inequality and health inequities that members of Black and racialized minority communities face across the country.

We invite readers to review the Key Considerations: Race, Ethnicity and Indigenous Identity Data Collection and Use (https://umanitoba.ca/health-sciences/sites/health-sciences/files/2022-11/Key%20considerations.pdf) as a starting point for considering your organizational/ team readiness to move forward with this work.

References

Black Health Equity Working Group. (2021). Engagement, governance, access, and protection (EGAP): A data governance framework for health data collected from Black communities. https://blackhealthequity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Report_EGAP_framework.pdf

UN Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada. Available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1304262.