Uncategorized – Race matters

May 2025: The Universe is on the Side of Justice: Remaining Steadfast in our Commitments

Marcia

This time five years ago was filled with pain. We met this pain with commitments to work in solidarity in the pursuit of justice. As we watch what is happening south of the border and across Canada it’s important that the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences community know this: we remain steadfast in our commitments to racial justice, social justice and human rights. I have a firm belief in Martin Luther King Junior’s teaching that “the universe is on the side of justice.” Progress is not linear or always forward moving. We are in a time where the context is changing dramatically. Our education and strategies may need to change too, but our end goal remains the same. In our spaces, in the services we provide and in the health professionals and researchers we train we fully respect the human rights of each individual and community we serve. We are not done our work until each person has achieved the equal opportunity to the highest attainable standard of health, and there is equality of opportunity, access and participation in the Faculty and broader health care workforce.

Delia

May 25 of this month will mark 5 years since the murder of Mr. George Floyd.

Following Mr. Floyd’s death, 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 George Floyd’s family and the Black Lives Matter movement, drawing attention to racialized police violence, systemic racism, and inequality. In Winnipeg, thousands attended the Justice 4 Black Lives rally and called for justice for Black people and an end to state violence and racial injustice. These demonstrations represented a stand against racial terror and a rejection of the status quo. The demonstrations, led by Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx were an affirmation of our humanness, and our commitment to social justice and anti-racism.

That year we also bore witness to the uncovering of the remains of Indigenous children at former Residential School sites. We witnessed a number of fatal encounters involving police and Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority peoples, as well as a rise in antisemitism through the targeting of synagogues, Jewish cultural centres, and schools. There was also an increase in an increase in Islamophobia by the targeting of mosques, the deliberate killing of members of the Afzaal family, in London, Ontario, and acts of violence directed at Black hijabi Muslim women in Alberta and Manitoba.

In 2020 many institutions, including Canadian universities, made stated commitments to addressing anti-Black racism in particular, and systemic racism(s) more broadly.

Unsurprisingly over the same period the pushback and resistance to anti-racism, DEI/EAP, critical race theory, and social justice has risen across North America.

The volume and pace of this opposition has increased exponentially in Canada in concert with decisions and actions south of the border.

Consider the following:

At the start of the year the University of Alberta has moved away from DEI to a framework titled access, community, and belonging.

McGill University is closing its DEI office in the Faculty of Medicine, replacing its 3 racially marginalized staff with a Vice Dean of Education and Community Engagement, with this position being held by a white woman.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers recently issued a warning to Canadian academics, advising them against travel to the US

Canadian researchers who receive funding from US government sources are being questioned about the nature of their work in the event that it deemed contrary to the government’s stance on the climate, gender, and racism. Correspondingly Canadian academics are being advised to reconsider their plans, as they may not be granted entry, or they could be detained at the border, owing to their areas of expertise and interest.

The struggle is real.

We are being challenged on multiple fronts at once.

Despite this, and even because of this, we remain committed to disrupting and dismantling all forms of racism(s), and systemic inequities.

We cannot eradicate racial inequality and injustice unless we recognize the interconnectedness of systems of domination and challenge the divisiveness of hierarchies of oppression.

As Ijeoma Oluo (2018) eloquently states,

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself, and it’s the only way forward.” So you want to talk about race.

We hope that you will continue with us in working towards more just futures.

A Reminder of Anti-Racism Resources Available

Rady specific materials

The anti-racism and social justice toolkit (available on the intranet): some of its contents include, an anti-racism strategy template, anti-racism and social justice syllabus statement, updated anti-racism and EAP indicators for performance conversation reviews.

Modules

Giga Mino Manawenimaag Anishinaabeg – “We will take good care of the people”- is an innovative training program designed to advance Indigenous Cultural Safety in health care. Organized through the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, the program consists of Ten online lessons.

Visit the “We will take good care of the people” webpage.

Primary contact: culturalsafety@umanitoba.ca

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM) recently approved the Standard of Practice – Practicing Medicine to Eliminate Anti-Indigenous Racism.

In addition, the Council passed a motion regarding mandatory education for all registrants with the College. The Indigenous Cultural Safety Program is one of the four that has been identified as part of the mandatory education by CPSM.

Foundations of Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism Module – this module is both a standalone and part of the Indigenous Cultural Safety Program (available through UM Learn).

The Black Health Primer is is an 8 module online, self-paced, and asynchronous course, designed for learners from across health disciplines, professions, organizations and communities. The Primer describes the historical context of racial oppression, explains how anti-Black racism influences the social determinants of health, and acts as a barrier to health equity. Participants will gain knowledge and promote dialogue about anti-Black racism and Black health.

This 1-credit-per-hour Self Learning program has been certified by the College Family Physicians of Canada for up to 6.5 Mainpro+® credits.

View more information about the Primer.

If you are a member of the Rady Faculty and are interested in registering, please contact me directly.

Resources

March 2025: Consensual Solidarity Conversation Part 2: Why are you in such a hurry? The rush to response

This month we explore the rush to respond and the ramifications of wanting a “quick fix” to complex issues, instead of pausing to listen and acknowledge.

MA: Following up from our conversation last time about the perceived scarcity of attention and the temptation to use the dehumanization around us on each other instead of seeing ourselves in each other,[1] I’ve been thinking about how we see each other and honour each other’s experiences without feeling the need to limit or compare. I’m thinking about how maybe we have to separate the listening from the response first. Like, we have to create that opportunity to hear everybody and have everybody be seen for who they are and what this experience is for them. In this context, whatever the moment is, to just be in it without needing to jump to what does the response need to be. Sometimes we rush ahead to how do we prioritise responses or resources- which itself is part of capitalistic grind culture. So, I’ve been conditioned to think that if I hear a problem, I have to fix it, as opposed to just sitting with it first. I think a good starting point for us could be beyond thinking about consensual solidarity, pragmatically and principle wise, what does it mean for us? How do we try to be in solidarity? My current thinking is this step of listen first, don’t rush past the experience and emotions of it to try to solve the problem or allocate resources. Just listen and be with it first.

DD: Well, yeah, because you know that “let me act right away, let me fix it” is a response that we certainly heard a lot after the murder of Mr. Floyd. It was: “Give me the toolkit. Give me the one hour workshop.” I was like “Are you forgetting that we’ve been here for several centuries. Even if this was something you didn’t know until now, so it isn’t a quick or a simple fix.” This is an opportunity for you to learn more.

And why is it that that’s the initial reaction- let’s fix what I didn’t know- as opposed to OK, I didn’t know. So, what does it tell me that I didn’t know? What are the conditions under which I’ve come to know? So, let me just take a beat. Because there are all these things that we don’t know. I mean, isn’t that the whole point of education and learning? So why that reaction?

To me that speaks very much to the psychology of domination and the structure of inequality, that knee jerk reaction. It does a disservice to the historical past and the historical present, you know, because it suggests that this is happening in a vacuum. It’s really not respectful of context and of the impact on the targets of racial violence. It can seem like you’re imposing your idea of what a solution is by saying give me a toolkit, give me that seminar. It can seem that it’s about making you feel better. Who does that serve?

MA: The rushing past, is like rushing past human to human connection and empathy. It’s kind of itself dehumanising, almost a refusal to witness. And usually the rush is a to a technical solution that likely isn’t gonna work anyway. But it just hits me as you’re talking, how that rushing past is itself dehumanising -in not being willing to be humans together in a moment.

It makes me think of like something else, like really basic, but important to articulate. Before you start the conversation, it’s good to know what the other person wants or needs from you. Like if it is about anti-Black racism, then let’s talk about how anti-Black racism manifests on the university campus. We don’t need to bring anything else into it. And further- do you want me to listen and bear witness, offer emotional or other supports, talk about complaint processes or education needs? But really, how important it is in consensual solidarity to center the wants and needs of the person who is speaking to their hurt in that moment.

[1] See February 2025 blog.

February 2025: Starting the Conversation: Consensual Solidarity

“All I know is that the only way we will endure is if each of us shows up to the labor.”
(Valerie Kuar, 2020, p. xv).

This month we are starting a new series of conversations that we are hoping to expand and bring others into. As you read it, you might imagine us sitting over tea, thinking, and talking through questions of unity and difference, consensual solidarity, the scarcity mindset, and taking a beat.

How we show up matters: exploring what consensual solidarity means to us

MA: I read this book by Mia Birdsong called How we show up. It’s about how to be in community. She has a chapter in it on that talks about how we need to get better at conflict within. And I really think we need to talk about that in talking about the ability to be in solidarity with each other.

DD: Agree – when I thinking about you know, after Mr. Floyd was murdered and COVID, and the targeting of many folx at the same time. You know, the rise of racism against persons of East Asian descent, the rise in Islamophobia, the uncovering of graves of Indigenous children, the rise in anti-Semitism, and then systemic Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism with respect to policing. I think about that and how we didn’t do a good job in post-secondary institutions to make spaces for people to reflect on and engage with each other. We didn’t create the opportunity to listen to each other about not only our uniqueness, but also what white supremacy and heteropatriarchy have done to us all. So, I think now we find ourselves faced with arguably a bigger challenge, because it only exacerbates, it doesn’t ever decrease. Especially in spaces where there’s no conversation, much less, you know, forward practical movement. To what extent do we have that capacity and will to have some very difficult conversations?

MA: When you talked about the university not having spaces for people to talk about their grief and experiences and be heard, I was reflecting that itself feeds into or creates the competitive dynamic- like the attention is scarce. It reflects a type of scarcity mindset, and the scarce resource is attention. That has the potential to feed a dynamic where I can’t acknowledge your suffering because I need everybody to pay attention to mine.

DD: And I was thinking about that because we talked about this before- the analogy of crabs in a barrel. I just think of, especially in these moments of heightened anxiety and uncertainty, that default of “What about me?” All of those things that are being implemented right now, the dehumanizing thoughts, the dehumanizing practices and how we might be tempted to use them against each other rather than seeing ourselves in each other. I am reminded of Dr. Marin Luther King’s famous quote:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Next month the conversation continues, exploring the rush to respond instead of pausing to listen and acknowledge.

Resources

Mia Birdsong (2020). How we show up: Reclaiming family, friendship, and community. New York: Balance.

Valerie Kuar (2020). See no stranger: A memoir and manifesto of revolutionary love. New York: One World.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (May 19, 1963). Letter from a Birmingham jail.

January 2025: Meeting grounds and pedagogies of possibility

2025 greetings!

Marcia

Our 2024 included a lot of work on planning and developing educational opportunities that team members and leaders across my portfolio believe will equip us all to be better community members, citizens, and health professionals. As we start 2025 I encourage each of you to develop your Anti-Racism, Social Justice and Indigenous Health Learning Plan for this year.

Delia

A new year is upon us.

The start of a new year can be a time for reflection, (re)commitment, and action.

In that spirit we want to inform you of some upcoming opportunities in the Faculty:

January 28 and 29 Delivered by Foundation for a Path Forward, The RISE Grand Rounds and Workshops will be taking place at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences:

The RISE workshop is designed to provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to effectively dismantle anti-Muslim discrimination. Participants will explore empathy, understand the dynamics of hate, analyze media bias, and develop actionable strategies for advocacy and allyship.

To register please contact Chander Raquin: chander.raquin@umanitoba.ca.

As part of our Dialogues of Disruption Series, Dr. Malinda S. Smith , will be visiting the University of Manitoba in February.

Dr. Smith is Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) and Associate Vice-President Research (EDI) at the U of Calgary and is a professor of political science.

On February 13 Dr. Smith will be a panelist for a roundtable titled Data Justice: Why anti-racism matters for data, and data matters for anti-racism. 1 pm-2:15 pm on the Fort Garry campus.

On February 14 Dr. Smith will be giving a keynote at Rady: 12-1:30 pm (locations to be determined).

Both events will be hybrid. Registration information to come.

We have also launched number of Educational Modules:

Giga mino ganawenimaag Anishinaabeg – “We will take good care of the people”- is an innovative training program designed to advance Indigenous Cultural Safety in health care. Organized through the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, the program consists of Ten online lessons.

To learn more, visit the We will take good care of the people webpage.
Primary contact: culturalsafety@umanitoba.ca.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM) recently approved the Standard of Practice – Practicing Medicine to Eliminate Anti-Indigenous Racism.

Foundations of Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism Module – this module is both a standalone and part of the Indigenous Cultural Safety Program (available through UM Learn).

This 1-credit-per-hour Self Learning program has been certified by the College Family Physicians of Canada for up to 6.5 Mainpro+® credits.

For more information about the Primer, visit the Black Health Education Collaborative website.

If you are a member of the Rady Faculty and are interested in registering, please contact me directly.

“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.” Angela Y. Davis

There is no time like the present to create more just institutions and to cultivate relationships founded on the principles of integrity, humility, and social justice.

We hope that you will join us in working towards more just futures.

Our lives, and our futures are linked we hope that you will embrace one of our guiding themes for this year: solidarity.

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.

October 2024: Reflections on the CMA Apology to Indigenous Peoples

Marcia

On September 18, 2024 I was on the traditional territory of the Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations to stand with my Indigenous physician colleagues (who are more rightly called my relatives) as the Canadian Medical Association delivered its apology to Indigenous Peoples for the role of the medical profession and the organization itself in systemic racism in health care.

As a Cree-Anishinaabe woman who has experienced significant racism throughout my medical education and career as well as in receiving health care for myself and my family, my reactions are complicated and layered.

I honour the labour of my Indigenous physician colleagues, the Indigenous community members and Knowledge Keepers who advocated for and guided the CMA on this work. None of my reactions diminish the gratitude and respect I have for them.

I think of my friends and colleagues who have experienced harms from the medical profession rooted in anti-Black racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ethnoreligious discrimination and other intersecting systems of oppression who may be wondering when their apology will come. I see you and honour your right to apologies, reparations and more just futures.

September 18^th was not the first time I stood with my Indigenous physician family to witness such a collective apology. In June 2008 we were on the beautiful island of Kauai for a gathering of the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress. With our relatives from Hawaii, Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Taiwan, and from across Turtle Island we watched as then Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for trying to “kill the Indian in the child.” We cried, and along with many others hoped that this was a signal that a new day had arrived. That new day remains a long time coming. Reactions from other Canadians ranged from complete ignorance, to shared humility and a desire to do better, to resistance and ongoing residential school denialism. The progress on reparations and reconciliation has not been linear or consistently forward moving.

I travelled to Victoria so that I could again stand with my Indigenous physician family as we witnessed this collective apology. The truth is I have experienced a lot of hurt from anti-Indigenous racism in my different workplaces since the 2008 apology, so I listened to this one with a little more doubt about the power of a collective apology. I know now that I/ we cannot expect quick or consistent change.

That day in our conversations and in an interview, my very wise colleague Dr. Nel Wieman said that it’s not the words spoken that day that mattered, it’s the actions that come afterwards. In the days following the apology I was reading the book This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley. I happened to be on Chapter 11, entitled “Repair” which is all about apologies. She writes:

“Truth-telling is critical to repair. But confession alone- which tends to serve the confessor more than the oppressed- will never be enough. Reparations are required. To expect repair without some kind of remittance would be injustice doubled.”

So to the Indigenous faculty, staff and students one of the things I want to say to you is that it is okay to wait and see what happens next before deciding how you feel about this apology. There’s no rush to accept it or to believe that it means things will be truly different. We have done and are doing our share of the work. We can hold back and see how the non-Indigenous individuals (recognizing that within what we might term “non-Indigenous” are folks with a range of privileges and/ or harms they experience themselves due to white supremacy and the cis-heteropatriarchy) around us personalize the collective apology. We can wait to see if those who have personally harmed us make their own apologies. We can hold off on taking more steps together until we see evidence of unlearning and new learning. We can let trust be earned or be re-established by witnessing our non-Indigenous peers take on the work of intervening and disrupting acts of white supremacy and Indigenous-specific racism.

On the day of the apology one of the Elders who spoke talked about how a bridge has to be built from both sides and meet in the middle. The Elder acknowledged that we as Indigenous people have built our side of the bridge and it’s up to non-Indigenous people to build their side and meet us in the middle. Some of the communities we work with in consensual solidarity have led the way in this work of building bridges towards us. This solidarity work involves navigating complex histories and realities of harm, marginalization and exclusion while avoiding competition or undermining these complex histories and realities.

In addition to this solidarity work, there are people and departments in our Faculty who have committed to and started this bridge building work. These people are leading examples of what it means and what it takes to make an apology more than words. I am really grateful for these people, because they are part of why I have hope that in our Faculty we have actually started a meaningful reconciliation journey and that we are creating a different future. These are people I trust to walk alongside. I wonder what conversations they are having with their peers about this CMA apology and how they might help guide, encourage, and hold folks accountable to it as we move forward.

Note: Thank you to Dr. Delia Douglas for providing critical feedback and insights in thinking through the many different experiences people relate to this apology from and how we continue to work in solidarity.

Resources

Canadian Medical Association’s apology to Indigenous Peoples

September 2024: Working towards more just futures

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”
(James Baldwin, 1972, p. 149). No name in the street. New York: The Dial Press.

Marcia

Welcome to the 2024-2025 academic year. I’m really proud of the work across Indigenous health, social justice and anti-racism, and the ongoing efforts to contribute to more culturally safe and racially just outcomes. Dr. Douglas continues to provide leadership in developing new educational initiatives to enhance the racial literacy of the Rady community.

Working with the Offices of Equity, Access and Participation, and Community Engagement and Social Accountability, the new dialogue series will align with the Faculty strategic priority of reciprocal community engagement and build from passive receipt of knowledge to active dialogue. These offices provide excellent educational resources to our community, but it is up to each of us to apply that knowledge in our work and learning environments.

This year I encourage you to reflect regularly on how you can take the new things you learn, and apply this new knowledge in meaningful ways that result in more culturally safe and anti-racist environments for our increasingly diverse community. It is through your individual and collective actions that positive change will happen.

Delia

September greetings! A new academic year is upon us and as part of our commitment in working towards more just futures we will be launching a number of initiatives that we want to tell you about.

Here Come the Modules:

Foundations of Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism

This online module is one mechanism that builds on the Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy by providing people with a resource to cultivate their racial literacy.

I understand that people come to this material from different vantage points. This module is an opportunity to expand our understanding of the meaning and significance of race and the persistence of racism because to combat racism in its various forms, we must first understand it.

You cannot get to anti-racism without reckoning with racism, so this course is an opportunity for folx to enhance their racial literacy by providing them with a vocabulary for identifying and speaking to each other across our differences in the service of social justice.

Some of the topics covered include:

Why race matters
What is race?
White matters: The social construction of whiteness
Racisms and their impact
What is racism?
Impacts of racism
Continuing your journey: Next steps

The Black Health Primer

The Black Health Primer officially launched on March 21, 2024, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Primer is an 8 module online, self-paced, and asynchronous course, comprised of quizzes, case studies, reflections, and multimedia. Designed for learners from across health disciplines, professions, organizations and communities, the Primer was created in response to gaps in education and training on Black health and anti-Black racism in medicine and public health in Canada.

The Primer describes the historical context of racial oppression, explains how anti-Black racism influences the social determinants of health, and acts as a barrier to health equity. Participants will gain knowledge about anti-Black racism and Black health and this knowledge will improve the racial literacy of health care practitioners. This will enrich the health of Black communities, as well as the health of all patients. Enhanced racial literacy is imperative, as it is integral to the delivery of anti-racist care.

Dialogues of Disruption

The third initiative is a collaborative effort by all the offices that fall under the portfolio of Dr. Marcia Anderson, Vice Dean of Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism. This includes the Offices of Anti-Racism, Equity, Access and Participation, and Community Engagement and Social Accountability.

In the upcoming academic year, we will be hosting a series of events in the upcoming academic year under the title: Dialogues of disruption: An invitation to work towards more just futures.

These monthly events will address a variety of themes that correspond to our areas of work, some of which include disability justice; connections, coalitions and false equivalencies: the indivisible connections between racial, gender, and lgbtqia+ justice; and anti-racism and engagement with newcomer, refugee and immigrant communities.

We wanted to draw attention to under-served and under-represented communities, along with local organizations, exploring areas of silence, marginalization, and invisibility by providing a meeting ground to collaborate in our work towards more just futures. In this spirit we will be inviting members from some of these communities to provide their indispensable input about the needs and priorities in their communities so that we may engage with them in ways that are appropriate and meaningful. It is our hope that disrupting dialogues will offer guidance in the journey of un-learning and learning, while encouraging and inspiring change and possibility.

The first event will be an introduction to each of the Offices mentioned above and an opportunity to speak to our distinct and shared work with a Q & A at the end.

Dialogues of Disruption: Upcoming Event

This event will be held on September 24, 12 to 1:00 pm. It will be a hybrid event taking place in Basic Medical Sciences Theatre-B and online. For more information or to register, visit our event page.

We all have a role to play. We look forward to working towards more just futures with you.

Resources

Black Health Education Collaborative: bhec.ca

Knowledge One Interview Foundations of race, racism, and anti-racism: https://knowledgeone.ca/interview-foundations-of-race-racism-and-anti-racism-online-course/

June 2024: Bodies in motion, bodies at play: What’s race got to do with it?

“Everyone I see playing basketball is black. Everyone playing basketball must be black. If I am not black, I can’t play basketball; if you are black, you must be a basketball player”
Patricia J. Williams, 1997, p. 51. (Seeing a Color Blind Future. New York, NY: Noonday Press).

Marcia

I love to watch the Olympics, and I’m looking forward to the Summer Games this year. As I watch events this year, I’ll be holding questions from the blog Dr. Douglas has written below. Sport- like in some arenas of medicine- has some deeply engrained biologic assumptions about race. I wonder how these seep into my consciousness when I think about who is on the podium at what events, what this means about my assumptions about muscle mass and how this might infiltrate my thinking then when I’m in clinical spaces. This year, and with the very helpful critical reflections below, I’ll be challenging myself to see where I still carry assumptions about “natural ability” and push myself to see the hard work, persistence, and discipline of the athletes. I’ll ask myself the challenging questions about how income and opportunity gaps that do occur by race are impacting who we see represented in what events, in the results, and in the media coverage.

Delia

Continuing the conversation about sport matters, this month’s blog takes up the question of race, sex, gender, and embodiment….

The WNBA (Coming to Toronto in 2026!), NBA, PWHL, NHL, soccer, tennis, pickleball, track and field… oh yeah, and golf …

Although sport is a key part of North American culture, we tend to underestimate its cultural and political significance: it is a place where different histories, traditions, and myths meet and intersect, creating cultural meanings and identities which travel across different mediums, national borders and commercial markets. It is a place where major cultural and political debates about identity, community and politics are staged and performed.

Sport is a visual and a visible field. It is a place where social dramas play out between different groups – historically and in the present. Recall Jesse Owen’s victories at the Berlin Olympics, Althea Gibson breaking the colour bar at Wimbledon, Jackie Robinson’s trailblazing in MLB, Taffy Abel and Willie O’Ree’s groundbreaking presence in the NHL, Evonne Goolagong’s victory at the French Open, Cathy Freeman’s run to gold at the Sydney Olympic Games, and South Carolina vs Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball final (I gotta give Coach Staley and co their flowers).

Because sport (and physical activity) are bodily practices, they enable the continued observation and discussion of sex, gender identity and expression, and racial difference in analyses of performance. In this context, the preponderance of certain groups in particular physical activities, coupled with their absence in others, has been readily interpreted as evidence of the natural differences in the ability and potential of different social groups. These patterns of participation are significant precisely because their visibility/visual logic conveys power and privilege; over time what we see becomes what we recognize and believe. potent cultural narratives about different groups are produced and normalized. In turn, because we have been socialized to be unaware of the ways in which power and privilege work in these settings, customary patterns of perception regarding sex, gender, racial, and sexual differences are perpetuated.

Sport studies scholars CL Cole and Susan Birrell explore how sport is a difference and power producing system” (1990, p. 18): it “works to differentiate winners from losers, the men from the boys, and the men from the women” (p. 18). I would add that sport also works to differentiate different racialized, engendered (gender identity and expression) and embodied groups. Simply put sport constructs and normalizes a binary logic of separation – this either/or framing does not allow for nuance, diversity, or complexity.

Think of it like this – putting a basketball in a hoop and explosive speed are actions that are seen, rather than interpreted. This is one of the key elements of the power of sport; namely, it is an area of life that seems to exist in the realm of the natural and is therefore not seen as requiring interpretation (Willis, 1982).

However, things are not so simple. We are socialized to be unaware of how the “seeing” of race and other social differences are in fact an interpretation rather than an objective account of what is ‘there.’ For example, the hypervisibility of some groups and the exclusion of others tends to bolster prevailing beliefs about racial difference that rely on biology to explain performance and participation rates.

For example, the fact that the times for the men’s 100 metres, the distance thrown for the shot put, etc. are different from those for women have been used as a way of reinforcing prevailing gender ideologies about a clear binary, one that confirms the so-called superiority of “men” over “women” (Willis, 1982). In the same way the success of Black athletes in basketball and sprint events, reinforces longstanding beliefs about the presumed natural athleticism of Black athletes. FYI – in the 1970s and 80s the sprint events were dominated by athletes from central and eastern Europe; in the 1960s 20% of the NBA consisted of Black players, currently over 70%, and the NHL is 97% white). Correspondingly, this presumed athletic superiority is believed to indicate bodily prowess over powers of the mind.

But ask yourself this: why isn’t the visibility and success of white Europeans in winter sports not read as evidence of innate athletic superiority and the absence of intellectual ability, but instead as confirmation of discipline and mental application? This typical “reading” of difference in athletic performance between different groups illustrates how the meaning and import of athletic performance and sporting events hold a cultural and political significance that extends well beyond the fields of play.

Sport is a complex and contradictory space, for it is a place where the presence and success of 1 or 2 Black, Indigenous, or racialized minority athletes is seen as evidence of equality – or of the absence of racism – rather than exceptions to systemic racial exclusion and racial tension.

Sport is a crucial locus of social justice struggles. It not only teaches us to “see” difference, sport teaches us to regard some differences as more important than others, amplifies them, and then uses them to support beliefs about sex, race, and gender inferiority and superiority – beliefs which uphold social inequality (Willis, 1982).

We will be going on summer hiatus: the blog will return in September.

Resources

Birrell, S., & Cole, CL. (1990).Double fault: Renee Richards, and the construction and naturalization of difference, Sociology of Sport Journal, 7(1), 1-21.

Douglas, D. D. (2018). Disqualified! Serena Williams and Brittney Griner: Black female athletes and the politics of the im/possible. In K. Farquharson, K. Pillay, P. Essed, and E. White (Eds.), Relating worlds, of racism: Dehumanization, belonging and the normativity of whiteness (pp. 329-355). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hartmann, D. (2002). Sport as Contested Terrain. In D. T. Goldberg & J. Solomos (Eds.), A companion to race and ethnic studies (pp. 405-415). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

King, C.R. (2007). Staging the ~~Winter~~ white Olympics: Or, why sport matters to white power. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31(1), 89-94.

Willis, P. (1982). Women in sport in ideology. In J. Hargreaves (Ed.), Sport, culture and ideology (pp. 117-135). London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

May 2024: Sport matters: Black female athletes: Sistas are doin’ it for themselves

Marcia

It is fascinating to see how women- and in particular the majority Black players of the WNBA- are using their power to collectively advocate for health equity and racial justice. There has been lots of discussion and studies about how greater inclusion of women in medicine resulted in significant culture shift. I wonder how the leadership from Black Women in sport will shift professional sporting culture and equally be part of the work in health care to interrupt all forms of racism.

Delia

Never Surrender, the Unapologetic Lives of Black Female Athletes

I want to begin by giving a SHOUT OUT to the South Carolina Gamecocks and Head coach Dawn Staley for winning the Women’s National Collegiate Basketball Championship, capping off their undefeated season (38-0)!!

Sport matters.
An important cultural site of interracial competition, cooperation and antagonism, sport has played a profound role in civil rights and social justice struggles in North America and across the globe. For Black folx throughout the diaspora, as a visible source of entertainment and possibility, sport has provided them with opportunities to gain recognition through physical struggle, not just for their athletic achievements, but it has also been a place to pursue their dreams, secure their corporeal integrity, and declare their humanness and citizenship. While Colin Kaepernick has undeniably been a driving force for the current generation of activist athletes, the visibility of his public protest is matched by the invisibility of his Black female counterparts. Change agents in their own right, diverse Black women have always been integral to Black liberation struggles.

Celebrating its 28th year, the WNBA was built out of the labour, fierceness, and love of Black women: 76% of the players and 19% of the owners are Black.

In 2016 in the wake of the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling members of the Minnesota Lynx held a pregame press conference to talk about police killings. In subsequent games they along with players from other WNBA teams wore plain black T-shirts. Five days later the league fined the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever 5000 dollars and their players 500 dollars ostensibly for violating the league’s uniform policy, a policy that requires players to exclusively wear official league uniforms during and before all games and practices and not alter the uniforms in any way (this fine was more than the 200 the standard uniform violation fine).

To give you some context, in 2014 the WNBA initiated an LGBTQQIA+ Pride campaign during Pride month in June, the first professional sports league to do so. The league’s selective consciousness refers to the fact that when WNBA players wore t-shirts with a rainbow heart displaying the words Orlando united, after the Orlando nightclub shooting, players were not penalized. Notably, the National Basketball Association did not fine its members when they wore t-shirts stating, “I can’t breathe,” following Eric Garner’s death.”

Several days later the league rescinded the fines.

In 2020 the WNBA Social Justice Council was formed. It is an activist committee run by the WNBA and the players union. With support from advisers including Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, they raised awareness about issues of race, voting rights, LGBTQQIA+ advocacy, and gun control.

This year the league is focusing on women’s health reproductive rights and civic engagement (with a focus on how voting impacts reproductive health within racialized minority communities in the U.S.). They have partnered with Opill which is an over-the-counter daily birth control pill that is available in the U.S.

“Everyone watches women’s sports”
The t-shirt ain’t lying: 18. 9 watched the women’s national basketball final between South Carolina and Iowa, peaking at 24 million (FYI: 14.8 million watched the men’s final).

Former WTA superstar Serena Williams and retired track and field icon Allyson Felix have drawn attention to Black maternal health following their life-threatening experiences during childbirth. Initially doctors did not believe Williams whose knowledge of her own body and medical history, namely her previous experiences with blood clots, led to her challenging the skepticism of her doctors, and ultimately saving her own life.

According to U.S. data the maternal mortality rate for Black women is 2.6 times the rate for white women. In May 2023 former U.S. track and field athlete, Torie Bowie died due to complications related to her pregnancy. The autopsy revealed respiratory distress, high blood pressure and eclampsia. Towie’s teammate, Allyson Felix, developed preeclampsia (as did Beyoncé) during her first pregnancy resulting in an emergency C-section at 32 weeks. All three of the gold medalists on the 4 x 100 metre relay team at the Rio Olympics, three Black women, had serious complications during their pregnancy. Felix’s relay teammate, Tianna Madison disclosed that went she went into labour at 26 weeks, she went to the hospital with her will and healthcare directive. Both she and Felix continue advocating for better Black maternal care.

With respect to reproductive health Black women in Canada are three times more likely to have fibroids than white women, are more prone to endometriosis (and less often diagnosed) and are screened less often for cervical cancer. In addition, the lack of accurate data regarding maternal mortality in this country is highly problematic. What we do know is that racism and racial inequality play a part in maternal mortality across North America (see Martis 2020).

World champion gymnast Simone Biles and WTA star player Naomi Osaka are advocates for prioritizing mental health and are working to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

I wanted to draw attention to diverse Black female athletes’ resistance and activism because their labour, love, and commitment are an important step towards acknowledgement of the complexity and the interconnection of Black liberation struggles. Their experiences and insights provide an opportunity for us to begin to recognize places of common or related oppression and struggle, which could subsequently offer a foundation for coalition work in support of justice and recognition of the value of all Black Lives (Cohen 452).

This is an Olympic year, so more there will be more sport talk coming.
Stay tuned.

Resources

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

Felix, Allyson. (15 June, 2023). Allyson Felix: Tori Bowie can’t die in vain. Time.com. https://time.com/6287392/tori-bowie-allyson-felix-black-maternal-health/.

Giroday, Gabrielle. (15 November, 2019). Lack of health data hurting Black Canadian women u of t researchers find. U of T News. https://www.utoronto.ca/news/lack-health-data-hurting-black-canadian-women-u-t-researchers-find.

Martis, Eternity. (4 June 2020). Why Black women fear for their lives in the delivery room. Huffpost.com. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/black-maternal-health-canada_ca_5ed90ae3c5b685164f2eab93.

Parris, Amanda. (1 February, 2024). I made a documentary about the Black maternal health crisis. Then I experienced it. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/i-made-a-documentary-about-the-black-maternal-health-crisis-then-i-experienced-it-1.7101607.
(see her documentary Standard of Care).

Reuters. (15 June 2023). Allyson Felix demands better maternity care. Reuters.com. https://www.reuters.com/sports/athletics/felix-demands-better-maternity-care-black-women-following-bowies-death-2023-06-15/.

von Stackelberg, Marina. (24 April 2024). Canada’s cancer screening guidelines are out of date. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cancer-screening-canada-guidelines-1.7180878.

WNBA. (9 April, 2024). Opill and WNBA team up for ground breaking partnership. WNBA.com
https://www.wnba.com/news/opill-and-wnba-team-up-2024.

n.d. Every breast counts. Women’s College Hospital Healthcare. https://www.womenscollegehospital.ca/care-programs/peter-gilgan-centre-for-womens-cancers/every-breast-counts/.

April 2024: In/tolerable violences and the damage done

“I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name. My name is my own my own my own”
(June Jordan, 2005, pp. 309-311).

Marcia:

As a parent when I hear the dogma around parental rights in schools as it relates to gender identity and sexual health teaching, I shudder. Maybe it’s because I’m also a physician who is familiar with the evidence of how important affirming gender identity is, how it improves mental and physical health in ways that are life-saving. Over and over I have thought, please, if it is needed to protect my child, put their rights ahead of mine. I love them. I want them to be safe and wholly them. As it happens we are in community and kinship with queer and gender diverse/ expansive folks. My kids have experienced a lot of safety and freedom to explore their fluid gender identities, and they will continue to. But I need all of us to be working together to make it safer in every setting for children and youth to have the safety to do so. We must not under-estimate how important this is to their and to our community’s wellbeing.

Delia:

We find ourselves in challenging times with multiple local/regional/inter/national events colliding. In his book Disposable youth, critical pedagogy scholar Henry A. Giroux talks about how the culture of cruelty and punishment has become normalized. In his words, “legitimate forms of organized violence against human beings increasingly considered
disposable, . . . Such practices are increasingly accompanied by forms of humiliation in which the character, dignity, and bodies of targeted individuals and groups are under attack. (p. 36)

One of the challenges we face involve the increasing attacks on 2SLGBTQQIA+ folx. These attacks are local…national…global.

In June 2023, in a gender studies class, a University of Waterloo professor and two of her students were stabbed by a recent graduate due to his hatred regarding gender identity and gender expression.

Also, in 2023 New Brunswick and Saskatchewan passed legislation targeting gender affirming care, and requiring schools to seek parental consent if a student wants to use a different pronoun or name in the classroom.

In the fall of this year Alberta’s provincial government intends to introduce legislation that will affect transgender and non-binary youth and adults. Some of these changes include requiring parental notification and consent before a school can change the name or pronouns of any child under the age of 15. In addition, parents will have the option of opting-in their children whenever a teacher plans to teach about gender identity, sexual orientation, or sexuality.

Last month Manitoba’s interim leader of the Opposition for the Progressive Conservatives voiced a desire for similar practices in the province’s schools.

These legislative moves and proposed practices are part of the widespread targeting of trans and gender diverse peoples, and sexual minorities. In February Canadian Security Intelligence Services issued a warning regarding the continued and heightened threats of violence against 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities by individuals and/or groups who adhere to violent extremism some of which is religiously motivated. They noted that the violent discourse is expressed by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Freedom Movement.

This is another example of the interconnectedness of different systems of domination: white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and settler colonial projects.

In a society organized around racial, sexual, gender, and class hierarchies folx will experience their racialized gender identity and expression and sexual orientation in different ways.

On February 8 Nex Benedict, a non-binary Indigenous youth died – one day after being assaulted in the bathroom in their high school. Shortly after the altercation, they described how the continued bullying and harassment prompted the fight. They died the following day.

Let’s be clear – attempts to regulate gender identity and expression and the opposition to teaching 2SLGBTQQIA+ content is not only exclusionary, it constitutes acts of violence. These organizational efforts to deny the existence and autonomy of 2SLGBTQQIA+ youth will certainly not make members of these communities feel safe, nor will it change their gender and sexual identities. What it will do is maintain the culture of domination and render anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ hostility and aggression permissible. They will be further isolated, and leave them even more fearful, more anxious, and more vulnerable.

These strategies and proposed legislative and policy changes make clear who matters, and those who are deserving of care and consideration. The identification of these youth as disposable will legitimize harassment, bullying, and other forms of harm.

Efforts to contain, deny, erase, marginalize, mislead, silence, and exclude are discriminatory. These actions are part of dehumanizing cultural mechanisms that protect and sustain hierarchies of value and worth.

Rather than being encouraged and taught to see each other as equals, strategies of distortion and omission are being employed to bolster fear and deny the mental, physical, and emotional experiences and needs of 2SLGBTQQIA+ youth.

We are being told that the way forward is to discipline and punish trans and gender diverse folx.

Questions about which differences do and do not matter are important because they involve power.

Health care is already challenging for 2SLGBTQQIA+ folx, who are Black, Indigenous, or racialized minorities. Imposing additional restrictions on gender affirming care heightens their vulnerability and undermines their mental and physical health and well-being which could result in life altering and potentially fatal consequences.

The professed focus on parental rights is also a coded message that seeks to suppress the organization and operation of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy.

The struggle against dehumanization is relentless. The costs are many. The impacts will be immediate and long term.

Let’s recognize that the differences between us hold space and support the autonomy of the diverse members of 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities.

The struggle to be Free to be is unceasing…. Let y/our motto be resistance…Our collective futures depend on it

Resources

Giroux, Henry, A. (2012). Disposable youth: Racialized memories and the culture of cruelty. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hayes, Kelly. (23 February, 2024). Our mourning for Nex Benedict calls us to action against transphobia and fascism. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/our-mourning-for-nex-benedict-calls-us-to-action-against-transphobia-and-fascism/.

Jordan, June. (2005). Directed by desire. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press.

Rummler, Orion. (19 March 2024). States’ anti-LGBTQ moves may have disastrous health impacts experts say. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/states-anti-lgbtq-moves-may-have-disastrous-health-impacts-experts-say/.

Staff. (13 March, 2024). MB Tories parental consent should be required for student pronoun changes. Canadian Press. https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/parental-consent-should-be-required-for-student-pronoun-changes-manitoba-tories-1.6805365.

Tunney, Catharine. (15 February, 2024). CSIS warns that ‘anti-gender movement’ poses a threat of ‘extreme violence.’ CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csis-lgbtq-warning-violence-1.7114801