Unit 1: Introduction to the Course: Anti-Black Racism in Canada
Week 3 – Day 1 – Canadian (Mis)education System
Today’s class is meant to attune students to the (mis)education of Black students past and present in the Canadian education system. Topics to be explored dissect Anti-Blackness in Canadian Education:
- Segregated schools, streaming, push outs
- Survival, isolation, and care
- Educator bias and gatekeeping
- Violence, hyper surveillance, state violence
- White nationalism
- Community and social support
- Intervention
Required Material:
Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives
- Second part of Chapter Eight: The (Mis)Education of Black Youth: Anti-Blackness in the school system (pages 219 – 227)
- This chapter is an in-depth analysis of the history and consequences of anti-Black racism in Canadian education.
Maynard, R. (2002). Canadian Education is Steeped in Anti-Black Racism. The Walrus. [link]
The Canadian (Mis)Education System: Podcast with Dr Andrew Allen, Anti-Racism Pedagogies Teaching and Leadership Chair, The University of Windsor. [50 minute podcast link]
- You are asked to listen to this podcast, which will help inform our Day 2 discussion.
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Featuring Dr. Andrew Allen in conversation with Tori Ivey, EBAAR Curriculum Consultant. Andrew is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto. Dr. Allen is the Anti-Racism Pedagogies Teaching Leadership Chair. In this role he aims to “help infuse awareness and understanding of anti-racism pedagogies into our university curricula—whether intentional, unconscious, or systematic racism—and to dismantling the barriers, practices, and policies that perpetuate all forms of oppression with our society”.Education is widely understood as a ‘public good’ and a vital institution of Canadian society. This episode explores the systemic barriers that affect Indigenous, Black, and racialized students. Focus is given to anti-Blackness within the Canadian education system. Whereby exclusion, degradation, discipline, and violence are daily realities for Black students. Anti-Blackness undermines educational opportunities for Black students, until it is meaningfully addressed access to education in Canada will remain inequitable and exclusionary.
Eternity Martis, Being Black in a White Place [Video link]
- In this interview with the author of They Said This Would Be Fun, Eternity Martis discusses the book and her lived experience in post-secondary education.
Optional Material
A great way to learn about important ideas and events is through podcasts. The Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) In Conversation podcast addresses important issues related to anti-Black racism in education and the relationship between anti-Black and anti-Muslim racism.
- Examining the multiple and intersectional nature of Muslim identities, alongside the role Islam takes in shaping discourses, social change, and daily practices.
- Understanding and addressing the historical and present-day manifestations of anti-Muslim racism within national and international geo-spaces.
- Unpacking the compounding experiences of being Muslim and Black and how this speaks to the intersections of anti-Muslim racism and anti-Blackness resulting in the absentation of Muslim Black communities.
Exposing Anti-Black Racism
COVID-19 has exacerbated longstanding systemic injustices as highlighted by Black and racialized communities being further exposed and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. With the return to school, neighbourhoods more highly impacted by COVID-19 tend to be the ones with more frontline workers who are not left with many ‘choices’ regarding their children’s educational options.
Moreover, the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery marked a resurgence of global uprisings. Canada is not immune to police brutality, and people resisted systemic anti-Black racism with calls to defund and abolish police after the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet and countless others. Educational activists, scholars and leaders have also long called for the dismantling of anti-Black racism from the education system which leads to the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionate schooling outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and racialized students.
Anti-Muslim Racism
Anti-Muslim racism has had a sustained presence pre-dating September 11th, 2001, with heightened discrimination afterward, fueled by ongoing refugee crises, cultural imperialism, and the global ‘War on Terror.’ In its current form, anti-Muslim racism continues to intersect with multiple identity markers both within the Muslim community and across the political landscape of fear. With unprecedented public attention toward followers of Islam through media coverage and policies promoting religious repression, gendered and racialized Muslims are disproportionately affected by police violence and repressive “counter-terrorism” surveillance models.
Episode 2 of the In Conversation podcast engages in key conversations pertaining to:
- Examining the multiple and intersectional nature of Muslim identities, alongside the role Islam takes in shaping discourses, social change, and daily practices.
- Understanding and addressing the historical and present-day manifestations of anti-Muslim racism within national and international geo-spaces.
- Unpacking the compounding experiences of being Muslim and Black and how this speaks to the intersections of anti-Muslim racism and anti-Blackness resulting in the absentation of Muslim Black communities.
Additional Resources
- Virginia’s New Governor Bans Mask Mandates, ‘Critical Race Theory’ in Schools on Day 1 ‘Just Like We Promised’ (Mainstream Media Article)
- People Magazine article about a Virginia Governor pledging to ban critical race theory and mask mandates.
- Addressing anti-Black racism in post-secondary institutions can transform Canada after the COVID-19 pandemic (Academic Blog Post)
- Short academic-style blog post discussing anti-Black racism in academia amidst the pandemic.
- Beverly Tatum (1997). Chapter One: Defining Racism. Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria. Pp. 83-97. Basic Books.
- Tatum highlights that reducing our understanding of racism as primarily about prejudice fails to understand the systematic impact and material consequences that race has on Black people. She explains that racism is not just a Black issue, it is a collective societal issue in which everyone needs to unpack their understanding of what race means.
- We Rise Together: The Peel District School Board Action Plan to Support Black Male Students
- Peel District School Board action plan to support Black Male students.
- Canadian Mosaic (Blog post)
- Short blog post describing the Canadian mosaic, multiculturalism, and melting pot, and differentiates between Canada and America’s assimilation policies.
