Unit 1: Introduction to the Course: Anti-Black Racism in Canada
“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
Introduction to the Course: Anti-Black Racism in Canada
This unit will allow learners to orient themselves to the course content and one another. First, we will establish community norms that will guide our collaborative learning journey. We will come together throughout this journey, as a community that will learn with and from one another.
This intro unit is meant to provide learners with the necessary tools to engage in critical, open, vulnerable, and BRAVE conversations about anti-Blackness in Canada, past and present. Learners will be introduced to the term ‘Anti-Black Racism’. A term coined by Dr. Akua Benjamin, whose work “seeks to highlight the unique nature of systemic racism on Black Canadians and the history as well as experiences of slavery and colonization of people of Black-African descent in Canada.” Toronto Metropolitan University, 2022.
Topics to be explored
- Active listening, self-reflection, and self-orientation (tool building exercises)
- Anti-Blackness
- Social Construction of Race
- Critical Whiteness Studies (Decentering Whiteness)
- Anti-Blackness in Canadian Education
Unit 1: Learning Outcomes
At the end of the unit, learners will know and be able to:
- demonstrate active listening skills by articulating its key components and effectively engaging in discussion with peers
- define and apply the concept of anti-Blackness as an analytical tool
- recognize the social construction of race as a category of difference
- recognize racialization as a social process
- identify the importance of decentering whiteness to anti-Black racism work
- examine whiteness as a racial formation and a sociocultural system
- recognize the presence and impact of anti-Black racism within the Canadian education system
