When words are not enough

My heart grieves and aches for our black and our Indigenous communities and families. I am horrified and angry. I am heartbroken. I am speechless yet have so much that my head and heart are trying to find the words to say.

George Floyd, a 46-year old black man who was asphyxiated to death by a police officer who was kneeling on his neck and ignoring his pleas that he couldn't breathe (Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 25). Chantel Moore, a 26-year old Indigenous woman who was shot and killed at her home by a police officer responding to a request to perform a wellness check (Edmundston, New Brunswick, June 4). Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year old black man who was shot and killed by a police officer responding to a report of a man sleeping in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy's restaurant (Atlanta, Georgia, June 12).

I was in shock when I learned of their senseless deaths, and I still am. Within 18 days of each other, three more families were left without a husband/wife, father/mother, brother/sister, son/daughter, nephew/niece... and a lot of questions, searing pain, demands for justice, and an ever-increasing need for systemic change.

I was in increasing degrees of shock in the days following George Floyd's death as I read account after account of the horrific treatment that black people are subjected to on a daily basis in the United States. I asked myself if this happens in Canada, and then read someone else’s story confirming that it does.

I was also in increasing degrees of shock many times over the past year as I took numerous online courses and learned about the horrific and ongoing effects of colonization and racial discrimination on the Indigenous communities in Canada.

It is probably incredibly naive and a blatant example of textbook white privilege for me to admit that I didn't really know much about the past and current realities of either community, but it is also honest. It is heart wrenching to learn about these lived realities and inequities. As a white woman with a white family married to a white man with a white family, I don't live those realities and I know that I will never truly understand what it is like to walk in their shoes. What being open to learning has done is to open up my eyes to both my naivety and the truth, as well as my responsibilities as a white person in the face of racism.

Systemic racial discrimination is a perverse poison that sadly runs through the veins of our societies, poisoning the minds of some and subjecting others to certain injustice and even death. It happens in the US and in Canada and has for centuries, often as government-sanctioned policies.

As I have been struggling to deal with and process what is happening right now, I have been thinking back on and have gone back to my notes from one particularly powerful online course that I took in recent months on cultural safety. The course examined the Pathway to Harm model, from worldviews to stereotyping to prejudice to discrimination; explicit and implicit racial bias; human rights and the various levels of discrimination (overt or hidden, intentional or unintentional, clear or ambiguous, individual or systemic); the core elements and expressions of racism; and the positive actions that we can all take on a daily basis within our spheres of influence to fight against racism.

I don't want to give definitions and examples for all of those terms in this post (that would end up being a course in itself), but I would highly recommend taking a course on recognizing and addressing racism if you haven't already done so. That said, I do want to give the definitions provided in the course materials for some key terms that are foundational:

Stereotyping happens when we view an individual based on generalizations we make about their group.

Prejudice is holding a judgmental attitude and negative feelings toward a person, based solely on membership in the group.

Discrimination is treating someone differently because of their membership in the group.

Explicit bias refers to conscious thoughts and beliefs about people or groups, whereas Implicit bias refers to the automatic and unconscious thoughts and feelings that occur outside of an individual's awareness.

The hardest parts of that course were the journal entries and the group discussions, because they went beyond simply learning about the racial discrimination experienced in the past and present by other people. Those aspects of the course required a critical personal reflection, a cold hard look in the mirror, on my own stereotypes, prejudices and biases, as well as on the acts of discrimination that I may have witnessed and/or participated in. The final part of the course was to develop my own personal action plan to understand, recognize, and address racism.

The historical and present-day content of that particular course focused on Indigenous people, but the concepts about recognizing and addressing racism can and should also be applied to black people.

"Understanding racism sheds new light on how we see the conditions of ________ people in Canada. Becoming culturally competent requires awareness of the role of race in shaping your perceptions and beliefs of others, and how you behave. It entails understanding how racism is present in everyday life, including government institutions."

It is also important to note that race does matter in our societies. We cannot simply ignore race, or say that race is inconsequential or that racial differences are only superficial. That is simply racial or color blindness, but not does mean that we do not have any stereotypes, prejudices or biases. "Ignoring race can hamper your ability to recognize racially-based power inequities and privileges in our society. Enhancing your ability to create culturally safe relationships with ________ people requires knowledge about the impact of race, and a critical assessment of your ideas about race and racism."

"As a social phenomenon, racism may feel out of your control. However, behavior is within your control and a place where you can begin to take action."

"Addressing racial discrimination requires changing norms that tolerate and accept harmful behavior towards ________ people. ... [I]ndividuals can influence norms by challenging unacceptable behavior and practices."

"Active intervention requires 'seeing' racism and bias in action and having the intention to respond. When and how you take action depends on the situation. However, it is essential to interrupt the negative treatment of ________ people, even when you are unsure about how to do it. Not speaking out or taking action makes you complicit in the behavior."

Taking action - that is something that we can all do, and what we as white people need to do, for both our black and our Indigenous communities. It will look different for everyone but will always require a commitment to equity and social justice, to addressing racial discrimination, to taking positive action, and to collaboration.

We need to ask ourselves hard questions about who we are, what our biases are, what parts of history we do not understand, and what gaps there are in our understanding of the present. We need to be aware of and to address the stereotypes, prejudices and biases of ourselves and others (because we can all have them), to analyze and understand the power dynamics in our circles (whether personal or organizational), and to speak out against the injustices and inequities that we see around us.

A very recent personal example related to a stereotype of black people mirrored in an almost shocking way my experience while taking the course on Indigenous cultural safety, as I began to see my own personal stereotypes, prejudices and biases towards Indigenous people that I had never before identified. It is hard to write this, but I have come to believe that personal honesty, transparency and openness is crucial when it comes to addressing racism, because it all has to start within our own hearts.

Let me preface this by saying that I know a lot of black people and have quite a few friends who are black. What I realized once again, as I did with Indigenous people, is that my stereotypes, prejudices and biases come into play when I don't know someone personally, but it shouldn't matter whether or not I know someone personally. That is simply justifying the stereotype and the prejudice and saying that they apply until proven otherwise, and that leads to racial discrimination.

One morning two weeks ago, I was on my way to meet Hal for an appointment. Since I had misplaced my driver's license the week before and don't currently have a bus pass due to the pandemic, I decided to walk. The route I found myself walking goes through a predominantly black neighborhood that is widely known to be a bit rough at times. As I was walking along, I saw a small group of black people up ahead on the sidewalk. My first reaction was to look across the street and at the traffic going both ways to see if I could cross the street... not because of the pandemic and the recommendation to maintain 2 meters of distance from other people, but because they were black.

I immediately caught myself, in shock that the thought had gone through my head, and wondered how many other times I had let that same thought go unchecked. I looked again at the group of black people. It was a small group of young adults in their 20s who were standing on the corner and talking. Would the same thought have gone through my head if it was a small group of white young people? No, probably not.

Even just now when I re-read the first paragraph of the story, I examined my description of the neighborhood as "being known to be rough". I decided to leave it there to make a point. Is it known to be rough because it's a poorer area of the city or because it's predominantly black? It is true that it is a poorer area of the city where a lot of black people live, but it is also true that it is a poorer part of the city where a lot of white people live. So, what actually makes it a rough area of town?

Stereotype → Prejudice → Discrimination.

I didn't cross over to the other side of the street. I kept walking and I smiled at the group of young people. They moved over to give me 2 meters of space on the sidewalk. After I passed by them though, I had to ask myself: did they give me 2 meters of space because of the pandemic recommendations or because I was an unknown white woman walking through their neighborhood and they were fearful of me?

It was a humbling and sad experience for me to see what I saw in my own heart that day. The past has been horrific for black people and for Indigenous people in North America. It’s time for action that changes the future.

I am white, so I will never really understand what it means to face racial discrimination and to not be able to do the things that a white person with white privilege can do without even a second thought as to the possible outcome. That said, the fact that I am white means that I have an important role to play in speaking out against racism towards black people and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color. It is my responsibility to examine and check myself when it comes to my perceptions and attitudes about people from other races. It is also my responsibility to ask questions, to listen, to learn, and to do my part in speaking out against racism.

Systemic racism will not disappear overnight, but every action has an effect. Earlier this year, I developed my personal action plan for helping to create equity and justice for Indigenous people in my circle and community. I now need to develop an action plan to do the same for black people in my sphere of influence and community.

I read an article last week in the May/June issue of Chatelaine magazine on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) National Inquiry in Canada. The article was written and published before the tragic death of Chantel Moore and discusses the murder of a 15-year old Indigenous girl, Tina Fontaine, as well as the MMIWG inquiry and the lived experiences of the author of the article, also an Indigenous woman. There are many parts of that article that pierced my heart as I was reading it, but this one in particular stood out, because it speaks of the action that is necessary once we have heard the truth about the racism that is taking place all around us:

"I don't want to pretend that words are enough when we need actions, now. I don't want you, dear reader, to read this, think it's sad, then move on with your life as though it's out of your hands. It isn't."