Anti-racism efforts are increasing within Canadian institutions and organizations, as evidenced with the increased equity, diversity and inclusion trainings being sought from various sectors including education, health, corrections, social service agencies and corporations. While this is encouraging and provides hope for an anti-racist Canada, there remain significant barriers to cultivating authentic anti-racist environments. The conversation around white privilege is one that elicits uncomfortable emotions such as shame, and because shame is extremely difficult to tolerate, it tends to provoke defensiveness, which eliminates the possibility to engage in any meaningful way.
Robyn DiAngelo, who coined the term ‘White Fragility’, suggests that we (white) people have been taught that being racist means you are a bad person who is mean and hateful to someone based on race, and intentionally seeks to be mean to them. Thus, when a white person is called racist, they react defensively, because their character is under attack. Being racist is embedded within both the good-bad binary and the ideology of individualism: which are conditioned concepts that come from being born white in a white world.
Only ‘bad individuals’ are racist, thus, to be called racist, or to be generalized as racist just for being white, are characterological attacks. Being part of a racial social group robs us of our uniqueness. Racism itself has been relegated as something of the past: Canada is an inclusive society. I am a good person; therefore, I am not racist. Cancel culture is indicative of how far white people will go to distance themselves from ‘bad white people’. How often have you attended meetings, that require vulnerability and participation, and the silence around you keeps you quiet as well? How can I allow myself to be vulnerable if others are not willing to meet me there?
I have come to the belief that the reason anti-racist work is so difficult, is that we have not been provided with tools and knowledge to allow us to be able to tolerate discomfort. In a society that seeks to be happy and comfortable, we have been robbed of the ability to navigate difficult conversations. Receiving negative feedback, whether it be from a partner, boss, employee, friend….provokes within the average individual significant internal visceral discomfort. That is because our body/brain has come to perceive characterological attack as dangerous; it does not differentiate the threat of physical injury or assassination from the threat of characterological injury or assassination. Humans are wired for connections; thus, disconnection is dangerous.
Canada is described as an inclusive society that embraces diversity, yet its systems and institutions were founded to benefit the needs of our colonial ancestors. For example, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police (RCMP) was created to protect white settlers from Canada’s original inhabitants. Clearly, the fact that Indigenous peoples represent only 4% of the overall Canadian population, yet account for 30% of admission into correction facilities: provincially and federally should demonstrate that systemic racism is not a thing of the past. Suicide is the number one reason for death for Indigenous young peoples and adults. Indigenous populations continue to experience poorer health, lower education levels, housing that lacks quality and crowded living conditions. On January 28 of this year, a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire in the remote Cree community of Peawanuck, Ont. The house was occupied by ten families. The reserve did (still does) not have access to fire services or basic firefighting equipment because it is a fly in reserve. There continue to be at least 28 Indigenous communities that lack safe drinking water- which is a basic human right- due to long-term drinking warning advisories, the oldest stemming from 1995. The list of evidence of systemic racism is exhaustive, suffice it to say, Canada is not anti-racist.
So now what? It is easy to want to throw our hands in the air and say “there’s nothing I can do about it”. It’s also easy to blame individuals, rather than the system. Being Human Consulting, led by myself, is committed to providing services that will facilitate anti-racist work. Its primary focus is exploring how white people have benefited and have been shaped by racist ideologies. We will take a deep dive into concepts like white privilege, hegemony, colonialism, imperialism, and inherent racism. This kind of work requires the ability to tolerate shame, which requires emotional intelligence. It also requires the ability to participate fully and meaningfully in difficult uncomfortable conversations, which requires relational intelligence. Finally, it requires the ability to be willing to learn history from people of colour, not the white history we have been indoctrinated with. All our work will be trauma-informed, and in some instances, trauma-focused work.
I will be providing anti-racist trauma-focused trainings and workshops developed to increase emotional intelligence, relational intelligence and cultural intelligence, the three pillars of my developed framework.
For more information on anti-racist and trauma-informed services offered, please visit our website. For more information, do not hesitate to email us at info@beinghumanconsulting.com
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