Anti-Racism Virtual Town Hall

Patti Pon: Okay. I think most of our folks are let in from the waiting room, so I’m gonna get started and welcome all of you to our final anti-racism town hall of the summer. For those of you who I haven’t met yet, my name is Patti Pon P-O-N. I have the great honour and privilege of being the CEO, President and CEO for Calgary Arts Development. And it’s just been a really, honour for us to be able to host these town halls. It’s just been an extraordinary learning journey for me personally, and it’s been really wonderful to see so many of you with us from our communities joining us for these town halls. So, we’re going to get started today.

We’re really excited to have some very special guests with us who will be doing a presentation around anti-racism and really are very appreciative of them sharing their knowledge and their experience with us today. So, as is our practice before we get started, we have some protocols and some general practices that we always start off with. And today I’d invite my teammate, Sara Bateman, to take us through those protocols. So, over to you, Sara.

Sara Bateman: Thank you Patti, and thank you everybody for joining us today. So I’m just going to go over some of the technical and protocols for our time together.

Marc is running this event for us today, so if you have any technical issues or questions, please privately chat with him. Just want to say thank you Marc for all your help this summer on the town halls.

We also have two ASL interpreters with us today, Kimberley and Janice. In order to ensure that both interpreters and speakers are actively visible throughout the event, I would ask you that if you’re not speaking, please turn your cameras off. You can click on the top menu of your video and select hide non-video participants and this will ensure that the speakers and the translators remain visible, either in a grid or speaker view. Janice and Kimberley will turn their cameras on and off as they switch. You can still pin a video to your main screen through the same menu. There will be a presentation shared at one point today, so you can use the menu on the top right to switch the presentation and the speaker screens and pin the interpreter as needed.

We are also using a transcription app called otter, or excuse me, otter.ai. You can click the red box at the top of the screen if you’d like to use it. Unfortunately, it is only in English for the time being and is not quite 100% accurate but can be used to follow along today’s conversations. We are recording this meeting for future reference and to be able to share it with those folks that can’t make it for this time. If you are using private chat, please be aware that when we download the recording, we might be able to see all chat including the private chat, so just keep that in mind. We will not share the private chats and any recordings we upload to our website, and we will release the recording, when we do release the recording, we will include an accurate transcript.

If you have joined us before, you’ll know that Calgary Arts Development uses group agreements to set shared expectations and a commitment to safety and bravery in the spaces we occupy together. Those agreements can be found in the instructions document that has just been posted in the chat. At our last town hall, the CommunityWise Anti-Racism Organizational Change working group also shared with us their accountable spaces guidelines and today we’d like to focus on those. You can find those guidelines, also in the instructions document and we will share the direct link to them.

I’m hoping this is the right one. Let me know if that doesn’t work.

So some of the highlights: We’re sharing the space. Be mindful of your speaking time. Make space for others to speak and avoid interrupting others.

Please keep your mics on mute when you’re not speaking, but feel free to share a reaction in the chat. If the moderator is open to questions at that time, please raise your hand in the chat.

Understand that individuals experience racism in different ways. Recognize that each experience and viewpoint is valid, even if they differ. Validate experiences rather than lecturing or giving advice. Consider that you do not need to agree with a perspective in order to understand it.

Speak for yourself. Use “I” language. Don’t speak for others and don’t share someone else’s stories or experiences.

Notice your own biases and judgments and avoid making assumptions about other people.

Examine your own privilege and be aware of the potential power dynamics that you might contribute to within a space.

Also recognize that we are in a place, we are all in a place of learning. If you say something problematic, apologize, listen to the voices of others, and then learn and adjust your behavior.

Be open to calling in harmful attitudes, as well as open to critical self-reflection. If an individual tells you that something you said was harmful to them, listen. Use these situations not to harass or call out, but as a learning experience.

And finally, take care of yourself, think of someone you trust whom you can debrief with and plan to contact them. It’s okay if you need to leave the room at any time and facilitators, the facilitators, are available for follow up conversations.

In addition to these accountable spaces guidelines, I want to also state that we recognize that asking people to share in this space is a request that requires emotional labour and vulnerability. Calgary Arts Development commits to the promise that there will be no retribution against people for the stories and perspectives they share. And we ask that all participants commit to the same thing.

Any participants who use harmful or disrespectful language, or who are actively disregarding the group agreements will be asked to leave the town hall. If they choose not to leave, they will be removed.

Please privately chat with my colleague, Cherie, who will be supporting today’s town hall as an active bystander. If you feel uncomfortable, or unsafe, or see that participant, that a participant is using harmful or offensive language, Cherie’s your person to get in touch with. Cherie, can you introduce yourself right now so people can find your screen.

Cherie McMaster: Hello everyone. Thanks so much for joining us today. I’m Cherie. As Sara stated, if you have any questions or issues during the meeting, please feel free to reach out to me.

I’m just going to share a little bit of information here about what a bystander is and the bystander effect. Essentially, if you feel uncomfortable, or unsafe, or see that a participant is using harmful or offensive language, please do let us know. I’ll be watching the chat as well. The term bystander effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people that are present, the less likely people are to help the person in distress. And there’s a number of reasons why this can occur but one of the key observations is that the behavior of others often strengthens the bystander effect if they remain passive.

However if others exhibited active reactions, the bystander effect may be reduced. And therefore, an individual is more likely to help someone if someone else has initiated action. So the active bystander is the person who witnesses an emergency, or power-based violence, they recognize it as such and they take it upon themselves to do something about it. There’s specific methods that can be utilized to help de-escalate a situation and reduce harm. And as a bystander, we need to be especially vigilant and aware of what disrespect, harassment, racism and hate violence look like in order to be able to stand up and intervene when people need it the most. So please chat privately with me if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. If you feel that anyone that’s on the call today is not upholding the group agreements, or the accountable spaces guidelines are not being respected, then part of my role today as the active bystander is to help ensure that we’re collectively, collectively adhering to these group agreements.

As it has been mentioned, participants who break those agreements will be contacted directly by me and, if necessary, they will be removed from the discussion. So that is the role of the active bystander and I look forward to hearing everything that’s going on today. Thanks for being here.

Sara Bateman: Thanks. Thank you, Cherie. We will be opening the floor for questions after invited guests share their thoughts with us and we hope to hear from as many of you as possible today. If you would like to speak, please open the participants list at the bottom of your screen. At the bottom of the list, you’ll see ‘raise hand.’ You can also indicate that you would like to share within the chat. When you speak, please state your name clearly and pause before speaking so people have time to find your screen. If your Zoom username is different than the name you’ll introduce yourself by, please use the menu function to update your name, so it’s easier to find you. You can use the three dot menu on your screen to update your name and share your pronouns if you wish. My colleague, Lesley, will be collecting questions from the chat box and watching for raised hands. We’ll try to get to as many people and questions as possible in this short time. And again, if you have any questions or challenges with technology or accessibility, please privately chat with Marc. And I’m just going to turn it over to my colleague, Sable, if she’s on the line for our land acknowledgement.

Sable Sweetgrass: Hi.

Sara Bateman: Sable over to you. Thanks.

Sable Sweetgrass: Oki everyone. Welcome to the town hall today. I want to acknowledge that we are here, most of us are here on the land of Treaty 7 here in Southern Alberta. This is the territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani, as well as the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Stoney-Nakoda people, that’s Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley, which are west of Calgary.

And I just wanted to mention that we’re coming up to the 143rd anniversary of the signing of Treaty 7 this September. And we were originally going to be having a showcase of Indigenous artists who applied to CADA’s 2019 Original People’s Investment Program, but unfortunately because of the pandemic we had to cancel that showcase. But we are actually going to be featuring the work, or sorry the profiles of five different artists, Indigenous artists on the week of September 22.

And I was really lucky yesterday to go out to Tsuut’ina nation to interview two amazing artists, a mother and son by the name of Glenna Cardinal, and her son, Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse. Seth is a filmmaker and graduated from the, I still have them in my mind as ACAD— Alberta University of the Arts—is what they changed their name to—and he recently graduated, I think it was last year. And his mother, Glenna, has had a show exhibition in the, with the Esker Foundation, and I think TRUCK gallery as well.

And so yeah I got to spend some time out in Tsuut’ina with them yesterday, it was a beautiful, beautiful day. And the people that were, the crew that was filming the interview were the Stoney-Nakoda audio visual club. So, we had me, a Blackfoot—the Stoney-Nakoda audio visual club and Seth from the Tsuut’ina Nation.

And it was just, it just felt really great to have this collaboration of Treaty 7 First Nation people coming together. It doesn’t happen too often these days because of the pandemic, but it felt really good to be out there on the land with them. And I really look forward to this coming September when we can, when we can show everyone the work that these amazing artists have done in 2019 and looking forward to 2021 when hopefully we can have an actual showcase of the Indigenous artists’ work. So, thank you. And I also want to acknowledge that we also have other many many First Nations and Metis people that also share this land here in Calgary Mohkinstsis. So thank you.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much, Sable, and thanks to Sara and Cherie for walking us through some of our technical considerations as well as our practices.

Again, if you are, if you open up the participants list, you’ll see that many of us from Calgary Arts Development have preceded our name with CADA. So if there are any other particular questions that you might have, you can sort of scoot up to the top of the participants list and and and a good number of us are listed there.

Sable is, it’s always a real treat to hear Sable give the land acknowledgement. Because she also includes a learning whether in this case it’s about the OPIP showcase, and some of the extraordinary artists that she’s had the opportunity to to meet and work with and interview, or reminders of the signing of Treaty 7 and the anniversary.

This past weekend I had the great gift of attending a performance outside. And it was just an extraordinary restorative time, like since March, I think that was the first real, it was the first arts event I’ve been able to attend in person. And it just reminded me of how much I miss everybody. And also, getting to be outside on the land and seeing the work of these artists experiencing that work outside really reminded me of everything that Sable has taught me over the many times I’ve had a chance to hear from her and listen and learn from her about the relationship that the original people of this place have to their ancestral home, and then subsequently the relationships all of us bring to that space outside as well. It was an extraordinarily restorative time. And so, again, many thanks, Sable, for reminding me of that today.

So, as I said earlier, we have two really special guests with us today. They are advisory group members from the Anti-Racist Organizational Change. Some of you may know the acronym, AROC, and perhaps have taken part in some of the online resources and tools that they have available. This is, the AROC project is available through CommunityWise Resource Centre. Tyson Bankert, also a member of the Black Caucus, and Jaqs Gallos Aquines will talk about the distinction of allyship versus accompliceshi. For some of you who were with us at our last town hall a couple of weeks ago, we started to touch on that a bit and community care.

The Black Caucus is a group out of the CommunityWise Resource Centre that provides a space for Black anti-racism organizers and facilitators to work together, develop resources and host trainings on addressing anti-Black racism.

So I’m going to tell you a little bit about Tyson, and Jaqs.

Tyson Bankert is a community developer and facilitation nerd who has found a niche at the junction of building the capacity for community and justice. His personal slogan is “Edify others, befriend the lonely and promote justice.”

Jaqs Gallos Aquines is an anti-racism facilitator and community organizer, who has recently designed an anti-racism forum for the FilipineX Diaspora in Canada, through Bahaghari, a grassroots org they cofounded. Much of their work, including their podcast, book to be published by Anak Winnipeg next month, and writing projects are centered on race, culture, identity and diaspora in pursuit of justice, liberation, and joy.

So I’d like to hand it over to Tyson, and Jaqs. Welcome and thank you for being with us today,

Tyson Bankert: Hi everyone. Thanks so much for joining up. I’m going to be sharing my screen today, so there’ll be a presentation that will last roughly about an hour and maybe 20 minutes. So, but we, Jaqs and I do aim to try and make it as interactive as possible with some things that I think will help to encourage and inspire us to continue to do some of this anti-racism work.

So I’m going to share my screen here. And I also just really want to thank Patti and the rest of CADA for allowing for this conversation to continue to keep happening on a regular basis. I think it’s incredibly important. And Sara and Cherie as well. They, those grounding those grounding agreements are really important to ensuring that anti-racism work, and sometimes the discomfort that folks might feel in this space to really guide us through that. So I really appreciate both of your points when it comes to creating a safe space to have this conversation as well.

So I just want to make sure everyone can see this as I figure out how to increase it as well.

Jaqs, is there anything that you would like to say before we get started?

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yeah. I just also wanted to thank Sable for the land acknowledgement, and Sara and Patti for introducing us as well. And I do want to just give an acknowledgement for ourselves as well as we are new to the space together. I just wanted to just say that.

Like, I guess, the land acknowledgement isn’t it like, an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory we reside on, and a way of honoring the First Nations people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. It is important to understand the long-standing history that has brought us to reside here on the land, and to seek to understand our place within that history. Land acknowledgments do not exist in the past tense, or historical context, colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation, acknowledging the land is Indigenous protocol.

The Blackfoot, Dene, and Stoney people have been here long before Alberta and Canada were established. The languages, cultures, traditions, civil laws that the First Nations Metis and Indigenous precede colonization. Their history and this land predate under 150 years. So with that, we’d like to recognize the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, and Stoney Nakoda Nations, which include the Wesley, Bearspaw and Kentucky, as well as the Metis nation of Alberta region 3, and that was provided by Evansdale Old Woman from Siksika. Thanks!

Tyson Bankert: I’m sorry but I’m just, it’s decided to be a little bit slow with the Google Drive here on uploading, so I can show you the full screen in its entirety.

Um … Jaqs, if you wouldn’t mind if you want to…

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: You want me to share? Sure. No problem, I’ll share mine.

Tyson Bankert: And then I’ll be able to hopefully get this slide up here for everybody.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Do you want me to share mine?

Tyson Bankert: Sure if that works, if yours tends to work. Mine did work five minutes ago. So I’m not sure why it’s slowing down here.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Okay. Are you looking at my notes, or you’re looking at this?

Tyson Bankert: We’re looking at your notes, too.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So, okay, great. I will switch that really quickly. There.

Tyson Bankert: But your notes are great though so it’s great.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Thanks. Okay.

Tyson Bankert: Okay everyone, um, so thanks for giving us a couple of minutes there to get ourselves settled.

So for today, we will be talking about anti-racism, and specifically, or anti anti-racism as it relates to organizational change. And so we’ll talk a little bit more about how organizations can, can change with the framework of being anti-racist. And so how anti-r practice and frameworks can create a more equitable organization, and we’ll really talk about why that’s important. And I think in some of the work that I’ve been able to see from what CADA has been doing around, around creating more equitable relationships within the public art scene.

I think also it’s really important is this sense of community care that that is really required when we do anti-r work, because it really allows to ensure that the relationships and and potential harm that can be caused from people feeling, from I think even what, what Sara had said around the guide point, it can be a very traumatic sometimes, and but also very healing space to talk about racism, to talk about the impacts of race, and but really talking about the value of community care, and then also, about a shared language.

The shared language that I’m referring to is descriptions and words that we might hear like, for example, BIPOC and racialized. And so for everyone to be able to hear and listen what those words actually mean, so we’re on the same page. I think it’s very important when we, when we begin anti-r work as to what words we use and why we use them. And I also want to acknowledge the fact that within anti-r work there is or through anti-racism work, there’s a lot of spectrum of knowledge, so there’s folks who have been doing some of this work for a very long time within, within, especially within the art scene as well, and there’s folks who are just starting to learn. And so, I want to acknowledge that some of the shared language might be actually something that you use in your everyday conversation, but we still want to make sure that part of anti-r is being able to bring new folks into this work.

So if you wouldn’t mind, we’ll just switch the next slide there.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yes, so this is a, we are part of the Anti-Racism Organizational Organizational Change project in CommunityWise. CommunityWise is a building that was built in 1911 and which started out as the YWCA facility. In 2012, it became CommunityWise, after much petitioning by the groups to save the building. And now for the past four years, CommunityWise has been undergoing organizational change to introduce and implement the anti-racist framework that was developed with the group that Tyson and I were both part of.

It was first a larger working group and then also the advisory group made of, comprised of BIPOC folks doing work in the city. So if you’re, and then, that is an ongoing process that they’re still undergoing, and if you’re interested in adopting or developing an anti-racist organizational change framework for your organization, please contact AROC. Thulasy Lettner is the equity coordinator over at CommunityWise.

And this is the organizational change onion that you would examine every layer through with the work that we would do. So I don’t know if you can read that, this onion is a bit hard to read sometimes, but from out, from the outside in it’s external communications programs and work with communities, built environment, and then in the next layer inside is human resources, and then hiring recruitment and selection, and then finance and fund development, and then monitoring, evaluation, and accountability. And the next layer is governance, and then the inside is theory of change and strategy, as well as vision, mission and purpose. And the identity and culture and values are determined by, of course, how leadership plays out, the values within the organization itself. And we’ll be getting a little deeper into that later on.

Tyson Bankert: Thanks, Jaqs, for that. I have a tiny little dog that we, that likes to talk once in a while about anti-racism, but she will hopefully settle down a little bit here.

I also want to just talk about a note of discomfort here. So the key to moving forward is what we do with our discomfort, we can use it as a door out, blame the messenger and just disregard the message, or we can use as a door in by asking, why does this unsettle me? What could it mean for me if this were true? I think what’s what’s important about this is, as we, as I mentioned prior when we look at that onion and look at all the various components to an organization, we start to really identify that it’s going to ask for us to be uncomfortable to make some changes, if that if that’s something that you you as an organization want to proceed on. And I think the value of that is why does it unsettle me. Why does this make, Why is this asking this change is asking me to to rethink how I’ve been doing something? Maybe it’s my, my program I’ve been running for several years. Maybe it’s the way that we go, we go, we think about fund, about fund development, or even our mission statement as an organization. So hold on to that discomfort as we go through this. And and if you are someone who journals, maybe write some of that work down as things come up as we go through this.

Alright, so, organizational change is about reviewing and modifying management structures and procedures. For example, making changes to policy, hiring practices, and governance. So that’s really, so that is that is sort of is the typical change when we refer to organizational change and and the work that that I’ve been involved in at CommunityWise was looking at CommunityWise saying we know something needs to change, and we want it, we want to do it equitably, so we have to go through, s we have to re-think about it through an anti-racist lens, which is where anti-racist organizational change comes into play. So, it, organizational, or anti-racist organizational change is what making those changes in a way that intentionally addresses organizational racism and creates greater diversity, inclusion and equity.

And I think what’s important when we talk about racism is there’s this grounding assumption that we use when we facilitate with groups is that is like a fog. Honestly that racism is something that exists around us in that, in that it does impede on a lot of the same fabrics that are in within an organization when it comes to the onion, but also in our interpersonal lives and, and in our systems, in and out of the public art scene. So sometimes so this granting assumption is sometimes it is so thick it is visible. Other times it is less apparent but always day in, day out, we are breathing it in—Dr. Beverly Tom who has some really great content as well.

The discomfort I want to refer back to is we’re going to be bringing up some terms like I mentioned about shared language. And one of the things that we do as a facilitator that I do when, when I go into a specific organization is to, we do a thing called racial caucusing which is basically asking folks of colour, racialized folks to, and also those who are who are white passing, and we’ll and we’ll talk about those terms as well. And then we also will separate folks who identify as white in the group, and this and this actually allows for some deeper conversations around anti-racism and its impacts.

However, there’s about 81 people on this call and it’s Zoom, so we won’t be doing that. But one of the ways that I want to encourage an example of this sort of discomfort that happens from that is by actually asking those in our chat here to be brave, take, take a bit of a risk and, and help us with some of our definitions that we’re bringing up. So as we go through there’ll be select different definitions. And if you feel comfortable to do so, to describe said definitions for us. I think it’d be really important to just sort of help to peel back some of the layers of, not just the layers that and barriers that we put up when it comes to organizational change.

So that’s something that as an activity that we’ll be doing throughout this process. And so, please if that is something that you feel like you need to do, or would like to do, by all means we are very open to that.

And we will move on ahead with the emergent process.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So with the anti-racist framework, it is not something that is a fixed strategy. It is evolving as we move forward. So, an emergent process is a process of change that involves nonlinear abrupt phase transitions as systems, overall structure and function is transformed into a new regime of behaviour, exhibiting new properties that could not have been predicted to arise prior to the transformation. In other words, change transforms an entire organization into something new and different.

Because the organization is complex and changes so deeply, it’s difficult to predict exactly what changes will take place. If many of you have already heard about, us speak about Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy. This is very much the basis of emergent process. I highly recommend we all recommend checking out, reading it. It guides you in the process of your anti-racist framework, as well as your community building, because this is an evolving process that we have to be very sensitive to dynamically responding to the needs of community, as opposed to just sticking to a strategy from the beginning to the end of your two year, or five-year plan.

So this is a description of, I guess a visual of how it would look like. You have your intended strategy, and then you have unrealized strategy, oops, sorry, and, and then deliberate strategy and realized strategy. So the emergent strategy at the bottom there as you can see is something that will come up, as you’re moving along your, the work that you’re doing. And just, you will incorporate it into, like, your policies, your governance, new ways of, I guess reacting to different situations that may arise as you move forward.

Tyson Bankert: So this is an opportunity for folks who, who would like to talk a little bit about,speak about what they understand these definitions are. And, and like I said there isn’t necessarily, there, there aren’t we, we’re open to to ensuring that we’re creating a space where people can come to learning and and calling and this component of of ensuring that folks who maybe, who are really well-versed in sort of what these terms are or not. We do want to ensure that people are kind of on the same language as well. So, anyone who’d like to take a crack at racialized? And this could be for someone who identifies as racialized or, or white.

Also, you do not have to have your video on either.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Do you want to read out what’s in the chat?

Tyson Bankert: Yeah, so I see that so Patti had said it is someone who identifies as a person of colour. Um, yeah, I think that’s, that is that that is part of it. Yeah, for sure.

And if you’re going to Google that’s also fine as well. I’ll give it a few more moments and then we’ll, and then we’ll work our way our way down.

Patti Pon: It’s Patti here, I wasn’t quick enough to think about going to Google. I just typed something that came up at the top of my head.

Tyson Bankert: I appreciate that, Patti. Actually it’s great. I appreciate it. Thank you for leading in this.

Patti Pon: And also Tyson and Jaqs, I wonder, Is it alright if people have questions during their presentation that we invite folks to just type in the chat? And then you can either answer as you go along, or at least we’ll have a record of them for the end of the presentation. I suspect another question that people might have is, “Can they have a copy of the slides?” at the end of this. We are recording this event so that for those who cannot stay for the whole presentation, you’ll certainly be able to go back to the CADA website and find it.

Tyson Bankert: For sure. We definitely, we definitely invite questions as we’re working through some of them, they might be answered. But, by all means, of course, feel free we invite your questions as well.

And so I’ll go, if you Jaqs, if you don’t mind, putting into the next slide here. What is racialized? Now kind of…

Yeah, great. The process by which societies construct races as real given an equal in ways that matter to economical, political and social life. I think, for me personally, this is a term that I use, as, as a Black man to to identify with because I think oftentimes it is it really I think clarifies to me, the social construct of what it is to be racialized, of to be of of a person of race. Because it oftentimes for me, it speaks to the fact that I didn’t, in our world we live, we live in these in this framework. And so we actually have to. And it’s not always, it’s been put on us as people of colour versus something that being a non-racialized person, being being white hasn’t had the same connotation. And as it relates to the economical, political and social life of just who you are.

So, for example, right now when we talk about Black Lives Matter, whether or not I’m someone who agrees with the cause, which I most definitely do, my body as a Black man is still very politicized and so it’s racialized in within that lens. Would anyone like to do Indigenous? And by all means, if you have questions about that, we will be able to address some of that as we go through.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: That’s a great definition. Thank you, Cesar. Being imbued by characteristics, based on race, the colour of one’s skin.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah.

And this is what it looks like… thank you. Thanks Johanne.

Yeah.

Yeah, 100%, and, and I think and there’s that. And I think it just means, can, after colonization can mean very many different things, but that but that root of depending on where on the historical context of that. And I think in Canada, you know of course we have had a system of oppression when it comes to those who came here before us as settlers through residential schools and Sixties Scoop and the various other myriad ways that colonization has set up for Canada to oppress Indigenous folks here in Canada.

But anyone else that would like to add to that? because there’s a nuance to every, to all of these definitions.

Great.

Jaqs, you want to click that button there?

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yeah.

Tyson Bankert: Great. Yeah, so the term Indigenous includes those that identify as First Nations, Metis, or anyway. The term also acknowledges the international legal rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which includes status and non status Indigenous folks as well.

Alright, and so I mentioned white passing so when we talk about the the caucus, and something that came up when we were initially, a few years ago when we started the practice at CommunityWise was, was the definition of what you think you, was what does it mean to be a person, a white passing person, individual, when it came to, you know, should they go into our, our white caucus that we’re holding, or our racialized Indigenous caucus as well. And so that was something where we were like, oh, that’s, that’s that emergent process that’s happening, as we’re going through anyone, where, where does this person feel like they belong emotionally, but also what sort of privileges have they had in-built. So I’m just wondering if anyone would like to add to that to what white passing means.

Completely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s that’s usually the outcome yeah.

Yeah I think, an example of this for me is, is white passing as I do, I have family members who are, who are seen as white. And so, with that comes certain privileges, comes a certain level of, of having to code, and not being seen as racialized, even though they actually are in certain ways as well, so that would be the one of the ways to define white passing.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: And, not really. The term model minority is reference to certain immigration policies that have selected highly credentialed immigrants to come to immigrate to North America with a high level of education. And they are often determined as the model minority, because it’s this idea of that this demographic works really hard. And instead of, and it’s supposed to pit minorities, or racialized people against each other. Instead of understanding that, it’s the way that immigration policies determined how people were set up when they got here. Of course immigration policies have changed as well, where people have been de-credentialed from their education levels, and had to start over again in many cases.

Pam says, “White passing is very much committed to assumptions made on physical attributes based on colour of skin.”

Tyson Bankert: Right, So what so what do we got here.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: That’s a pretty short and sweet definition. Yes.

Tyson Bankert: I don’t know. Jaqs, did it actually click through the definition. Oh wait.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Oh, looking at them.

Tyson Bankert: Thank you, folks who are coded and perceived as white. All right, we got two more and then we’ll we’ll, we’ll continue on with getting more uncomfortable. All right.

Great. BIPOC. It really just the acronym, honestly, for those of you who are interested in.

Thanks Pam. Yeah.

I’ll be honest with you, it seems like that that’s an easy one. And it might be for some folks but it’s actually something it’s actually a term that’s that’s been used for a long time, but only in the last, honestly, 10, 10 months have I, I’ve been seeing it in the media, and I think I want to add to that as well that it, the way that I’ve understood, I understand it is also within the lens of justice. So it is very much centered around, who the unjust system as it relates to BIPOC. And so, yeah, just sort of I think I’ve heard it referred to just people just casually. But when I think when we need to kind of talk about it also within the lens of justice. But yes, Black, Indigenous and people of colour, and the reason why Black and Indigenous are are outside of that is because of, of the injustices that are explicitly being done to Black and, and Indigenous.

And then anti-Black is our last one here.

I think it was talked about the last session as well. Yeah, great yeah it was talked about last week, and I think that yeah, exactly. I think it’s the, you know, I say the hatred of Black, of the colour black and who and what that represents for folks. I think it’s something that Black, Blackness as a, is of course a construct, but also it’s something that is that is in every community and culture.

And when it comes to those who are darker tend to have more oppression against them. And we can see this and even in other communities when it comes to, you know, light skin versus dark skin. Skin whitening—this idea that being too dark, or dark is bad. And so, and then the systems that are created to ensure that that happens.

Yeah. And, yeah.

Go ahead, Jaqs.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yeah, I’m just gonna speak from like the Filipino, Filipinex context is that we have a very deeply seated anti-Back sentiment towards our own people of within the Filipino diaspora, because, like, it’s always said, when you’re growing up, don’t ever go to the into the sun. And skin whitening products are a very booming industry in the Philippines. You can’t buy bar of soap there without skin whitening products, unless it’s Dove or Ivory.

Tyson Bankert: Great. Um, thank you for the… Thank you.

All right, we will go into sort of, and I appreciate everyone for taking the time to do this because I think what really is important is that it’s a learning curve. It’s something that folks that we’re not used to understanding and learning about. Sometimes, we understand the headlines about what we read. There’s actually, so it is these terms are very even, even nuanced in the definitions of how one might understand them and experience them as well. And so, I think it’s just really important to begin to sort of build that shared language as we move forward. So we’ll I’ll kind of chat for the next little 10 minutes here about what is and what isn’t anti-racism, and then we’ll head into the onion and talk a few components of the onion as it relates to creating a more anti-racist organization, and then we will talk about community of care.

Alright so equity. Equity is an integral part to anti-racism. I’ve listened to lots of the various town halls and it’s really became apparent to me the importance of equity as it relates to CADA and their, and what that looks like moving forward. And so I encourage those folks who think yeah I want to begin establishing equity, I want to begin to understand what it looks like. And I get it. And lately as over the course of the summer there’s folks within the Black Caucus and at AROC, have you know been interested or getting a lot of phone calls from folks who are like, yeah, I want to learn about anti-Blackness.

And I want to learn about, you know, historical oppression and colonization. But then we have some folks who just want to learn about equity. And although that’s great, something great to strive for. As I mentioned equity still can be still within the organizational change column, and anti-racism, though, is actually will actually get you the equity that you’re actually seeking, you actually can’t do both. And so it’s really important when we talk about sort of learnings is to begin to incorporate and understand some of those definitions that we talked about, but the overall value of having an anti-racist, equitable structure.

So when we talk about anti-racism, anti-racism is ongoing. It’s a process. It’s ever evolving, even at CommunityWise, who took us on four and a half years ago, understood that is going to be an ongoing process. So,there is no end to it, which I know for some folks that might sound a little more exhausting but it is an ongoing process, which requires commitment to that work. And so consulting, so as I mentioned, anti-racism is an important component to creating an equitable organization because ultimately what equity means is understanding that there’s been systems and barriers put up. And a lot of these systems that we refer to have disenfranchised people of colour, racialized folks and Indigenous.

So part of being able to undo that system with an equitable lens is by consultation and that really looks at interacting and hearing the voices and the experiences of those who you’re trying to benefit because when we talk about anti-racism structures, we, we know that it will actually benefit those who who’ve been disenfranchised the most. And so that’s really important when we talk about the importance of anti-racism work is about also being consulting. So just to summarize this; anti-racism is equitable, is ongoing, and it requires consultation of Indigenous and racialized people.

And then, one of the things I also want to really talk about here is how to make anti-r more effective is actually looking at white supremacy, and the culture of whiteness. And so, there’s always, I’ve been hearing in the last few months, like what can I do, how can I help? There’s a sense of urgency that’s happening and it’s and I, and I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops, to some folks, is the value and importance of actually if we’re saying that equity is important, that means that there’s been an inequitable system. And so this inequitable system has marginalized people of colour and Indigenous folks, but also has been able to, white folks have been able to benefit from this system. And so, I, when it comes to making it more effective I actually think it’s really important to, for white folks in the room to also begin to take some to take accountability and understanding about what, how they’ve also been complicit or interacted with these with these forces. And so that’s a very important piece and I see Jaqs wanting to sort of chime in there.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Oh, I’m just reflecting on a note that was brought up asking, “Does it need to be to go beyond consulting and intentional and transformative actions?”

Absolutely. Equity is action. Anti-racism is action and dynamically responding to the needs of your community. Sorry. Consulting is only going to get you so far, unless you adopt the recommendations. Because we, as Tyson’s saying that we exist from all levels of organizational organizational structure, and even the funding models that we have in this nonprofit industrial complex, philanthropy is set up so that we are, we operate a certain way to white supremacy, and to this culture of whiteness. So without changing, without intentional transformative actions adopted, then, we’re just going to continue in the same flow of how things have been done in the status quo.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah. A great example of this, even just happened last night. As a Raptors fan, Fred Vanvleet was asked, “What are you going to do about the situation that happened in the US?” And he just point blank said, “Well what are you going to do to the white reporter?”

And I think ultimately what what’s, and there’s a lot of and when we talk about, and the reason for that, when we talk about that consultation piece, it’s very important to centre the voices of racialized, and Indigenous folks, but it’s also really important to look at how white supremacy and culture of whiteness has contributed to that to the frameworks that we that we are going to try to dismantle and and looking at anti-racism through, through its full holistic lens, not just from folks who are people who are who are racialized, but also understanding that whiteness and the culture of whiteness, and we’ll talk about what that definition is because there’s going to be a couple more points of that to this exercise that will help to consider that as a really important component when it comes to anti-racism work.

So oftentimes we hear about, you know, we want to make space, we want to make space for people of colour we want to be, we want to make this room bigger, oftentimes, to allow for that to happen. And this metaphorical room sometimes it actually requires white folks to actually step out of said room and create that space, rather than it’s just more of. I really appreciated what Ruby Lopez said about a month ago at the last town hall, which was she said we’ve been doing all this equitable work for, she mentioned an organization that she’d been working with for a while, for about actually a decade, and yet she had said the, the people in leadership were still the same, still look the same, the diversity and inclusion and the structure, they were looking for didn’t actually change the way the look of said organization. So I think it’s really important that it’s important to reflect back and look at individuals’ participation.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So we’ll just.

Tyson Bankert: Go ahead Jaqs.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Just even adding to what you’re saying Tyson about the reporter asking, “What are you going to do about it?” That reporter is probably feeling like he’s committing to some type of allyship in speaking on behalf of that situation but really, that is a bit performative in that he, you see that he’s not really doing anything, but to ask that question is one part, and then to act on it is actual actually being an accomplice.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah, and we’ll talk about that, the value of that difference in being ally and accompliceship as well as we go forward.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: And you know that we don’t really talk about diversity and inclusion, because we want to see actual measurable accountable change happen in organizational structures. And the only way to move with that is with equity is the goal, and which is the removal of systemic barriers and with an anti-racist framework that actually can say racism is a thing that needs structures and policies in place, and a culture shift so that we can talk about it, talk about race.

Okay. I’m just gonna read these real quick.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah. Okay.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So, the definition of colonialism being a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. And chite supremacy being a racist ideology that is based upon the belief that chite people are superior in many ways to people of other races, and that therefore, white people should be dominant over other races. That’s by Layla Saad and I recommend reading her book, White Supremacy and Me. It is a workbook that you could do individually or as an organization. And the culture of whiteness is defined as white people do not have to explain their culture values, norms because they are part of the dominant culture that sets the norm. And it is anti-Blackness.

Tyson Bankert: I also want to just want to just mention what Cesar is asking, “What can an anti-racist organization do to be sustainable in an environment that is deeply racist?”

I think, sustainable I’m not sure, but it can most definitely exist. Because we like I exist here as a person who suffers from, you know, the racist oppression, some of the folks on this call do. I think, I think it’s worth ask the questions, worth asking. And I mean but I definitely think that it is that we all exist sort of in a deeply racist environment. And you’re right. There needs to be social change that needs to be that is an ongoing thing but I definitely think that there’s

the value and importance of ensuring that. That doesn’t mean that we stop, despite sort of the macro oppression that exists outside of it. And we’ll actually talk about that because I think that’s when we refer to that community of care, will really help to establish despite all of that, how do we continue to be, care for each other in the anti-racist environment, or well that too, in a racist environment.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Anti-racism isn’t gonna cure racism, like I don’t think as an individual, I’m going to ever see racism end in my lifetime, which, but to know that I’m doing anti-racism work to be able to talk about it, to be contributing to a culture that can speak to it is part of the work that can contribute to that cultural shift that social change that Cesar is reflecting on. I think I saw his hand go up.

Tyson Bankert: Does that mean he needs a video?

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: You could turn the video on.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah, go ahead Cesar. I’d like to see your face.

Cesar Cala: My point really, I agree with you that, you know, the work really needs to happen, even in an environment that is deeply problematic and deeply racist. My point is that the work internally in organizations needs to happen simultaneously with our outside organizations. Because sometimes what happens is people, and rightly so I guess is that people are very focused on making the most perfect anti-racist organization, and then not doing anything beyond that, working on the social kind of change work across the community. So and so that’s my point is really you cannot do the dichotomy between work within internal organizations and the work socially.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah. Keep it going. Yep totally hundred percent. Thanks.

So we will get into what is not anti-racism.

So we in the two slides before we talked about what is anti-racism, and it is equity, it’s ongoing, it is about consultation of those who you want to prop up and, and there’s and that also takes a very important look at white supremacy and cultural whiteness that that is contributing to racism as well. So, what is it not. And I think to Cesar’s point I think folks try to think about, yes, let’s be the most anti-racist organization that ever exists, and oftentimes they actually fall into all of these traps. And so I think it’s really important that we look at how these things attribute to an anti-racist organization, or how anti-racism work can really be stumbled by some of these things.

So tokenism, tokenism is this notion that well, if we just hire said Black person, said Indigenous person into this role that therefore then we will be, we are on our way to an anti-racist organization. We’re going to talk a little more about tokenism with a framework that has been developed and how it can actually cause a lot of isolation, further oppression and also a, and from my own own experience, the issue of having to play a certain role and not being able to come fully as you would like because of the tokenism, and it also unfortunately what ends up happening is because you are, I am I am Jaqs, they are who they are, I am who I am, and so, but oftentimes we, if organizations are taking a very tokenistic approach to anti-racism, it ends up being that I become the sole bearer of all Black men in my organization and interactions when really, that’s not the case. So that’s usually how tokenism operates.

And so, metrics of success. Metrics of success, really is looking at when we begin reevaluating and or when we begin to reevaluate how we want to go about anti-racism. We need to actually change how we believe and understand success. And so we’re going to talk a little bit about governance as a key barrier, our current structure of governance as a key barrier to how we understand what defines success. And so, yes. Static change.

I just want to just reach my notes here one, quickly here. Sorry.

As I assumed I already mentioned it, but it really is this idea that in order for change to happen we also need to, to maybe begin to create room for folks to be, feel that they’re included. I mentioned here the Ruby Lopez comment about the change and that sort of that static change. Nothing has actually changed despite the efforts about the racism. And so I urge you if you are already on the work of doing anti-racism, and it’s been a couple of years, although it’s ongoing, things should have changed in the, in the way, in the outcomes that you’re actually looking for. There should be some level of it and if it’s not, I think it’s really, are we operating in the anti-racist framework. And then ultimately then, are we being equitable?

So, this just comes back to the only diversity and inclusion and not really thinking about equity, as a really important part to this.

Jaqs, I don’t know. Sorry. Did you have something you want to add or?

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: It goes back to even the definition of BIPOC, how the term is Black, Indigenous and people of color and racialized folks, and the reason why it’s in that order is because the way to truly have an anti-racist framework, or to have an anti-racist space is an equitable is where you actually have you centre the voices and leadership of Black and Indigenous needs in your organization.

And Pam Tzeng pointed out this amazing account, Janaya Future Khan, on Instagram. She did a Sunday sermon Instagram story on June 14 if you can look it up. But she talks about how penguins in the Antarctic organize themselves by the needs of heat, by a resource that keeps them alive. And if you can picture a circle of penguins, the ones that are the warmest will just move to the outside, and those that are coldest will move to the centre.

And in our current society, the coldest those with the least resources, those with the greatest amount of systemic barriers are Black and Indigenous people. And if we were to do our community organizing structure, organizations with Black and Indigenous people in the middle, those are the folks that are most impacted by structural systemic oppression, they know exactly what they need. And then we, on the outside, can support them. If we have more resources, and then we just move. And then as the resources build out, then they move out. But the penguins move out. But we need to be more willing to give up space and move those who know what they need into the centre to centre our organizational structures, so that we have those voices speaking to their needs directly and creating the, the structures or programs that they need as opposed to just having them in tokenistic positions in short-term contract positions, fulfilling that diversity role. Well, we’ll get a little further on in that.

Tyson Bankert: I think in the last term, what it’s not as white saviourism. And that I think when you mentioned the penguin, I think oftentimes what happens and I’ve been in different organizations where, you know, they might be a white-serving organization. And by that, I mean a lot of nonprofits have a certain, selective demographic that they end up serving. And there might be, you know, different groups who are, who are also in that same space. And sometimes, the question is, oh well we’ll just create that program, or we’ll just do, or we’ll put more money to this and that actually ends up taking away from the groups who are, who are actually in their communities. And so I think sometimes, it’s also about maybe, maybe it’s about partnership, maybe it’s about giving that space that you, that people talk about, that groups talk about. But I think it’s really important that we also back that consultation piece. It’s about hearing and listening. What are the needs of those groups so that everyone can actually be warm. I’m taking that penguin scenario.

And so, yeah. Anyway, that’s just a few things to kind of keep in mind and these are all terms and ideas that you can begin to consider whether you’re already on this work of anti-racism and otherwise. And I think there will be, if really given the correct space that people of colour and the Indigenous folks in the room will tell you if these are kind of the benchmarks. So I do, I do urge you to listen to those voices, if ever it comes up where, oh, I’m not really sure if you’re meeting what anti-racism looks like. And like I say it’s ongoing and it’s uncomfortable as well. So we will move on to sort of a few pieces of the onion that Jaqs mentioned above. And so we’ll go through that.

So anti-racism in marketing. Yeah it is. It is not these things, and I think I’ve been part of organizations that have also fallen into this trap as well. So we saw back in June, about the black square and I call it just that the black square, and it really, and what that actually, and for those of you who may not know, there was a thing on Instagram that asked folks to urge folks to to indicate on their feeds of a black square. And so many, many, many organizations across even Calgary, from different, from businesses to non-profits, to influencers, brought that up to people’s attention. But what you start to see is that there’s no follow-up about what that work is and that sort of that difference between being, that’s this shallow form from an allyship.

And we also see here, putting a solidarity statement, and those I think are good, but then it’s really important to follow up with action of what you plan to do in the moment. I’m sure I’m part of some stock photo somewhere also as well. But then there’s this idea of stock photos being something as a form of diversity. And I think what’s really important is, is those are fine in and of themselves, but it, but those people do exist, whatever they might look like. So you might have, and being able to actually tell those stories. And marketing I think requires a level, it takes more time, anti-racism does take more time, because there’s not a structure in place to actually uphold this work.

And so it does take time, so it does take time to actually tell the story of what looks like a stock photo of that Black or Indigenous person doing the work that you do are in the picture, are you know, and it doesn’t mean to be all the time but it’s really important. I would even say, go as far to say that I think what happens here in these town halls we are in is that can be only effective if folks then take that on forward. And what that looks like, I think, is about creating accountability. And I think it’s really important that you know we said yeah we’re doing town halls, we’re, look at what we are, we’re showing, but then also being able to ensure that there is action and that action is only as accountable as folks, folks can do. So, and that that’s what, when we, when it comes to marketing as part of the onion of reframing how some of our organizations can perpetuate racism. So these are just some very, ways that do exist.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Another to add to stock photos. Often it can just be a branding representation of an idea of what diversity means when all the leadership of an entire staff mostly is comprised of white people, whether there are no racialized people on staff of, like, or paid staff, and only the racialized people are only in volunteer or contract positions.

Tyson Bankert: So what is…

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Also just. Sorry, just one more thing though. Even though like there was a lot of backlash about putting up the black square, and then, a lot of people started being, saying that they’re afraid of not saying anything at all. That’s what anti racism is, you try something, try something and you learn in the process, and even if you get you get messaging about, “Oh you did this wrong.” That’s still part of learning. And I think, Nicole Brewer, she’s an anti-racist facilitator from New York, talks about how you need to be able to speak in draft and not be afraid of doing something wrong, because this, it’s the expert model that white supremacy pushes out there to make us feel like we’re, we’re incompetent, like we can’t do anything, but you don’t have to be an expert to do it. You just need to try and that’s how your organization will develop that emergent strategy.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah, and I think and the consultation piece is so important, right, because you’ll, you’ll, you’ll never know if you’re not consulting and same with the definitions. You try it out, you practice it and understand it. And so that’s anyway.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yeah when something happens, I always asked like, who do we, who am I accountable to, who are the impacted communities I can check in with to find out like, what, and pay them to find out what are the next steps that our organization can take.

Tyson Bankert: I guess I already spoke to this, actually. I mentioned stories and I mentioned, what you, what, what actions you actually take. So we, so if there’s anything more to that, Jaqs, we could add, but otherwise we could probably move forward.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So anti-racism in governance is not top-down. And it is we’re going to say this on the next slide, but it is decentering power. There are ways of creating consensus based structures that don’t replicate this top-down hierarchy where only one person drives the ship. In Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Maree Brown reflects on how birds, like in that V-shape, take turns in leading, so that the lead bird is breaking like the aerodynamic force all the time and they get tired, so they switch. And that’s trusting your team, trusting the people you work with, knowing that they’re capable of taking the lead and making decisions, but that also takes relationship building. And anti-racism governance is not static, and, or, unable to adapt to new situations. So it is often developing policies or developing processes as you go.

I don’t know if you want to add anything to that, Tyson.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah, I would just like to add quickly that I think when I’ve gone to do facilitations around anti-racism with certain groups, the, one of the prerequisites is, is leadership there? Are the people who are able to make those decisions happen there to listen and understand what the people, their staff are saying about how they want to change. Then, it’s really important so we talked about that top-down approach. It’s very much, “Oh well, they just need to learn,” and it’s a little bit different from governance. But I think it plays a part in how decisions and how we, you know, we talk about equity, I mean equity then is everyone’s in the room, I mean more or less right and so that’s very important. But.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: But it’s also important to credit and acknowledge the labour that is due. I think many, we are not talking about intersectionality today. But we’ve talked about it many times like previous, like there’s a whole, you could just look up, but I never talked about intersectionality without crediting Kimberle Crenshaw from LA. She was a UCLA scholar, lawyer who shifted the entire culture around the intersection of race, class and gender. And if you just, to credit a Black scholar woman in that, in developing that term and that new lens is to speak to how much we need to learn about what she created. It’s not just a term to tack onto a mission statement or a document. There’s a great amount of responsibility that comes with being able to say that your organization has an intersectional lens in hiring, in governance, in the way that processes are played out. So it’s really important to understand, and credit those who develop certain terms and ideologies.

Okay. We are at 4:30pm.

Tyson Bankert: That’s all right. We’ll keep going for a little bit more.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Okay.

Patt Pon: Jaqs and Tyson, please do. I just wanted to let people know that we are recording the event, but what you’re offering here is awesome. Thanks.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Thank you. Also if you, just go back to the question that you’re asking, Patti, about the, the description of equity. I think there are some terms that I shared previously in one of the Chat and Chews, if that can be made accessible to people, it would be an addition to this recording as well.

So anti-racism governance, it is decentralized power, creating decision-making that involves inclusion, consensus and transparency. And yes, equity and anti-racism will require us to reconsider the method in which we make decisions. It should be the guiding, those should be the guiding lenses that we use, and goals. Anything you want to add in there. You want to add anything in there, Tyson?

Tyson Bankert: No.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Anti-racism in hiring practices is not a singular Black, Indigenous or racialized person in programming or contract positions, or only hiring BIPOC in a diversity officer role and nowhere else. There are often organizations that have diversity roles in, whether it’s like a diversity officer, and that one individual has to field every question that has anything to do with race, anything that has to do with anything that is, that is, like, even, I’ll just give an example like the info session for the grant. I don’t know if for the grant, the capacity building grant offered by the City, the one racialized woman was offered all the harder questions, or the questions that had anything to do with community. And I think that is a lot of extra labour for an individual who’s paid the same, if not less than everybody else.

Anti-racism in hiring practices is training staff in cultural humility, which I will talk about in a minute, and valuing lived experience as much as, if not more than institutional credentials. Lived experience speaks volumes when you’re talking about anti-racism, when you’re talking about equity, because I think privilege can offer certain, certain views that may not offer an entire scope. And it’s listing and an-anti racism hiring practices is listing a diversity clause with a commitment to anti-racism and job postings. And that just offers the, of course that’s all. I recommend not putting a diversity clause on your job postings until you’ve done most of the work that can develop a culture where a BIPOC person can feel welcome in that culture, and in your workspace, otherwise, you may be harming someone. Because, even though inclusion is about including people of diverse backgrounds into a space, that can often be monolithic. What are you inviting them into is the question. Is that a safe space for them? Do they have processes in place where they can actually report any situation of harassment or oppressive language or behaviour.

And so the depth what I was just reflecting to with cultural humility, it is the ability to maintain an interpersonal stance, that is, other oriented, or open to the other, in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the person. Cultural humility is different from other culturally-based training ideas ideals, because it focuses on self-humility, rather than achieving a state of knowledge or awareness. This is a term that was coined by Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia in 1998.

They are healthcare professionals from the Bay Area in California, and determined that organizations were not offering the right amount of cultural understanding for offering the cultural specific healthcare, or bedside manner to people, to individuals. And this is, I guess, again, playing against the idea of the expert model, where you can do a three-hour seminar on cultural competency and get a certificate and put that on your LinkedIn and be hired for jobs with diverse populations and sell the idea that you can navigate successfully.

But it is just like how I’ll never know Tyson fully and completely. It’s a relationship building process where I will get to know him every time I interact with him. It’s a, any, any different, any different group, I will only be able to get to know them better by as much time as I commit to learning more. So, these are the cultural humility principles, lifelong commitment to learning and critical self-reflection to desire to fix power imbalances within provider client dynamics, or leadership and stakeholder dynamics—three institutional accountability and mutual respectful partnership based on trust. So, these are all at the intersections of beliefs, attitudes, skills and knowledge, moving away from the idea again that you can be competent in someone’s culture, just by reading a book or doing even a six-month course.

Um, I guess I want to read this from Pam. Is that okay?

I’d like to share that I feel the work of anti-racism for white folks and arts communities is to disrupt white supremacy culture in their predominantly white organizations. White folks need to find courage and build their personal capacity to see and acknowledge and be accountable to the ways white supremacy transpires in their behaviours and ways of working through the myriad of relationships that they staff, community, partners, funders, etc. Take the necessary risks. To break white solidarity. To acknowledge harm done. Create accountability mechanisms if they do not already exist. To be attuned to the subtle and overt behaviors that are harmful to all, not all race, not just racialized but all equity seeking peoples.

That’s great.

Okay, I think this was also in Ruby and Brea’s presentation last week or last month. This is from Coco out of Montreal, “The problem of colour in the workplace.” And it really this diagram is to represent how to prevent a situation that tokenizes and isolates a person, and harms a person of colour. I yeah I’ll just take you through it really quickly, a person, a marginalized person, an equity-seeking person, a woman of colour enters the organization and white leadership sees it as like a honeymoon period where the woman of colour feels welcomed, needed and happy. And this is a tokenized hire where there was no preparation for staff, for leadership, or an organization to understand what it actually means, what type of responsibilities come in with hiring a person outside of the dominant culture, outside of white, the culture of whiteness.

And then, the reality sets in when the woman of colour points out issues within the organization. She tries to work within the organization structure and policies, and she pushes for accountability. And this causes repetitive injury and microaggressions. And then, the response is the organization desires, I think that is it says, like this oh denies, ignores and blames the responsibility of fixing the problem is placed on the woman of colour, and people of colour are pitted against each other. And then finally there’s retaliation where the organization decides that the woman of colour is the problem and targets her. The organization labels with conflict as a communication issue, or claims that she is not qualified or a good fit. And then the woman of colour exits the organization.

Yeah.

So, Adrian Rebrand from Origin Strategy says that, “We have to create futures in which everyone doesn’t have to be the same kind of person, that’s allowing for autonomous individual identities to share spaces, and that where we trust each other with our different perspectives,” and going back to what Tyson was saying that where we can show up and be fully be ourselves and not have to code our identities, when, according to what spaces we attend or present.

Tyson Bankert: I want to add as well that I think what’s really important is this notion that oh well, we do have diverse hires, we do have even diverse leadership, and I challenge that because I think oftentimes, and I’ve fallen into this trap as well, where you have to actually still behave, similar to what Pam is referring to here, within sort of the context of a white culture. And I don’t mean white people, I mean a culture of whiteness that requires and asks of you to, to, you know, be governed in a top-down approach to be, to be okay with being the only one there, the metrics of success are very much already in place, and that we’re not willing to adapt that, that to me is very much. So you have to still play sort of the zero sum game, so to speak. And despite what folks might, what your organization might tell you about how you need to, about how you’re doing very well, it does, it does still limit you in that.

And so we see this onion here. And there’s various different, different components. I also believe that leadership should be one of the layers. And so there is, I think when we talk about anti-racism, you know, these are the things that create racist organizations and an AR and anti-r really helps to unpack all of that, but it takes time. So, you know that external communications, it’s something that’s maybe an easy win, and maybe it’s something that you’re already thinking of. But then, to kind of continue to peel back all the different layers, and it’s ongoing and it can really transform your organization in this. And the reason for this session was to just sort of help to begin to, for organizations to understand if they want to be equitable to consider how, what equity looks like, and then also then be able to layer that onto anti-racism.

So we do want to go into the next part here, which is just sort of, which is community of care. So, if you are an organization that is already doing this process of anti-racism, what does that look like then to create a community, that is care, that is caring for one another, that is compassionate and is ultimately serving those within it? Well, so we’ll just go to the next section, next section here.

So I do want to talk about Pink Flamingo. We did get permission from Allison to talk about this. But really, we want to sort of use that as a case study, I guess, in terms of how community care is just as important as the anti-racism efforts that are happening.

So, community care is the approach an organization needs to have while developing anti-racist structures. And I also just want to implore that community care doesn’t mean it has to be organizations, this could be within your community and how to relate to one another. So this idea of acknowledging past harm, I think, is important because in the situation of Pink Flamingo, we have a BIPOC organization, putting up an anti-racist mural, essentially, right, and what we what we know is as a community of care, we’ll be able to to despite the harm that we know, we’re actually going to expose people to, because this is a reality, regardless of sort of, it’s back to Cesar’s point, the environment, the racism environment exists, regardless of how anti-acist an organization can become.

In order to change the, in order to change the social norms, we do have to go outside of that. We do have to begin to change that. But, so community of care acknowledges that, that there’s going to be retribution, there’s going to be potential harm, that that is going to be done. So I think that that’s number, step one of creating a community of care as it relates to anti-racism. You’re aware that racism does exist, therefore the work you’re going to do will be, will have backlash, just like we saw here in Calgary.

The next part here is humility. So, community of care requires folks to have a sense of humility. So there’s one component which is that you acknowledge the fact that there’s going to be harm. But then when it comes to how, like how can we take care of you, what you need from us, it’s also acknowledging the fact that you’re humble enough as whether it’s an organization, or as an individual, to understand how you also play into these hurtful dynamics.

Without that, it doesn’t, and what you’re responsible for, without that it really doesn’t, it’s really hard to then change the system that you are aware exists. And so we all, we all, most organizations tend to play this as we want to show solidarity, but we aren’t also able to acknowledge how we also screw up, and play a part in this, so that’s that’s another part of that community care. So it’s, you know, we’re going to put you out there. And we also know that it is dynamic, but it is really important. And then here this influence, the influence is what can you do. So, it is looking at what is within your area of influence and, and sphere of change that you can then begin to enact. So, these are kind of layers in that regard but it’s acknowledging the harm that will exist that will happen, acknowledging how you contribute to said harm, and then also, then being able to go, what can I do to change it?

And so, so community of care looks at that as a way to approach the kind of culture that we’re actually looking for because we can’t, we can’t necessarily change because white supremacy is large, it’s very much impactful. And so, we need to be able to create the kind of a culture we want to see, and that’s why I really hold each other accountable, as well in this community of care as a theme. And the outcome of community of care is a space where those who are feeling impacted by racism find refuge and safety. And because we, it’s not a guarantee that racism will never happen because that’s not the outcome, the goal is, the goal is to be able to be in a space where you can be heard and find healing.

So, and just to kind of reflect. Sorry, just to kind of reflect back on the Pink Flamingo situation is that it is, that when we talk about oh how can we support, how can we find influence, create, create influence, it’s looking at that situation going, how is, as an organization in the public, in the sphere of public art, contribute to, to a community of care, they are part of our community. So what does that look like?

So what does showing up look like? I think it really does begin with this idea of gratitude and not to be, you know, just, it’s not about just being positive, it’s actually just about coming up with, it’s about being able to display sort of the gratitude and humility required. I think it’s different between self-care and community care. Self-care—we say yeah take some time to separate yourself from the situation, whatever that might be, sometimes, and it’s still very consumeristic, a very consumerist approach to it. And community care actually is the attitude of what can we do to support your self-care essentially is, I think, a way to look at it, calling in versus calling out.

So, we see problematic behaviour happen, problematic behaviour, and oftentimes, we say, let’s call it out let’s, let’s just, and this can happen internally and externally from an organization. But what does it look like to call people in, and we referenced that earlier Jaqs was saying it isn’t about, we’re all on this journey together. And so it is about being able to embrace folks when they make mistakes, and in that care that I’m speaking of and ensuring that there’s opportunity to actually repair the harm versus asking them to leave said group, if that’s what they don’t wish to do. They’re willing to make the attempts to repair that harm. And this goes back to canceling or quitting is not accountability and doesn’t produce a community of care.

So cancel culture, quitting, we’re not going to do it, another mural, we’re just gonna stop, we’re just going to, that doesn’t produce the kind of community of care required, but I will, there’s a caveat to this, which is, if the BIPOC person wants to quit, because it is hard, because it is challenging, it is disruptive, then, then let it be, so.

And, and then reframing what can I do to, here’s what I can do, if that’s what you need. I think oftentimes we will send a message often saying, “Yeah, what can I do to help?” And that sometimes takes more onus on the person who’s being impacted to then come up with ideas of how they might be able to help you. It’s not always so clear in the moment. And so the idea of here’s what I can do, or here’s what I can offer, I think, is so much more beneficial. And it’s much more straightforward. Because sometimes, what they need is not what you can actually provide anyway. So it’s very important to be able to know that.

Jaqs mentioned a lot about relationships. I think that’s super important is actually spending time with one another, that that cultural humility piece is so important, is getting to understand and know what people not only need, but how to actually serve them in a way that they like. And then, also trust, I think trust is always broken when harm is done. And so, whether it’s big or small is as knowing that there needs to be a process, but also knowing that that might take time and maybe it never will change, be fully repaired. But, um, you know, taking the Pink Flamingo as a demonstration. It’s really important about that.

So we do have a couple more. Yeah, go ahead to the next one there I think that’s you Jaqs.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Yeah, so, organization, as an active bystander is offering support.

Tyson Bankert: Oh, you want to answer to this is I think we often think of the bystander effect, similar to what Cherie mentioned as an individual, and I think organizations can also contribute to this as a whole and contribute to this dynamic as well, for folks who are kind of wondering what this is, where our ideas here is coming from.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: So, when you hear something, say something.

Going back to what Tyson was saying, asking, unless if there is an arrangement where the impacted person wants to have first say on what happens next. Then, that is when you give the responsibility to them to guide the process. But, for example, like organizations that are witnessing harm in the community, you can say something on, like, as an organization, like as a witness, not just simply watch something happen but actually contribute to a narrative that says, “No, I’m not going to tolerate racism in my community,” “No, I’m not going to tolerate racism in my arts community,” and say that you support a person who is in harm’s way.

Ask, listen and offer what you have. Again, that’s saying what Tyson was saying around offering what you can give in a space as opposed to waiting, and then as opposed to lecturing or offering unsolicited advice. And offer what you have without conditions. It’s not a time to give advice. It’s just time to support someone, and offer that solidarity with action.

Is there a comment I can’t see it because I…

Tyson Bankert: No. There’s not. Okay.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: And please do not put extra labour on BIPOC folks. This is part of asking the, the ask of when someone wants, if you can help them. It’s time to be brave and speak up just what Pam was saying around going against the grain of like the code of silence, and actually speaking up towards and against racism. And then this is an extra, this is extra labour on BIPOC folks is seeking validation for awareness, like, pointing out certain things to your BIPOC friends, when it yes, we do notice these things. And it doesn’t really help the process, like it, unless if you’re gonna do something about it. We don’t need to see it.

So, that is coming to an end here, where we just want to remind you that equity is removal of systemic barriers and being an accomplice takes action. Allyship definitely can get you more likes and gain social capital, but anti-racist accomplices, you might lose friends, you might lose, you might not be able to talk to some family members about something. But it is action that takes you to the level of being an accomplice.

Like, what are you, so I guess we want to ask this question. Like what are your commitments starting today that you’d like to share of anti-racist commitments, you put them in the chat and feel free to share them or put your hand up and we will, you can turn the mic on. Thanks everybody.

Tyson Bankert: All right. Yeah, thank you everyone for following along. I do appreciate everyone’s attention this afternoon. I did want to, I want to add the Jaqs’ two points about the bystander is like, I think it might change the way that your funding models, it might change who becomes on your board, or change your audience. You know it might change the way that you do the work. And so, that, and then, and all in the sake of equity actually, because it does mean that you will be better for it as an organization and the public that you serve will be better for it.

So, but I am interested to know if there’s any folks who want to be brave, or have thought about some commitments that they want to be able to do. And we’ll probably take maybe five, 10 minutes for that as it is five o’clock.

If it isn’t anything, that’s also… what is happening, so.

Patti Pon: Hi Tyson and Jaqs. Patti here. Thank you both very much. I think a lot of what you’ve shared with all of us was really great. And for those of you who haven’t had an opportunity to check out some of the AROC resources and tools on their website. You just got a really great grounding that some people are waiting until November or December to receive. So, you’ve had the benefit of some really wonderful expertise, and experience, and wisdom this afternoon and so for that, I’m very thankful to the two of you for taking this time.

We do have a few minutes and I would invite you and really encourage you to respond to the question that Jaqs and Tyson have posed about what are the things that you think you can do, or that you will do, having learned what you know, what you know. I I love that term cultural humility. I heard it for the first time a week or so ago, and I’ve been thinking a lot about that.

And speaking as me, when you put the slide up about the problem woman of colour, I know what it is to live that. And so when you live in that slide, and then the thought of being, having more humility. When I see others around me who don’t have some of the options that I live with, is really hard. And so for those of you who do live in a dominant culture, I’d invite you to consider what those, what it is to show humility to be self-aware that would be one observation, it’s not an action I’m going to do, but I’d certainly invite you to consider that.

I’d open this up to any members of the CADA team as well. We’ve had the great benefit of working with people from AROC in the past. That onion diagram is very resonant to me.

And scanning. I’m scanning. Give it another minute or so and if we’re all feeling okay or maybe just want to be sitting with this. I’m checking the questions doc. Nope

Tyson Bankert: I think actually something that I, I’ve learned honestly, and it’s been reiterated to me, not only from this session but to, in future sessions I believe honestly isn’t able to actually, is to look at how as to… I’ve been on the, on the other end of certain sessions where it is, myself, or other people of colour, talking about their experiences, talking about their impact, the impact of of an, of structures that are in place that are impacting them, and whether that’s through a service model, whether that’s through project management, whether you know the barriers that are faced, and it often is and it often continues to ask of people of colour to do the labour to convince those in power what needs to change.

And that comes back to that consultation piece and I so for me, I think it’s also really important to, as I move forward to begin to create, to expose and explore how the culture of whiteness and it’s just really from white folks in the room to begin to look at how they understand their impact, how they are impacting a certain structure, or what they do to plan to do things to change. Moving forward, I think that that’s ultimately where sometimes the conversation needs to actually lend itself.

So that’s something that I’m going to commit to moving forward is ensuring that that space, that accountability is, is there within that, within those conversations as well. And in here today, I think, you know, given such a small time and different dynamic than what I’m used to, I think it’s really important. So hopefully for those who are listening can also take that away as well.

But I think, I, but I will say yeah I think. Thanks Jane for your comment.

Patti Pon: Okay. Well, I think.

Yeah. Oh, thank you, Jane. That’s awesome.

So we are just after five o’clock. So, if I might, I think what we’ll do is wrap up our proceedings for today. I’m just gonna take a couple of minutes to talk about where we are and next steps. And then, and if you want to put something in the chat, please know we will include it in the transcript, unless you mark it private in which case we won’t, so that, again, you can come back to this proceeding as a resource for you in the future. A lot of those definitions that you had that were really great and I know I will be certainly going back to those.

So, again, many thanks, Jaqs and Tyson. Thank you so much. Thanks to the CADA team again for everything you’ve done here. As I said earlier, this is the last of our summer anti-racism town hall sessions. We’ve had five of them, which were incredible. We will keep those up on our website for people to refer back to.

Because I think there’s, you know, even today, lots of information to rest with, and that you may want to have some kind of response to later on and and in light of that, I wanted to let you know that we will be scheduling another town hall, an anti-racism town hall on September 30, so Wednesday, from three to five. And our plan for that session is to do a bit of a deeper dive and a reflection on the five town halls that we’ve hosted. It’s an opportunity if you watch any of the recordings, and if you want to come back and ask a question, or raise something, we’ll create space for that on September 30.

There were also you’ll remember if you joined us for the very first town hall, we started this as a way for the community to ask Calgary Arts Development questions about where we were at in our own work around anti-racism and around what we call equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. And I haven’t looked at that first town hall yet but I will, and I, but I feel really different, you know like, taking part in these town halls is not something you can unlearn, you can’t not acknowledge what has happened in the five town halls, or at least I can’t.

And so, it’s continued to help me understand and build how I think about our work here at Calgary Arts Development. So, the 30 will be a time where we do that deeper dive, and you’ll all receive a notification of that meeting by virtue of having registered. The registration link will be, oh, it’s actually already up and I’m copying it and I’m pasting it into the chat right now so if you want to register right now you’re welcome to. But again, we’ll be sending it out to everybody. So, check our website, we’ll have it in our newsletter. If there are thoughts or questions that you have from today’s session, please feel free to send it to any one of us and we’ll do our best to try and direct it to Tyson, or Jaqs.

Tyson, you have a question or comment?

Tyson Bankert: No. I do actually. Sorry. Pam also would like to just bring up a comment as well but that’s

Patti Pon: Okay, great.

Tyson Bankert: Yeah. Sorry I didn’t mean to, your September 30 I think it’s great. But Pam, if you want to go ahead, I noticed that your hand was up and so.

Pam Tzeng: Thanks for flagging that. I kind of hesitated on sharing but I guess, reflecting in the brief moment that Patti was speaking I just thought, maybe this is a learning opportunity. Just like, as a racialized person who has been attending these town halls and really deeply cares about this work, and looking to, I may get a little bit emotional today. It’s one of those days, but looking to community and to see, to have hope that my white peers and colleagues and community, I think a lot of folks are tuning in, and I just still have to acknowledge and then not going to point anything bad, to acknowledge that as a racialized person to not see my peers, and I also know that everyone has their own capacity amidst everything and is trying to learn, but it’s disappointing to not see folks being able to make a public expression of their commitment.

What’s small or large whatever it be, it’s just, I think it’s just important to share that because I’ve been asking like what is it. And so my commitment is to continue trusting that people are doing the work behind the scenes, and that there’s genuine care. But I had, it’s, um, it feels like being a little bit in the dark. I don’t know how to go further with that, it’s still not a process, but I have a feeling of disappointment. And I just want to acknowledge that so that, because I think this, this might be experienced by other folks too who are really committed to being here, and who are grappling with something that they can’t escape from.

Thank you.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much, Pam.

Jaqs Gallon Aqines: Thanks for sharing that. Pam as well. If I just can add to that, it. If this is the first time for many of you to ever do anti-racist discussions, talk about white supremacy in the context, where it’s not just about the KKK or about Neo-Nazis and understand that we live in a white supremacist culture, then it might be difficult to to commit to something in this moment. I’m not making excuses. But I do hope that that, there, that that work between these and anti-racism town halls, between the Chat and Chews, between training that you do, builds that courage to say something and do something within your community because it’s more than just showing up at these events that will shift culture, and that make it easier. This is not easy work at all for BIPOC people, for white people, but it is harder for us to be able to move and shift anything if we can’t commit to it in between public-facing events.

Jaclyn Silbernagel: Can I add something?

Patti Pon: Absolutely. I’m not sure who that, who that is. Sorry, Jaclyn. Okay. Hi Jaclyn.

Jaclyn Silbernagel: Hi I just wanted to add to that, that I think for myself, I’m committed to showing it, so I hope for the people around me that I’m demonstrating the things that I’m saying that it’s not just words because for me personally words mean very little. Because it’s more in the action that takes place. And for me personally, I’ve been able to, a friend of mine started a group called, “Let’s talk about racism,” where we meet every two weeks to kind of discuss and have these things and so it’s been a very interesting community building exercise with different people that, that I’ve been able to have these conversations more regularly with a variety of different people that she is associated with.

And I just really appreciate these discussions. I think that they’re really important and I just to Pam’s point that the disappointment spans us all, I think, as we discuss these things and see them, it’s hard to sometimes for me personally to accept where people are in their journey, to not have people in my life see where things, how things that I see feel, I see very clearly, and that are demonstrated, and how they don’t see them at all. And, and so it is something that I’m learning of everyone’s, where they’re at, and I have to learn sometimes to meet them where they’re at in order to continue conversations around anti-racism. So, thank you.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much, Jaclyn for sharing that.

Do we see anybody else? I’m just looking for hands and I’m often not very good at noticing those things.

One thing as well that I’d like to mention, for those of you in the performing arts community, you may already be aware, but if not, there is an initiative currently being led by a group of BIPOC artists called 35/50. And it is a call to action for white-led organizations to commit to looking at your hiring structures and your representation within your organizations to meet 35% of your staff and board being a visible minority, and a minimum of 50% being women. And this group of artists has undertaken some herculean efforts to have a number of signatories, many of you who I know are on this call. Calgary Arts Development has received this letter and we are currently in the process of looking at it within our own organization. The first thing that prompted us to do was our own audit of our organization with regard to how people choose to self-identify, we didn’t want to make assumptions about whether or not you considered yourself a visible minority as an example, or a BIPOC person, or any other kind of identities. And so we wanted to know where we stood and as we have these conversations through our organizations, our intention certainly will be to support this initiative.

As many of you know with boards of directors and various leaderships, it’s a process for us to work through but I did want to just let everybody know about that initiative and if you’d like to learn more, you can certainly reach out to Calgary Arts Development and we can pass that information along. Pam I know, I don’t know if you’re comfortable, but Pam is one of those organizers and we can perhaps connect any of you to any of the organizers who have been engaged in this effort.

Okay, I’m checking the chats. I don’t see anything there.

So, I will end this call, and again, extend my thanks to all of you. I really appreciate you being with us today and through any of the sessions you’ve been a part of. The recording will go up in a couple of weeks along with the transcript.

Thanks again. Have a great rest of your Wednesday, and we’ll speak with you soon on September 30 if not before.

Bye. Thank you.

15:07:47 CADA Sara (She/her):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dl-nu5WL7CGs8IydB-N0ZssWuVlVXKOoxE1NL8U2SeE/edit?usp=sharing

15:08:11 CADA Sara (She/her): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ljg2UwGSse6rQWBKRZ9ILUIXvmdMvecW/view?usp=sharing

15:11:33 CADA Sara (She/her): The above links are both CADA’s Group Agreements and AROC’s Agreements

15:24:04 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Those are great introductions Tyson and Jac
s and Patti

15:27:57 Pamela Tzeng: Thanks you Sable, Patti, Jaqs + Tyson and big cada team!

15:37:12 Keri Mitchell: thank you! was happy to share the time this afternoon! I have to go to an appointment, but look forward to watching the recording. take good care, all!

15:37:49 CADA Patti Pon (she/her): Thank you and bye Keri!

15:42:55 CADA Patti Pon (she/her): Is it someone who identifies as a person of colour?

15:44:48 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): racialized – being imbued by characterizations based on race, the colour of one’s skin.

15:46:33 Johanne Deleeuw (she/her): People who lived on this land before colonization?

15:47:31 Nikki Loach (She/Her) Quest Theatre: Indigenous. Original to.. Like kids can be indigenous to technology.

15:48:22 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Indigenous with a capital “I”

15:48:46 Nikki Loach (She/Her) Quest Theatre: Ahh. Yes of course.

15:49:27 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): The conscious and unconscious striving to benefit from proximity to whiteness

15:50:17 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Does “model minority” relate to white passing?

15:51:36 Pam Tzeng (she/her): White-passing is very much attributed to assumptions made on physical attributes based on colour of your skin.

15:52:46 Pam Tzeng (she/her): Black Indigenous People of Colour

15:52:50 Olwen Bell: Black, Indigenous and People of Colour

15:54:15 Johanne Deleeuw (she/her): Systems, behaviours, etc, that are used to repress the humanity of black people

15:54:17 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Negation of the injustices done to Black people

15:54:17 Michele Gallant (she/her) – Calgary Fringe: Opposed to or hostile toward black people

15:54:54 Pam Tzeng (she/her): deeply seeded unconscious and conscious biases that lead to the oppression of Black peoples.

15:54:57 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Both conscious and unconscious?

16:01:23 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Does it need to go beyond consulting into intentional and transformative actions?

16:03:43 CADA Patti Pon (she/her): Question for later…has the image that went around for awhile with the kids looking over the fence at the baseball game to articulate equity need to change to present a visual image of anti-racism? I’ve seen one image where the wooden fence is replaced with a chain link fence so you don’t need to stand on anything to see the game..has the image changed further?

16:06:36 Cesar Cala (He/him/siya): Can an anti-racist organization be sustainable in an environment that is deeply racist? – so the ongoing work is really towards social change

16:19:25 Pam Tzeng (she/her): Here is the link to watch Janaya Future Khan’s Sunday Sermon: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbY19ABa54/?igshid=162swm5g6ih8x&fbclid=IwAR1YpBJ5ejjBJolGTo-Grt8cKejJCQbUO3OxPrThJV81yUUTEfS-oVKz3AY

16:28:52 Pam Tzeng (she/her): <3 thank you

16:29:55 CADA Patti Pon (she/her): Hi everyone, we are at 4:30 pm and I know that some of you may have to leave. We are recording this session and it will be uploaded to our website in a couple of weeks. This is such great learning I don’t want you to miss anything 😉 Thank you!!

16:30:49 CADA Patti Pon (she/her): Sure we will try to get that

16:31:14 Paul Muir: Great to hear. I do have to run to another meeting, but thank you for your time on this. Very valuable.

16:31:35 Pam Tzeng (she/her): I’d like to share that I feel the work of Anti-Racism for White folx in arts communities is to disrupt white supremacy culture in their predominantly white organizations. White folx need to find courage and build their personal capacity to see, acknowledge and be accountable to the ways white supremacy transpires in their behaviours and ways of working though the myriad os relationships they have (staff/community/partners/ funders, etc.). Take the necessary risk to break White solidarity. To acknowledge harm done. Create accountability mechanisms if they do not already exist. To be attuned to the subtle and overt behaviours that are harmful to all, not just racialized but all equity seeking peoples.

16:32:59 kamal sehgal: Thanks bundle look frward to the recording

16:41:14 Christopher Duthie: I have to run too. Thank you so much jaqs and Tyson! I look forward to the video.

16:52:32 Olwen Bell: I have to head out, thank you Jaqs and Tyson, I look forward to sharing with my team

16:54:55 Patti Neice (She/her): Thank you Tyson & Jaqs, I have to leave to start another meeting. I look forward to picking up here in the recording.

16:56:43 Maureen McNamee: Thank you, have to run, but this has been helpful.

16:57:04 JD Derbyshire: Thanks Tyson and Jaq

16:57:31 Nikki Loach (She/Her) Quest Theatre: Thank- you Tyson and Jaqs!

16:57:32 Johanne Deleeuw (she/her): Thank you Tyson & Jaqs – and CADA.

16:57:47 Pam Tzeng (she/her): Gratitude for sharing your knowledge and care Tyson and Jaqs!

16:58:16 CADA Sara (She/her): Thank you for your presentation.

17:02:06 Jane Perry (she/her): Actions: being brave to speak up, to being open to learning lots, and taking these new learnings back to the communities in which I work and helping them start to ask some questions of themselves/ourselves about how we can change and how we can do better. I’m grateful for my learnings today — thank you all.

17:04:18 jaqs (she/they): Thank you Patti, Sable, Sara, and CADA team

17:06:05 CADA Patti Pon (she/her):
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkf-Grrz0jH91Aep-G87X0SLFUf3flUjYm

17:06:28 Lanre Ajayi: Thank you

17:06:30 Jaclyn Silbernagel: Thanks everyone!

17:06:31 Michelle Brandenburg (she/her/hers): I have spent the summer really trying to reflect on the why things are the way we they are in our organization. The learning is immense, and inspiring. Internally we have been able to genuinely start some very challenging conversations to look inside our organization. Living in a dominate culture I have been really reflecting on cultural humility and how we can explore our organizational relationships in a non-transactional way and deepen our listening. We are committed to spending 20/21 exploring our systems of oppression and exploring ways we can make tomorrow better than today.

17:07:31 Natércia Napoleão: ❤️ you, Pam

17:12:26 Pam Tzeng (she/her): Thank you Jaclyn.

17:15:07 Pam Tzeng (she/her): An email to learn more about 35//50 initiative
3550yyc@gmail.com

17:15:21 (Evergreen Theatre) Christina Chase-Warrier: Thank you to CADA and all the speakers from the various town halls for these important learning, reflecting, growing and action opportunities.

Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC)/Black Caucus
communitywise.net/aroc

Group Agreements
docs.google.com

September 30, 2020, Anti Racism Town Hall registration
zoom.us

Janaya Future Khan’s Sunday Sermon
instagram.com