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Showing posts from July, 2020

Truth, reconciliation, and Canadian systemic racism

Prior to and during the pandemic, the issue of systemic racism has been extremely visible in Canada and elsewhere.  I felt it was time for me to continue my learning to become antiracist. For context and further reading, this month I've read the following: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality     White Fragility provides context for people where discussions of racism are new. I provided a review earlier , discussing the problem with the focus on individuals vs systems, and "racist = bad / not racist = good" simplistic binary thinking. I was born into a racist society, so even though I grew up oblivious to the concept of race, I absorbed racist ideas around me.  The only way for

My reading of "White Fragility"

I just finished reading White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo . My reading this isn't very novel, as many people have.  The book is aimed at people who are identified (by others, even if not by themselves) as "white".  While I recognize that race is a social construct, it is a social construct I was ignorant of growing up.  I have had the opportunity in recent decades to become more aware of race, and thus aware of my own participation in this society. I want to talk more about the concepts in the book, but there are a few issues that hold me back. I worry that any discussion will be seen as if it were "virtue signalling", given how popular the book has become in certain circles. Since the book uses different definitions of some terminology than how others use it, I feel like anything I say won't make sense to anyone who hasn't read the book or is otherwise aware of the language in this subject area. Ms. Diangelo discusses racism not in terms of a conscious