A Campfire Invitation for Us All
As a clinical therapist, I have had the privilege of walking alongside clients and others in my community during the tremendous upheaval and uncertainties brought about by COVID-19. So many have experienced profound losses and the toll of this pandemic on mental, physical and economic health is significant. And yet in the midst of all of this suffering, there are countless examples of friends and neighbours and organizations coming together in creative and generous ways to support one another, keep our communities healthy, and address some of the long-terms effects of this global crisis.
While discussion around COVID-19 and strategies of care for ourselves and our communities is important and vital work, at this point in history I am compelled to reflect on how profoundly our world has changed since we witnessed the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
His utterly senseless death and the glaring mistreatment of countless others because of institutionalized racism, white privilege and ideologies have broken my heart wide open. At many moments during these past weeks, I have felt overwhelmed by the accounts of needless suffering and compelled to continue the process of examining myself to identify the many blinders I have and the unearned privileges I enjoy.
Recently, my wife and I purchased a portable campfire with the intention to create a feeling of adventure in our backyard during this strange time of social distancing. Sitting around it in the evenings, enjoying the faces of my loved ones as we engage in dinner conversation and perfect the art of smore-making, has been a joy and gentle reprieve from the pressures of life right now. And when the kids have eventually grown restless and moved onto another activity, I’ve had the opportunity to sit quietly and reflect while staring at the mesmerizing flames.
When I consider sitting around a campfire as a metaphor for my life in community, I have come face-to-face with the hard reality that not all have been invited to sit with me and enjoy the dancing flames. As a white, heterosexual male the laws, systems and structures of our society have been created and upheld for my benefit at the staggering cost of countless others not positioned at the peak of this perverted triangle.
I cannot and must not any longer avoid confronting and addressing my own historical lens as well as interpretations of policies and religious doctrine that, in many instances, severely limit who sits at my campfire. I have realized, as Fr. Richard Rohr writes , that:
“Because [I] have never been on the other side, [I] largely do not recognize the structural access [I] enjoy, the trust [I] think [I] deserve, the assumption that [I] always belong and do not have to earn [my] belonging. All this [I] take for granted as normal. Only the outsider can spot these attitudes in [me]. [And we are quick to dismiss what is apparent to our neighbours who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [BIPOC] from their lived experience.]
Fr. Rohr continues:
“Of course, we all belong…Yet the ego believes the lie that there isn’t enough to go around and that for me to succeed or win, someone else must lose. And so we’ve greedily supported systems and governments that work to our own advantage at the expense of others, most often people of colour or any highly visible difference. The advancement of the white person was too often at the cost of other people not advancing at all. A minor history course should make that rather clear.”
With Fr. Rohr’s words in my mind I realize that I cannot be complicit in any form of racism, intolerance or bigotry.
I realize that I need to de-center my voice and listen with more care and intention to the lived experiences of others.
I realize that I must continue to educate myself by reading, listening to podcasts, watching videos and attending conferences.
I realize that I need to make room for more chairs around my campfire.
We can all agree that the only way to make lasting change is to start with the hard and necessary work of self-examination. As we each grapple with and process the events of these last weeks, let us consider how to move forward in a posture of peace and reconciliation.
The following links offer some resources for education for self-examination:
BOOKS
White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to “bad people” (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence.
These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism – and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types.
Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes listeners through a widening circle of antiracist ideas – from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities – that will help listeners see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter by David Chariandy
When a moment of quietly ignored bigotry prompted his three-year-old daughter to ask “what happened?” David Chariandy began wondering how to discuss with his children the politics of race. A decade later, in a newly heated era of both struggle and divisions, he writes a letter to his now thirteen-year-old daughter.
David is the son of Black and South Asian migrants from Trinidad, and he draws upon his personal and ancestral past, including the legacies of slavery, indenture, and immigration, as well as the experiences of growing up a visible minority within the land of one’s birth (Canada). In sharing with his daughter his own story, he hopes to help cultivate within her a sense of identity and responsibility that balances the painful truths of the past and present with hopeful possibilities for the future.
The Skin We’re In: A Year Of Black Resistance And Power By Desmond Cole
In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.
Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call By Arthur Manuel
Unsettling Canada is built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson. Both men have served as chiefs of their bands in the B.C. interior and both have gone on to establish important national and international reputations. But the differences between them are in many ways even more interesting. Arthur Manuel is one of the most forceful advocates for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada and comes from the activist wing of the movement. Grand Chief Ron Derrickson is one of the most successful Indigenous businessmen in the country.
Together the Secwepemc activist intellectual and the Syilx (Okanagan) businessman bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to Canada’s most glaring piece of unfinished business: the place of Indigenous peoples within the country‘s political and economic space. The story is told through Arthur’s voice but he traces both of their individual struggles against the colonialist and often racist structures that have been erected to keep Indigenous peoples in their place in Canada.
In the final chapters and in the Grand Chief’s afterword, they not only set out a plan for a new sustainable indigenous economy, but lay out a roadmap for getting there.
Inconvenient Indian by Thomas KingNeither a traditional nor all-encompassing history of First Nations people in North America, The Inconvenient Indian is a personal meditation on what it means to be “Indian.” Thomas King explores the relationship between Natives and non-Natives since the fifteenth century and examines the way that popular culture has shaped our notion of Indigenous identity, while also reflecting on his own complicated relationship with activism.
Policing Black Lives: State Violence In Canada From Slavery To The Present By Robyn Maynard
Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms, and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides listeners with the first comprehensive account of nearly 400 years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization, and punishment of black lives in Canada.
Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese
Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows. With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way.
For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.
Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit issues in Canada By Chelsea Vowel
In Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel initiates myriad conversations about the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. An advocate for Indigenous worldviews, the author discusses the fundamental issues the terminology of relationships; culture and identity; myth-busting; state violence; and land, learning, law and treaties along with wider social beliefs about these issues. She answers the questions that many people have on these topics to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community.
CHILDREN
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/coretta-scott-king-book-award-winners
Raising Race Conscious Children
Raising Race Conscious Children is a resource to support adults who are trying to talk about race with young children. The goals of these conversations are to dismantle the color-blind framework and prepare young people to work toward racial justice. Many of the blog’s posts are geared toward White people but a community of guest bloggers represent diverse backgrounds and the strategies discussed may be helpful for all.
http://www.raceconscious.org/
Books for Littles
Anti-racism for Kids 101: Starting to Talk About Race. Book collections, Family Action Toolkits and a number of other anti-racism resources for parents and caregivers.
Online:
- Follow @theconsciouskid on Instagram
This account offers parenting and education through a critical race lens. There are numerous resource lists offered here as well as tools to engage children of all ages.
ARTICLES
For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies By Courtney Ariel
‘This conversation should not be about blame’: Anti-racism educator responds to comments about race
Michael Cappello answers tough comments from CBC Saskatchewan phone-in show
Racism In Canada Is Ever-Present, But We Have A Long History Of Denial: It’s tempting for Canadians to fall back on the idea that we’re not as racist as Americans By Maija Kappler
5 Black Women Talk About Their Lives In Canada–Past, Present And Future: From history to healthcare, it’s frustratingly rare for Black women’s issues to get mainstream attention by Eternity Martis
The KKK has a history in Canada. And it can return: Canada is not immune to hate, and a look at the history of the Ku Klux Klan’s expansion efforts proves it By Christine Sismondo
Fractured Atlas
Resources for White people to learn and talk about race and racism. Manuals, articles, essays and more for individual, interpersonal and organizational learning.
ONLINE
The Next Question
A series of video interviews (40-60 minutes each) hosted by Austin Channing Brown (author of the book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness see above) and a couple of her friends.
https://vimeo.com/tnqshow?fbclid=IwAR3MfGGootXzqFsKY3SdY9rwChQo7mopKsY3vH28h4uu1xwMuhcq_sT7-fI
The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice – and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Why do Indigenous topics cause such emotional discomfort? By Pam Palmater
In her university-level classes, Pam Palmater often sees students cry, get angry, or surprised at the realities of racism in Canada. In this web series called “First Things First,” Palmater explains how to handle emotions in difficult conversations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtaqRVI-JAk&fbclid=IwAR2PjotTv_z0IjsG2miH85tUQ82YvvOZSttKkYNbV40ERhv1xENP_DQ7RgI
What non-Indigenous Canadians need to know
Eddy Robinson is an educator on Indigenous issues. In this web series called “First Things First,” Robinson explains why asking “How Can I Help?” is not the right question.
Residential Schools Podcast Series
Residential Schools is a three-part podcast series created by Historica Canada and hosted by Shaneen Robinson-Desjarlais. It aims to commemorate the history and legacy of residential schools, and honour the stories of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Survivors, their families, and communities. The series is part of a larger awareness campaign created by Historica Canada and funded by the Government of Canada. Along with the podcast, Historica also offers a video series, an education guide, and several new entries on The Canadian Encyclopedia about the history and legacy of residential schools.
Unmasking COVID racism: Asian Canadians describe hostility faced during pandemic
8 minute video from CBC Vancouver, Jun 4, 2020 – focused on recent anti-asian racism in Vancouver
Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’
University of Washington professor Dr. Robin DiAngelo reads from her book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” explains the phenomenon, and discusses how white people can develop their capacity to engage more constructively across race.
FILM/TV
The Skin We’re In on CBC-TV on GEM (Free)
Urgent, controversial, and undeniably honest, The Skin We’re In is a wake-up call to complacent Canadians. Racism is here. It is everywhere. It is us and we are it. Following celebrated journalist Desmond Cole as he researches his hotly anticipated book, this documentary from acclaimed director Charles Officer pulls back the curtain on racism in Canada.
This film marks a distinctly Canadian contribution to the “Black Lives Matter” movement which originated in the US, but which describes a set of systemic injustices and disadvantages faced by all black people living in white-dominated societies. Cole asserts that anti-black racism is so all-encompassing in Canada that black people and their allies, far from congratulating themselves that they do not live in America, should be following the American example and dismantling the structures that continue to hold them back.
https://www.cbc.ca/firsthand/m_episodes/the-skin-were-in
First Contact on APTN
Canadians’ opinions about the Indigenous people of this country are formed without any knowledge of the culture’s true history or firsthand experience of the present-day communities. This may explain the prevalence of racist, unsympathetic and generally prejudicial attitudes that are often directed towards Indigenous peoples.
First Contact takes six Canadians on a 28- day journey intended to challenge these attitudes and shed a light on the true Indigenous experience. The travelers, all with ignorant views about Indigenous People, have been invited to leave their everyday lives behind and embark on a unique journey, travelling deep into the Indigenous communities throughout Canada including the nation’s capital, Algonquin Anishanabek Territory, Labrador, Saskatchewan and the Yukon. It is a journey that will challenge their perceptions and confront their prejudices about a world they never imagined they would see. This exploration of the true Indigenous experience in Canada will change the participants’ lives forever.
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Director Alanis Obomsawin—at times with a small crew, at times alone—spent 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protestors, the Quebec police and the Canadian army.
Released in 1993, this landmark documentary has been seen around the world, winning over a dozen international awards and making history at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it became the first documentary ever to win the Best Canadian Feature award. Jesse Wente, Director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office, has called it a “watershed film in the history of First Peoples cinema.”
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