Despite YRDSB’s 1st strategy on anti-Black racism, newly launched data tool to show ‘ugly truth’

The people impacted are the people controlling it’

Yorkregion.com
March 8, 2021

There are two initiatives rolled out to combat anti-Black racism especially in schools.

On March 1, Ontario announced $6 million investment in the upcoming three years to support Black students through a new program -- the Student and Family Advocates Initiative -- in Ottawa, Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area.

On March 8, York Region District School Board is launching its first-ever strategy to fight anti-Black-racism after a slew of attempts. including giving equity training to more than 12,000 of its staff in its schools on anti-Black racism in late 2019.

These major steps are in here following anti-Black racism incidents and claims, and the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in U.S and Canada.

However, amid these positive changes to combat anti-Black racism, the eight-board member Parents of Black Children Canada (PoBC) launched a new online tool for reporting anti-Black racism, on Tuesday, March 2, to nip this thorny problem in the bud altogether.

Vaughan citizen Charline Grant, who is known for her parent activism on anti-Black racism in YRDSB schools, is one of PoBC founders.

“We are doing it because we know we could trust the data.,” Grant, who was called the N-word slur by a YRDSB trustee in 2017, said.

Grant explained how the launch of this data tool holds more significance than that of the government or YRDSB since “the people impacted are the people controlling it.”

“It's going to be authentic, it's going to be real. We're not here for PR, whatever the ugly truth is, we will be reporting on it.”

The PoBC Anti-Black Racism Reporting Tool will be accessible for educators and anyone working within a schools from custodians, principals and superintendents. It will allow them the freedom to anonymously report incidents of anti-Black racism perpetrated against students, colleagues or even themselves.

“They can give their name, but they don't have to,” explained Grant. “And for us, that data is our science, that what's going to tell the story and give people a window into what's happening and where the hot spots are, and the trends and what's happening.”

Grant said the idea to collect data came about from parents of Black children.

“We were getting calls from educators who were sharing what the Black (students) were experiencing, what they're seeing, happening to Black students,” she added.

The problem is, however, that “when they speak up, they're facing reprisal.”

“They're being taught to be careful, it could be a career-ending move,” she added, describing how, “We're seeing it from our allies, non-Black folks, the racialized, who are also trying to dismantle anti-Black racism and also facing reprisal.”

When asked about YRDSB’s upcoming anti-Black racism launch, Grant said, "I am hoping, but I am not convinced.”

While Grant said that the strategy created by the consultant Tana Turner, who did a “great job,” she fears that it will be used as “weapon toward parents, advocates and grassroots organizations to say, ‘We have a strategy, relax.’”

The strategy doesn’t go far enough.

“In the strategy itself, it's missing accountability, it's missing acknowledgement, missing a plan on how to tackle current cases or past cases.”

“There are still so many anti-Black racism currently happening, and there was no plan that the board was able to provide to parents and we have asked,” she said. “There is still a number of cases, civil and human rights cases, court cases that are outstanding that the board is still fighting victims of anti-Black racism in court, and they're only doing that because they have the money.”

Following the process itself can paradoxically lead to racism. “It's the go-to Racism 101,” she added.

Indeed, the process to rename a secondary school to ditch its former name after Benjamin Vaughan, a slave owner, was described as a showcase of anti-Black racism, YRDSB trustee Elizabeth Sinclair said during one of the meetings on the school renaming.