What spurs you to help dismantle racism?
Introducing UM’s Anti-Racism Learning Framework
Tina Chen, Vice-Provost (Equity), and Angie Bruce, Vice-President (Indigenous) invite you to join in the ongoing learning journey for anti-racism and the collective work of dismantling racisms at UM.
The two recently shared their own experiences with racism and their motivation to continue anti-racism work, and reflected on its significance to our community.
To advance that work, UM is providing meaningful learning opportunities for UM students, staff, and faculty at various stages of their learning journeys about racism and anti-racism.
UM’s Anti-Racism Learning Framework outlines an educational pathway to guide us as a community and individually as we work to dismantle racism in all its forms and to foster a vibrant community for all. The framework supports UM’s commitments to anti-racism and social justice as outlined in our strategic plan, MomentUM: Leading Change Together, and complements the Truth and Reconciliation Framework.
Join the work of fostering a vibrant community, advancing reconciliation for transformative change, and building a stronger, more inclusive UM for all.
Personal experiences and systemic and structural racism
Sometimes racism speaks and makes itself known. But racism isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s in the way doors quietly close, opportunities slip away, or voices go unheard.
Angie Bruce shares an emotional story going back to age 11, when she was in grade six. As she was having learning difficulties, her teacher pulled her aside and asked her if she had been drinking, playing into harmful racial stereotypes. Later, thanks to interventions by her mother, Bruce was diagnosed with dyslexia and got the learning supports she needed. But the effects stayed with her.
Tina Chen remembers walking home from elementary school through the park. Encountering older kids, she heard them call out with a racial slur used for Chinese people, and sounds they thought mimicked Chinese language.
In those moments, she says, “there would be an intense feeling of fear, of shame, of anger.” Some of those feelings still linger, adds Chen.
“It’s for those reasons, here at the University of Manitoba, I’m committed to making this a place where we all know we belong,” she says.
Racism is hurtful and harmful. It diminishes dignity. For anyone who experiences racism at any level, racialized hatred and race-based stereotypes can feel intensely personal; racism can be internalized and carried for a lifetime.
And the harms of racial discrimination are wider than the significant emotional effects.
Racism can affect mental health; it “also has impacts on equality and opportunities…. Such widespread inequities are not the result of individual racist actions and beliefs alone, but of deeply entrenched systemic racism,” as stated in this Discussion Paper on Systemic Racism from the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
As the commission notes, “Racism and racial discrimination can be manifested explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, at individual, institutional, and structural and systemic levels.”
Unlearning racism, dismantling racist structures, advancing anti-racism
This annual occasion on March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, recognizes not only the historical injustices and prejudices fueled by racial discrimination — but the ongoing nature of racial discrimination.
In Canada, Indigenous peoples, racially marginalized people, and marginalized religious communities face racism and discrimination regularly. Institutions such as universities are inextricably linked to Canada’s colonial legacy, with racial inequities manifested through policies, practices and culture.
It’s why the work of anti-racism, including UM’s Anti-Racism Learning Framework, is so necessary.
Learn more about UM’s Anti-Racism Learning Framework
Read the Mar. 21 message to UM community from Tina Chen, Vice-Provost (Equity), and Angie Bruce, Vice-President (Indigenous).
Join the ongoing learning journey for anti-racism and the collective work of dismantling racisms at UM. Join the work of fostering a vibrant community, advancing reconciliation for transformative change, and building a stronger, more inclusive UM for all.
“This work is not only important; it’s essential.” – President Michael Benarroch