AFST302 Week 8 F24 PDF

Principal Karen Hudson, chief administrator of Auburn Drive High School in Dartmouth, Halifax: "Racism is alive. We cannot pretend that it doesn't exist within our Canadian society” "We have to decide: 'What are we going to do? How are we going to do things better? Are we going to address...

Principal Karen Hudson, chief administrator of Auburn Drive High School in Dartmouth, Halifax: "Racism is alive. We cannot pretend that it doesn't exist within our Canadian society” "We have to decide: 'What are we going to do? How are we going to do things better? Are we going to address it or pretend? Are we going to change our practices and be more informed and knowledgeable?’” (Wong, 2021, CBC News) 1  Robyn Maynard writing in The Walrus(2022) puts it this way: “For many Black youth, schools can be places of degradation, harm, and psychological violence”. She further observes that: “Education is one of the bedrocks of Canadian society. Legislated as “a fundamental social good,” it is intended to provide both socialization and opportunities to develop youth’s minds and relationships, and to help them build their futures.” 2 “Discipline” Robyn Maynard opens her article in The Walrus with a retelling of this incident: “On September 30, 2016, the mother of a Black grade one student missed several calls from her daughter’s school in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. When she called back, a school official passed the phone to a police officer, who informed her that her six-year-old daughter had been placed in handcuffs. Upon arriving at the school, the mother learned that the police had been called in by school staff because her daughter had been reportedly acting in a violent manner. The two police officers had handcuffed the girl—who weighed a total of forty-eight pounds and was unarmed—by attaching her hands and her feet together at the wrists and ankles”. 3  “According to the Toronto Star, while the girl’s mother said that her daughter had been treated like a “dog” or a “monster” and not a human child, Peel Regional Police spokesperson Sergeant Josh Colley defended the fact that a young Black child had been handcuffed by stating that it had been done for “the safety of other students and ultimately the child.”” (Maynard, 2017) How could any child weighing 48lbs pose so much danger to anyone in the presence of school officials and two police officers that she had to be handcuffed by two armed men in the name of “safety”? 4 “Not innocent” “threatening” “dangerous” Maynard notes that: “what this incident illustrates is that, in the eyes of white society and state institutions, Black children are not conceived of as children at all, and supernatural, dangerous abilities far beyond their age, size, and physical capabilities are attributed to them”. (2017:209) Maynard also observes that there was no immediate apology from school officials. 5 Mistreated, ignored and unseen: Streaming and the ongoing realities of racial injustice Maynard (2017) further argues that: “ Though education is seen as a “public good” and is allegedly race neutral, informal practices throughout the school systems in Canada continue to stream students based on race”. She notes that although class too plays a role in “education inequalities for youth of all backgrounds… it would be a mistake to reduce the streaming of Black youth and children to an issue of class”. “While systemic barriers resulting from poverty have an impact on youth of all racial backgrounds, Black youth face unique and acute disadvantages because of long-standing associations linking Blackness to a lack of intelligence, and inferiority more generally” 6  Mistreated, ignored and unseen: Streaming and the ongoing realities of racial injustice (cont’d) What comes to your mind when you think of a child? Innocent, vulnerable and in need of (the state’s or adult’s) protection “Today, Black children and youth remain outside the construction of innocence, as well as that of childhood itself, and the suffering that they are exposed to is frequently erased or negated” (Maynard, 2017:211) Maynard also argues that “because Black youth are so often not seen or treated as children, schools too often become their first encounter with the organized and systemic devaluation of Blackness present in society at large” (2017:209). 7 Mistreated, ignored and unseen: Streaming and the ongoing realities of racial injustice (cont’d) Maynard argues that “Black youth continue to be disproportionately streamed into lower education tracks as a result of both individual prejudice and systemic factors.” She argues that teachers in many of these schools hold racial stereotypes which “play a significant role in the streaming of Black students.” “For example, Black students in Alberta have expressed that instructors give African-descended students the “silent treatment” or try to dissuade these students from higher education by expressing their uncertainty, for example, that “a Black student could study to become a doctor.”” 8 Every kid needs a champion- Rita Pierson https://youtu.be/SFnMTHhKdkw?si=v8YxWhk6CoiECvQK 9 Teacher expectations Teacher expectations play huge role in the academic engagement of Black students. As Maynard (2017) points out, “Black youth in major cities across the country have consistently named their teachers’ low expectations as a major factor when it comes to their overall engagement.” “These youth report that they are pressured into vocational training or into adult education, that they are not encouraged to finish on the regular academic track, and that they are steered away from challenging courses”. 10  Maynard adds, “To use the words of a Black student, Black youth often feel their presence is unwanted: “they don’t care about Black students. They don’t care if you are there or not.”” “In a 2006 census survey, only 54 percent of Black youth reported that they felt supported by teachers. This lack of support affects more than academic achievement; the Ontario Human Rights Commission states that it is often “in relation to their teachers that children begin to develop a perception of themselves and of the world around them.” Discriminatory treatment at this young age, then, can enact lasting damage on development.” 11 Streaming According to Cameron and Jefferies (2021) “Many Black students in Canadian public schools receive an education that is separate and unequal from that of their peers (Teklu, 2012), steeped in a legacy of segregation and anti- Blackness—a disparity that has gone largely unchanged for decades (Black Learners Advisory Committee, 1994).” 12  Funke Aladejebi (2021) observes that “in the 2017 report, Towards Race Equity in Education,… in comparison to white and other racialized students, Black students were less likely to be enrolled in academic streams in Toronto schools.” Adding that, “Black students were twice as likely to drop out of school than other students. Black students were also under- represented in gifted programming and over-represented in basic-level programming throughout Ontario schools”. 13  Maynard again observes that: “The phenomenon of streaming has also been documented in Toronto, where Black students make up 13 percent of the student body but only 3 percent of those are labelled “gifted,” compared to white students, who are one-third of the student population but more than half of those labelled “gifted.” ” 14  She argues that “streaming students into different tracks is demonstrably inequitable, as students in higher tracks are generally afforded more resources as well as a wider variety of teaching methods.” “The practice cements inequalities rather than challenges them. This disinvestment in Black youth has definite effects on their future opportunities as well as on their own sense of self- worth”. 15  Erasure in curriculum and invisibility There is also the concern of erasure of Black history or Black-focused content in the curriculum. As Maynard (2017) argues, “Black students [also] contend with erasure, which is itself arguably a form of violence. Both invisibility within curricula and the predominantly white demographic makeup of educators continue to negatively affect Black students.” Many schools lack content that highlight Canada’s history of slavery and segregation, and they overlook the history of Black institutions and Black resilience more generally. Not only are Black students not seeing themselves reflected and celebrated in the curriculums but the lack of racial representation in school staff is also significant.” Not many Black role models 16 Toronto’s Africentric school Funke Aladejebi (2021) notes that “Toronto’s Africentric Alternative School first opened in 2009 after years of advocacy and then months of heated public debates and criticism about the meaning and significance of the school”. Debates about a disconnect from multicultural learning practices. “However, what many Canadians do not know is that the province has a long and complex history with separate schooling beginning with the creation of public school systems in the province. In fact, racism and segregation remain embedded in the institutional fabric of formal schooling systems across Canada.” (Aladejebi, 2021) 17 What does history tell us The Common School Act of 1850 “Set into law what was already being practised by local communities throughout Ontario. The Act permitted any group of five Black families to ask local school trustees to establish a separate school. The law also permitted the creation of separate schools for Roman Catholic and Protestant families.” It also gave way to racial segregation 18  “In various areas, white community members used the Act as a way to force Black students into separate institutions. These individuals refused to allow Black pupils into public (then called common) schools and justified this by using the 1850 Act.” (Aladejebi, 2021) Kristen McLaren (2004) notes that in the mid-19th Century, “African Canadians in Canada West found themselves excluded from public education or forced into segregation, practices that were against the spirit if not the letter of British and Canadian law”. 19  She further notes that: “A number of historians have described the emergence of segregated racial schools in Canada West as a response to requests by black people to be separate; however, historical evidence contradicts this assertion. African Canadians in the mid-nineteenth century fought against segregation and refused to be set apart. Numerous petitions to the Education Department complained of exclusion from common schools and expressed desires for integration, not segregation. When black people did open their own schools, children of all ethnic backgrounds were welcome in these institutions.” 20 Toronto’s Africentric school Toronto’s Africentric Alternative School, established to counter the invisibility of black perspectives and realities, “has been remarkably successful. Performance in standardized tests is well above average, with students testing above the provincial average in reading, writing, and math.” (Maynard, 2017) 21 “Inferior”… “unwanted” Other ways that anti-Black racism continues to be evident is in the ways that Black students are treated. Maynard (2017) observes that “Black students are not only treated as if they are inferior, but they are also frequently treated as if they are a threat inside education settings. The presence of Black children and youth remains unwelcome and undesirable in many public schools, and their movements are closely monitored and subject to correction.” 22 What needs to be done? While the “knowledge of Black history and present-day realities remain important in coping with daily racial hostility and humiliation in schools”, Maynard believes that there is more that should be done. Deeper institutional transformations that tackle systemic racism from an intersectional framework are required, both to address the general societal disinvestment in education that affects students of all backgrounds as well as to redress the racism structured into the education system. More research and attention needs to be given to the many issues that we have discussed this week 23 References Wong, J (2021) “How 3 Canadians are fighting anti-Black racism in education” CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/education- combat-anti-black-racism-1.5910374 Maynard, Robyn (2022) “Canadian Education Is Steeped in Anti- Black Racism” The Walrus https://thewalrus.ca/canadian- education-is-steeped-in-anti-black-racism/ Maynard, Robyn (2017) Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present Halifax &Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing 24