[Music]
so you heard I am the member of
provincial Parliament for Kitchener
Centre prior to this I was the director
of diversity and equity at Wilfrid
Laurier University prior to that I was a
mommy of three and prior to that I was
part of a tradition that began in
Nigeria and through the slave trade
landed in Cuba and from Cuba came to
North America and when I am in
particularly high and intense situations
like a TED talk I like to see the ho ho
here one hello it is you come picture
this
2018 I have been the member of
provincial Parliament for a whopping
five months I get contacted and asked to
come and speak at this amazing
conference it's like a hundred black
students across Waterloo Region District
School Board they come together for
something called black brilliance I am
there to bring provincial greetings so I
get like all excited and I go in and
it's all sorts of black souls which in
case you're wondering in schools is rare
and I stand at the podium and I say that
everybody hey folks I am your member of
provincial Parliament for Kitchener
Centre I am the first black person
elected at any level of government in
Waterloo Region except no it's like you
folks knew what I was thinking
I actually stopped them like I'm gonna
stop you because this is 2018 and I am
the first black person elected at any
level of government in Waterloo Region I
actually said it and I took in the
applause and then I stopped it and I
went whoa so I took a year you know did
work bought some battles back and forth
Queen's Park and here and was asked back
so now a year has gone and things have
changed at this point as I'm coming to
bring official greetings from the
province I'm doing so not only as the
critic for anti racism and the critic
for citizenship and immigration but I'm
also now the chair of the official
opposition's black caucus and we have
been spending time at Queen's Park
fighting to make sure that the Minister
of Education takes seriously
examples of anti black racism that have
actually made their way into mainstream
media in the Peel District School Board
I was exhausted the day that I was going
to black brilliance
I was actually on a greyhound next TED
talk is about transportation in
Kitchener so I'm on a greyhound and I'm
reading this report by Karl James and
it's called we rise together and he has
a number of quotes from students in the
Peel District School Board and this one
quote is going around and around and
around in my mind it's a grade 7 student
who says that every single day that they
go to school they hear the n-word every
single day they go to school they hear
the n-word can you imagine going to work
every day and hearing the n-word so I
couldn't get it off my brain as you can
probably tell that changes everything
she had a script she has no scripts I
walk into black brilliants I get up to
the podium and I said to them look I was
just reading this article and I'm
hearing this preed 7th student and Pele
is hearing the n-word every day we are
in Waterloo Region how many of you hear
the n-word when you go to school and
every single student raised their hand I
was like I'm overwhelmed like I am right
now and I paused and I said how many of
you have the n-word directed to you at
school and only half of them put their
hands down I can tell you that I was
taken aback but I cannot tell you that I
was surprised because during that year I
had a number of people come to visit me
at Queen's Park I had a group called the
parents for black children that came to
speak to me and talk to me about anti
black racism in the school system across
Ontario I had been to Hamilton I was
asked to speak at McMaster with high
school and university students and they
told me about the experiences of
exclusion that they were feeling at
their schools and in their campuses the
lack of attention to their histories in
their in the curriculum that they were
being offered and the kinds of
interactions that they were having as
black people
walking down the street in their
community and I had been blessed to
speak to some folks from the Hamilton
Center for civic inclusion who explained
to me that because of the heightened
attention to anti black racism in
schools in Hamilton they had begun a
black youth mentorship program and they
had gone into schools and started to do
some anti black racism work with the
students on their own a community
organization taking care of anti black
racism in the school system but all of
this was happening while swirling around
me were more and more and more and more
headlines of examples of racism in our
school system in every single school
board it was popping up like wildfire
you know sometimes there's topics that
don't make it into mainstream news
racism is one of those topics usually
like one little story here little corner
then you're done but all of a sudden we
were living in a period where every
single school board was feeling
empowered enough to speak out about
their experiences of racism here's the
thing I fought to myself while I'm in a
position of power
it's the member of provincial Parliament
it's a very powerful position TED Talks
ok I'm in a position of power and
privilege I have access to folks so I
spoke to leaders I spoke to
administrators I spoke to ministers I
spoke to my colleagues every single
person assured me that racism was not
welcome here every single person so then
I had questions
well if racism isn't isn't something
that's acceptable here it's not welcome
here then where are the resources to
stop it what are we actually doing on
the ground to demonstrate to black brown
and indigenous students to black brown
indigenous educators to black brown an
indigenous superintendents and and
administrators and staff members that
racism isn't actually welcome here and I
just want to repeat that one little
section because we spend far too much
time trying to make white folks believe
that racism isn't there and far less
time trying to let black Brown and
indigenous students know that we think
that racism is at crisis levels in our
school system that's a problem to
achieve racial equity in schools we have
to be willing to talk about the extent
of the problem we have to be willing to
be honest we have to put down our guard
and the pretenses and we have to take
seriously the experiences of racism that
are being reported to us but there were
two pickles
the first pickle you may recognise if
you don't see yourself among the
teaching teachers the staff members the
administration you don't feel like you
belong I would argue most people agree
that that's the case would you not write
if you don't see yourself in positions
of leadership you don't feel like you
belong
the second pickle is kind of interesting
when racialized people are missing from
decision-making tables what we usually
say is that the solutions don't come as
easily right you want racialized people
to be at the decision-making table so we
can be more creative about the solutions
but I don't think that's the actual
pickle I think the actual pickle is that
if we are not present at decision making
tables nobody believes that the problem
is even urgent
that's the pickle so to help
I made a handy-dandy chart
when there is no sense of belonging and
there's no sense of urgency to address
racism cycles of racial injustice
continue in schools it's simple you
don't feel like you belong nobody thinks
that there's urgency to address the
problem
so the cycles continue and continue and
continue but wait there's more these
cycles don't happen in a vacuum
racism isn't happening in one little
school over here not even in one little
school board over there not even
throughout just one little province you
have clues about what racism looks like
if you look further than just inside the
walls of your schools right here in
southwestern Ontario in 2018 there was a
report based on Statistics Canada hate
crime data there was a fevered pitch of
hate crimes right here southwestern
Ontario if that is the social fabric in
which we are trying to educate our
students we can only anticipate that
there will be a rise of racism inside
those schools it's literally the context
in which you are trying to educate
people but there's there's hope because
also in that social fabric around us we
have elders who have been fighting this
fight who have been using the tools that
they have available to them to address
racism in meaningful ways so some of
these elders have decided that as
politicians it's important to fight for
to use their power to change things like
the curriculum in our schools to make
them more inclusive to make sure that
people that look like me are reflected
in positive ways in the curriculum to
fight for larger sort of provincial
organizations that would be able to hell
schools to better understand how to
approach anti-racism work in a
meaningful way but remember my
handy-dandy chart no sense of belonging
no sense of urgency to address racism
means that the cycles of racial
injustice continue in schools this is
the part when I think what we are
accustomed to doing is hugging out
racism it's hilarious to me too
me and you hugging out racism what does
that mean it means exactly what we do
right now racist incident occurs in
school statement goes out focus is on
statement racism isn't welcome here we
don't like that
we're inclusive we like different kinds
of people come here different people let
me hug you but no time attention or
resources are put towards addressing the
root cause of the racist experience that
just happened nobody's checking in with
the students to see how they're doing
nobody's changing the curriculum to make
sure that this is addressed nobody's
doing PD sessions to make sure that they
actually do more than just diversity
training hey this is off script but
guess what we're gonna do we're gonna do
diversity training ready look around you
there's different people right training
done what's not gonna do we have to do a
little bit more and the reason we have
to do more is because the people that
need to see that we're taking this
seriously are the black brown and
indigenous students in the school the
black brown and indigenous staff members
educators educational workers
administrators superintendents need to
know that you understand that this is
urgent
there's ways that we can do it the
solutions are out there and they are
actually plentiful critical race through
the theory we could read one I felt very
Jamaican in that moment
I used to go to house parties when I was
small so then I want to say rewind
select uh cuz they said to me that I can
say that and then they'll clip this part
out this is just for your pleasure and I
can make like a real sentence and then
when it goes out there it'll be like a
real grown-up was talking critical race
Theory is an educational strategy that
takes the experiences of racism for
black brown and indigenous folks that
are typically on the margins and puts it
central in everything that you do so
when a teacher is going to go and find
material to celebrate women critical
race Theory will have them go and find
racialized women along with other women
but make sure that you pay attention to
that as well critical race Theory will
allow administrators and educators to
take seriously the examples of racial
injustice that the students say are
happening on the ground because you
believe it is happening but I don't want
us to do a critical race Theory without
also doing something else that is super
cool which is thinking about the
intersectionality of all of the people
that live here so it's similar to what I
was saying before we're gonna celebrate
women I think we're actually doing a
really good job of feeling comfortable
and confident of addressing sexism we're
doing less of a good job when it comes
to reminding ourselves that white women
are not the only women that live in the
world
and this is the moment where I know
you're sitting at the edge of your seats
how can I help how can I help there's
only one thing that you need to do
mobilizer privilege there are students
out here that are listening to this talk
to other students around you go to a
school board meeting go is a collective
and ask to do some of the fighting that
I get asked to do they're black brown
and indigenous students that go to
school and they don't have a place that
they can just hang out because when they
hang out somewhere somebody police's
them and tells them they're too loud
that they have to find somewhere else to
go that they're likely up to something
so fight along with your peers and try
and find a good space for everybody for
the educators out there think about race
when you're building your curriculum
when you're deciding on what books to
read when you're deciding on what
speakers to have in think outside of the
typical resources for administrators ask
for critical race theory as part of your
professional development sessions in
fact everyone should do that as a parent
make sure that you ask well what's going
on to the professional development
sessions because I'd really like people
to understand critical race theory and
then once you've done that session ask
for a follow-up session where everybody
says here's what we've been doing here's
what's worked here's what hasn't here's
where we need help and then just keep
doing that and guess what there's
students out there that are already
doing it so followed their lead this is
an amazing class from Cameron Heights
who were dealing with and learning about
anti-semitism and decided to bring in
the Anne Frank traveling museum and then
opened it up to community and they were
the guides that was happening right here
we've got an over-representation of
black and indigenous youth and care
one day this group of black youth
decided they were going to write a
report and they were going to make
different members of provincial
Parliament
and different leaders in their community
read the report and look at what happens
to them as black and indigenous youth in
care when they go to school read the
report use it in your classroom talk to
your members of provincial Parliament
they're not just available for photo ops
they are actually supposed to be doing
work for community so show up in their
offices and demand that we do better go
to protests I'm a mommy my daughters are
in that picture go with them students
are asking for a indigenous lead
curriculum to be integrated into
everything that they do at school so
show up there and say yeah I'm with you
I think that's a great idea I could go
on and on and on I have loads of
pictures of places and people that that
have reached out to my office and said
this is what we're doing and have asked
me to amplify their voices because they
are fighting for racial justice in our
schools but I also have three children I
showed you my daughters and today I was
practicing for this TED talk and my son
came up to me and he said it's not fair
literally it's not fair that the girls
are in this TED talk and I am not so
here he is
[Applause]
yep he's bringing you one final thought
the final thought is this sometimes we
think that old systems can't change the
education system is an old system that
to be brutally honest was actually based
in some pretty racist things the last
segregated school in Ontario closed in
1965 we're dealing with a very long
sordid history of racism in Ontario but
there's hope
because Kendrick Lamar showed us that do
you know Kendrick Lamar mmm-hmm yeah
clap for Kendrick nah the same year that
I was being invited for the first time
to speak at black brilliance
Kendrick Lamar was being considered his
album damn for a Pulitzer Prize an award
that was given out for the first time in
1917 and I guarantee never thought that
they would be giving it out to somebody
like Kendrick Lamar he was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for music for his album
damn which outlined the experience the
nuanced and complicated experiences of
african-american men in this climate
right now so I have decided if the
Pulitzer award folks can decide that
Kendrick Lamar is worthy of such a prize
then we can change our education system
no problem
scatter cells a Pulitzer so I leave you
with this you got this talk about what's
happening and call it what it is it's
racism support each other when somebody
comes to you and they say I've had this
experience this is racist you say sure
okay how are we gonna fix it remember
that if you do not stand for something
you will fall for absolutely anything if
you do not stand for something you will
fall for anything
you're not going to be able to win by
hugging out racism my friends but if we
invest and invest in education in a way
that ensures that we take racism
seriously
as a crisis we can and we will do better
but I said hey Bala he said Saturday
about the said hey Bob Pollin yeah a
sitter
thank you
[Applause]