[Shannon]

I agree with this sentiment, Camilla. I will add that I think it’s important to ensure that, when placing Black youth at the center of program design, we are making an effort to ensure the representation of diverse Black youth, recognizing that they may have a range of lives and experiences (and we are not being diverse simply by virtue of including Black youth). Relatedly, I think it is always important to recognize the barriers to engagement that exist for many of the most intersectional folks, i.e. perhaps Black youth from low-income families who are not well-connected to the system & may not have the capacity to participate in unpaid/volunteer labour. Where possible, I feel that it is critical to perform outreach & make accommodations accordingly.

[Samantha]

One simple thing is to be open to conversations about anti-Black racism and openly correct one another or allow oneself to be corrected. I find that sometimes in workplaces we push comments and our concerns under the rug rather than speaking out or taking criticisms as an educational experience. This can also relate to our privileges, and as a biracial Asian-Canadian, we don’t realize how rooted anti-Black racism can be in our own cultures until we take a step back and be open to these conversations. In the workplace, I think more representation and programming surrounding Black youth and their experiences would greatly benefit them. Having a mentor that can connect with you on different intersections can mean the world; as if they are not alone and have someone they can relate to. Also having programming specific to their experiences, history, and feeling of belonging can provide great change and allow them to feel more comfortable in a space that is focusing on their needs. Courses like this are a great resource for youth workers and educators, but I do wonder how similar courses like this can benefit the youth themselves. Such as learning about their history as this is not openly available or provided to them in schools.

[Camilla Persaud –]

We can proactively design pathways for inclusion in the youth sector by having Black youth at the center. Let their voice and choice be the heart of conversations and decision making. Allow them to ask questions and create a space for critical dialogue. Black youth should be encouraged to create a culture where they work together to define personal & community goals for how they will learn more about the sectors, express ideas and alternatives about the sectors, create strategies and provide feedback which will challenge themselves throughout the process. They should create their own criteria to evaluate and assess their success and hold each other accountable.

[Shannon]

This is a very simply thing, but I have personally always been struck by how impactful it can be to see a pride flag on display in a business or community space – to me, this simple visual hints or suggests that the space in question is welcoming and nonjudgmental, at least to LGBTQ+ folks. I feel similar about pronoun pins – a small marker which is not definitive, but allows gender-diverse folks to feel a little more at ease knowing that they will be acknowledged and respected in that space (generally speaking). I wonder if one similarly easy, simple way to show Black youth that they are safe, welcome and respected in a space might be to offer visual cues to this effect – whether it be BLM materials, posters/information/books by and about Black folks, Black art, or whatever the case may be. I know this is far from a solution, but might help to make Black youth feel a tiny bit more seen and valued in a community center/space. I would like to hear if anyone makes an effort to do this or has thoughts on effective ways to add these kinds of visual markers to a space.

[Angeli]

I am currently in the process of creating a brave space where we focus on all the amazing things they have done, are doing and will do in the future. When I am running my career program for students I focus on reframing and acknowledging all the powerful things they have accomplished.

[Griffin]

One thing my work can do is try to promote more black youth cooks is by giving them more avenues and creating a more multicultural environment that can make it so that they are more welcomed into what other wise would be a white dominated environment. try to learn food from different walks of life and implement them into the menu maybe as specials

[Karen]

If I consider mental health as a privilege then I’m associating that with being mentally well (mental wellness), having the ability to think, feel, act in ways that positively impact you physically, socially and emotionally. According to the definition provided in module 4.1 “privilege is a ‘systematically conferred advantages individuals enjoy by virtue of their membership in dominant groups with access to resources and institutional power that are beyond the common advantages of marginalized citizens”. So then, a mentally well person is ‘normal’ having the advantage of not being stigmatized, penalized, surveilled, criminalized and feared, but rather worthy of respect, care, protection, freedom, advocacy etc. Mental wellness leads to mobility and access to resources reserved for members in the normative or dominant group.

[Abdulai]

You just nailed it. Exactly some of the nuances that continue to perpetuate and reproduces racism in diverse ways.

[Abdulai]

Karen, I cannot agree with you more. I have met and engaged with friends and other professionals who have expressed consciousness in terms of the impact of racism on youth and their families. The challenge is, bringing such conversations to the public domain have been a huge challenge for some. And, unless and until we bring the conversations to public discourses, it is like being “complicit” in how issues of race and racism are usually kept under the carpet in Ontario with the rather nauseating pretext that it is not that bad in Ontario compared to the States. What a reasoning?

[Abdulai]

Absolutely. It is already an established fact that whatever research findings are gathered, the fight against racism is systemic and embedded in structures. As such, until such structures are challenged and dismantled, then we shall use our research to support Black youth and their families.

[Karen]

I believe anti-Black racism still exist in Ontario because there aren’t enough people (who are committed to the work of dismantling anti-Black racism) in places of power to shift policies, laws, and in general systems that are strategically in place to oppress Black people. In order to change the system we need to be in positions of influence within those systems to dismantle them from within. For example, as an educator you can use you power within schools to dismantle white supremacy and advocate for equity. As a healthcare/mental health provider you can use your power to decolonize services that are meant to heal by provide culturally responsive, inclusive care. As a youth justice worker, you can ground the service you deliver in anti-colonial practices that protect Black youth rather than perpetuate further harm. If you work in media, you could use your influence to change stereotypical representations of Black bodies that justify that Black lives [don’t] matter.

[Shannon]

Hi Karen, thank you for this thoughtful answer. I absolutely agree and share your frustration. I would add that a further challenge I sense in recent years is a growing discomfort when discussing issues of race, oppression and Anti-Black racism in particular. Folks at all levels of influence shy away from these conversations out of fear of saying the wrong thing, or shrug off these conversations as examples of extreme leftism or “social justice warrior” issues. This makes it near impossible to make concrete progress at any level in the system – or at least, this is something I’ve witnessed that concerns me. Again, thanks all for sharing & participating!

[Joan]

Last week I was at Erin Mills Town Center, which is in Mississauga, and I saw this sign at the entrance. How is this allowed? or make any sense. If you would like to contact Erin Mills Town Center here is there website site and contact us: https://www.erinmills.ca/pages/erinmills-contact-ushttps://www.erinmills.ca/pages/erinmills-contact-us . What also concerns me is that the manufacture who made this sign might have distributed to many other location ?

[Cyril]

Thanks for sharing. I am curious about their rationale for this one. I gave them a call and they said they will respond. I’ll share any updates.

[Joan]

Thanks for contacting them. One of my students said they wanted to email them, so we made it part of a lesson on how to write an email. They replied to my email asking where the sign is located. I’ll ask my students tomorrow if they replied to them.

[Cyril]

Ah, very nice.

I just got a call back explaining that this sign in particular was “missed” when they updated the company policy in 2019. Other signs had been removed and as of today this forgotten sign (at the entrance) has been replaced. At the beginning of the call there was a reference to an email they had received, so congratulations to your students on excellent advocacy work!

Targeting such a culturally distinctive head covering (used for hair styling and protection) as something ominous is very troubling. Beyond the fact that this item does nothing to obscure one’s face, the subtle and not so subtle institutional messaging that “you are not welcome” / “your presence is questionable” carries very serious psychological and social consequences.

I remember when I was doing youth work in a community a number of years ago and we shot a video which featured a local convenience store which had signs up limiting the amount of patrons and restricted backpacks. These signs were not neutral. These policies were there to filter young (mostly Black) youth in the community. The constant projection of a young Black person being seen as a potential threat until proven otherwise festers in street corners, shopping malls, parks, classrooms… but I am encouraged to see your students taking a stand. They are stronger than the forces against them.

Regardless of good intentions, institutions need to Center Black Youth Wellbeing by listening to what may be experienced as harmful and where improvements can be made.

[Claire]

Hi! I’m one of the students in Ms. Smith’s class. I’d like to thank you for your support and proaction.

[Baidir]

I totally agree with you, these systems need to be changed but awareness is the fist step and many are not aware. Research is only useful if used properly, if we neglect the clear results and choose to only see empty numbers it will lead us nowhere, Empathy is important to be able to associate these findings to people.

[Baidir]

I totally agree with you, these systems need to be changed but awareness is the fist step and many are not aware. Research is only useful if used properly, if we neglect the clear results and choose to only see empty numbers it will lead us nowhere, Empathy is important to be able to associate these findings to people.

[Leticia]

Broaden our understanding of “culturally appropriate” programming to create spaces where lived-experience can be voiced and incorporated. Instead of looking at content as something that is unilateral (from our organization / to or even with the youth) to content that can be built, adapted, co-created in real time.

[Marco]

One thing that I have been working to do as an educator – is allowing students to see themselves – in the content being presented. For example, I am teaching food and nutrition, and this semester we have been previewing the Netflix series “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” showing a lot of predominant strong black individuals. Students need to see themselves in the material that is being taught in schools – and to be quite frankly vast majority of it is white!

[Yasmine]

An educator, what I could do to center Black youth wellbeing is to help validate their lived experiences by making my curriculum culturally relevant. Use examples from their communities and from their lives to ensure that they feel seen and can connect to their learning. That could be as simple as using the effects of ABR on Black mental health as an example in a Psychology unit. It could also be allowing them to take opportunities to form connections between their learning and their lives and sharing it with the class if they are comfortable. Sometimes Black youth need to feel as though they can express themselves without judgement and to feel like they hold a place in the curriculum and the class/school environment. They can make a joke, laugh, cry, express concerns; whatever they can do to feel like a protected kid. Finding that place and knowing someone is there to take care of them is a huge part of that wellbeing piece.

[YouthREX- Kamau]

This is a great idea! Connecting black students’ learning experiences to the true history of black people in Canada and their own lived experiences has been shown to be an impactful teaching practice when combatting anti-black racism.

[Abdulai]

This is key in working with working with Black students. We often make the assumption that the lived experiences of Black students are the same just because they are Black. In as much as generational racism is real for everyone, youth have come up with different forms of healing for themselves…they needed to be seen first, heard, understood and then supported. This is one singular approach I am promoting with my staff working with Black youth.

[Camilla Persaud –]

Using research findings year after year only highlights the increase in the impact of racism on Black youth and their families. How much research will it take for others to realize this is not a problem of the past or a problem that does not exist in our society, BUT a problem that has been snowballing – growing over hundreds of years that is still not receiving the necessary solutions. The research only screams louder and louder that Black lives are being lost and neglected in our society. If an entire community is hurting what are we going to do to help? Again, similar to why anti-Black racism is still a problem in Ontario – it has been a learned norm to “hate”. Taught in our school books, in our Eurocentric models of policy and systems – the research only supports that fact that the systems and barriers in our society need to be changed.

[YouthREX- Kamau]

This is a great idea! I have heard many black students express how much they feel like an afterthought, especially in schools where there is a small percentage of black students. Something like this would be great in areas in and outside of the GTA where the experiences of black students are often not considered.

[Karen]

I feel it is important to validate Black youth experiences. Often in my work Black youth voices and experiences are disregarded or misconstrued as disrespect when they are in many case attempting to advocate for themselves. I think the education system in general could work harder to provide necessary training around ABR and its negative implications for student wellbeing. I think we need to also be willing to call out those who refuse time and again to be called in to ABR work.

[Karen]

I think the assumption that Black people are able to withstand more comes from both within and outside of Black culture. First, the deliberate efforts to represent Black people in ways that authenticate their brutality and exclusion, solidifies the myth that we can handle more burden. So when we reach out for help, our cries are ignored. Second, Blacks are often taught in-home that in order to be strong we need to handle our struggles on our own. The stigma attached to any health concern, silences us which of course we know leads to increased illness within the community. Many Black families also rely heavily on religion as a way to cope with their problems (for many this is a protective factor against mental illness). Finally, many Black families experience feelings of mistrust toward services because of historical trauma and further marginalization within healthcare. Recently a colleague told me of an experience with a surgeon prior to her operation. She was handled abruptly, and made to feel like she was unintelligent. She expressed that especially because she was Black and Francophone she felt the necessity to talk about her credentials as the only way to gain respect and leave the hospital with a little of her humanity. Imagine what her experience would have been if on top of being Black she was not educated. When I reflect on this experience I’m reminded of how the Black experience and access to care differ depending on how our various identities intersect.

[Madison]

Thank you for sharing this video, Cyril!

[Monique]

I totally agree with you, Yasmine. I keep going back to when I was in school and we learned about the Underground Railroad like a big symbol of our national pride, but there was no mention about slavery and the racism in Canada, and how Black people were treated when they came to the country (and the fact that it was so bad they left). Or that we were never taught the contributions of Black Canadians to Canadian history. I grew up in Southwestern Ontario, and never learned about the Black settlements and communities that lived there. I am white and we never talked about race when I was growing up, so I had to do my own learning to get comfortable with saying things out loud – even saying the word Black, because somehow I thought that pointing it out was rude? So if people can’t talk about race, or don’t feel equipped to have the conversation, it makes it even harder to have the real conversations about structural racism, or that the country was founded on principles of white supremacy and continues to create disparities for Black folks today.