That's So Library!

The work of unlearning racism continues. This month we had three teachers:

• Dr. Stephanie Nixon, BA, BHSC, MSC, PHD is a white settler and a physiotherapist. She is the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University.
• Dr. Amy Tan, MD MSc (Palliative Medicine) CCFP(PC) FCFP is an academic family and hospice palliative care physician. Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.
• Layla Saad is an author, speaker & teacher on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation & social change.

The larger time and energy commitment this month was to read Me and white supremacy: Combat racism, change the world and become a good ancestor by Layla F. Saad. The BCIT Library owns the audio book if you are interested, it’s available here. The title was chosen specifically to disrupt and make people uncomfortable. I read a physical version. Honestly made me feel weird having something with “white supremacy” on the cover in my home. The book opens with an Octavia Butler quote from Parable of the Talents, so, being a huge Butler fan, I was immediately won over.

To shape God
With wisdom and forethought
To benefit your world,
Your people,
Your life,
Consider consequences
Minimize harm
Ask questions,
Seek answers,
Learn,
Teach.

Earthseed: The books of the Living I,
Verse 43: Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents

For anyone not up to the task of reading a whole book (and journaling about it) there are a few shorter resources to check out:

• Role of privilege in relation to public health ethics and practice (video, 10m)
• Life of privilege explained in a $100 race (video, 4m)
• The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: Implications for health (article)

This marks the halfway point of the first BCIT Unlearning club. See you next month.

Imagining away the existence of races in a racist world is as harmful as imagining away classes in a capitalistic world – it allows the ruling races & classes to keep on ruling. 

• Ibram X. Kendi 

For this month our teacher was Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. I read How to be an Anti-racist. Available at the BCIT Library. Actually, Dr. Kendi read it to me, as I borrowed the audio book from the Burnaby Public Library. This was an instance where hearing the author speak was especially powerful as it is a very personal book; he brings the reader along on his own journey of learning and discovering and dismantling his own biases.  

The shorter option, for the BCIT Unlearning Club homework, this month was to watch Dr. Kendi’s TedTalk: Difference between being “not racist” and antiracist. Which is a good starting point for understanding some of the philosophy behind the book. A book club summary was also shared from DePaul University’s President’s Bookclub, with definitions, chapter outlines, and useful discussion questions. For anyone with the capacity for extra homework there was a link to a CBC Documentary, (44m 18s) The Skin We’re In: Pulling back the curtain on racism in Canada.

The BCIT Unlearning Club found lots to talk about without turning to the provided questions. The discussions were both personal and general as well as wide-ranging, everything from systemic racism, and religion, to climate justice. We ended with two things, firstly a sharing of what actions we can and have taken at BCIT to make a difference, including sharing the recent launch of new BCIT Student Wellbeing Action Plan. Secondly, we did a weather check-in with everyone, and most of us, who had been feeling down at the start of the session could see a little sunshine for the rest of the day. 

Thanks again to Tami and Andrea for guiding us on this journey and leading discussions that abide by our commitment to arrive ready to join in the conversation with respect, curiosity, humility, and reciprocity. 

We have described for you a mountain; we have shown you the path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.

-Justice Murray Sinclair

Learn along with me and the BCIT Unlearning Club as we engage with materials each month and start on a journey to unlearn racism.

Created and developed during the COVID-19 pandemic the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer put together a curriculum and process for reflecting on racism and its links to health. The resources and documentation for the Unlearning and Undoing Project can be found here. In the BCIT Unlearning Club, Tami and Andrea have modified this established curriculum to reflect an educational context, while also integrating the lenses of health and wellness.

The first iteration of the Unlearning Club at BCIT, which includes faculty and staff, will meet 6 times between January and June 2025, in-person at the BCIT Burnaby campus. Together we will engage with the materials, tell stories, listen, learn challenge ourselves to unlearn the biases normalized in society and make meaningful connections with each other in a safe space.

Each month there is an opportunity to prepare with a shallow or deep dive version of the course materials. The homework for the first meeting was to watch a TedTalk by Dr. Carmara Jones, Former president of the American Public Health Association, who launched a national campaign against racism, Allegories on race and racism  and read an accompanying article Toward the Science and Practice of Anti-Racism: Launching a National Campaign Against Racism .

OR

Watch 13^th (2016) on Netflix, a thought-provoking documentary, where scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.

I chose the TedTalk. I would recommend it to anyone. Especially people who, like me, sometime finds it difficult to explain to people the systematic racism baked into government that prevents people from minority groups from succeeding in our society. The allegory of the gardener providing nutrient-rich soil in one garden box and poor rocky soil in another was very strong, well thought-out and not threatening to some who might feel a need to erect barriers before the conversation even got started.

At our first gathering we learned about what brought each of us to the Unlearning Club and we shared a little about ourselves and our family history. There was a fulsome and engaging discussion about the sort of space where each of us feels we can be our authentic selves.

I look forward to sharing more with you very soon.