Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression Resources | Diversity and Human Rights (DHR)

The Office of Diversity and Human Rights is in the process of developing an online anti-racism module that will be available to all students, staff, and faculty. It will address:

The context of race and racism on post-secondary campuses and in broader Canadian society;
Foundational concepts related to anti-racism, including privilege, power, oppression, microaggressions, and bias;
The ways in which racial bias and discrimination affects individuals and communities;
The creation and entrenchment of systemic barriers related to race;
The manifestations of racism on post-secondary campuses and in teaching and learning; and
Ways to implement anti-racist practices in our living, learning, and working environments.

The module is a redevelopment of an existing in-person module that DHR facilitated with various groups across campus. DHR looks forward to expanding the reach of this module to the entire campus community.

In the meantime, and in addition to the upcoming module, DHR has created the following list of resources. Campus community members should feel free to use these resources as a starting or continuing point for their own self-guided learning on anti-racism and anti-oppression. Education is not the only action that is necessary to create a truly anti-racist campus, but it is an essential ingredient for our personal and collective development. We hope that these resources spark many useful conversations and dialogues in the coming months.

The resources are organized in four main categories:

Resources to Build and Improve Capacity for Allyship and Anti-Racist Practice
Resources specifically intended for BIPOC
Organizations advancing anti-racism in Guelph and surrounding areas
Resources to support you and provide further guidance

The resources offered in each of these categories are examples of the kinds of resources you might access. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but rather a sample of the kinds of literature that exists. Some of the ideas presented in these resources may not be shared by every member of every community, and there may be disagreement about the ways in which particular authors theorize about race and racism and the conclusions that they draw about necessary actions. We recognize that these resources will not capture a universal understanding of lived experience or present a completely comprehensive framework for action, but we hope that they provide value for you as we build collective capacity for change.

Section 1: Resources to Build and Improve Capacity for Allyship and Anti-Racist Practice

The resources in this section are organized in a number of steps to facilitate your capacity for allyship and anti-racist practice:

Contextualize – History of race and racism
Contextualize – Systems of oppressions in higher education
Acknowledge – Acknowledge privilege and bias
Allyship – Take action to support the work of BIPOC
Act -- Identify ways to address systems of oppression work alongside BIPOC
Commit and deepen understanding – Engage in the lifelong process of learning and unlearning

1. Contextualize – History of race and racism

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
Five charts that show what systemic racism looks like in Canada, by Graham Slaughter	A newspaper article detailing the effects of systemic racism in Canada	Newspaper article, available here
Ontario Human Rights Code Online Module – Call it out: racism, racial discrimination, and human rights	“A 30-minute interactive eCourse that offers a foundation for learning about race, racial discrimination and human rights protections under Ontario's Human Rights Code. The course offers a historical overview of racism and racial discrimination, explains what “race,” “racism” and “racial discrimination” mean, and provides approaches to preventing and addressing racial discrimination.”	Online module available here
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo	“In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.”	Book Journal article available here
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to Present by Robyn Maynard	“Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada.”	Book
The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society, by Frances Henry and Carol Tator	“The Colour of Democracy provides an in-depth analysis of racism by investigating (1) how dominant group values and ideologies affect the development and maintenance of inequitable socio-economic systems and structures in Canada; (2) racism’s manifestations in the public sector and voluntary organizations; (3) the reasons for racism’s continuation; and (4) the ways in which Canadian society has responded to racism.”	Book
There’s Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities, by Ingrid R. G. Waldron	“Using settler colonialism as the overarching theory, Waldron unpacks how environmental racism operates as a mechanism of erasure enabled by the intersecting dynamics of white supremacy, power, state-sanctioned racial violence, neoliberalism and racial capitalism in white settler societies.”	Book
Racisms in a Multicultural Canada: Paradoxes, Politics, and Resistance, by Augie Fleras	“In acknowledging the possibility that as the world changes so too does racism, this book argues that racism is not disappearing, despite claims of living in a post-racial and multicultural world. To the contrary, racisms persist by transforming into different forms whose intent or effects remain the same: to deny and disallow as well as to exclude and exploit.”	Book
Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls	“The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people.”	Inquiry report, available here
“The urgency of intersectionality,” by Kimberlé Crenshaw	A TED talk on the foundational concept of intersectionality pioneered by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw	TED Talk, available here

2. Contextualize – Systems of oppression in higher education

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities, by Frances Henry and Malinda Smith et. al.	“While some studies do point to the persistence of systemic barriers to equity and diversity in higher education, in-depth analyses of racism, racialization, and Indigeneity in the academy are more notable for their absence. The Equity Myth is the first comprehensive, data-based study of racialized and Indigenous faculty members’ experiences in Canadian universities.”	Book
“Equity, diversity and inclusion at Canadian universities”	Report on the 2019 national survey by Universities Canada	Report available here
“Black PhD students call out inequity in Canadian academia”	A 2017 conversation on CBC’s The Current	Article available here
“‘I Was Fed Up’: How #BlackInTheInvory Got Started and What Its Founders Want to See Next,” by Francie Diep	A conversation with Joy Melody Woods and Shardé M. Davis, who founded the #BlackInTheIvory campaign	Article available here
Racial Bias in Scientific Fields	A collection of resources related to racism in scientific fields, collated by Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences	Resource collection available here

3. Acknowledge: Acknowledge privilege and bias

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
Project Implicit: Implicit Bias Quiz	A tool to assess your own unconscious biases. Note: the term “unconscious bias” has largely replaced “implicit bias”	Personal assessment tool, available here
“Bias: Well-meaning white people”	A podcast from the bias series of “Smartest Person in the Room” with Laura Tremaine	Podcast, available here
“Understanding Whiteness,” a resource by the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre	“To combat racism today, it is necessary to understand the history of the ideology of ‘race’ in order to challenge whiteness as the foundation of racial categories and racism.”	Online resource, available here
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” by Peggy McIntosh	A foundational article on the concept of white privilege; essential reading for anyone new to the concept of privilege or revisiting it with a new perspective	Article available here
“Whites Will be Whites: The Failure to Interrogate Racial Privilege,” by john a. powell	An article exploring the consequences of ignoring and failing to address white privilege	Journal article, available here
“The Problem with ‘Privilege,’” by Andrea Smith	A reflection on how white privilege functions.	Blog post, available here

4. Allyship: Take action to support the work of BIPOC

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
“Anatomy of an Ally,” by Carrie Gaffney	An examination of the principles of allyship along with suggestions of how to teach allyship in the classroom (not targeted to higher ed but has applicable lessons)	Magazine feature, available here
“The Real Work of Being an Ally,” by Tamara Winfrey Harris	An op-ed outlining the five tenets of good allyship: learning, listening, speaking up, taking action, and being brave	Op-ed, available here
“Unsettling allyship, unlearning and learning towards decolonizing solidarity,” by Jenalee Kluttz, Jude Walker, and Pierre Walter	“We argue for the unlearning of colonial practices and mindsets which centre our particular white colonial knowledge, leadership, privilege, power and bodies and learning towards decolonising solidarity. To illustrate this process, we present three personal vignettes that speak about the start of our own 'unlearning of ourselves', and learning of decolonising solidarity.”	Journal article, available here
“Performative Allyship is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead),” by Holiday Phillips	A practical examination of how to ensure that your allyship is constructive	Article available here
“How to Be an Ally if You Are a Person with Privilege,” by Frances E. Kendall	A practical examination of allyship best practices	Article available here
“Ways to Be an Ally from Two Lifetimes of Learning,” by Amy Tan and Pamela Roach	“We both actively work to be allies in the fight against racism. Merely extolling that Canada is ‘welcoming, open-minded and generous’ with some diversity and inclusion policies does not automatically result in any real sense of belonging for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. We share our stories in the hopes of showing what our lived experience has taught us in our lifelong work of allyship.”	Article available here

5. Act: Identify ways to address systems of oppression work alongside BIPOC

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
“75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice,” by Corrine Shutack	Itemized list of potential actions to take alongside BIPOC communities	Article available here
“26 Ways to Be in the Struggle Beyond the Streets”	A collection of suggestions to support liberation beyond collective street action	Online feature available here
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi	“Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.”	Book
“Beyond the Hashtag: How to Take Anti-Racist Action in Your Life,” by Zyahna Bryant	“In this op-ed, Zyahna Bryant — a Charlottesville-based activist, organizer, and social impact strategist — offers insight into how people can take anti-racist action.”	Article available here
“Impossible Burdens: White Institutions, Emotional Labor, and Micro-Resistance,” by Louwanda Evans and Wendy Moore	“This article explores the connections between white institutional spaces, emotional labor, and resistance by illuminating the shared experiences of people of color. In these distinct environments, people of color experience an unequal distribution of emotional labor as a result of negotiating both everyday racial micro-aggressions and dismissive dominant ideologies that deny the relevance of race and racism.”	Journal article available here
“Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people,” by Ijeoma Oluo	“Too often whites at discussions on race decide for themselves what will be discussed, what they will hear, what they will learn. And it is their space. All spaces are.”	Op-ed in The Guardian, available here
“The Difference Between Allyship and Co-opting Movements,” by Julie Schemmer	Schemmer explores how allyship is about working alongside communities that are already doing the work, not renewing the work from the ground up	Op-ed on HuffPost, available here
“We Can’t Call Ourselves Allies; We Have to Do The Work,” by Anisha Phillips	“’Ally’ is not a button or pin that we can wear and it’s not an identity we can claim either. Allyship is a verb; an on-going practice, that should be described based on our continual actions.”	Article available here

6. Commit and deepen understanding: Engage in the lifelong process of learning and unlearning

Resource

Description

Type of Resource

“From White Racist to White Anti-Racist, the life-long journey,” by Tema Okun

“This article is meant to accompany the ladder of empowerment for white people, [an] attempt . . . to distinguish the different stages that white people go through as [they] develop awareness of [their] relationship to racism.”

Article, available here

Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup, by Katrina Michie

Recognizing that anti-racism involves a lifelong process of learning and unlearning, this is a great set of resources for talking to kids about racism

Resource collection available here

Section 2: Resources for BIPOC

Resource	Description	Type of Resource
Racial Stress and Self-Care	Includes information for parents about how race-related stress may affect your relationship with your child and also strategies to deal with racial stress personally and practice self-care	Tip sheets available here
Sustaining Ourselves When Confronting Violence	A podcast with Kandace Montgomery and Miski Noor of Black Visions Collective	Podcast available here
Organizing in a Pandemic: Disability Justice Wisdom	“This [podcast] shares stories and insights from disability justice organizers that all of us can learn from and apply to organizing in our current conditions.”	Podcast episode available here
Healing in Action: A Toolkit for Black Lives Matter Healing Justice and Direct Action	“This toolkit was created to collate, condense and share the lessons we have learned in ensuring that our direct actions are centered on healing justice.”	Toolkit available here
Liberate Meditation app	Meditation app created by and for BIPOC	App available here
“Grief is a direct impact of racism: eight ways to support yourself,” by Roberta K. Timothy	“Self and community care is critical to combating the effects of racism and intersectional violence. Eight self-care tips to support you and your loved ones on this cyclical healing journey.”	Article available here
The Unplug Collective	“Unplug, at its core, is a place where Black and Brown womxn and non-binary folks can share their stories about existing in their bodies without being silenced or censored.”	Online resource available here