The TCDSB’s
last Equity Action Plan (2018-2021) fails to even
mention the term "Anti-Black Racism." This gap, the constant
incidents of Anti-Black racism and the failure to note their
progress on their African Canadian Advisory Council’s five-
year plan has led our coalition and community to demand a
strategy that transparently identifies how the board intends
on challenging and dismantling Anti-Black racism. The time is
now to
#cuethestrategy.
We have spent time meeting with the board’s Director,
Superintendent of Equity
and
Diversity and the Human Rights
Advisor and although there has been an acknowledgement of
the anti-Black racism that exists, there has not been any
signaling towards
comprehensive, quantifiable measures that
are going to be put in place to confront anti-Black racism.
The response to our concerns of anti-Black racism has been
that they are working on the matter and that change takes
time, and when asked further "what are Black children
supposed to do while the board takes its time," there was a
lack of response.
Black communities have been waiting for a long time for
systems to get it right; TCDSB now is the time to
#cuethestrategy. There needs to be adequate planning,
strategizing, expertise and resources dedicated to the
dismantling of Anti-Black racism. A strategy is not going to fix
the problem, but it will outline, quantify and affirm what gaps
exists and how then to evaluate and amend them.
We are calling on the community to join our coalition in
demanding that TCDSB
#cuethestrategy.
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Our coalition (Coalition of Racial Equity in Education) first
aims to bring together existing work, those already doing the
organizing, and those eager to be involved in activism. We
equip community with advocacy tools and trainings and
spend our organizing time working towards specific policy
changes at the level of regional school boards and the
provincial government.
With funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, our
coalition is a collaborative project between the Urban Alliance
on Race Relations (UARR), Council of Agencies Serving South
Asians (CASSA), Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators
(ONABSE), Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto
(CCNCTo), and Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action
(TCCCA).