We have amassed over 25,000 signatures in less than half a week, so what are my next steps?
Now, what are my next steps?
Based on the feedback I have received I will be consulting with politicians, students, advocacy groups in re-adjusting my goals of the petition to make them more achievable. If you have any background in these fields and would like to contribute, please feel free to send me an email at parnikaraj15@gmail.com
How can you help in the meantime?
Continue to share this petition everywhere, even after the 24-hour IG story ends, contact local influencers, organizations that you think would interested in sharing and ask them if they can share this too
Retweet my tweet on twitter @rajspaghetti.
Start the conversation with friends and family especially for those who don’t use social media, and spread awareness <3
If you are a student, contact your high school teachers and email or talk about this petition with them - I want to hear their thoughts!
If you are a student living in another province or country and want to start this movement there as well, contact me - I can help to support you. This petition is currently being launched in Nova Scotia and is in the process of being implemented British Columbia, Alberta and even Texas! The more places that get on board, the stronger the impact!
If you are an educator, share this with your coworkers and staff - I want to hear your thoughts!
Im curious about your thoughts, email me if you would like to share them parnikaraj15@gmail.com
Share this with your coworkers and staff - I want to hear their thoughts!
Also if you work with the school board or have any contacts that would be useful to me please share! my dms are always open :)
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has signed and shared this petition. The support I've received has been incredible!
Huge shoutout to Rebbecca Dinh, Saivani Sanassy, Ajitha Nair, Emily Morrisson, Deanna Krueger, Pallavi Pal and anyone else who has helped me during this process <3
I’ve been getting a lot of questions so I’ve included a short Q/A responding to some of them!
Q/A
Are you going to release email/call templates?
Email templates will be coming out after I revise my petition to make the goals more feasible by the curriculum. In the meantime, you can email Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Education in Ontario, about your concerns regarding the education system, and ask for reform to cover more topics on race and anti-racism.
Also, those emailing politicians or mayors (people like that) should slightly alter their templates as these can easily be filtered out and ignored!!
Telephone: +1 (416) 325-2600
Email: stephen.lecce@pc.ola.org
Education on racism should start at a younger age, high schools are too late for this course and other courses need to be reformed too like history and social studies.
I completely agree with that statement and this is something I would like to bring up on my agenda as well. Education needs to be reformed in general and especially within the elementary school grades where students are more impressionable.
The concepts I am proposing for this course are more complex since they are originally taken from a university-level course. From that, I have pulled what I believe would be the easiest ideals to implement in one course as opposed to reforming the whole curriculum strands from K - 12.
But I’m quickly realizing that even introducing one course poses many challenges. I have enlisted the help of many educators to get a better sense of what needs to be done in order to achieve our goals.
You shouldn’t bring politics into the classrooms, this is too liberal and needs a more neutral approach.
Human lives aren’t politics, this is a human rights issue. Black and Indigenous populations are hurting the most in Canada and we need to be educated and acknowledge what is truly happening in order to overcome the issue. Ignoring it and not being educated on it is only going to perpetuate even more oppression. Education on this is not meant to further bring down or attack white people or victimize BIPOC, it's meant to help all of us strive to have a more fair and equal future.
There's still a lot of work that needs to be done - this class can be a beneficial stepping stone (or a springboard for further learning) for teens so they can better grasp and understand racism and the experiences of the black and indigenous community
If you are in favour of my idea but don't necessarily agree with my approach, please feel free to dm or email me - I want to hear your thoughts! parnikaraj15@gmail.com
This course won’t be effective if the teacher doesn’t teach it right
Yes, this is definitely an area for concern. The course may not end up being as effective if the teacher is not in any way passionate or driven to teach it.
That being said, we need targeted recruitment for BIPOC teachers to teach these courses. In general, in school, we need to see more of a POC presence for students as they can understand and acknowledge a lot of students’ experiences. University of Toronto Professor Lance McCready talks more about this in a CTV interview if you would like to learn more here is a link
Teachers, in general, should go through mandatory anti-racism and anti-oppression training before being around students, but that’s another goal of another petition.
You can’t make another mandatory course it’s too much for students already balancing high school courses
That is why I would like this class to be in grade 10 (Possibly in conjunction with Civics & careers course) before high schoolers take classes in order to meet the requirements for the university.
Original Action Statement
Goal: To have a mandatory open level Race and Ethnicity course in highschool.
We are asking the Minister of Education of Ontario, Stephen Lecce committed to “fighting for student success and is working to build an education system that is equipped to support our next generation...Stephen stands for an inclusive and equitable system of education and believes that our future as a province and as a country, depends on unlocking the potential of all youth” to reform the education system.
Implementing this course is the first step in reforming the current Eurocentric teachings of “Social Studies”, history, and other subjects that neglect to focus on the important systemic issues from an early age.
Problem: Our current primary and secondary education programs do not address the existence of racism in Canada in the past and in the present. Without educating students on the full extent of the history of racism and cultural assimilation in the past, we are perpetuating a continual cycle of colonialism today. Marginalized groups are then excluded from our teachings and further discriminated against. It is important to showcase the realities of these systemic issues and teach students how to identify discriminatory actions with regards to the issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, etc. in order to educate students on the makings of society and the ways in which these systems operate.
We are not educated about the full extent of slavery and Indigenous genocide that happened in the past, and the lasting effects of that today on racialized, Indigenous, and immigrant populations. What are the lasting mindsets of colonialism that exist today? What does racism and oppression look like in Canada today, right now in terms of issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, etc.? How are the communities dealing with it? How can we progress and learn?
Intention of the course: To provide students with better knowledge and understanding of how race and ethnicity looks in today’s society: How minorities are;
portrayed in the media
recipients of healthcare
treated by the education system (By peers, teachers, staff and the education system in general)
treated at the workplace including hiring practices
dealt with by the justice system
Additional topics to cover
The Eurocentric beauty standard
Racialization of poverty
Racism and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples
White privilege and white fragility
Micro-aggressions
and many more areas of focus of oppression of the everyday life of communities in Canada. A more in-depth list of topics to cover is available at the end of this petition. If you think I missed an important topic feel free to contact me.
Course Description: The first component of this course will explore the theories and foundations of racism, in order to encourage students to engage in critical thinking through an interdisciplinary lens. The second component will analyze systemic structures that are upheld within Canadian society such as the criminal justice system, education systems, public health systems, and other areas of colonization. The third component will present the students with strategies of political resistance from thinkers of the Global South and how to increase the representation of marginalized people within society.
Required Texts:
David Este, Liza Lorenzetti, and Christa Sato (eds.). 2018. Racism and Anti-Racism in Canada. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Book/Article Suggestions from Black and Indigenous Theorists
The Inconvenient Indian - Thomas King (Book)
Has great facts about systemic racism and the history of harm against Indigenous people
Intersectionality - Kimberlé Crenshaw (Article)
She coined the term and has a great paper on it
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander (Book)
Describes how slavery in North America never ended and is reorganized into our system today
Decolonization is not a Metaphor - Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (Article)
Describes settler colonialism and Indigenous land rights
Also describes the harm that we perpetuate as settlers
Why in high school: There have been many petitions for an Anti-Oppression course to be a requirement at a post-secondary institution however, the opportunity to gain post-secondary education is not accessible to everyone. Implementing this course within high schools would be beneficial for the growth and development of students. The concepts taught are applicable in everyday life and it teaches students how to be mindful of the impact of their actions. This course will allow students to know how to analyze entrenched discriminatory practices within our institutions, develop an interdisciplinary lens, and create safer spaces within educational institutions and within the community. Education is the first step in creating social change and race and ethnicity course will be beneficial to all parties through this highly applicable and important course
Why I think this is important: I’ve attended educational institutions in Ottawa for both elementary and secondary school. Living in the most multicultural province in Canada, I believe there should be reasonable expectations and a priority for educational institutions to inform students on issues of colonialism and race as it pertains to a wide audience. There needs to be an increased representation of BIPOC’s within the education system. This would foster a safer space for students in communicating their experiences, being validated and heard.
Taking this type of course in university provided me with much validation and knowledge of my experiences and the experiences of those around me. By starting this petition I hope to demonstrate the importance stressed by the Ottawa community in reforming the Ontario education system. Collectively, we view the importance of having students be made aware of how colonialism is being perpetuated and how this affects many racialized people within the community and also around the world.
Comprehensive topics to include in the course:
Education System
How BIPOC are treated in schools (adultification)
Racism mislabelled as “bullying” and not addressed properly
School to prison pipeline
Promoting “Diversity” and “Multiculturism” does not address each Race and how they are treated differently in society
How racial stereotypes influence teachers/staff in grading, dropout and explosion rates
Public Health
Quality of Healthcare dependant on Race
Racialization of Poverty
Environmental racism
Infant mortality rates
White Supremacy and Eurocentric Ideologies
Eurocentric Beauty standards -> Stereotypes
Media representation
Internalized racism
White privilege/fragility/guilt
White feminism -> intersectionality
Micro-aggressions
Institutionalized Racism
Criminal justice system (war on drugs, over-policing, police brutality, the 13th amendment)
Prison abolition
Carding and racial profiling done by Police Officers
Colonialism
Indigenous land rights
Missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Starlight Tours
Sixties Scoop
Proper Residential schools history, the last school closed in 1996 which is shocking
Slavery, chattel slavery