Duration: Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes
Jump to: Intro | Readings | Definitions & Important Terms/Themes | Reflections
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Chapter | Page Number |
My Racist Introduction | p. 3 - 13 |
Definitions | p. 14 - 24 |
Dueling Consciousness | p. 25 - 35 |
Power | p. 36 - 44 |
Biology | p. 45 - 56 |
Historical Roots of Anti-Black Racism in Ontario and Canada
Term | Definition |
Ideology of Blackness |
- Dr. Christopher Stuart Taylor |
Enslavement in Canada |
|
The Liberal Racial Order | The idea that “Blacks are to blame” runs rampant within a liberal democracy that has a formal commitment to equality (i.e. a Human Rights Code and Multiculturalism Act). |
Anti-Black Immigration Policies |
1906 and 1910 Immigration Acts
Climate Discrimination
Canada’s racist immigration policies officially abolished in 1962. |
Colourism (Pigmentocracies) |
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the ‘father’ of Western Art History, 1764:
During enslavement: “A body will be all the more superior the Whiter it is – an enslaved body will be closer to the slaveholder the Whiter it is.” – Kendi, 2019. |
How does history impact our lives today and contribute to contemporary instances of anti-Black racism?
It influences the stereotypes (pathologies) we have of Black people today. Stereotypes that were created during enslavement and colonialism.
Black man = Criminal
- Blackness and criminality has roots back to fugitive slave advertisements, where it was seen to be ‘breaking the law’ if a Black person tried to seek freedom.
- Enslavement and immediately following Emancipation in the 19th century, Black men depicted as ‘Black-male-as-rapist’ as an anti-immigration measure to stir public opinion to keep Black people out of the country.
Black woman = Sexualized Body
- The ‘Jezebel’ stereotype, justified the profitable rape of Black women during slavery.
Black Mental Health = Drapetomania
- "In 1851, Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, a Louisiana surgeon and psychologist, filed a report in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal on diseases prevalent among the South's [B]lack population. Among the various maladies Dr. Cartwright described was 'drapetomania' or 'the disease causing slaves to run away" - Bigotry as Mental Illness or Just Another Norm by Emily Eakin, New York Times.
Now that you have completed the module, take some time to reflect on what you have learned. Use the reflection template to document your response to the following:
What was your first experience confronting/experiencing/challenging/understanding anti-Black racism?