Confronting Anti-Black Racism e-Learning Course

Welcome! We are glad you found your way to this course and hope it moves you closer to your goals of learning how to confront anti-Black racism.

Before telling you a bit about this course, the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-racism (EDI-R) wants to acknowledge and offer gratitude to Dr. Christopher Taylor and all the students of Arts130, Fall 2020. We have not included their individual or group work in this course, but were fortunate to witness their enthusiasm, humility, explorations, commitments, and learning. It is their commitment to dialogue and to action that contributes to a path forward. Thank you to Dr. Taylor for his generosity and idea of making this course public so that we all can share in the learning and take action in our own lives, at work, home, and in our communities.

Confronting Anti-Black Racism is based on the Arts Faculty course, Arts130, which was developed and taught by Dr. Christopher Taylor in the fall semester, 2020. Dr. Taylor has collaborated with EDI-R to create this self-directed learning course made up of the original Arts130 modules.

We suggest moving through the modules in order, one through seven, and within each module, following the resources in order that they appear on the page.

What to expect in a module

  • An estimate of how long the module will take to complete
  • An introduction video by Dr. Taylor, which provides context for the module
  • A list of readings for that module, including the core texts used throughout the course. The following books are required for this course. Please look for them at your local book shop or public library.
  • A list of key definitions and important terms/themes, which may include references to other readings. If folx do not have access to these additional readings, quotations or paraphrases are used with corresponding page references.
  • Video(s) which can be watched in-screen or via YouTube
  • Opportunities to reflect on the material through a series of questions.

Whether you are completing these modules at your own pace, or completing them one module per week having chosen the organized start dates with a Guided Reflection session at the end, we encourage you to find a group or accountability partner who can move through this content with you. We have created a Reflection Template to help you document your reflections and share them easily with others who are also engaged in this course material. This reflection will become your action plan to think through and document what you’ve learned, how that learning will inform your work/studies at Waterloo and your day-to-day life. What will you do and say differently? How will you challenge racism and anti-Black racism?

  • Make your own copy of the Google Doc Reflection Template
  • Download and print a hard copy
  • Or reflect in your way through words, art, music, or any other way

A Message from Dr. Christopher Taylor

White supremacy and anti-Black racism did not ‘begin’ with the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, D’Andre Campbell, or Regis Korchinski-Paquet. White supremacy and anti-Black racism are the building blocks of present-day society.

So why are so many people struggling trying to figure out what they are and how to challenge them?

This self-directed course will explore the historical roots of anti-Black racism and white supremacy in the Americas. Particular emphasis will be placed on Canada’s settler colonial status; however, we will be pulling content from across the Black Atlantic. Following this historical grounding, the course will provide ‘real-world’ strategies on how to combat white supremacy and anti-Black racism that is embedded deep within our society.