Deconstructing anti-black racism in the Canadian and North American context Launch of new anti-black racism course in Toronto schools

BY PAUL JUNOR

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has launched a new anti-black racism course for Grade 12 students. This course is currently being offered at Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto as a pilot program. It was offered as an interdisciplinary course titled, “Deconstructing Anti-Black Racism in the Canadian and North American Context.” There have been seven secondary schools that will offer it in September 2021. An additional thirty schools have expressed a desire to offer it.

D. Tyler Robinson, one of the four teachers that created the course told CBC News on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2021 that as a result of George’s death, “It inspired us into action so we chose to get together and create something that could make things a lot better.”

In a tweet that he posted (@DTyler Robinson) he outlined his Statement of Public Release. He tweeted that, “We are calling on all parents, educators and civic-minded citizens to help us push forward. The TDSB seems ready to work with us.” He describes in more detail the origin of the interdisciplinary grade 12 course. He writes, “We were compelled to create this course last summer, while the world focused on George Floyd, anti-black racism, and the countless conversations people seemed finally willing to have. We took action when kids came to us crying about the weight of it all, feeling as if their blackness was/is a burden.”

This grade 12 interdisciplinary course will focus on the following topics:

• Language and power
• Black history
• Deconstructing and defining blackness in the media
• Oppression

It will be required that students complete a final project and consolidate all that they learned in the course.

D. Tyler told CBC News that, “A course like this should become a Ministry mandated course in the senior grades. We think that, if twenty years from now, every student who comes out of a high school in Ontario understands anti-black racism, we think our society will be in a far better position. This is education as a transformative thing.”

There is currently no such course available. D.Tyer is motivated to offer this course as he knows the opposition that he faces. On Thursday, February 4th, 2021 at an event that was held by a subcommittee of the Parent Council at Clairlea Public School, there were the interruptions of the Zoom meeting with racist attacks as D.Tyler and others were sharing information about the course. This has not deterred him from his goals.

D. Tyler tweeted, “We know that this country has a long, troubling, and racist history that begun with anti-indigenous racism and cultural genocide. We know from listening to our Indigenous brothers and sisters that first teach “Truth” and then we get to ” Reconciliation.”

He notes, “We see the irony of personally experiencing covert and overt racism, as we push for a course that creates the appropriate time and space to engage young people in rooting out of racism. We know that anti-black racism, and all forms of oppression, are rooted in our complex history, policies, systems, and yes within our collective conscience as well.”