March 21 - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

In 1979, the United Nations designated March 21st as The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It marks the day that police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws" in 1960.

In Ontario, the Ontario Human Right Code prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race”. In 2017, the Anti-Racism Act was passed requiring the Government of Ontario to maintain an anti-racism strategy to eliminate systemic racism and advance racial equity.

What is "race"?

The Ontario Human Rights Commission describes race as socially constructed differences among people. In other words, racial categories are not based on science or biology, but on differences that society has chosen to emphasize, with significant consequences for people’s lives. People can be racialized not only based on skin colour, but also other perceived characteristics such as their culture, language, customs, ancestry, country or place of origin, or religion.

The process of social construction of race is called racialization: “the process by which societies construct races as real, different and unequal in ways that matter to economic, political and social life.” Recognizing that race is a social construct, the Ontario Human Rights Commission describes people as “racialized person” or “racialized group” instead of the more outdated and inaccurate terms “racial minority” or "visible minority”.

The Government of Ontario predicts that by 2036, racialized people will account for an estimated 48% of Ontario’s population

What is racial discrimination?

The Ontario Human Rights Commission describes racial discrimination as any action, intentional or not, that has the effect of singling out persons based on their race, and imposing burdens on them and not on others, or withholding or limiting access to benefits available to other members of society. Racial discrimination can include things like:

• comments, jokes, or name-calling related to race
• displaying pictures or behaviors that insult, offend, or put someone down because of their race
• being assigned to less desirable jobs because of race
• being denied mentoring or training because of race
• facing unfair scrutiny from staff because of race.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission reports that 30-40% of complaints they receive are related to racial discrimination.

What is systemic racial discrimination?

Systemic or institutional discrimination is one of the more complex and subtle ways in which racial discrimination occurs. The Ontario Human Rights Commission states that "organizations and institutions have a positive obligation to ensure that they are not engaging in systemic or institutional racial discrimination".

Systemic discrimination can be described as patterns of behavior, policies, or practices that are part of the structures of an organization, and create or perpetuate disadvantage for racialized persons. This can be unintentional, and is often caused by hidden institutional biases in policies, practices, and processes. It can be the result of doing things the way they’ve always been done, without considering how they impact groups differently. Even practices that appear neutral on the surface can have have an exclusionary impact on racialized persons. Systemic racism can take many forms, such as:

• Singling out members of racialized groups for greater scrutiny or different treatment;
• Opportunities shared through informal networks that exclude racialized individuals; and
• Lack of public attention and policy concern regarding social, health and economic problems that disproportionately affect racialized communities.

What is the impact of systemic racial discrimination?

Patterns of behaviour, policies, or practices that are part of an organization can disadvantage or fail to reverse the ongoing impact and legacy of historical disadvantage of racialized persons. In other words, even though we don't intend to, our “normal way of doing things” might be having a negative impact on racialized persons. As a result of systemic racism in various institutions, racialized people and communities face systemic barriers that prevent racialized people from fully participating in all parts of society and lead to inequitable outcomes. For example, in Ontario, when compared to white people, racialized people are more likely to:

• be in foster care
• be enrolled in lower academic streams
• be disciplined in the school system
• interact with the justice system
• be un- or under- employed
• be under-represented in the upper levels of public and private organizations
• report barriers to employment, housing, and healthcare
• experience poverty.

When racialized people and communities are under-represented in our organizations, our policies, programs, and services are less likely to attract, effectively serve, or reflect the lived realities of racialized communities.

What is our role in addressing systemic racial discrimination?

Systemic racism can be hard to see, especially for people who are not negatively impacted by it. To address systemic racism, we need to first acknowledge that systemic racism exists.

We all bring our own experiences, perspectives, and knowledge with us to work. We also bring the messages, stereotypes and assumptions about race that we all have as a result of the systemic racism we've been exposed to. At an individual level, we can begin to address racism by reflecting on the impacts of systemic racism on ourselves and our perspectives.

All levels of government have a role to play in eliminating systemic racism and ensuring racialized people and communities can thrive. At a local level, we are responsible for ensuring all people in our community benefit equally from public polices, programs and services. We can do this by, for example:

• gathering and using demographic data
  • (respectfully) asking about demographics of our employees and clients allows us to monitor engagement, representation, and outcomes and ensure these are fair and equitable for everyone
• engaging in outreach to under-represented racialized communities
  • surveys alone are not enough to understand the barriers, challenges, and strengths of racialized communities
• examining assumptions made in standardized processes
  • standardized processes reflect the lived realities of the people who created them and can create barriers to racialized people who are under-represented
• setting clear and transparent decision-making processes that consider the impacts for racialized communities
  • the more discretion, the more room there is for unconscious bias
  • build in ways to actively consider how decision-making processes and outcomes impact racialized communities
  • acknowledge the impacts of historical racism and build this into policies, processes, programs, and decision-making
• understanding how our organizational culture could exclude racialized people
  • communication styles, interpersonal skills, and leadership styles can be shaped by the racialization process
  • understand which norms our organizational culture upholds or challenges

If you'd like to learn more about how to address systemic racism in your work, please reach out to Rebecca Haskell-Thomas, Coordinator, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion or Amrit Khaira, Intern, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.

To learn more about some of the statistics and facts in this post:

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination | United Nations(External link)

Ontario's Anti-Racism Directorate

Ontario Human Rights Commission Policy and Guideline on Racism and Racial Discrimination (see page 7 for an overview of the legacy of racism in Canada).

Have comments, concerns, or feedback about this post? Please reach out to Rebecca or Amrit.