Not White in a White world

This week the Issues in Diversity faculty team hosted an event in the Whetung Theatre at Brealey campus for Justice students. The topic was race and racism - a broad theme! Over 2 weeks, over 400 students participated, listening to 4 interesting individuals from the community talk about their experiences of racism.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151432249378259&set=a.389646563258.169046.5690608258&type=1&theater

So what is the race issue in 2013 anyway! The film we viewed proposed that race only has meaning when we look at it from a sociological perspective, after centuries of colonialism (A Film About Races). John Trudeau, currently working for Fleming in Frost Campus Aboriginal Student Services, agrees. John is an Anishnabe from the Serpent River First Nation in Northern Ontario and in his talk he stressed the impact of centuries of colonialism on Aboriginal peoples. Find John at jotrudea@flemingc.on.ca.

Carolyn Nicholson, a social worker who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan when she was 21, talked about racist experiences at Customs, as well as the tough time her sons had integrating into high school in Sault Ste Marie. Her son Jeremy Dias is founder of Day of Pink, a foundation he started with funds from his settlement after winning a human rights claim against his high school for not protecting him from harassment.
http://www.dayofpink.org/

Charmaine Magumbe, a Jamaican Canadian also from northern Ontario (Sudbury) talked about the discrimination she and her children have experienced at school, work, and at church. For her race and racism are old stories she wishes to leave behind. She helps other Black families find support as co-founder of the Afrocentric Awareness Network of the Kawathas. You'll find more info about AANK here: http://ppcii.ca/pdf/Multicultural%20Organizations%20of%20PeteboroughPUBLICDisplay.pdf

Michael Ma, an antiracist researcher, challenged students to think about being White ("so if people from Turkey are Arab but Greeks are White, and Turkey and Greece are neighbours, who exactly is White and why?") Mike is a faculty member in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, British Columbia and is visiting Peterborough where he has worked as Coordinator of Community and Race Relations. http://www.racerelationspeterborough.org/

As the Diversity Coordinator, I get to use my background in community development to collaborate with local agencies working with immigrants, racialized communities, and many other groups of people who experience marginalization. Working with great people like these in the community helps me to constantly challenge my white privilege so I don't get stuck in my own White worldview. Charmaine joked that she was my only Black friend in Peterborough who could come out to the panel (she likes to keep me on my toes :-) but the truth is whether personal friends or professional contacts, I like making my network available to students and faculty. If you need community resources, drop by Brealey 405 or contact me and I will be happy to connect you.

Also, check out the resources linked at the top right of the blog (gold diversity logo). I have reorganized the resources by topic so they are easier to locate.

When language lets you down

Happy New Year and welcome to the Fleming Diversity blog if this is your first time joining us.

This past fall has been a busy season launching the Positive Space Education Program on campuses in Peterborough, Lindsay, and Haliburton. To date, 128 students and employees have participated in the introductory session, Shifting OUTlook, and we're getting ready to launch Level Two: Being an LGBTQ Ally on January 22nd (6 to 8 pm at the Brealey campus, room 631). RSVP at debharri@flemingc.on.ca.

The first thing we are learning is that we need a vocabulary to even start the conversation. What does gender identity have to do with orientation? What is homonegativity and how does it play out in the halls or in the classroom? And of course what does the "alphabet soup" of LGBTQ (I,TS, A, etc.) mean? Our PARN facilitators are great at unpacking all this language so we are more confident to express ourselves on the topic.

We are hearing from students that for some, labels just make the problem worse and what they want is to have more fluid identities. Just naming themselves "queer" is enough. For others, even that feels like a box.

For many people though, the boxes are still quite simply "this is what it is to be male" or "this is what it is to be female" and any expanded awareness beyond traditional gender roles helps stretch us and challenge our stereotypes.

So as we look at all the new vocabulary that has emerged over the last 20 years to describe our diverse experiences around sex and gender, here is one term that leaps up off the pages at me, as I remember an experience I had in my 20's when I was working in a women's shelter in Toronto. A memorable learning event in my life when my lack of language really let me down.

I was asked to welcome and do the intake for a new client entering that afternoon in the single women's building. My supervisor filled me in on her background. She was single, in her mid-20's, and had been evicted from her apartment. This client's sister was staying in the family house with her children. And she was a "hermaphrodite" waiting for sex reassignment surgery. (Now we no longer use this term, long replaced by the term "intersex", as we have discussed in our training session.)

I prepared to meet "Cassie" and give her my best Omemee farm girl welcome, as we knew some of the clients (and even staff) might have a problem accepting her. She arrived, dressed casually in jeans and a hoodie, long blond hair with no particular style, and a five o'clock shadow appearing on a broad face without make-up. Here's how the welcome went:

"Hi there, welcome to the residence" (shaking her hand warmly) "The family resemblance is unmistakable, you must be Cassie, Rachel's brother ... I mean sister ... I mean ...???" and that was where my preparation left me, flat on my red face with no where to crawl away to. All the country charm and good intentions in the world couldn't undo the fact that I did not know how to have this conversation with Cassie. I was responding to her based on my cultural programming, that anyone with facial hair was male, despite knowing Cassie was in transition. I was acting unconsciously.

Luckily for me she was generous and laughed me through it, but I felt a kind of shame that made me hunger to know more so I would never do this again. Of course, I did make plenty of other mistakes, on a range of diversity issues - this is lifelong learning!

Join us for Level Two: Being an LGBTQ Ally, as we practice what we've learned together, through case studies and small group discussions with student leaders from the Fleming Ass'n of Queer Students.

If you are an employee, register through the PD calendar.

If you are a student, send me an email at debharri@flemingc.on.ca

What makes a space positive and safe?

On Saturday, a thousand people danced down George St. to celebrate diversity and LGBTQ Pride and Fleming students and staff were a part of the fun. Here is a link to a YouTube clip by the Peterborough Examiner:

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2012/09/16/peterborough-pride-parade-celebrates-10th-anniversary

Fleming students have been providing volunteer security and support since the event was founded 10 years ago. This year was no exception, and Pride organizers made sure to let me know how amazing Fleming students are - responsible, polite, engaged, professional are some of the words they used to describe them. Hats off to Jon and Anna (FAQS leaders) and Thomas (security coordinator) for their leadership!

Some of the same activists who founded Pride in 2002 also founded the Fleming Positive Space campaign, which we have expanded this year with training. This week I have added the Positive Space Education Program outline to the Diversity wiki for those who would like some background and indepth info on the program (click on the gold "Diversity" logo at upper right). The Level one launch is going well and we hope to see you at an upcoming session.

As we are reflecting on what a positive, safe space is, I thought I'd share a story from the weekend. After the parade, a show and all ages dance was held at Market Hall. This event always draws a wide range of people; gay, straight, trans, young, old, dressed down, dressed up, in drag, every body size, shape and range of the gender continuum you can imagine - but all there to have fun. It is an amazing experience of inclusion. I and several other middle-aged organizers were watching young people dancing and expressing themselves, and we shared how exciting it was to see them so happy.

You see, we hear more about the sad stories. Like when I drop in on a FAQS club meeting and hear students talk about being rejected by their families or high school peers. Or when PARN outreach workers like Peter and Anya who do our training meet clients in distress, after having been attacked in the streets, or who are homeless after being thrown out by their parents. The normative culture of college life can make it seem like this does not happen anymore but unfortunately it does. We continue to receive students here coming with terrible secondary school experiences, hoping that now they are adults, they can achieve some control of their lives.

Our class rooms, hallways, pubs and washrooms can be safe and positive for all students. Every person adds to that positive space when they decide that defending human rights is not just a role for the Diversity Coordinator, but their role as citizen.

Join us, give us your feedback, help us make Fleming an amazing college experience for LGBTQ students.

Positive Space makes learning safe for everyone

Positive Space is now officially launched – thanks to all the 75 faculty, support staff and students who participated in one of the educational sessions this week!

Whenever I am involved in some type of human rights education, whether it’s anti-racism, anti-homophobia, or sexual assault prevention, I am always reminded of how hard it is to dialogue about being “anti” or against something that almost all of us clearly know is wrong. We’d much rather be part of something that is positive, that tells us how far we’ve come. And it’s even harder to accept that we are part of the majority that is making things painful for others.

I heard people struggle with this again this week, as we discussed the “alphabet soup” of LGBTQ and tried to understand how complex our gender identity really is. PARN facilitators have been sharing this Genderbread Person, developed by Samuel Killermann. http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/03/the-genderbread-person-v2-0/

This work challenges the idea that everything is either/or, that being human is much more complex than simply being male or female, gay or straight. Heterosexual allies in the room are responding to the call from the queer community to open up safer spaces for them, and as we hear young people talk about how heterosexual  lives have been limited by old gender codes too, there is this empathic voice that stirs in us and says “me too, I have been put in that box, limited by my gender, or made to feel like parts of me aren’t quite masculine or feminine enough”.

I know when I think about my gay and lesbian friends, family members, and colleagues, I am thankful they have fought for a way of being that makes the world more open. As a woman, I have benefited by having a wider range of role models as to how to be “female” in the world, and I think this is true for men as well.

We have come a long way. There’s no denying that. But students still tell me how distressed they are by classroom discussions gone wrong, when a teacher has not challenged homophobic comments and left them to fend for themselves. Students who have been harassed downtown, or in the hallways, hearing “faggot” muttered under someone’s breath as they go by. Worrying who might see them in the GSA meeting and spread rumours about their orientation. Wondering if they are physically and emotionally safe here.

We need to be having these discussions in the classroom but we also need to manage that discussion in a way that keeps the space safe and respectful. Positive Space training helps teachers and students expand their vocabulary and get used to the discussion, so that the classroom becomes a liberating space for everyone, not just a "tolerant" one where we all end up being a little less human.

Get involved in Positive Space and become an ally. The fall training schedule will be posted by Week 2 and there will be sessions available on every campus.  Pride Week starts Sept. 15th and I hope to see you out at the parade (2pm on George St., Peterborough).

Positive Space makes learning safe for everyone.

Positive Space

This summer, the Diversity Office and all our college and community partners are preparing to launch the Positive Space anti-homophobia awareness program. We are very excited about working with PARN (Peterborough AIDS Resource Network) again this year, and welcoming Anya Gwynne and Peter Williams back to Fleming to co-facilitate with the student team.

The Fleming Positive Space Education Program builds an inclusive and welcoming college where people of all sexual orientations and gender identities experience equity and belonging. The program helps students and employees to understand how homophobia and gender stereotypes perpetuate harassment and exclusion, and create unsafe spaces for people who define themselves differently than “heterosexual”.

If you attended the Law and Justice session last year during Day of Pink, then you have an idea of what Positive Space will be. This new educational series will be open to students and staff and will offer three levels of programming:

Level 1: Shifting OUTlook
An introductory 2 hour program that will be offered at all campus locations throughout the fall semester.

Level 2: Being an LGBTQ ally
A more advanced 2 hour program for those who want to be identified as an ally in building safe spaces on campus, starting in December.

Level 3: Train the trainer
A final 3 hour session for anyone who wants to become a Positive Space facilitator, later in the Winter semester.

Personally I am very encouraged by how many students and employees have contributed to the development of this program over the last year. Thanks in particular to the faculty in the Law and Justice and Social Service Worker programs who have contributed time and energy to making it happen. Funding from the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (Women's Campus Safety Grants) is also appreciated, and will help us provide professional and informative materials.

As an intro to the material, I'm adding an LGBTQ definition sheet to the wiki, taken from a Canadian source. As usual, just click on the Diversity logo to access the wiki.

If you want any info about the program, contact me at debharri@flemingc.on.ca

Next post ... how heterosexual privilege and ideas about gender have played out in my life, and why I have some hope "things are getting better" for my not-so-hetero, not-so-privileged friends.

White like me

OK, I know I promised to move on from the theme on white identity, but I've received a couple of questions about what I meant when I said "professional middle class white culture". This term didn't seem familiar, as we don't often talk about our race and socio-economic class together.

The best way I can describe this cultural identity is to send you to a blog by a very funny young Torontonian (who is white by the way) because no one else captures it with so much humour! But I warn you, if you are white this guy may make you nervous!

Christian Lander is author of the popular blog Stuff White People Like and has 2 books filled with his quips.  Of course, before I set you loose on his writing, I have to make a disclaimer that he does not represent my views nor those of the Fleming College Diversity Office (but he sure makes me laugh). Here are some clips from his list of 134 things white people like:

Check out ... coffee
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/18/1-coffee/

Or ... appearing to like classical music
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/09/01/108-appearing-to-enjoy-classical-music/

Or ... grammar
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/12/99-grammar/

Or my favourite (which I read when I need a dose of laughing at myself) ... having gay friends
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/14/88-having-gay-friends/

Now clearly Lander is making fun of particular groups of white people, not just middle/upper-middle class professionals. However I think his keen observations touch on a nerve (90,000,000 views!) and many people, white and non-white, resonate with his light-hearted attempt to define white culture.

If you want to hear what he has to say about being white (and he is quite articulate), here is a video clip of him being interviewed by  Steve Paikin on the The Agenda. I'd use this in a class dealing with race, and it would work well with the Film About Races we discussed several posts ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEnwYMDj64Q

I haven't posted any further resources with this entry but watch out next week for the Positive Space series.

The culture of convocation

Every year following Fleming convocation, I am always engaged in conversations about the presence of ethno-culture in the ceremonies. By "ethno-culture", I mean cultural norms (how we behave based on what we value and believe) and cultural representations (such as music and dress) that are identified with a particular ethnic or national group. There are many kinds of culture - in our PD session we talked about deaf culture or hip hop culture (or sub-cultures) - and of course there is organizational culture. But I am talking about ethnic identity here.

This year one of the Fleming students from India commented to me that they had never experienced Scottish bag pipe or Aboriginal hand drum music before. If you have never attended convocation, you might not know that Fleming ceremonies open with a First Nations honour song, and that student and faculty processions are led by bag pipe players. These have been long-standing traditions here, with the bag pipes honouring the origins of our name sake, Sir Sandford Fleming, and the Aboriginal drumming and prayers honouring the First Nations indigenous to this area.

The student asked if I was Scottish, and if most Fleming employees came from Scotland ( a logical assumption).  He understood the meaning quickly when I told him Sir Sandford Fleming was born in Scotland. But it was not at all surprising to him that culture would be displayed at a ceremony like this. In India, public institutions are still highly associated with ethnic and religious values and symbols.

By and large, most students I speak to (from many backgrounds) feel the ceremonies are dignified and interesting because of the cultural elements, and they enjoy them.  However, some Canadian students (and staff) have questioned our display of ethno-culture at convocation.  Some see it as an insult to other cultural groups who may feel less valued by not having their ethnic culture represented. Others feel public colleges have no business using cultural symbols at all and that they should be "civic" ceremonies, completely devoid of "culture". Is this even possible?!

My very personal view is that the dominant culture that operates in this public institution is neither Scottish nor Anishnabe. It is clearly descended from the Anglo/Celtic people that settled this area but it has powerful dominant values from a professional middle-class culture that has evolved in Canada. I am more concerned about how that culture excludes or marginalizes others than whether bag pipes are played at convocation. I believe that is where the heart of equity lies, in the ability of the college to respond positively to the many different cultural norms that each of us cherishes and operates by.

How do you feel about this issue? Do you think your identity is affected by dominant cultural norms here? Which values stand out for you? Do you observe some students being exluded?  How do they react to this?

This week I am posting the recently approved Inclusive College Action Plan that outlines how Fleming College will address diversity this year. This plan is developed by the Inclusive College Committee, a group of administrators, faculty and other department representatives who are responsible to oversee the development of an inclusive environment at Fleming. You will note there are some interesting educational opportunities coming up this year, with Aboriginal Cultural Safety Training, as well as the LGBTQ Positive Space program.

Upcoming posts in July and September will be exploring these areas of interest.

I will be off the first 2 weeks of August. Enjoy your summer vacation!