In the last week, Black students have experienced two incidences of the use of the word N* in school, by school staff. One incidence was by a Principal and the other by a teacher in the Calgary school system. This word, when used by white authority figures, carries a deep and negative racist meaning to members of the Black community and especially Black children.
We also know that Black children do not have the same experience as other children in the education system in this city and province. They experience, at best, lower academic expectations and their needs are largely ignored
by teachers and school support systems. At worst, they experience outright racism in the form of more serious discipline for lesser misdemeanors, more suspensions, more expulsions, and more frequent police involvement
and actual charges than other children who have committed similar offences, frequent bullying than their classmates, which is often left unaddressed for years. These issues are explained only by the failure of the
educational system and the individuals that work within it.
While racism harms and traumatizes Black, Brown and Indigenous students – they are the targets of this behaviour
- its existence in our school system impacts all students. Without concrete change, we are perpetuating a system
of White Supremacy and teaching all of our children their place within that system. What are we teaching white
students when we allow this behaviour to continue? What lessons are they learning by the examples that are
being set for them by teachers and administrators? This is not an appropriate environment for any of our children
to be raised in.
We are calling for a stop to this ongoing, longstanding, and dangerous discrimination with the following actions:
- Public acknowledgment by education officials at the City, Provincial and Federal levels of the failure of the
education system and its personnel to address the needs of Black students. - Development of standing task force comprised of all stakeholders along with a concrete schedule and
commitment to engage consistently to address these issues. - Concrete and immediate standards of language for all staff of the school system, teachers and principals,
specifically regarding racially charged words and micro-aggressions along with consequences for those
failing to adhere to these standards. - Research data to be developed about the problems associated with black students’ experience in the
school system and the education delivery factors that contribute to compromising their success. - A comprehensive analysis of, and adjustment to, curriculum as it pertains to perpetuating systemic
racism. - Anti-racism training to be deliver to all staff that impact the planning, administration, delivery and
evaluation of educational policies, procedures, curriculum and services within all school systems at the
municipal, provincial, and federal level.
Marion Ashton
Executive Director