Page 3 - Professional Advisory on Anti-Black Racism

Introduction
Anti-Black racism is not a new issue in Canada and has occurred in the education system for more than 160 years and includes the establishment of segregated schools
for Black students.1 The impact and legacy of anti-Black racism date back to the North American Trans-Atlantic slave trade and
the enslavement of Black people. Increased attention is now being paid to anti-Black racism because of recent global events.
Black people and communities are not a mono- lithic group and come from diverse cultures, nationalities and have varying religions and customs. In this advisory, Black will be used to describe racialized people who self-identify as Black and/or are of African descent. The term anti-Black racism will be used throughout this advisory, therefore it is important to define it early. The term was first defined by Dr. Akua Benjamin, a professor in the Social Work
Department at Toronto Metropolitan University, who sought to highlight the effects of systemic racism on Black Canadians.2
Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate defines anti-Black racism as prejudice, attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping and discrimination directed at people of African descent and is rooted in their unique history and experience of enslavement and its legacy. Anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in Canadian institutions, policies and practices such
that it is normalized or deemed invisible to
the larger white society. Anti-Black racism
is present in social, economic, educational and political structures and organizations
and it leads to unequal opportunities, lower socio-economic status, higher unemployment, underemployment, significant poverty rates and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.3
1 theconversation.com/black-history-how-racism-in-ontario-schools-today-is-connected-to-a-history-of- segregation-147633
2 blackhealthalliance.ca/home/antiblack-racism
3 ontario.ca/document/data-standards-identification-and-monitoring-systemic-racism/glossary
PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY ON ANTI-BLACK RACISM 1