Part 05 - Critical Race Theory

Sections 26-30: Critical Race Theory (CRT)

These sections delved into the controversial topic of Critical Race Theory (often abbreviated and referred to as CRT).

Section 27: Self Inventory / Critical Race Theory Made Easy

  1. What do you think Critical Race Theory is? From my understanding, Critical Race Theory is a lens through which issues can be examined with an eye towards understanding how different kinds of supremacies (as john a powell reminds us to challenge, is the notion of supremacy overall - be it national supremacy, racial supremacy, religious supremacy, or white supremacy) have shaped and influenced various societal structures, laws and institutions through the oppression of minorities [black, indigenous and other people of colour, (BIPOC) in particular].

  2. Do you take what you’ve seen on social media as an accurate definition (of CRT)? To be honest, I’m somewhat cautious about what I’ve read about CRT on social media. I follow a lot of centrist and left leaning social media feeds, which tend to support CRT; and I do also encounter ideas and opinions about CRT from right leaning social media feeds, which tend to heavily criticize and even dismiss CRT as a concept.

    Those on the left of this issue don’t scare me when it comes to CRT. They tend to argue that it is a healthy concept, developed by legal scholars, through which we can examine society, both in the past and the present, and from this examination, improve upon it.

    But since CRT exists as a means of examining how supremacy has oppressed (and continues to oppress) many people in society, I can see how some in power might fear that any examination of societal structures from the viewpoint of critically examining supremacy, might result in them losing their power. I think this fear is why many right leaning feeds have even declared CRT as being dangerous to the very fabric of society. In fact, as I study this concept, we saw the state of Virginia this week institute an outright ban on CRT being taught or applied to curriculums in schools.

    Ultimately, an article appearing in Forbes Magazine on November 2, 2021, called “Critical Race Theory Debated on Social Media” by Peter Suciu, nicely sums up why debates on social media should always be taken with a grain of salt:

The fact that this was making the rounds on social media was seen as worrisome to Dr. Robert A. Sanders, associate professor and chair of the National Security Department at the University of New Haven. Sanders told this reporter in a phone interview, "Social media is not the right place to discuss this topic if it isn't presented in the right manner."

Unlike many of the Twitter pundits who attempt to make their point about this controversial issue, Dr. Sanders actually teaches a Security, Sovereignty, and Slavery class, and summed up CRT as a "legal studies movement. It is a way to look at how race and law in our country, and from that power, has impacted our society. Critics have made it into something it is not. This isn't about teaching white kids to hate themselves."

Critical Race Theory (CRT): “A way of looking at law’s role platforming, facilitating, producing, and even insulating racial inequality.” - Professor Kimberle Crenshaw

For a deeper understanding of Crenshaw’s work, see the article by Janel George called “A Lesson on Critical Race Theory” as published on January 11, 2021 on the American Bar Association website.

THIS MODERN WORLD political cartoon called ATTACK OF THE CRITICAL RACE THEORY, by Tom Tomorrow, can be viewed at The Nation Website.

It’s important to remember that ultimately race is a social construct. RACE is NOT natural, RACE is not BIOLOGICAL.

Sections 28-29: Institutionalized Racism / Race, Law and Education

Some interesting points raised in these sections included how “Critical Theory” is not a noun, it is a verb, and it is also not a curriculum - it is an idea to be discussed.

It is also important to note that RACISM is not a bygone issue, relegated to our past.

As such, CRT is simply concerned with discussing concerns about the social construction of race, institutionalized racism, as well as the perpetual race-cast system that we see and interact with everyday, and how it has impacted our past.

Section 30: Conclusion

Our social norms change over time, ideally for the betterment of all citizens in society. CRT can help us to understand the history of racism, and how it can still exist today.

— End of Part 05 —

As with other topics in this course, I watched a few other videos I found on YouTube as related to this topic, which I’ll share here for anyone to watch if they want to…

— End of Course —

Part 04 - Classism

Sections 19-25: Classism

These sections delved into the concepts of Social Class and the importance of Classism when you are interacting with people who are different from you.

Section 20: Self-Inventory and Definitions

  • SELF-INVENTORY > There actually wasn’t a self-inventory for this section. But I still want to reflect briefly on the privilege I hold, and I likely will expand on this at a later time:

    • I come from a family that, as I grew up, was able to secure a comfortable middle class status. My Father was a medical doctor, so he was a knowledge worker. When he retired, he shifted into studying the stock market, and investing money he had made into stocks and other investment vehicles so that the money he made would continue working for us, as he put it.

    • My Mother often supported my Dad so he could put his efforts into being the best medical doctor and physician that he could be. But she also worked in raising horses, and doing community service work by helping with the local Trail Riders Association and Stampede Grounds in the city I grew up in.

    • My parents also owned different properties in the town and surrounding areas where I grew up in and a few were rental properties, so my parents both worked together in managing those. When my Dad retired, we moved from our small town to Metro Vancouver, Canada. Before they moved, they sold off the different properties they had owned.

    • They also did this in part for me, so that I would have a wider range of post secondary institutions to chose from, as well as more diverse employment opportunities.

    • But, when we moved here, we moved to a new neighbourhood that had been built, one that many older residents had fought against. So, when I went to school, I was viewed as a kind of other, and was actually bullied for where I lived. Before starting grade 7, my Mom had gotten me a new pair of runners, which were brand name, and during a math lesson the teacher actually pointed out the cost of my shoes, which also became a source of inspiration for those who were bullying me. So I felt how there can be an imbalance, even if that’s rooted in just how people perceive wealth, as based on where people lived (it’s funny because today, the area my parents moved to, isn’t that “rich” of an area anymore - newer subdivisions have been constructed with much fancier homes for higher classes of people… so it’s funny how things can continue changing over time).

    • I want to reflect on my life since high school - but I’m going to do this later…

Definitions

  • Classism: A system of oppression which privileges the wealthy and the elite. PREJUDICE + POWER

    In a classist society, people who belong to a certain social class end up setting the norms for everyone else, where people in a higher social class have a better frame of life.

Sections 23-24: Class Systems / Wealth / The Illusion of Wealth / Wealth Inequality

  • There is a review of how the United States inherited its class system from the British Feudal system, where different levels owe something to the level above them (in America, you have owners, managers, and workers > but there is more mobility in the American system as opposed to the rigid class systems of the British feudal system).

  • WEALTH > The values of the wealthy tend to permeate the values that everyone else holds. When we think about wealth though, we think of it as something that is attainable. There are very few individuals who hold the majority of wealth and they are usually seen as better than others… And ultimately, the people at the top of the social ladder have historically been expected to take care of those below them.

  • THE ILLUSION OF WEALTH > Today there is a kind of worship of wealth - from THE REAL HOUSEWIVES, to even characters in novels (THE GREAT GATSBY) to comic books (BATMAN / IRON MAN) to soap operas (THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) to those in music or those who just become celebrities through social media (THE KARDASHIANS, or even the top rated INSTAGRAM, TIK-TOK and YOUTUBE “influencers”) all help to bring the illusion of wealth closer to us… if you can get in front of the right camera, you too can join the world of the wealthy.

    • IS THIS TRUE?

  • WEALTH INEQUALITY > As wealth accumulates at the top of our social structures today (often referred to as the 1%), they tend to invest and save their money, not to spend it. It does not trickle down to lower levels in society. Finding ways to encourage money to “trickle down” are often resisted because of the illusion of wealth that we have in society, and about those who occupy lower levels of the economic scale.

  • Inequality is the biggest threat to people’s emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing.

  • Money rises to the top, but many people do not move up the social ladder with the money.

  • The video also looks at the disruption of “the gig economy,” which is a replication of the old British feudal class system.

Section 25: Theories and Solutions

It’s funny, as I watched these sections - I knew I wanted to reference Robert Reich, the Former US Secretary of Labour, as he’s crafted some amazing social media channels that discuss these very issues on a regular basis… and he’s featured in section 25!

REICH argues that we now have SYMBOLIC ANALYSTS (managers and knowledge workers), PRODUCTION WORKERS (Blue Collar Workers), and ROUTINE PERSONAL SERVICE WORKERS (restaurant workers, service workers, etc).

The following are some good videos on the topic of classism…

— End of Part 05 —

Part 02 - Sexism

Sections 7-12: Sexism

This section delved into the history of women and the feminist movement, which is over 400 years old.

Section 8: Self Inventory & Definitions

  1. Do you think it is better to be a boy (man) or a girl (woman)? Our western society, with its deeply engrained Eurocentric roots, is built to favour men. Some factors for this include:

    • the idea that men are biologically stronger than women;

    • the idea that men are the protector of and provider for the family;

    • the fact that most men are paid more money for the work that they do than women are;

    • the idea that men can go about their day without facing sexual harassment (see the video about Emily Ratajkowski and her new memoir, MY BODY, linked to below);

    • the idea that men can go for walks at night, as well as to bars, nightclubs, and pubs without the fear of ending up in a situation where they could be assaulted and raped;

    • the idea that men can go on dates without the fear of ending up in a situation where they could be assaulted and raped;

    • the idea that men who are confident in their sexuality can be known as a “stud” by sleeping with many partners, and also be revered for it (whereas a woman who is confident and sleeps around is denigrated, and called a “slut,” or “whore”);

    • the idea that men can chose not to have children and not have their masculinity questioned;

    • the fact that religion usually favours males over females, by controlling what women can do and wear, while also having male God(s); and

    • the fact that language used in society is constructed to favour the identification of males in society (ombudsMAN, fireMAN, mailMAN, MAN in the moon).

    After constructing this list, I was saddened to find online a checklist of 100 different ways that men can be privileged in society, by Julian Real, and re-published by the Project Humanities at Arizona State University. A similar checklist called 30+ examples of male privilege was published by Sam Killermann on the It’s Pronounced Metrosexual website. Sarah Poet also notes, in her TEDx Talk, Consciously Reclaiming the Feminine and Masculine Within Each of Us, how the inception of this patriarchy that I’ve just described (which Poet defines as a “…social system that defaults power and authority to men”), happened around 10,000 years ago. She also notes that at this same time, how:

    • “…the Sacred Feminine, the archetype, was systematically suppressed… wasn’t valued, and… was even seen as a threat, and what happened is, you and I have all been defaulting to the masculine first ever since.”

    Another issue that often arises is the fact that many men simply don’t see or understand that they are in a position of privilege in society, an idea which was explored by Fiona Smith for The Guardian in her June 2016 article called, ‘Privilege is invisible to those who have it’: engaging men in workplace equality’, where she notes how:

    • “When it comes to advancing women in the workplace, one of the biggest hurdles is men’s lack of interest. According to American sociologist, Prof Michael Kimmel, men can’t see what the issue is. They don’t see the advantages conferred by their Y chromosome.”

    Finally, I was saddened to listen to Scott Miller, a Batterer Intervention Specialist, in his 2016 video on Male Privilege: Understanding the Power and Control Wheel, describe how some men justify abusive behaviours against women from a position of privilege, which has them believe they are superior to women. Specifically, Miller states how: western society, with its deeply engrained Eurocentric roots, is built to favour men. Some factors for this include:

    • “…it’s the notion that, as a man in a relationship with a woman, I believe that I get to dominate you, control you, and use physical violence if necessary to get you to submit to me because literally the privilege goes right to the core of that man’s identity, and he will fight for that to hold on to that, as if he’s literally fighting it to hold onto himself.”

  1. Do you think it is better to be a boy (man) or a girl (woman)? (Continued..) I listed a lot above concerning the fact that societies have traditionally been patriarchal ones, but I haven’t addressed eastern cultures (which can have their own problematic assumptions and rules), nor have I addressed the question of whether it is better to be a boy / man or a girl / woman. I’ve wanted to avoid this in part because it feels like such a very problematic question, as if trying to make a claim that one is better than the other might get me into hot water or something.

    Ultimately, I don’t think it is better to be a boy or a girl. Both are needed. Like the description given in the graphic on this page for the Yin-Yang, symbol: “…neither is superior, and one cannot exist without the other.” Simon Brown, on an article called “Yin Yang Explained”, posted on his website, Chi Energy, notes how, “When Yang is the strongest, it contains Yin.” And, “When Yin is the strongest, it contains Yang.”

  2. Have you ever thought about being a boy or a girl? I have thought a lot about what it means to be a boy, or a man. I’ve thought a lot about the privileges I have, especially in light of the “me too” movement. As an emerging artist, I’ve also learned about the concept of the male gaze, a term first coined by art critic John Berger in his BBC television series and companion book, Ways of Seeing, and later expanded upon by film critic Laura Mulvey. Essentially, the male gaze argues how men serve as the watcher, with women serving as the objects that are looked at (or consumed, if you look at how imagery of women is bought and sold, be it in any number of magazines to content that exists on the internet).

  3. What would be the benefits? I think each person needs to find balance within themselves, to walk a middle way between the traits that make both men and a women strong. To find balance between what is known as the divine feminine and masculine as archetypes in order to achieve wholeness. These archetypes aren’t gendered, but as Sarah Poet reminds us, in her TEDx Talk, Consciously Reclaiming the Feminine and Masculine Within Each of Us, these archetypes exist as potentials that compliment each other, they are energies that exist within each of us.

Section 8 (Continued): Definitions Related to the Topic of Sexism…

  • Sexism: PREJUDICE + POWER… A system of oppression which privileges men and discriminates against women.

  • Oppression: Pressing down, holding down so we can take power above - a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control.

  • Patriarchy: A system of society in which men hold the power. A patriarchal system is a male dominated system, that favours men, where men control more things, and things are harder for women.

  • Privilege: An advantage granted to a particular person or group.

  • Feminism: The political theory and practice to free all women. Where everyone is entitled to their human rights, and are treated fairly, and equally.

Sections 9-11: US Herstory / Early Feminists / the 19th Amendment

The next three sections delved into the history of feminism in the United States of America.

I don’t want to reference everything in the course in these blog posts. They’re mainly for me to work through the self inventory questions the course poses in each topic of discussion. So, if you’re reading this, you should take the course, and do the self inventory questions and watch the rest of the videos related to each section for yourself (and you don’t have to post anything online, as I’m doing here).

To compliment this section though, I’m posting a cool video below that I found and watched, about Rosie the Riveter, who was discussed in this herstorical summary section of this workshop.

Section 13: Sexism - Closing Thoughts

I think it’s very important for people to acknowledge and explore their privilege in society. It’s a part of being more mindful and emotionally aware. That’s why I’m doing this workshop, as it offered me the opportunity to think about and explore these important topics which represent issues that many in society face everyday.

It’s so important to know our place, and how it impacts the world around us - be it other people, animals, plants, the planet itself, and even the universe our planet exists in. By doing this, and by slowing down, and embracing mindfulness, we can become individuals who are more able to cultivate unconditional compassion, excitement, curiosity, gratitude, forgiveness, love and reverence for all life, starting with ourselves.

#TooManyMen

In March 2021, I contributed to a TOO MANY MEN social media photo challenge on Instagram. You can also find the post on my journal.

“Too Many Men” was a hashtag response to a trending hashtag in March 2021, “Not All Men.” Kayleigh Dray, writing for Stylist! Magazine, discussed the response to the “Not All Men” excuse, in her article called “Jameela Jamil just underlined the big problem with that “not all men” argument”.

Anna Matheson, in her March 2021 article for OK! Magazine, explains the TOO MANY MEN hashtag which had popped up at that time, in her article called “What is the #TooManyMen hashtag and why do women not feel safe?”

Bekah Legg, also spoke to the TOO MANY MEN response, for the Sorted Magazine, in her article called “#TOOMANYMEN”.

— End of Part 02 —

< Part 1: Racism

LGBTQ+ Inclusion >

Part 01 - Racism

This week I started a new Udemy workshop by Dr Gerri Budd and Professor Donnalynn Scillieri, founders of the Peace in Action organization, called A Starter Kit to Understanding Social Justice and Diversity. The course covers several different topics that all relate to the primary theme of exploring social justice and diversity, as follows:

  1. Sections 1-6: Racism

  2. Sections 7-12: Sexism

  3. Sections 13-18: LGBTQ+ Inclusion

  4. Sections 19-25: Classism

  5. Sections 26-30: Critical Race Theory

As with other workshops I’ve taken online, I’ll be posting work I do related to this short course on my online journal blog.

Sections 1-6: Racism

Systemic Racism does not say that everyone is racist, rather it says that the system favours certain outcomes over others.

Section 2: Self-Inventory 1

  1. Do you consider yourself to have a race? This is an interesting question. Specifically, Wikipedia states that a race is “…a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society.” It also states how “Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning… Although still used in general contexts, race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and loaded terms: populations, people(s), ethnic groups or communities.”

    So, given this understanding, it’s likely safer to say that I do have a heritage, related to several different people(s), ethnic groups, and communities. Sources of this information primarily comes from my adopted parents, who shared with me information about my biological Mother. I don’t have information about who my biological Father was, but I’ve been able to trace my biological Mother’s lineage back several generations. Also, over the holidays, my Mother and I picked up a DNA kit from 23 and me, as well as one from ancestory.ca. We will be sending them in next week, and I’m curious to learn about what the analysis from both companies will reveal about myself and my roots.

    I also hold close to me the importance of my adopted parent’s lineage. It is a part of me as they are an important part of my life. I do know a lot about my adopted Father’s lineage, but I wish I had learned more before he passed away in October 2004.

  2. If so, what is it? From what I know, by birth, I am primarily a white, Caucasian male, whose lineage by birth goes back to the United Kingdom. My great great grandpa came from Europe and settled in the area that became known as Williams Lake.

  3. Do you have more than one race? Are you combined? I know that, by birth, my great great Grandfather married, and had several children with my great great Grandmother, who was the daughter of the Chief of the local First Nations the town of my birth is named after. This is knowledge that I do consider to be problematic, as it is likely that my 2nd great Grandmother likely had no consent in regards to marrying my 2nd great Grandfather. Usually colonial settlers would take a wife from the local First Nations, but it wasn’t out of any great love or romance, as one might have seen in Hollywood films such as Dances With Wolves. John Belshaw, Sarah Nickel, and Chelsea Horton, in Chapter 10 of their book Histories of Indigenous Peoples and Canada, write:

If the meta-narrative of Canadian history excluded Indigenous peoples’ stories, it rendered Indigenous women doubly invisible. Indigenous women show up at the peripheries of older settler histories, often exoticized by European observers whose understanding of sexual relationships were peculiarly rigid. Individual women slip in and out of the fur trade records if and when they married and then were deserted by European and Canadian men.

I do know they were likely together for many years, until my 2nd great Grandfather returned to England, where he met and married a European woman who would return to Canada with him.

My adopted Father was a Korean medical doctor who had immigrated to Canada in 1952, escaping the horrors of war that divided his own country of birth. He met my adopted Mother in the 1960s, and they would marry in the 1970s. They wanted to have a child, but weren’t able to - eventually fate saw them adopt me, before I was even born. What’s a little sad is I probably know more about my biological Mother’s lineage than I do of my own adopted parent’s. My Dad, his brother did write a memoir, in which he discussed his youth, but it’s printed in Korean, which I cannot read. We have many photo albums too of people my parents knew, but they are all just the faces of strangers to me. My Mum is elderly, and her health isn’t that great - so I know that the time remaining is growing shorter everyday for me to ask her questions about them. I regret that I didn’t insist on going with my Dad on his last trip to Korea in the late 1990s. He said the air quality in Korea was poor, and that it would probably play havoc on my allergies. I could have talked with him more too though, asked him more questions about his life. But in hindsight, I didn’t really know what questions to ask.

Section 3: Definitions Related to the Topic of Racism

  • Racism: PRIVILEGE + POWER

  • Privilege: refers to a benefit or an advantage granted to a particular person or group… if you are born a certain way, the system makes it easier for you to be that way.

  • White Supremacy: is not the idea that white people are bad, or racist, or that it’s bad to be white, or that anyone should be ashamed to be white - rather, it is the name given to the system of privilege and power, where the features associated with whiteness are considered better or more desirable.

  • Stereotype: A widely held, simplified idea of a group or person. They can be found across various media from books, to television shows, and in the shorthand that helps people to think of entire groups of people as one type of category,

Section 4-5: Legal Constructions of Racism / Birth of Racism

These sections delved into a brief overview of the history of racism, primarily focused on a review of what has happened in the United States of America. A lot of the information was knowledge I was already familiar with, but it did give names to specific laws and movements. But some points I didn’t know - such as how, in 1661, Virginia ruled that slaves were enslaved for life. Nor did I know the specific name of the Indian Removal Act, passed by the federal government of the United States in 1830. The section 5 video specifically stated how the acts that were mentioned all were basically all driven towards organizing people by the colour of people, where if you had darker skin, the laws likely applied to you, leaving you at a great disadvantage in American society. Section 6 argues that the seeds of White Supremacy were planted in the 1820s and 30s in the USA, where there was a value attached to being white, no matter how poor you were. During this time, there were many white people who believed that being white made you a person, and not being white meant you were not a person.

Section 6: Challenge your Thoughts

This section asks people to consider how the information presented can be used and inform people’s lives. Specifically, the video states that we should:

  • Recognize when racism happens and do not run away from it;

  • Do not let it be normalized; and

  • Call it out when you see it and talk about it.

“And we have to be careful, because I sometimes talk about White supremacy, and I say that the operative word is not White, it’s SUPREMACY.

What we have to be really dogged in challenging is the notion of supremacy. Any kind, whether it’s religious supremacy, gender supremacy, racial supremacy, national supremacy—all of those are problematic.”

- john a powell, from his discussion called “Building Belonging: Being an Ambassador for the Earth” with Tami Simon on “Insights at the Edge”

— End of Part 01 —