March 21 - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

#FightRacism 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” and requires workplaces to take positive action to prevent all forms of racism. 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the Ontario Human Rights Commission describes people as “racialized person” or “racialized group” instead of the more outdated and inaccurate terms “racial minority” or "visible minority”.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. 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. Including specific activities that to prevent and address systemic racial discrimination will be an important part of the Municipal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Justice Strategy.

Learn More

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).

If you’d like to share anti-racism resources or information or have questions, comments, or concerns about this post, please reach out to Rebecca or Amrit.