Illegible web site due to pop-ups, heavy on the whining, weak on sources
if you want to be an apologist for the U.S. or Canada, this is really not the forum for that.” Ojo-Thompson concluded the exchange by telling the class that “your job in this work as white people is to believe” — not to question claims of racism.
Yeah sorry, but if you’re going to make a claim you need evidence to back it up. You don’t attack the person asking for proof. It sounds like these trainers lost their cool when questioned on their controversial claim that Canada has more racism than America because the Canadian head of state is the monarchy, and the monarchy is racist.
I had to take diversity training and the instructors focused very much on stats and that biases are normal, but we should do a better job to not be biased based on things people can’t change about themselves.
As much as I dislike this particular journalist, I do agree the trainers lost their cool and created an unsafe environment for the principal. As a racialized person, I don’t want to defend the principal, since it seemed like he was taking a Lynn Beyak approach to diversity training, but I have to call foul play where I see it.
What I particularly dislike about Sarkonak’s article is that he’s using this story to push his political agenda, rather than just report. It’s one thing to call out wrongdoing by a few individuals, but to use that to paint an entire group or political position in a single colour is disingenuous at best.
It all began with a DEI course for TDSB administrators that started in April 2021. DEI trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson (the CEO of the KOJO Institute) led a series of sessions for TDSB higher-ups in which she made a number of familiar progressive arguments, according to Bilkszto’s court filing: Canada is a more racist place than the U.S., Canada is a “bastion of white supremacy and colonialism,”
The rest aside, the NP saying that it’s a common take that Canada is worse than the us for racism is crazy talk. That’s a fringe view.
