It simply offers a lens to look honestly at the reasons disparities exist
Given the criticisms of Critical Race Theory (CRT), I set out to understand this controversial approach to viewing our world. What does it actually say? The first point of CRT is to question the narrative told by our dominant society. Few would argue that “History is written by the victors.” In the quest for truth,…
Why an academic theory that dates back to the 1970s has become a political lightning rod today
In April of this year, Georgia became the latest of 15 American states to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools. In celebrating a similar ban in Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves recorded a video in which he claimed, without evidence, that school children had been “dragged to the front of the classroom and coerced…
Hanna Daniel has made it her business to foster diversity by empowering others
Like an itch that needs scratching, when Hanna Daniel sees something that cries out to be done, she doesn’t regard it as optional. So when the business student arrived at the University of Alberta and realized there was no campus group for black students, she got down to the business of starting one. After a…
There is power in your voice, say the creators of Canada Confesses
After the murder of George Floyd and the American Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Nancy Tangon and Priscilla Ojomu were dismayed by some of the Canadian reaction. The two University of Alberta psychology students kept hearing the same refrain: “Thank God we’re not the U.S., with their toxic racism. We don’t have those problems…
Juanita Gnanapragasam plans to use her career to help people achieve good health and wellness
Juanita Gnanapragasam isn’t the type to restrict herself to one interest, to study just one topic. She believes her varied passions and expertise will figure in her work toward her career and life goal – to build a community where everyone can thrive. She knows now that she doesn’t have to limit herself, something she…
The Black Graduate Students’ Association helps build a more inclusive university for all students
Heather Gray Lamm’s introduction to the Black Graduate Students’ Association came while she was sitting on the floor of the Butterdome at the University of Alberta. Lamm, a new graduate student, was taking a moment amidst the chaos and crowd of orientation to figure out where she was supposed to be. “You’re easily invisible in such…
He wants to broaden the party’s base – not narrow it
The Conservative Party of Canada has formally approved six candidates for its Sept. 10 leadership vote: Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, Patrick Brown, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis and Pierre Poilievre. The clear frontrunner is Poilievre – by a country mile in most polls. The 42-year-old longtime member of Parliament and former cabinet minister has captured the…
Cancel culture plays right into the wheelhouse of those who are angry, fearful and manipulative
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘cancel culture’ as “the practice or tendency of engaging in mass cancelling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.” This is nothing new; we see numerous examples of what we now call cancel culture in history. Society cancelled people it disapproved of during witch hunts. The aristocracy was…
Institutional, systemic discrimination was attacked root and branch as far back as seven decades ago
When Jordan Peterson recently tweeted out a copy of Home Depot’s ‘white privilege’ memorandum given to its staff, it rightly caused a stir: Yet another corporation’s diversity, equity and inclusion staff parroting a simplistic academic theory. The memo offered the usual assumption that one’s skin colour explains incomes and opportunities, or not. It includes the…
It is wrong to equate individual prejudice with state-sponsored discrimination
The following is an excerpt from The Victim Cult: How The Grievance Culture Hurts Everyone And Wrecks Civilizations by Mark Milke. In this excerpt, Milke details how the “new” definition of racism from Ibram X. Kendi and others hollow out hard facts and reasoned analyses when a monocausal explanation – racism – is offered up…