Seminars Challenge Students to Reflect on Race, Culture and Privilege

Principal Hardy opened the month’s activities with an assembly address on February 4 that spoke to the importance of challenging stereotypes and critically reflecting on our own biases. On February 18, guest speaker Shelley Hamilton gave a dynamic and engaging talk on music, history and cultural identity. Finally, the Diversity Committee planned a series of seminars for students and teachers on Wednesday February 25.

As part of the seminar series, guest speaker and filmmaker Nayani Thiyagarajah presented her film Shadeism, an exploration of the preference for lighter skin amongst many communities of colour. This short documentary is a conversation among five women of colour and one young girl, each from different cultural backgrounds, as they explore how views on skin colour impact their identities, where this form of discrimination comes from and how we can move forward through dialogue and discussion. To find out more about the film, visit www.shadeism.com.

The seminars tackled some challenging subjects, such as white privilege, stereotyping and cultural appropriation, and offered a chance for students and staff to critically reflect on issues of race, power and diversity within the school and broader community.

Civics teacher Michelle Johnson led a seminar exploring race as a social and political construct, as well as the privileges and disadvantages that racial identity confers on different people. Asking students to think critically about the ways that privilege operates in their lives and the lives of other people, Michelle then presented the idea that white people experience a variety of benefits due to the colour of their skin that people of colour do not.

Principal Hardy’s seminar investigated several examples from Hollywood in order to deconstruct how race is represented in the media. Through examples such as the trailer from the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, he asked students to reflect on the progressive and problematic aspects of the film and to explore how racism persists through the powerful connection between images and stereotypes.

Media Arts teacher Johanna Liburd facilitated a dialogue on the appropriation of popular black culture, in which she discussed how such appropriation can trivialize and erase marginalized cultures, and how white privilege makes this possible. Johanna emphasized that it’s not wrong to enjoy the music, fashion, food and other aspects of different cultures, but that we must pay attention to the ways in which we might be furthering negative stereotypes. Closing the seminar with a video entitled “Five Tips for Being an Ally,” she emphasized understanding your own privilege, educating yourself on the issues, and listening to the stories and experiences of people in other communities.

Other seminar topics included:

The seminars concluded with a special musical performance from the Grade 8 ukulele class and the jazz band, who presented an original blues composition and the Stevie Wonder classic “Sir Duke,” respectively. Along with the performances, the student musicians shared the musical roots of these popular genres, linking them to black culture and history.