Category: Resident Perspectives

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The Risk of Tolerating Racism

Over the past month, I have continued to use my voice to bring attention to issues that I feel are important for Edmonton’s Indigenous community. Every time I speak up, conversations are sparked, different perspectives are shared, and learning takes place. I also hope that by stepping up, I will encourage others to feel confident in pointing out things in the world that rub them the wrong way. These outcomes are my only rewards and hope they will also benefit others. I know that my opinions are not the be-all, end-all but sharing them is important to me.

My presentation to Edmonton’s City Council Community and Public Services Committee and  last blog post (which has now been viewed more than 4000 times) led to local media coverage and a lot of conversations, online and in-person. Since presenting to Council, I have been contacted by more than 60 Indigenous artists and allies who are also concerned about the lack of Indigenous involvement in the City of Edmonton’s newly approved 10-year Cultural Plan. Many of those who share my concerns say they are afraid to speak out publicly over possible repercussions for doing so, including a fear of being blacklisted from receiving grants for themselves or their organizations in the future. This is a real risk with real consequences for their  livelihoods.

And just before Halloween, I shared some photos on social media of a costume that I found offensive. My post on facebook and twitter led to local and national media coverage. It also brought out a lot of opinions about cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation – a conversation that is not black and white and evolves with every grey example that pops up. In this situation, I was disappointed to see the swift backlash that came from a variety of people telling me I was being too touchy and blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Like most times when I am met with opposition, I’ve been reflecting on the spectrum of responses a lot.

I consider myself to be fairly self-aware but I know I, too, have blind spots. I make a conscious effort to consider the implications of my decisions and my words before taking action. However, as I get older and gain confidence, less and less do I let possible repercussions stop me from speaking my truth or calling out acts of racism and discrimination. For me, this is about challenging myself and others to consider how everyday words and actions are a way to influence larger societal shifts. I truly believe that intentional, daily efforts is what will ultimately disrupt colonial systems.

The opposition that has come from strangers, acquaintances, and allies in the past month, has led me to have some deep conversations about my own intentions and end goal of this work. Some have been willing to do this deep dive with me, while others have avoided the discomfort all together – all leading me to more self-reflection. For those of you who have followed along via the news coverage, social media, or my blog and have formed opinions about my intentions without engaging with me directly, I wanted to provide you with some insight.

I know that there are different levels of tolerance for racism and that people sometimes see (or don’t see) how it manifests around them. As I connect more with my own Indigenous identity and learn about the power of truth as a foundation for resiliency, I am more aware of the racism that exists in our city. My eyes are open and I now see it almost every day. I also see people who are afraid to open their eyes because seeing what I see will force them to look at themselves and, perhaps too, be compelled to do something about it. As I witness those who chose to look away, my tolerance for acts of racism grows closer and closer to zero. I feel that seeing it without acknowledging it and making others aware it’s happening is a way of condoning it. Each time we turn our heads and carry on, we tell the world it is acceptable. Perhaps we believe that we don’t hold the power to change the world but we do, one action and one word at the time. This requires standing up and speaking out. Every time we witness an act of racism, we have a choice to tolerate it and silently agree or do something. I have that choice, and so do you.

However, we also live in a society that breeds conformity and punishes those who challenge norms. There are risks, both perceived and real, for those of us that speak up and call out racism and discrimination. The risks can range from simple feelings of discomfort and awkwardness to loss of relationships, employment opportunities, and even threats of harm. The risks can impact all parts of one’s being – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Because these risks can be so detrimental, they further encourage us to mind our own business and stay out of it – tolerate it and pretend it’s not there.

These risks are ones that I am well aware of. From the first time I tweeted, I realized that sharing my thoughts in a public forum has its downfalls but also its rewards. I know that my low tolerance for racism and high tolerance for risk makes me different from others. I also know that these ratios have changed throughout my life, and continue to fluctuate based on a variety of factors. Being different in these ways does not make me better than others who make a conscious effort to choose silence more often than speaking up, it simply encourages me to do it more often for those who do not have the current circumstances to overcome the risks.

I know that the boldness I exhibit by speaking out in a public way frightens some people. I have been told by some other marginalized people that I should just be grateful for what I have and not rock the boat, founded in a belief that what Indigenous people have been able to gain could once again be taken away. I also know that there are other ways to combat racism besides a call to the local paper and I do those, too, although you may not hear about it. I have many one-on-one private chats, I point out who is missing from conversations at the boardroom tables I am asked to sit at, and I ask a lot of questions to deepen my understanding of opposing viewpoints. What bothers me most are those who don’t engage in the hard conversations, publicly or privately, and are not willing to challenge their own tolerance of racism and consider the risks in facing it head on.

If you’re uncomfortable with my forward approach, perhaps consider starting with some reflection on what you might be comfortable with:

  • What are your own tolerance levels?
  • What acts of racism are you willing to let slide?
  • Which ones cross the line and, in your eyes, must be called out?
  • What have you witnessed that, looking back, you regret not doing something about in that moment?
  • What were the risks that came to mind in that moment that stopped you from speaking up?
  • What is the worst case scenario that could have resulted from your action? How would you have handled it?

I encourage each of you to consider these questions and start a conversation with someone close to you that you trust. They may see the situation differently and gently challenge you to challenge yourself the next time you’re confronted with a similar situation. Through the process, you’ll likely learn a lot about each other but someone needs to be brave enough to start the conversation.

Pointing out acts of racism and discrimination takes away from my personal time and can be emotionally, mentally, and, sometimes, physically draining. When I choose to speak up, I have to be ready to engage in the conversation I am starting and have the supports I need in place beforehand. I have learned to enter these conversations with intention and the confidence that more good will come from it than bad. The more situations that prove this outcome to me, the more willing I am to start the conversations I feel are necessary for our collective well-being and for a respectful, just society.

In a recent conversation I had with a friend about the risks I face in speaking out, she pointed out the broader need to increase everyone’s risk tolerance. This is the question I am contemplating today – how do I encourage others to take on more calculated risk to call out racism? For me, this has always come in modeling the behaviour for others in hopes that it will spur others to speak up. Now, I am realizing that maybe it’s having the opposite effect. Perhaps others are watching from the sidelines, only seeing the negativity it stirs up which validates their assumptions about the benefits of avoiding any personal risk.

In thinking about our past, there are figures who stood up and spoke out when others allowed atrocities to happen. They may not have changed the course of history at that moment but they didn’t ignore the wrongs around them. Right now, I am thinking about ally Dr. Peter Bryce who wrote a scathing report on the welfare of Indigenous children in Indian Residential Schools, first shared in 1907. His report was a truthful account of the poor living conditions and disproportionate mortality rates in this federal system of forced assimilation. His report eventually led to his discreditation and ended his career in public health. More than a hundred years later, his findings were validated through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. If the Bryce Report would have resulted in the immediate closure of residential schools, my grandmother and my father – among hundreds of aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives – would have never been forced to attend. But instead of listening, three more generations of Indigenous peoples in our country were subjected to this genocide.

The risks are real and each of us have to consider our own ability to manage those risks. But fearing possible repercussions doesn’t have to stop us from speaking up. I would like to find ways to encourage a society that is less risk averse, where the possible impacts don’t keep each of us frozen in a place of compliance. If modeling behaviour around speaking up is not the answer, what is? I’ll continue to reflect on this and how I can play a part in encouraging others to engage in conversations about racism and understand each other’s perspectives on this complex issue.

While I don’t know the solution (yet), I do know that the consequence of inaction is a continued tolerance of racism. I want future generations to look back on us and see those shining moments when we were creating positive change in small and big ways every day, even though it made us, and others, uncomfortable. I want them to be proud of those of us who stood up against injustice, racism, discrimination, and inequality. I refuse to be remembered as one of the bystanders who knew better and chose not to act. This is not a risk I am willing to accept.

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A Place at the Table

Good morning Committee members and other members of City Council. My name is Miranda Jimmy. I am a member of Thunderchild First Nation, proud Treaty person, and an active member of our city’s Indigenous community. For nearly 20 years now, I have been employed in and engaged with Edmonton’s arts and cultural sector. When I first moved to this city, the arts were a way of connecting with the people and pulse of my new home and has continued to be the way I relate to my changing community.

More than 10 years ago as an arts administrator and citizen, I was involved in the creation of our city’s first cultural plan: The Art of Living. At the time, I felt honoured that an Indigenous person would even be invited to participate in the development of such an important document and saw my involvement in the process as a step towards inclusion in our city. However, when it was published and the recommendations approved by Council, it was clear that the Indigenous perspective were not important enough to be included. At the time, I chalked it up to a simple minority versus majority of population in our city. Again, I was feeling like I was just lucky to have been involved.

But in a decade, society has changed and so have I. The Art of Living was approved prior to Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada agreeing to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the City of Edmonton’s own MOUs with the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, the Métis Nation of Alberta, and Enoch Cree Nation. Being invited to sit at the table can no longer the inclusion goal. Indigenous peoples need to be partners in planning the meetings and their opinions need to be valued, respected, and included when decisions are made.

Over the past year, I have been angered and disappointed by the approach that was taken to bring this new 10-year cultural plan forward to City Council. It was evident to me from who was invited to participate and who wrote what is before you, that respect for Indigenous peoples and the Treaty relationship is not the guiding force. Although once again, Indigenous people were permitted at the table for the discussions, the Indigenous knowledge shared through the process has not manifested itself in the pathway forward for culture in our city.

Simply acknowledging this Treaty relationship is not an acceptable form of Indigenous inclusion and I don’t want it to be the benchmark for the next 10 years to come. I want to see inherent respect for that Treaty relationship reflected in every step of development and execution of all City of Edmonton plans. This means meaningful involvement from Indigenous Peoples from Treaty Six, the Métis Nation, and others who now make their home here. It means Indigenous Peoples being involved in goal setting and outcome measurements, being reflected in the concepts and language, and it means allowing Indigenous Peoples to hold decision makers accountable for their actions – the way those who are in good relations should do.

When talking about the cultural fabric of our city, we need to honour and embrace its foundation – a gathering place for Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island to share in cultural and creative practices that are still alive today. For the heritage and arts of Edmonton, this is where we come from and it needs to be central in planning for our future. For too many generations, First Nations and Métis traditions were outlawed and hidden. By continuing to deny meaningful involvement of Indigenous Peoples in the planning of our city, you are choosing to keep it that way.

In reading the report presented to you today, you’ll see there was an attempt to engage with Indigenous Peoples. Perhaps more Indigenous Peoples were consulted in the development of this plan versus the last one but the lack of impact to the plan itself remains the same. The perspectives of Indigenous Peoples were not present in the recommendations of the Art of Living and they are not present in the ambitions, aims and actions of The Connections & Exchanges Plan. This document creates no space for Indigenous involvement going forward and no accountability to make sure Indigenous ways will be respected in the work carried out as a result of this plan.

When I sat in consultation meetings more than a decade ago for the development of the Art of Living, I envisioned the future of arts and culture in our city a generation away. I saw Indigenous presence both in policy and physical form and an accepted belief that the Treaty relationship is our city’s past, present and future. This new plan for arts and culture in our city is meant to take us to that next generation but unfortunately all I see in it is more of the same lip service – a mention that Indigenous Peoples exist but not that we have valuable perspectives to contribute. I look forward to answering any questions and providing you with specific areas of concern in this plan. Ultimately, I don’t want to live in a city where my cultural existence is not seen as integral and respected by the decision makers who are responsible for building a city for all my relations.

The preceding  speech was shared at Edmonton’s City Council Community and Public Services Committee on October 17, 2018. A video recording of the proceedings can be found online here.

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Thanks but…

Mayor and members of Edmonton City Council:

On the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I am writing to acknowledge the recent support I received from the Edmonton Heritage Council (EHC) to attend and present at the 2018 National Council on Public History Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the conference, I presented as part of a panel discussion including Indigenous representatives from across Turtle Island speaking about project-based reconciliation work. I was able to share information about my volunteer work with RISE – Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton here in our city. The funding I received through the travel grant from EHC supported my trip and helped to strengthen many of my national relationships in the heritage community.

While I appreciate the support I received for this travel, I am very concerned with the overall lack of effort from the EHC to support reconciliation in Edmonton. Specifically, EHC is not doing enough to challenge the dominant colonial settler narrative that plagues our understanding of our city’s past and present and continues to focus on enforcing this narrative. The EHC is the City of Edmonton’s agency mandated to animate the stories of our city and is funded through operating support from Edmonton City Council. As such, I believe it should be aligned with the City’s commitments to broad societal change, like reconciliation. Within Edmonton’s heritage community, EHC has the ability to be an influencer and leader. As a funder of heritage organizations, EHC has the ability to lead others in the sector to also change the narrative presented to Edmontonians. If EHC chooses to perpetuate the fur trade and pioneer story of Edmonton’s beginnings and focus their resources solely on saving old buildings, EHC sets a tone for the rest of the heritage sector to say protecting this narrative is what is important.

The work of reconciliation is about systemic change which requires concerted efforts with targeted investment. For me, reconciliation starts with recognition that the way we have been doing things has marginalized and disregarded Indigenous experiences and voices – then making intentional efforts to ensure those perspectives to be included and elevated. If the City of Edmonton is actually committed to reconciliation and inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in the civic life of our city, you must demand this same commitment from the boards, agencies, and commissions you fund.

I will continue to watch and publicly reflect on reconciliation efforts in our city. I will monitor how the City of Edmonton, through decisions made at City Council, make long term changes and resource investments that lead to further inclusion of Indigenous perspectives. Like many Indigenous people in our city, I am still waiting to see if the commitment to reconciliation from my municipal government is just talk or if a generation from now, real change will be evident.

In solidarity,

Miranda Jimmy

The preceding letter was sent to all members of Edmonton City Council, along with the Edmonton Heritage Council Executive Director and Board Chair on August 9, 2018 to meet the final reporting requirements of a grant. 

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The Real Fight for Feminism

In recent years, the word feminist has become less taboo to share openly. We have a Prime Minister who claims to hold the title feminist and gender parity in both our Provincial and Federal cabinets. Great, right? Yes, it’s a step forward but gender parity is hypocritical unless we approach feminism with intersectional diversity in mind.

I have a lot of friends who consider themselves progressive and talk about feminism in relation to what is going on in current events. In this time of political polarization, those same friends consider themselves to be on “the good and correct side” of the feminist debate while everyone else is “bad and wrong”. But what if those good folks are still only good to themselves?

Late last month, I was invited to speak to a group of students in the Nellie McClung program at Edmonton Public Schools as part of their celebrations for International Women’s Day. I was invited there by a Grade 8 student who had heard me speak at the Edmonton International Women’s Film Festival last year about the experience of women in politics. In the days leading up to this year’s event, I was thinking about McClung and the women suffragettes and wondering what young women today are taught about this movement, especially those in the program named in her honour.

At the event, I asked the students what they knew about Nellie – making note that most of the students were girls of colour. They told me the generic story of the Famous Five and shared that women have now had the right to vote for over 100 years. I was happy to clarify that only some women earned the right through that movement, which would have left most in the room excluded from voting. This was a shock to the students and to me that they are not being taught the whole truth. I also mentioned the eugenics movement that McClung advocated for. Not only would some of the students not have earned the right to vote, they would have been subject to legislation that may have denied them healthcare or worse, forced them to have surgical procedures they did not consent to.

I’ve heard the excuse that the work of the Famous Five was the stepping stone to getting other women to be seen as persons. For First Nations women, we got the right to vote at the same time as First Nations men – more than a generation after white women. Imagine if the original suffragettes would have fought for the rights of all women at the same time.

In present day, I am seeing history repeat itself. Many privileged white women are waving the feminist flag and fighting for parity in workplaces, on boards, and in politics but very few are considering diversity in that fight. Most are only considering the rights of those who are like them and those that they interact with daily in their comfortable social circles. Even worse are those who recognize diversity as an issue but are not using their power and privilege to change the conversation and invite marginalized women in.

After the election, I was a topic of conversation on a local podcast about women in politics – hosted by two privileged white women. They chatted about the harassment and bullying they had seen towards me on social media throughout the election by a prominent white male. In fact, many people reached out to me after the election telling me how appalling his behaviour was. They had all noticed it happening but none of them stepped up as it was taking place to say anything. And every time someone mentions to me how sorry they are that it happened, I get more and more frustrated. I had the opportunity recently to talk to one of those hosts face to face and tell her how angry that comment made me feel. If I had been a white affluent women, would there have been as many silent bystanders to the harassment? On second thought, would the online bullying have even happened at all? As far as I’m aware, none of the white women I was running against fielded the same targeted harassment.

Last week I attended another event for International Women’s Day that brought together hundreds of women from across the public service. It was great to see the diversity of women represented in the audience but the speakers did not mirror this diversity. My guess is that intersectionality was not even a consideration for the event organizers – five white women. The keynote speaker talked about the challenges of working in a male dominated career but never mentioned her privilege as a white women in that field and how much more challenging it would have been had she come from a marginalized background. As the event carried on and participants broke out into smaller sessions with other panels and speakers, I noticed the trend of privilege continue. Of the 30 or so speakers that afternoon, from my count about two-thirds were white women and the other third a mix of white males and women of colour. For me, this lack of consideration for intersectionality underlines the expectation that women like me are expected to beg to be included, instead of being invited.

While more women are achieving positions of power, the voices of white, privileged women who are now being welcomed to the table do not speak for me. Their understanding of the world and the barriers that exist in it are very different from mine. I make an effort every day to recognize the ways that I am privileged. Most of the time, I don’t have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to making sure my basic needs are taken care of. I have a roof over my head at night, food to eat, and job security. I have mental health resources when I need them, access to healthcare, and people who support and care for me. With the privilege I have, I try to make space for those who don’t have a forum to express themselves, amplify the voices of others who are marginalized, and bring perspectives to the table that are otherwise not represented. As a feminist and as a compassionate human being, I feel like that is my responsibility.

To my friends, acquaintances, and anyone reading this:

  • Are you are a Nellie McClung-type feminist or a present day, intersectional-type feminist?
  • Do you acknowledge not only the gender parity in the room but also the whiteness – and do you work to change it?
  • Do you listen to voices that are different from your own lived experience and use your power and influence to include them?

The next International Women’s Day is 12 months away. In that time, I hope we are challenging ourselves to think and work differently for women’s rights. I also hope that I see more diversity around the table whenever there is a discussion about leadership, social justice, or inclusion – issues that impact all women.

Right now, the colonizers – male and female – need to exercise their power and shift this conversation, giving the rest of us a chance to pull up a chair.