Inclusion Infusions: Developing Your Muscle for Racial Stamina

Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2021

For many people, 2020 year became the first time they thought deeply about racial injustice and its impact in Canada and beyond. With systemic racism, Black Lives Matter, White fragility, and anti-Indigenous racism still dominating the news streams (when the reporters aren’t talking about Covid) it can become numbing and you might be tempted to start tuning out. Or perhaps these topics and conversations are so challenging to the way you perceived the world and your personal morality that you become defensive when you merely hear terms or topics related to race.

This is where racial stamina comes into play. This term coined by Robin DiAngelo is the capacity to endure racial stress when presented with the fact that many White people are complicit in systemic racism. It is the ability to sit in the discomfort, anxiety and guilt that arise when realizing that we are part of communities and institutions that perpetuate racist assumptions and patterns. Since White people in North America are the dominant racial group, we seldom experience racial discomfort, and thus haven’t had the opportunity to develop racial stamina.

Algonquin College has created a powerful opportunity to build your racial stamina by participating in one or more learning events during the first week of February during “Taking a Stand: Disrupting Black and Indigenous Racism”. The lineup of speakers and topics include Desmond Cole, Hair, Culture and Identity, Creating Safer Classrooms, learning through song with Twin Flames, Larissa Crawford on White fragility and many more. I invite you to look at the calendar of events and choose the event that seems the most foreign or challenging, and attend while practicing your racial stamina, with an open mind and accepting any discomfort.

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