Build Workplace Competency 

Anti-racism is the practice of actively identifying, challenging, preventing, eliminating and changing the values, structures, policies, programs, practices and behaviours that perpetuate racism. It is more than just being “not racist” but involves taking action to create conditions of greater inclusion, equality and justice (In Plain Sight Report, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

A cognitive bias is a bad mental habit. It’s a way of thinking that might be very common and, on its surface, might even appear rational – but in fact it gets in the way of logical thinking. For example, if all of your friends believe something, you’re much more likely to believe it as well (Philosophy Terms, 2018).

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them” (Whitmore, 2002). In the context of Indigenous Anti-Racism Coaching, this term refers to the support required to undo a lifetime of biased education that teaches all Settler peoples to discriminate against Indigenous peoples (Harding, 2021).

Cognitive dissonance is a theory in social psychology. It refers to the mental conflict that occurs when a person’s behaviors and beliefs do not align. This may also happen when a person holds two beliefs that contradict one another. Cognitive dissonance causes feelings of unease and tension, and people attempt to relieve this discomfort in different ways. Examples include “explaining things away” or rejecting new information that conflicts with their existing beliefs (Medical News Today, 2019).

Colonizers are groups of people or countries that come to a new place or country to take land and resources from Indigenous peoples, and develop a set of laws and public processes that are designed to violate human rights of the Indigenous peoples. This process violently suppresses the governance, legal, social, and cultural structures of Indigenous peoples, and force Indigenous peoples to conform to the structures of the colonial state (In Plain Sight Report, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

A set of wider mostly negative social beliefs and justifications associated with Indigenous peoples that affect self-determination, social determinants of health and increase inequities between Settler Canadians and Indigenous people (Vowels, 2016).

A culturally safe environment is physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually safe. There is recognition of, and respect for, the cultural identities of others, without challenge or denial of an individual’s identity, who they are, or what they need. Indigenous people determine when your services are safe (In Plain Sight Report, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

Through action or inaction, denying members of a particular social group access to goods, resources and services. Discrimination can occur at the individual, organizational or societal level. Discrimination is prohibited in the province of BC on the basis of “race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, family status, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, political belief or conviction of a criminal or summary conviction offence unrelated to their employment” (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2005).

Epistemic racism: is the positioning of the knowledge of one racialized group as superior to another. Indigenous specific racism is embedded into all public institutions. It is woven into the very fabric of Canadian society. The ways in which power inequities serve to reinforce this reality are readily apparent across sectors (e.g., health, education, justice, child welfare and media) and highlighted when reviewing the pervasive funding inadequacies for Indigenous programs and communities (BC Provincial Health Services Authority, 2019).

The first inhabitants of a geographic area. In Canada, Indigenous peoples include those who may identify as First Nations (status and non-status), Métis and/or Inuit (2018, Harding).

Interpersonal racism is racism that occurs between individuals. When a White person can take their misinformation and stereotypes towards another group and perform an act of harassment, exclusion, marginalization, discrimination, hate or violence they are committing an act of interpersonal racism towards an individual or group. This is often due to gaps in knowledge, education, skills and awareness that manifest as resistance: a refusal to change one’s behaviour when confronted with concerns about race, racism and colonization. This could be due to disbelief, discomfort and/or defensiveness. (Adapted from Showing Up Against Racism, n.d., and BC Provincial Health Services Authority, 2019)

The unique nature of stereotyping, bias and prejudice about Indigenous peoples in Canada that is rooted in the history of settler colonialism. It is the ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada that perpetuates power imbalances, systemic discrimination and inequitable outcomes stemming from colonial policies and practices (In Plain Sight Resort, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

Organizational racism (against Indigenous people), occurs when organizational policies, practices, and workplace cultures consistently penalize, disadvantage, or otherwise harm Indigenous people. Examples of anti- Indigenous racism at the organizational level include a lack of accountability for incidents of interpersonal racism (e.g., a lack of mechanisms to report incidents and no follow-up procedures); a workplace culture that normalizes stereotyping or racist remarks about Indigenous people; or policies that are not designed with Indigenous people in mind or are not enforced equally across racialized groups (BC Provincial Health Services Authority, 2019).

Refers to a group of people who share the same physical characteristics such as skin tone, hair texture and facial features. Race is a socially constructed way to categorize people and is used as the basis for discrimination by situating human beings within a hierarchy of social value (In Plain Sight Report, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

Racism is the belief that a group of people are inferior based on the colour of their skin or due to the inferiority of their culture or spirituality. It leads to discriminatory behaviours and policies that oppress, ignore or treat racialized groups as ‘less than’ non-racialized groups (In Plain Sight Report, Turpel-Lafond, 2020).

I use the term Settler to signify the relationship that all non-Indigenous peoples have with Indigenous peoples and the land in what is now called Canada. While recognizing the racist history of oppression that all non-White peoples continue to face and the extremely diverse circumstances of arriving in Canada, all non-Indigenous people benefit from the land taken from Indigenous peoples, regardless of when or how we arrived (Harding, 2018).

A fixed image. Refers to an exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth about a person or group; a generalization that allows for little or no individual differences or social variation. Stereotypes are cognitive short cuts that can interfere with collegial relationships, and practical assessment and engagement in the workplace - when thy are not recognized and interrupted. In health care, they encourage deviation from standard procedures and have had life threatening consequences for many Indigenous peoples (Brian Sinclair and Joyce Echaquan) (Harding, 2018).

Systemic racism is enacted through routine and societal systems, structures and institutions such as requirements, policies, legislation and practices that perpetuate and maintain avoidable and unfair inequalities across racial groups, including the use of profiling and stereotyping and includes both actions and inactions. It maintains and perpetuates inequities between racialized groups and reflects distorted values and worldviews (e.g., the notion that Indigenous people and knowledge systems are inferior, conquered, and uncivilized, while White settler-imposed systems are superior, inevitable, and ideal). Examples of anti-Indigenous racism at the systemic level include the chronic underfunding of health services within rural and remote Indigenous communities; the exclusion of Indigenous content from settler-imposed elementary and secondary school curricula, and the exclusion or dismissal of Indigenous approaches to health and health care within the mainstream health care system. This last example can also be interpreted as a form of epistemic racism (BC Provincial Health Services Authority, 2019).

Whiteness is a social construct of unearned power that normalizes a social process of dominance and oppression (DiAngelo (2011). Whiteness is multidimensional: First, Whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege. Second, it is a “standpoint,” a place from which White people look at ourselves, at others, and at society. Third, “Whiteness” refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed (Frankenberg, 1993).

White people are the descendants of the White European colonizers living on Indigenous lands. They are a socially constructed racial group with socially and politically granted power (Harding, 2018).

“In discussing racism, it is necessary to consider the unearned privileges i.e. benefits, advantages, access and/or opportunities that exist for members of the dominant group in society or in any given context. This notion is often termed ‘White Privilege’” (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2005).

Descendants of White European colonizers who are dependent on and benefit from colonial policies and the land taken from Indigenous peoples (Harding, 2018).