Exploring The Grievance Pathway Of Anti-Racism

Understanding The Grabs For Power And The Plays For Compensation

Introduction

We have completely lost our minds. We have allowed an adversary culture to grow from within and deliberately colonize our institutions for the expressed purpose of eradicating Western traditions and culture as we know them. Why? Because of a belief held by the adversary culture, the lyrical left, the woke, that Western nations, which to this day see an influx of immigration from nations south of the equator (who unlike their northern counterparts, have expanding populations), are irredeemably oppressive and unacceptable because of the prevalence of “whiteness.” 

We are expected to go along with this. We are also expected to celebrate the cultures of non-western countries, even ones that are brutal, violent or corrupt, where the people can’t immigrate to Canada fast enough. But of our own country we can only be ashamed because it is a “genocidal oppressive White supremacist patriarchy.”

We have allowed this adversary culture to grow into something that looks much more like a racist hate movement. “Eradicating whiteness” looks, sounds and acts like a hate movement. To not recognize the anti-White hate so casually discussed in the public square is, to put it in woke terms, to be “complicit.”

Marshall McLuhan developed four laws of media. One of which is reversal. Radical activism has pushed past the limits of its potential thereby reversing its characteristics. Through this process of McLuhian reversal, the purpose of radical activism - to hold power accountable (power being concentrated in ownership of the means of production) - has flipped 180 degrees so that radicals now mouth political slogans emanating from the sources of power they historically held to account; corporate and government elites and woke activists march in lockstep.   

At the same time we are undergoing annual levels of immigration equal roughly to the population of the city of London, Ontario, we are teaching everyone that whiteness is bad. Call me crazy, but it doesn’t seem smart to bring hundreds of thousands of non-White people every year into a country full of whites, only to teach them that whites are evil oppressors. If you have ever wondered what a country committing a slow suicide looks like, I think Canada might be a contender.

The Radical Meet On Zoom, Regular People Are Sometimes Problematic At BBQ’s

I am the parent of two black children. Mixed race if you want to get technical. My children, through no choice of their own, are automatic members of a BIPOC category that excludes their father. I’ve often wondered if the creators of BIPOC were aware of this exclusion? Wasn’t it the “Inclusivity” people who coined it? Regardless, as a parent of Black children I was invited to attend a meeting on April 7, 2022, run by the group Parents of Black Children (PoBC).

Clearly, as evidenced by my mixed race “broke besties,” - whom I routinely drop off, then pick up again from school (among other typical parental functions) - I have some Black family and friends. I’m not saying, “some of my best friends are black,” - I’m saying, my life, family, and business is inexorably and happily tied with many people who are not White like me. 

My experience with Black people in the Greater Toronto Area is not consistent with the accepted narrative of the small radical community of PoBC. The Black people I know are much more diverse than a single narrative can accommodate. I have no Black friends or family who think I’m a White supremacist, or who invoke the language of critical race theory and speak like the presenters at the PoBC meeting.

I’m not trying to say that my Black friends and family don’t have flaws. They do, so does my White friends and family. I’ve been witness to both groups saying less than flattering things about the other. But other than offensive jokes and occasional ill-thought or insensitive remarks, I haven’t detected racism or hatred from either side. My view is that groups like PoBC are organizing and working hard to greatly exaggerate and inflame racial tensions that for years have been safely relegated to backyard bbq’s and private meetings among friends. 

On a few occasions I have been the lone White guy in a group of Black people who openly disparaged Whites. Sometimes in a joking manner, sometimes less so. My presence seems to dial down the rhetoric, but by no means stops it. It’s acceptable to speak negatively about White people - whether you are White or not. It is never acceptable for Whites to speak negatively about any race but our own. When Black people are among White people, the potential for micro-aggression goes up. There is an obvious double standard in how we treat each other. Especially when it comes to so-called “comfort.” 

While we are told by Theorists that White comfort is prioritized over Black lives and other such political slogans (which are impossible to demonstrate or prove empirically), the truth is that my comfort has never been a concern or priority in the Black spaces I have been in. I think that is just fine. No one has ever been overtly rude or foul or violent to me, if anything they have shown a level of trust by being honest about their feelings toward White people. I get it. White people, especially those that don’t have experiences and relationships with Black people and spaces, can be oblivious, ignorant and appear insensitive to Black issues. However, White people have their frustrations with race issues as well, the only difference is we are expected to keep it to ourselves. White people are not permitted in polite society to express any grievance with any other group, however every other group is encouraged to express grievance with White people.

Mixed Up Mix Up

There is something unique about the situation a mixed race person finds themself in today's woke environment. While the Critical Race Theorists are sensitive to the challenges and issues faced by BIPOC people, they seem oblivious to the fact that in the process they are committing an ongoing psychological assault directed at White people. A mixed person is simultaneously assaulted and supported. But perhaps more damaging is the way this likely distorts how a mixed child sees his or her parents.

I have found friendship with other parents who are in the same mixed race boat as I am. The waters we sail are not what I imagined nine years ago when my son was born. I hadn’t yet heard of anti-racism (at least how it is used today) or critical race theory, and the thought that regular white Canadians, like the ones I grew up with in Niagara Falls, Ontario, were not actually the nice regular folks that populated the neighborhoods where I lived. As it turns out, they and myself, are considered White supremacists — we are all inherently racist. And according to PoBC and anti-racist types, all of us White people are working together to keep BIPOC people down.

Woke ideologies claim to be concerned with the harm caused to BIPOC people through what they call systemic or structural inequities. This is the nicest way they put it. Once in the safety of their meeting spaces they come right out and overtly blame white people for holding up the oppressive systems and structures. The speakers at the PoBC meeting sounded like paranoid conspiracy theorists to me. The problem is, CRT is being adopted all over the place (schools, unions, government, businesses), and has been for quite some time. The rhetoric at the PoBC meeting is the same, although amped up, as found in the anti-racism literature spelling out the CRT-informed policies of Ontario’s School Boards. Including the Peel board that my kids school is part of.

PoBC is based in Ontario but they represent parents across Canada and the United States. The meeting I attended had 116 people. The low attendance is not exactly a mystery. CRT, anti-racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, etc., are ideologies driven by governments, institutions, and corporations. The minority of radical woke activists, like PoBC, are not so effective in their advocacy work that they can claim responsibility for stirring these movements. The elites want wokeism and all of its annoying decolonizing and allyship. It is a distraction, a way in which the unwashed masses are led to fight with each other, instead of organizing to confront the unprecedented powers of corporate monopolies now exercising far too much control over our sense-making organs,  platforms of public discourse, and a multitude of essential services relied upon by everyone in a functioning modern society.

The Infiltration Of A Parents Of Black Children Zoom Meeting

“Parents of Black Children (PoBC) is an advocacy group that supports and addresses the systemic barriers impacting the experience of Black students and their families within our education system. Based in Ontario, PoBC provides support to parents of Black children across Canada and the United States. We advocate and work towards change and concrete action in our education and adjacent systems, such as child welfare, and the justice system.” -PoBC

The meeting began with a land acknowledgement to the Indigenous but also included an acknowledgement of the people brought to this country via the trans Atlantic slave trade - “…we occupy stolen land at the displacement of Indigenous peoples…as Ontario’s many systems continue to exercise colonial power over Indigenous and racialized minorities…It is important to recognize what has happened and is happening for further reconciliation.”

The theme of Canada's Indigenous, especially the issue of residential schools, was a recurring one throughout the meeting. PoBC would love to see government compensation for past anti-black racism wrongs, similar to the windfalls regularly transferred to Canada’s Indigenous. Social justice is a ruse. The purpose is to obfuscate the true incentive for the majority of so-called social justice grievances: redistribution.

Wealth, power, privileges, employment, services, education, opportunity - equity is about the redistribution of these things (and whatever else they can get their hands on), from the group perceived as privileged/oppressive to the group deemed oppressed. 

The groups of course are delineated by identity, so if you are of an oppressed identity, most likely there already exists a grievance pathway that can be expressed through activism and possibly some day result in the redistribution of benefits to you. If you are White you are automatically an oppressor, if you are non-White you are automatically a victim.

The first presenter was Robin Maynard writer of “Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present” -  described as “an examination of anti-Black Canadian racism that explores the enduring legacy of slavery in the ways that Black people experience surveillance and captivity through policing, jails, prisons, child welfare and border controls.”

Robin told us, in a somber but urgent tone, that “In the eyes of the white society and the state institutions, including education institutions, Black children are so often not conceived of as children and are often attributed with supernatural abilities, dangerous abilities, far beyond their age, their size, and their physical capabilities due to the enduring realities of anti-Blackness.”

She also told the group that “violence against Black kids is normalized in the school system,” that schools are often the places of harm and psychological violence and “often the places of very real violence in the form of arrest by police in these institutions.” She claims that schools across Canada are “permeated with anti-Blackness,” and that they are the “tools of white supremacy.” She goes on to say that there is a lasting inequity between Black and White children in the school system leftover from decades of segregation.

Robin thinks that beyond systemic racism in schools there is also egregious racism coming from many individual teachers. This is why, Robin explains, Black children are given lower grades, suspended more, Black parents are reported on by the school more, and explains the “greater surveillance and policing of Black students” - her worldview is exhausting and paranoid. 

Robin’s presentation mentioned a few anecdotes of individual racism and made mention of some survey data (the worst kind) that she says supports her claims for all the White supremacy and anti-Black racism.  She also mentioned her book quite a bit. I wonder how many copies she sold that night?

Some of said survey data reveals that many Black students feel their teachers view them as less intelligent. Consistent with the standard operating procedures of most anti-racists, this amounts to indisputable evidence that these Black students' feelings must be 100% scientifically accurate and the singular absolute truth and fail-safe explanation for what is obviously systemic oppression. Nothing more substantial is required than this. Eradicating whiteness for equity is the only acceptable remedy. The majority of White people, who make up the majority of the country, will totally understand, they will redistribute their life essence to the victims of anti-Blackness, none of us will feel resentful about it in the least, nor will we feel thwarted by a semi-covert Black power take over. It’s all fine, carry on with the anti-racism revolution companeros!

In this context, what anti-racism has become is a tool by which any negative experience as perceived by Black students can be considered illustrative of either individual or systemic racism. All disparities where Black students are lower in some way than perfectly equal to their white counterparts, is also explained as racism. This is madness. There are countless explanations for disparities. The reliance on a single explanation of White supremacy is to suit a political purpose. The grievance process requires that harms, and violence and systemic inequities be severe enough that redistribution of benefits be justified.

Canada’s Specialness

The anti-racist record was set straight when Robin explained how Canada’s awfulness is not imported from the United States as is commonly assumed, but that there is a uniquely Canadian nature to our systemic racism and White supremacy. She used the words harm and violence interchangeably and often. This is something I’ve noticed anti-racists are doing a lot more of. Hurt feelings aren’t enough to inspire the juiciest of grievance redistribution, but emotional harm conflated with violence…now we’re talking!

Canadian schools, according to Robin, are using disciplinary policies to push out Black children (who she claims are perceived as a threat). But I wonder if a broader awareness of what could be happening might be considered. Firstly, Black children as a group will not be equal to White children by any measure - no two groups are ever equal at anything, positive or negative, save for the rarest exceptions of random chance. Looking for equity in the real world is a fool's errand. Secondly, this environment of postmodern identity politics - where Critical Race Theory and perpetual grievance against whiteness and radical parent groups hyping each other up, and daily culture war coverage in the media, and scapegoating of White privilege and the invoking of White Supremacy and on and on with the divisive race essentialism - is bound to play a role in both how Black students feel and act at school.  If we keep telling Black children that they are victims of structural systems held up by White people intent on keeping them down, we should not be surprised when things don’t go well. How could anyone succeed or even feel comfortable in an environment when they believe the majority of people there are out to exclude them from opportunities and “violently harm” them in the process?

Near the end of Robin’s talk she speaks about her and some Black students' support of Black Lives Matter. It is now April 2022 and Black Lives Matter has been exposed as a corrupt organization that appears to have used the suffering of Black people and communities to raise money so that group members could buy mansions. But Robin Maynard and PoBC are still throwing their radical support behind Black Lives Matter. Maybe it has something to do with my next point.

Robin’s talk was full of this common anti-racist notion that Black students are not to blame for their negative educational outcomes. Black students are absolved of responsibility, their poor academic performance, or suspension, is never their fault. It is always the fault of the systemic forces that are perpetually, albeit invisibly, at play. To be an effective grievance hustler two things must be adhered to; 1) Exaggerate the harm you have experienced to the extreme. 2) Never accept an ounce of responsibility for less than ideal outcomes. 

Supporters of PoBC probably think it was White supremacy that made the Black Lives Matter people purchase themselves mansions instead of helping the Black lives that they claim matter so much.

The next speaker took the paranoid crazy up a notch.

The Ridiculous Attempt For An Ontario Human Rights Commission Inquiry Into Anti-Black Racism

PoBC has submitted a report they created - A CALL TO ACTION: Systems abuse of Black  students within Ontario’s  education system - along with 62 impact statements, to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, requesting an inquiry into anti-black racism in Ontario’s education system. OHRC have been less than receptive to opening an inquiry. Predictably, PoBC wants their members to write letters to the OHRC requesting/ demanding one.

The next speaker was Charline Grant, co-founder and chief advocacy officer of PoBC. To me, she seemed to be the main cheerleader behind the push for an OHRC inquiry.

Charline begins by informing parents that “the system is abusing our children.” 

“What we see on a daily basis is that the education system, along with the child welfare system, and along with the criminal justice system, the police, are all in collusion. And they all rally around each other, to support each other, while our children are being abused.” -Charline Grant

The idea for an OHRC inquiry was inspired by Child Welfare (which previously was subject to an OHRC inquiry)  - “there was a blueprint made…called one vision, one voice…it was a provincial approach…we need the same thing. A provincial approach to education and the treatment of Black children.”

Grievance often takes the form of rent-seeking. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and other such Indigenous advocacy initiatives have resulted in government transfers meant to compensate victims for past wrongs. It always begins with inquiries and apologies. Once these things happen, and it is established that harm occurred, the obvious next step is demands of compensation (reparations) for past wrongs.

Anti-racists make outrageous claims when attempting to get their narratives to stick. Here is what Charline had to say about the historic character of Black people:

“Our history has not been lying, our history has not been capturing and kidnapping people from other countries and colonizing. That’s not been our history, we’ve always been people of truth.”

Here I see more parallels with other grievance initiatives. Many of Canada’s Indigenous activists also see themselves as better than White people. They commonly think they are more honest, better stewards of the environment, more spiritual, have an inherent connection to the land that non-Indigenous cannot have or understand, etc. This involves wilful ignorance and the cherry picking of history. Someone should tell Charline that European slave traders purchased their slaves from powerful Black African tribes that enslaved and sold to non-Africans, Black people from weaker tribes. The idea that Black people are somehow inherently more honest and pure, is evidence of the only racial supremacy present at PoBC meetings: Black supremacy.

“The systems are abusing our children, and child welfare and child protection services is silent and complicit in the assault and the abuse of our children.” - Charline Grant

The Trauma Informed Perspective Of Anti-Black Violence

Rohan Thompson, who this year was named the first-ever Director of People and Equity for Dufferin County, was the next speaker.

“Before we get into racial trauma and the impact and such, I just think it is really important to ground the conversation in how absolutely violent our education system is in Ontario…It’s the dehumanizing of black children that is a precursor, it's a gateway or a rationale for the violence against Black children.” - Rohan Thompson

Rohan explains that it is “White bodies” in particular that see Black students as less than human. He gives a presentation explaining what racial trauma is. He, like the other speakers, constantly repeats the words “harm,” “racial violence,” and “racial trauma” - in no particular order, but interchangeably and frequently. Although, the word he says by far the most is “children.”

According to Rohan “the overvaluing of whiteness and white bodies can make it next to impossible for Black children to develop a healthy sense of self.” If Rohan and the other radical anti-racists at PoBC think that Black children are being undervalued in the education system then they should say that. But Rohan is saying that White bodies are “overvalued” - what a strange way to put it. Almost as though the intention is not to lift up Black Children, but push down White ones. Or at least, make Black children and their parents feel like the situation is helpless, that struggling with the anti-racists who are dismantling the systems is their only choice.

“Due to White supremacy, Black students feel like it is dangerous to advocate for themselves…which fuels a sense of helplessness and despair” - Rohan Thompson

I wonder if Rohan, and the other PoBC organizers, will consider the possibility that maybe their work, organizing, attitudes, selective interpretation of data, expectation of equity (which never happens naturally), and a host of actions that they are taking, may in some small, even indirect way, contribute to the “sense of helplessness and despair” that Rohan repeatedly informs us that Black students experience every day.

Rohan claims that when professionals recommend anger management to a Black child, it's not an anger problem, but a racism problem. Therefore the child is not responsible. I wonder too if the anti-racist types ever consider what a disservice it is to not teach a child responsibility for their actions and emotional regulation, to excuse their temper tantrums as racism. Even if racism were the source, you are not equipping the child to deal with the reality of the environment they live in, instead you’ve decided that political activism, with revolutionary societal change as the singular goal, is the only pathway. When the revolution fails, children of revolutionaries will only know how to be revolutionaries. 

Most Black families (the majority of the ones I know) do not choose this revolutionary path. They intrinsically realize grievance focus is not just psychologically taxing, but it fundamentally goes nowhere. Dedication to woke activism will more likely see you wasting your life struggling against mostly exaggerated and invisible system-level forces that do not do a damn thing to prevent millions of Black winners from demonstrating their excellence during every single one of the days other capable Black people are under the grip of non-physical racial violence and trauma. In what real-world situation could racial violence and trauma (experienced everyday, all day), also be the situation from which so many succeed? 

“When we don’t achieve we look to blame ourselves, the truth of the matter is we should be looking to the systems that are preventing our success, and preventing us from exercising our agency” - Rohan Thompson

Rohan thinks that meritocracy is a big problem. Anti-racists always do. He says meritocracy contributes to a feeling of lack of agency in Black students. “We are told to believe that if you work hard and sacrifice and are determined you will have success.” Let me stop you right there Rohan, because you are doing meritocracy wrong. There is no entitlement or guarantee of success. Your best chance of success is to work hard in a determined fashion, but success is not guaranteed. Failure is common. Learning to deal with failure, to re-group, to start again, or choose something else - these things are enormously important to a person's development. Don’t rob Black children of the richness of these experiences by distracting them with conspiratorial claims of systems of anti-Blackness.

Cue the Power Grab

In dealing with these nebulous issues of mostly invisible anti-Black racism, Rohan thinks “it should not be about sensitivity training, it should be about firing.” This makes perfect sense, from the perspective of PoBC, anti-racists who think that White people “rally around each other” to oppress Black people, why wouldn’t they want those oppressors fired?

Even in cases “where measurable results are not being achieved” (referring to the anti-racist equity quotas), “we need to be saying goodbye to people.”

In the last few minutes of Rohan’s presentation he repeated several anti-racist pieties we’ve all heard related to “internalized racism” - the idea that being critical of yourself is somehow a negative belief about your self-worth. In conclusion Rohan made the very much expected call to hold institutions and individuals accountable for anti-Black racism.

At this point I felt literally deflated, all the energy of my soul and spirit had been used up. I’m not sure I can do another PoBC meeting, although it would be interesting to see if they gain any ground on their efforts to open an inquiry with OHRC.

Conclusion

At the beginning of the PoBC meeting, right after the land and racialized peoples acknowledgement, something really cool was discussed. Unfortunately it was only briefly mentioned and summarized in about 2 minutes. Apparently, PoBC has an after school tutoring program for Black students. So far they have 16 students and a waiting list of many more. This seems positive. I wish this was their core focus.

Instead they seem committed to the grievance game, whether they realize it or not, this means using the Black children and families they represent to forward their political goals. In doing so, by spreading the exaggerated and inflammatory falsehoods of anti-racism, and sowing division between Black students and their White counterparts, PoBC can only cause harm and interrupt the natural developmental processes and education of Black students.

The meeting I attended was over 2 hours spent with a depressing and exhausting group of anxious speakers with hopeless messages. The only choice they offer is to struggle with them. Don’t bother. Struggle with your kids and make them do their homework. Get them reading as much as possible. Embody the victor mentality and leave the revolutionary struggle for those with a victim complex. And please, don’t pretend that Black success and excellence is not a growing, welcomed, and exceptional phenomenon, seen in virtually all corners of Canadian society. 

The End

___________________

For more from this author on these topics:

The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy

The Resentment And Fragility Of Anti-Racism

The Race Essentialism of Ultra Woke Ontario Schools