The Cuspidor Editors want to specifically thank Black Equity Club’s executives Leyat Tesaye (M3) and Daeja Sutherland (S5) not only for their support and contributions to this special issue of Cuspidor but for all that they have done for the UTS Community to educate and lead discussions in recent weeks. Deaja and Leyat have been looked to by students, teachers, and administration to champion conversations surrounding black equity in our community. We have placed enormous responsibilities on their shoulders, and on top of being in the midst of the usual summative stress and living through a global pandemic, they have worked tirelessly to organize panels, draft letters, and make resources available so we can all be more informed and meaningful allies.

I’ve worked with Leyat very closely this past year on UTS’ Mock Trial team, and despite being one of the youngest members she consistently brought valuable insight and energy to our practices and tournament in San Francisco. I think back to how I was in grade 9, and am astonished by how mature, thoughtful, and eloquent Leyat is at such a young age. As I leave UTS I know that our student body is in good hands with people like Leyat working to make our school a better place.

In the final few weeks of S6, this is the first time that I’ve worked with Daeja. She has been working to promote Black Equity in our school long before the events that have transpired over the past couple of weeks, and I am constantly amazed and inspired by the power of her words and advocacy. Her article in Cuspidor and what she shares is incredibly important, and I urge all of you to take the time to read it.

Leyat and Daeja embody what it means to be a UTS student and are the “innovative and socially responsible global leaders” that our school prides itself on developing. We hope that the rest of UTS will join us in thanking them for all that they’ve done for the UTS community, and to promote conversations about racism that are long overdue.

The Black Lives Matter movement has been brought to the forefront of the world's attention and has gained a surplus of donations, and advocacy. Recently, many global citizens have been inspired to use their voices to amplify this important, and long-overdue discussion.

In today’s instagrammable culture, footage of police officers executing unarmed Black Men are the worst type of viral videos. Because we have been forced to take a collective pause during this pandemic, it has created the conditions for us to bear witness to the racial pandemic. These factors have aligned into a perfect storm for these large-scale protests to develop and reach critical mass.

To successfully address and put an end to the oppression of Black Men, the systemic racism inflicted from slavery to the present day must be properly examined. In order to move forwards, difficult conversations must be had, and serious efforts from every level of society must take place.

This is not the first time there has been a global response to anti-Black racism, and this won't be the last. Although, this time more white and non-Black voices are making this conversation more effective. However, if we’re going to do this properly, the voices and experiences of Black women must not be marginalized. In the conversation about Black Lives Matter, it must be understood that Black women do not face police violence at the same rates as Black men, but there is an imminent, and horrifyingly under-discussed crisis of sexual abuse and sexual violence plaguing Black women.

Today, 40% of sex trafficking victims in the USA are Black women and girls, while they only make up 6 -7% of the total population. 1 in 4 black girls will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18, and approximately 1 in 5 black women will be victims of rape, whereas ⅙ of women of the general population will be a victim of rape. Equally horrifying, 75% of these assaults come from men whom the women know. It is evident, that Black women are vastly overrepresented in cases of sex trafficking and sexual assault, and are left unprotected within their own communities. To understand where these disparities come from, the issue must be looked at through a number of different frames, the largest being anti-Black racism and misogyny.

Historically, the hypersexualization of Black women predates the founding of America. It was first seen when European travellers mistook the revealing cultural and environmentally correct clothing of women in certain African tribes as sexually promiscuous since their clothing heavily contrasted the “modest” dress of European women. From this, the ideology that Black women constantly crave sex, and were seductive by nature was introduced into European society. This is called the Jezebel stereotype, which was later used to justify the rape and sexual abuse of Black women during slavery. The true damage of the Jezebel stereotype is that it acquits all perpetrators of sexual violence towards Black women, while simultaneously delegitimizing their pain, as Black women are believed to have wanted the assault in the first place. Essentially, Black women are left to the mercy of a system that is unable to see them as victims, because its members and perpetrators either consciously or subconsciously believe you can’t rape the unrapeable.

One horrific example of the Jezebel stereotype has manifested is the case of Recy Taylor. In 1944 Abbeville, Alabama, Recy Taylor was walking home from church when she was abducted and raped at gunpoint by six white men. Against the threats and expectations of her attackers, Taylor picked herself off of the side of the road, walked home to her family, and did not stay silent. Her case caught the attention of Rosa Parks, who was then working as an anti-rape activist. Together, the two women moved for serious justice through the legal system, and in return, Taylor’s home was firebombed. Her attackers were never prosecuted.

Historian Danielle McGuire, who has worked diligently researching 40 similar cases to Taylor’s over the last decade, describes her work as only uncovering “the tiniest tip of the iceberg.”

“These aren't just bad apples. This is part of a systemic approach to dehumanizing Black women and girls” - McGuire.

McGuire’s words perfectly illustrate how Black women and girls are systematically raped and oppressed in American society. It is also important to acknowledge that Indigenous women and girls face a similar form of sexual violence in Canada as they make up 4% of the female population, but 24% of the murders.

Inexcusably, this systemic oppression is left on the backburner of discussions concerning the treatment, and safety of Black people. For example, there is a recent trend which is currently circulating on Instagram. It is led by Black men, who are posting photos of themselves captioned “we are Black Men, we build, we don't tear down,” and it continues on to say “tag as many brothers as you can.''

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this trend, as it creates a space where Black men can feel safe and proud of their heritage. However, the experiences of Black women are excluded, which can lead to members of society not thinking that Black women face a different, but equally important form of systemic oppression.

To comprehensively move forward, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” must truly encompass advocacy for all Black lives. Each experience is one jagged piece of the large and painful puzzle of the Black experience. The puzzle will never truly be solved until every piece is connected.

Sources:

https://www.apa.org/pi/about/newsletter/2020/02/black-women-sexual-assault

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/24/the-of-recy-taylor-review-vital-story-of-a-woman-who-fought-back

http://www.femicideincanada.ca/about/history/indigenous

https://theundefeated.com/features/the-rape-of-recy-taylor-explores-the-little-known-terror-campaign-against-black-women/

To UTS,

Systematic racial injustice has again been brought to the forefront of our minds and has filled all of our hearts with pain and outrage. On June 2 throughout social media we saw #blackouttuesday, we saw the places to donate, we saw the sources to explore, and we see now the collective movement around the world that will not be silent to hatred and prejudice. While the sheer volume of this social media support is incredible and is a means of forcing many of us to face the issues at hand, to my UTS community I pose the question many of us were asking: What happens tomorrow?

Local action is the catalyst for global change. Local can mean a number of things for all of us, be it our neighbourhoods, faith groups, or peer groups, but one thing we all share is this local school community. The same systematic problems we see in the world of racial injustice and prejudice are present in our city and our school. This local environment, with vast racial disparities and challenges on a daily basis, can be the first platform for espousing the changes we wish to see and make in the world.

The Equity Committee at UTS was formed several years ago. It was to be the role of this committee to create real change in the school to make a more equitable and equal community of students, staff, and administrators as well as tackling issues on a larger scale of the board. I myself was one of the two students placed on this committee and was a part of the creation of the Equity Survey which sought to collect meaningful data on our lived experiences as students, staff, parents and alumni and the perceived demographic of our school body so that we may better know ourselves and issues that our community faces. While the results from this survey were collected more than a year ago now, the results of this survey have not been shared to date as originally intended. With my graduation from the school this year along with the departure of a key staff member last year, the Equity committee will now be made up almost entirely of white members. It is the right of you all as UTS students and staff to know this information and to diversify those spaces where decisions are made so that a multitude of voices can be heard.

So now what can we as students do to make a difference in our school community? It varies for each individual in each different grade. Some of us are directly negatively affected by these systematic prejudices while others might intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate it. However, after the murder of George Floyd on May 25th in Minneapolis, the phone call of Amy Cooper on May 26th in New York, the murder of Sammy Yatim in 2013 in Toronto, after Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Laquon McDonald, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, after the 401 years of slavery and anti-black racism on this continent, and the 528 years of white settler colonialism and hatred in North America, maybe we are starting to be on the same page. Because our actions in the hallways of our school, the ways we treat and see one another, are the same ways we will do so in the hallways of life outside of the building.

To Foundation Students:

While you may not feel as though you have power, each new foundation grade has the opportunity to start a new chapter for the school. Your actions directly influence how the next grade to come in will understand the school and so on. The best thing you can do at this time is to become more informed. It seems difficult to start with so much information out there, and even harder because it is not an easy topic, so it is best to start with the history of Civil Rights and racial injustice on this continent.

Watch:

• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

• Selma (ask your parents)

• Remember the Titans

Read:

• March (comic series) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

• Black in Canada: 10 stories - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/black_in_canada

Ask:

• Your History teachers about: White Canada in the 1930s

• Your Geography teachers: Immigration to Canada

Listen:

• Trevor Noah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4Bg8mu2aM (Watch with your parents)

Most importantly to foundation students, it is okay to speak up. It is not about snitching or not or being triggered or not, it is about if you know it is right or not. Call it out when you see it and always ask questions. You all have more power than you think.

To Middle Students:

You are in a position where you can start building relationships with some of the staff in the school and asking the more difficult questions. You are also at stages where you can talk and form groups within your grade. Have discussions about the news you hear on TV and see on social media with your teachers and your friends. It is okay to not join every club or group that talks about civil rights or racial issues, but you are old enough to start forming your own opinions and understanding of how it affects you. Again, start with history, and also start looking at modern activism.

Watch:

• The Butler

• Don’t Be Nice

• The Help

Read:

• James Baldwin the Last Interview and other conversations

• Six Degrees of Separation

• Trevor Noah: Born a Crime

• https://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/on-george-floyd

Ask:

• Teachers: The Komagatamaru

• Parents: Carding in Toronto

Listen:

• Trevor Noah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4Bg8mu2aM (Watch with your parents)

• James Baldwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fZQQ7o16yQ (Watch with your parents and those who talk about ‘colour blindness’)

• Desmond Cole's Walrus Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvolySK6iBw

Begin to think and evaluate how your actions potentially affect others in the school and continue to speak up as always. Find strength and inspiration in the words and ideas of these sources of information. It can be used for much more than just finding the courage to speak against racism.

To Senior Students:

It is your final few years at the school and therefore your most crucial. By now many of you have come to accept ideas of ‘the way things are’ be it in your school or society and some of you may feel jaded or even cynical about speaking up or learning about racial injustice. I encourage you more than ever to think about the action you can take in your school. Malcolm X once said: ‘Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today’. Demand that education. It is shocking that many of us will have been at the school for five or six years and will never have been taught facts about Civil Rights in a history classroom only to debate questions of racial injustice in a law or english classroom. Ask questions from your teachers, your friends, and most importantly from administration. Your Principal, Vice Principal, and Administrators are your voice to the board of directors that can make real changes at the school. Hold them accountable.

Watch:

• Whose Streets

• 13th

• When They See Us

• Barry

Read:

• The Ward by John Lorinc, Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinburg, and Tatum Taylor

• Undesirables by Ali Kazimi

• The Equity Myth by Frances Henry, Enakshi Dua, Carl E. James

Ask:

• Administration about: The Equity Committee, Student Demographics

• Teachers about: Current News Stories or Events

Listen:

• The Skin I’m In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoBTIv1VqM (Ask teachers to watch in law class)

• Trevor Noah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4Bg8mu2aM (Watch with your parents)

• James Baldwin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fZQQ7o16yQ (Watch with your parents and those who talk about ‘colour blindness’)

It is so important for you as the oldest student body at the school to keep administration and staff accountable for making equity for all racialized people a priority subject in your school. Do not sit idly by. Ask yourself the questions:

What does a UTS student look like?

What don’t they look like?

Where do they live?

Do I see them here?

To the Graduating Class of 2020

Take all of this activism, emotion, reaction that we have right now and keep it in mind when we go in whatever way to our universities; our next local frontiers. Remember this moment and the need you felt to post or talk or the feeling you had when you saw the video of George Floyd’s murder. For many of us it is the first time we have watched, read, asked, or listened and that is okay. It is okay to start now because your timeline is flooded with black boxes. The overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by this issue of racial injustice is a new experience for many, but remember it is not a new experience for the groups whose rights are neglected and taken away; it is a daily reality. More than anything remember that opinion is not fact. This is not about politics or political correctness, it is about the rule of law and human rights.

To Staff, Administration, and The Board of Directors

A member of the equity committee in administration once said to me “It isn’t our job to make sure the school is diverse or equitable, it’s to make sure it isn’t our fault.” As shocking as this may seem, this is often the way in which UTS reacts to these issues. Rather shouldn’t the statement be ‘It is our job to invite diversity and equity into our school and institution and to find new ways to promote that change because it makes us stronger.’

Let it stand that as of today less than 10% of the students of our school are of Black, Hispanic, or of Middle Eastern descent. Let it stand that an even fewer number of these ethnic minority groups make up our teaching staff. Let it stand that our school’s board of directors is made up almost entirely of white men and women.

However let it stand that we are in a school with lots of talents, resources, and opportunity where through persistence and resilience real change can be achieved. For example, in 2018, the then recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture had not been a stopping point on our yearly M4 Washington trip. This museum is an incredibly important source of information and inspiration, both historical and contemporary, and is an absolutely vital experience for our school to partake in and understand. Through the unrelenting voice of myself, and the hard work of several staff members, the National Museum of African American History and Culture became a necessary visit on our yearly trip to Washington.

The local is the first frontier. Demand education. Hold administration accountable. Remain invested. Real change can be achieved.

Hasan Hirji - Class of 2020

It was a sight unseen for months in Toronto: thousands of people crowded together, filling Bloor Street from end to end. The long-silent downtown core echoed with crackled megaphone chants of “Black lives matter” and “Justice now”, punctuated by the rhythmic beating of Indigenous hand drums. Three days before, a Black-Indigenous woman had fallen to her death in the presence of Toronto police officers-- now, Black Lives Matter banners flapped in the spring breeze alongside First Nation flags, standing together in solidarity.

In the wake of the recent global outcry over police brutality and racial injustice, many in Canada have sought to distance themselves from what has happened in the United States. Most Canadians live comfortably behind a facade of multicultural diversity, free healthcare, and social acceptance. In Canada, this is easy to do: when it comes to critical issues like police violence and health outcomes, the government does not collect racial data, effectively burying any concrete evidence of racial disparities.

Race and COVID-19 in Canada:

Most recently, the federal government refused to include racial information in the national COVID-19 survey, despite overwhelming evidence from the United States that racialized groups are far more at risk. Justifying their decision, Ontario’s chief medical officer David Williams said that the elderly, people with underlying conditions and those with compromised immune systems “are all priorities to us, regardless of race, ethnic or other backgrounds”. Another senior federal official stated that “Canada is a colour-blind society and [she] shouldn’t expect that race-based data is necessary”.

This was a shocking dismissal of existing health disparities. People in poor, marginalized communities are more at risk during the pandemic in a multitude of ways: they are more likely to have existing secondary health conditions due to lower quality of care and higher stress. They are more likely to be un- or under-employed, which can contribute to food insecurity and thus even greater health risks. And crucially, they are less likely to be able to work from home, with working-class jobs like cashiers, janitors, and bus drivers. In Chicago, Black residents make up 30% of the population but 70% of COVID-19 deaths, and in 12 states Black residents are 2.5 times more likely to die of COVID-19-- yet Canadian officials insist that no such disparities could exist north of the border.

By denying the existence of these inequalities in Canada in favour of polite platitudes about ‘colour-blindness’, our health officials have failed to deliver the necessary resources to those who need them most.

Race and Policing in Canada:

Desmond Cole, a Toronto journalist and activist, tells a common story in Ontario: “[A Black person] hears a knock on the door. Police. It's police. It's police. And then that person ends up on the ground dead. No charges against the officer”. In Canada, racial bias in policing is something that Black and Indigenous communities know too well-- yet on a national scale, it is not acknowledged by our government. There is no official national record of the number of people killed by police, and when police departments do choose to make that information public, it is not collected based on race.

But the statistics uncovered by independent researchers have painted a grim picture: a Globe and Mail investigation found that between 2007 and 2017, more than one-third of people shot to death by the RCMP were Indigenous, despite constituting less than 5% of the population. A study by the Ontario Human Rights Commission found that Black Torontonians are 20 times more likely to be shot by police than whites. The racial disparities in Canadian policing are clear to see-- and in refusing to recognize the problem, our government is not holding police officers accountable for their actions.

In 2019, the Toronto police department took the first step toward racial accountability, drafting a policy to record the races of individuals involved in certain police encounters. But this is not enough: without action on a national level, individual police departments have to come up with and develop their own policies, which limits the data’s reliability. Without official data to back them up, the experiences of Black and Indigenous Canadians will continue to be dismissed as anecdotal, and ignorance will remain an excuse for complacency.

In the words of Toronto activist Sandy Hudson, “Canada’s anti-Blackness comes in the form of denial”. For Canadians, it is easy to tout our progressive prime minister and reputation for diversity, and dismiss Canadian cases of racial injustice as one-off exceptions. But if we truly want to be the haven of inclusivity and equality that we claim to be, we must first recognize the flaws in our country. When protesters filled the streets of downtown Toronto on that Saturday, their chants were a wakeup call to all of Canada-- and if we care at all about our fellow Canadians, we must listen.

My brother (on entering court for the first time to argue his first case) was stopped by the security guard who had assumed (presumably) that because he was a dark skinned man in a business suit that he was there on trial. My brother was spoken to in a dismissive manner and was searched. He assumed the latter (at least) was standard operating procedure as this was his first time in court. But the search was halted when another lawyer came running, yelling "He's council". My brother told me that what struck him though was not the search coming to a sudden stop, but the complete change in the security guard's voice. Once dismissive, it was now respectful. And my brother wondered why that couldn't be the default setting for every encounter. He told me that story over a decade ago and it has stayed with me.

I was driving one of my student athletes along with her mom and her community coach to a girls’ basketball tryout at Michigan State University back in 2002. My aunt lives in New York State, so I have had many experiences crossing the border. I had never been pulled over for a car inspection and never spent more than a few minutes at the border before moving onto the rest of my travels. As I approached the border officer this particular time in 2002 with my (Black) passengers, it was a very different experience. The officer eyeballed everyone in the car for what seemed like a very long time and in a most uncomfortable way. We were all asked where we were from. I was then asked, “Is this your car?”. Followed by, “Why are you all traveling together?” and “How long have you known each other?” Also, “Where are you all going? Do you have anything to prove this?” (What?!!). We answered every question and then were told sternly, “Take your car over there and wait!”. No reason given. As I pulled us over into the empty lot, we sat in the car and unpacked what just happened. Ironically it was my passengers who were calming me after the experience. An hour later, two border officers approached us, handed back our ID and told us to get going, and to make sure it was to our said destination. It is an experience that I have a visceral reaction to when I recall this memory today and one that brought deep and lasting learning around my white privilege and the daily life injustices of my black students and their families.

I’ve got a bunch of stories about the ways I’ve seen people I love and care about hurt by racism in general and anti-Black racism in particular. The most personal ones, however, are hard to share because they are about my own ignorance, about the ways I’ve hurt others, and about the ways I perpetuate and benefit from a system - white supremacy - that continues to inflict so much suffering.

I was raised to think of racism as an evil thing that evil people “do”, not as the very foundation upon which my country and culture was built. It’s much easier to tell myself I’m not one of “those” people, and much harder to accept that because racism and white supremacy are at the heart of the status quo my settler ancestors helped build, everyday I have to choose whether to accept and maintain this system, or challenge it.

The crazy and truly dangerous thing about the way white supremacy works is that I get this choice. My existence, my body, is not a challenge to the status quo, so I can always be in my comfort zone. I can forget, get lazy, and still not think of myself as “racist” even though my silence or apathy perpetuates a racist status quo. I do this far more than I care to admit.

As a white teacher in a school of largely racialized students, I’m made even more aware of the ways in which I can choose, or choose not to confront our racist status quo everyday in my classroom: in the books I assign (or not), in the comments I ignore (or don’t), in the issues I make space to talk about, or avoid because it’s “easier”. As a teacher in a school which prides itself on a merit based entrance system, I’m well aware of what bodies are under-represented among both students and staff and the message this sends.

Thanks to a universe of incredibly patient and generous teachers — the racialized folks who have called and continue to call me out and in when I hurt them or others — I’ve learned that fundamentally racism and white-supremacy are about power, about how, in the words of June Jordan “those with power determine the meaning of difference.”

When I see a generation of young people taking to the streets for Climate and Racial justice, gaining confidence in their own power and their ability to break with the status quo, I’m reminded that our future can and will be different, if we choose.

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the idea of defunding the police has gone from a fringe issue to a mainstream talking point in a matter of weeks. While police budgets across North America have ballooned under liberal and conservative governments alike with little resistance from the general public, they now face widespread cuts and calls for their budget to be redirected towards healthcare, affordable housing, and other social services.

What do people mean when they say “defund the police”? Some believe this means getting rid of the police with the snap of a finger, but this is false. The main goal of the movement is to alleviate the conditions that cause crime in the first place, namely poverty, inequality, and systemic racism. The overfunding of police is antithetical to this goal, as little funding remains for other social programs. In Toronto, funding for the police takes up more of your property tax bill than firefighters, paramedics, libraries, and public housing combined.

Currently, the police are relied upon to provide numerous social services despite being unqualified to do so. Instead of investing in mental health treatment, addiction treatment, or reducing inequality, the government sends in the police to perform “wellness checks” on mentally ill individuals, arrest drug addicts on charges of simple possession, and patrol “priority neighbourhoods,” which are typically low-income and most likely to feel the impacts of income inequality. Priority neighbourhoods also tend to be (though aren’t always) majority-minority neighbourhoods.

This is one of the many ways that policing in Canada perpetuates systemic racism. Both Black and Indigenous Canadians are vastly overrepresented in jails and prisons. The percentage of Black Canadians in prison is more than double the percentage of Black Canadians in the general population, while the percentage of incarcerated Indigenous Canadians in prison is five times that of the general population. Rates of Indigenous incarceration, Black incarceration, and overall incarceration have all risen despite a decrease in overall crime rates. Today, Black Torontonians make up 8.8% of the city’s population, yet they also make up 29% of use of force complaints, 36% of police shootings, and 70% of fatal shootings. To be clear, this cannot be explained by any “criminality” inherent to these groups - studies show that the relationship between race and crime becomes statistically insignificant when controlling for the effects of household income, community-level poverty, and self-reported feelings of alienation and discrimination.

This racism is not an accidental by-product of policing that can be reformed away, but a core component of the Canadian police system. From the very beginning, policing in Canada has been designed to oppress Black and Indigenous people. The RCMP was founded as the North-West Mounted Police to squash Indigenous rebellions and force Indigenous people onto reservations.

The racist, deliberate association of crime with Black and Indigenous populations created in that era persists to this day. As Robyn Maynard writes in her book Policing Black Lives: State Violence from Slavery to the Present,

“[T]he associations between Blackness and crime served important political, social, economic and cultural functions in maintaining the racial order, and the ongoing surveillance and policing of Blackness — and the corresponding wildly disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates — were quintessential in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Canada. These associations with Blackness, today, while articulated through a slightly different language . . . remain markedly unchanged.”

As such, modern Canadian policing plays a major role in maintaining and preserving systemic racism. As explained by Alex Vitale in his book The End of Policing, “Well-trained police following proper procedure are still going to be arresting people for mostly low-level offenses, and the burden will continue to fall primarily on communities of color because that is how the system is designed to operate.”

We can see all of these issues at play during three recent police killings. Both D’Andre Campbell in Brampton and Chantel Moore in New Brunswick were shot by police during “wellness checks,” while Regis Korchinski-Paquet died under suspicious circumstances in the presence of police who were responding to a mental health crisis. Campbell was Black, Korchinski-Paquet was of mixed Black and Indigenous heritage, and Moore was Indigenous. By directing money away from the police, we can prevent killings in the future by dismantling a racist system. At the same time, many alternative social programs where police money could be redirected would actively work to counterbalance the effects of this systemic racism.

Another reason to defund the police is that police work is generally useless and frequently counterproductive when it comes to ensuring public safety. Only a third of cases brought to the Toronto Police result in a criminal charge, and fewer result in a conviction. Most officers will not make a single felony arrest during the course of the year, with very few making more than one. The majority of police work on patrol, issuing tickets, enforcing city by-laws, and occasionally making an arrest for a low-level offence. Nearly all of the “crimes” stopped by police are non-violent. From charges of drug possession to disorderly conduct, these offences do not pose a serious threat to public safety. At worst, they are medical emergencies that should be responded to with treatment.

Furthermore, aggressive and racist enforcement of these patrol duties is believed to increase crime by creating a hostile, unpredictable, and highly stressful environment. According to Ruth Wilson Gilmore,

“Research shows that increased use of policing and state intervention in everyday problems hasten the demise of the informal customary relationships that social calm depends on. People stop looking out for each other and stop talking about anything that matters in terms of neighborly wellbeing. Cages induce or worsen mental illness in prisoners, most of whom eventually come out to service-starved streets . . . In such inhospitable places, everybody isolates.”

Gilmore’s theory is borne out by research showing a strong relationship between rates of police contact, psychological distress, and reported crimes.

Reforms aimed at addressing these problems without defunding the police have been ineffective in the past. The implementation of body cams, a highly touted reform that supposedly increases transparency in cases of police violence, has not been shown to reduce use-of-force complaints or police shootings, even increasing them in jurisdictions where officers can choose whether or not to use them. Other reforms such as sensitivity training also fail to address these issues, with studies showing it has no effect on implicit bias or on its potential manifestations, such as racial disparities in marijuana stops.

Since policing is racist, ineffective, and dangerous, what is the best way to protect citizens and communities?

Activist Mariame Kaba answers this question with her list of police reforms, which ramp up oversight, promote demilitarization, and encourage the use of alternatives to police whenever possible. These alternatives can include using mental health workers or social workers to respond to 911 calls instead of armed police, or enforcing traffic violations with unarmed public servants. Several of these reforms would be relatively uncontroversial to adopt, such as demilitarization, increased transparency, an expansion of oversight powers, and a requirement for police officers to pay for use-of-force settlements out of pocket. But the list also includes proposals to defund the police and make it easier to dissolve police departments entirely. What would happen if these reforms were adopted?

A study in the American Sociological Review concluded that redirecting money towards communities would effectively reduce crime: “every 10 additional organizations focusing on crime and community life in a city with 100,000 residents leads to a 9 percent reduction in the murder rate, a 6 percent reduction in the violent crime rate, and a 4 percent reduction in the property crime rate.” Additionally, providing these social services would be good in and of itself regardless of their effect on crime; they materially improve the lives of millions by providing more opportunities and an overall higher quality of life.

Thankfully, the people in power are slowly beginning to agree that the police must be defunded. In Minneapolis, a City Council supermajority has announced their intention to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. In Toronto, City Councillor Josh Matlow has introduced a motion (seconded by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam) to redirect more than $100 million of police funding to a variety of social programs, including community-led alternatives to policing, childcare, and affordable housing. The motion would also give City Council complete oversight over the police budget with the ability to control line-by-line expenses. While once City Councillors almost never voted against the police for fear of police slowdowns in their wards and negative press, their political calculations have changed after George Floyd’s murder.

Defunding the police is not only the right thing to do, it is completely practical and feasible. The time for action is now, and the opportunity for systemic change does not come every day. Call your City Councillors, go out to protests if you can, and demand that City Council vote to defund the Toronto Police.

Sources

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, 2010.

Andone, Dakin, et al. “Minneapolis City Council members intend to defund and dismantle the city's police department.” CNN, 8 June 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/george-floyd-protests-sunday/index.html

Associated Press. “Officer in George Floyd death faces 2nd-degree murder charge, others also charged.” CBC, 3 June 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/floyd-officers-charges-1.5596812

Berger, Dan, et al. “What Abolitionists Do.” Jacobin, 24 August 2017, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/prison-abolition-reform-mass-incarceration

City of Toronto. Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism. 2017, https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2017/ex/ bgrd/backgroundfile-109127.pdf

Del Toro, Juan, et al. “The criminogenic and psychological effects of police stops on adolescent black and Latino boys.” Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 116, no. 7, 2019, pp. 8261-8268, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1808976116

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. University of California Press, 2007.

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. Interview by Chenjerai Kumanyika. Intercepted. The Intercept, 10 June 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/06/10/ruth-wilson-gilmore-makes-the-case-for-abolition/

Herhalt, Chris. “Toronto family questions police involvement in woman's fatal fall from balcony.” CTV News, 28 May 2020, https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/toronto-family-questions-police-involvement-in-woman-s-fatal-fall-from-balcony-1.4958807

Kaba, Mariame. “Police ‘Reforms’ You Should Always Oppose.” Truthout, 7 December 2014, https://truthout.org/articles/police-reforms-you-should-always-oppose/

Martín, José. “Six Ideas for a Cop-Free World.” Rolling Stone, 2 June 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/police-brutality-cop-free-world-protest-199465/

Martens, Kathleen. “Indigenous woman shot and killed by N.B. police.” APTN News, 4 June 2020, https://www.aptnnews.ca/

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Maynard, Robyn. Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present. Fernwood Publishing, 2017.

Ontario Human Rights Commission. A Collective Impact: Interim report on the inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service. 2018, http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/public-interest-inquiry-racial-profiling-and-discrimination-toronto-police-service/collective-impact-interim-report-inquiry-racial-profiling-and-racial-discrimination-black

Owusu-Bempah, Akwasi, and Scot Wortley. “Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice in Canada.” The Oxford Handbook of Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration, edited by Sandra Bucerius and Michael Tonry. Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 281-321.

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Tong, Tracy. “'He was already on the floor': Family looks for answers after Ontario man shot dead by police.” CTV News, 7 April 2020, https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/he-was-already-on-the-floor-family-looks-for-answers-after-ontario-man-shot-dead-by-police-1.4886751

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A 2019 study published by the Applied Journal of Development Psychology followed 101 Black American teenagers in Washington D.C. over the course of two weeks in an attempt to quantify just how pervasive racism is in our daily lives. The participants, who are similar ages to to UTS students, reported 5606 individual experiences of racial discrimination over the course of the two-week study and averaged 5.21 experiences per day. The study asked participants to record how many times they witnessed or experienced 58 different forms of racial bias. The averages below reflect how many times each of the 101 teenagers experienced such behaviour over the course of two weeks. This list, while lengthy, is not exhaustive, and for every microaggression or racially charged interaction on this list, there are dozens of others that the Black community faces every single day. We hope that in reading these examples and seeing the numbers beside them that our UTS community can become more aware of just how prevalent discrimination is in our society, and educate ourselves on how to identify instances of racial bias and call people out when they are engaging in racist behaviour.

1. How many times did people exclude you from a website (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, a comments section)? 6

2. How many times did people show you a racist image online? 10

3. How many times did people threaten you online? 6

4. How many times did people say mean or rude things about you online because of your race/ethnicity? 6

5. How many times did people crack jokes about people of your race/ethnic group online? 8

6. How many times did you witness people saying mean or rude things about another black person's race/ethnicity online? 10

7. How many times did people say things that were untrue about people in your race/ethnic group online? 9

8. How many times did you witness a peer being made fun of because of their race/ethnicity? 7

9. How many times did you see a peer of your same race/ethnicity teased because of their race/ethnicity? 4

10. How many times did you overhear or were told an offensive joke or comment because of your race/ethnicity? 5

11. How many times did you overhear a peer telling jokes about black people? 6

12. How many times did a peer tease you because of your race/ethnicity? 5

13. How many times did a peer joke about the negative treatment of black people in the United States (e.g., slavery, police brutality)? 8

14. How many times did a peer tease you because you wear your hair natural? 4

15. How many times did a peer joke about the texture of your hair because of your race/ethnicity? 6

16. How many times did a peer tease you because of your skin tone? 6

17. How many times did a peer joke about your race/ethnic background? 7

18. How many times did you hear about a family member experiencing something they described as racial discrimination? 6

19. How many times did you hear about a friend experiencing something they described as racial discrimination? 9

20. How many times did you hear about a family member being treated poorly because of their race/ethnicity? 3

21. How many times did you hear about a friend being treated poorly because of their race/ethnicity? 4

22. How many times were your parents or other family members treated unfairly or badly because of the colour of their skin, language, accent, or because they came from a different country or culture? 5

23. How many times did you see someone lock the doors of their car because of your race/ethnicity? 4

24. How many times did the police accuse you of having or selling drugs, because of your race/ethnicity? 3

25. How many times did someone misunderstand your intentions and motives because of your race/ethnicity? 6

26. How many times did you see someone cross the street because of your race/ethnicity? 5

27. How many times did people look at you like you are a criminal because of your race/ethnicity? 6

28. How many times were you watched closely or followed around by security guards or store clerks at a store or mall because of your race/ethnicity? 7

29. How many times were the police verbally abusive to you because of your race/ethnicity? 3

30. How many times did a teacher have low expectations because of your race/ethnicity? 6

31. How many times did teachers treat you like you were not as smart because of your race/ethnicity? 6

32. How many times were you treated as if you were “stupid” or “talked down to because of your race/ethnicity? 5

33. How many times did people assume you're not smart or intelligent because of your race/ethnicity? 6

34. How many times did people act as if you were not as smart because of your race/ethnicity? 7

35. How many times were you asked to be a representative of your race/ethnicity during a discussion at school? 7

36. How many times were you asked to speak for all members of your race/ethnicity during a class? 7

37. How many times did a teacher assume that you were an expert on people of the same race/ethnic background? 8

38. How many times did a peer point out that you fit a stereotype of your race/ethnicity? 6

39. How many times were you mistaken for someone else of your same race/ethnicity? 7

40. How many times did an adult refer to people of ‘your culture’ or ‘background’ in a negative way? 5

41. How many times did a peer assume that you were an expert on people of your same race/ethnic background? 5

42. How many times did a coach use a stereotype about your race/ethnicity during a sports game or practice? 4

43. How many times were you treated unfairly by people in service jobs (store clerks, waiters, bartenders, bank tellers and others) because of your race/ethnicity? 6

44. How many times were you hassled by a store clerk or store guard because of your race/ethnicity? 4

45. How many times did you receive poor service at a restaurant because of your race/ethnicity? 4

46. How many times did someone discourage you from trying to achieve an important goal because of your race/ethnicity? 6

47. How many times did people act as if you were dishonest because of your race/ethnicity? 6

48. How many times did people act as if they were better because of your race/ethnicity? 7

49. How many times did you encounter people who did not expect you to do well because of your race/ethnicity? 6

50. How many times did you encounter people who were surprised that you, given your race or ethnic background, did something really well? 8

51. How many times were you wrongly disciplined at school, because of your race/ethnicity? 6

52. How many times did people talk down to you because of your race/ethnicity? 6

53. How many times were you excluded from a clique because of your race/ethnicity? 5

54. How many times did someone ignore you or exclude you from activities because of your race/ethnicity? 6

55. How many times were you made fun of, picked on, pushed, shoved, hit, or threatened with harm because of your race/ethnicity? 4

56. How many times were you called bad names because of your race/ethnicity? 5

57. How many times were you uncomfortable in your community because of your race/ethnicity? 6

58. How many times were you out of place in a social situation because of your race/ethnicity? 4

Bowleg, L. English, D. Howard, L.C. Lambert, S.F. Tynes, B.M. Zea, M.C. (2019) “Daily Multidimensional Racial Discrimination Among Black U.S. American Adolescents”, Journal of Applied Development Psychology 66, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101068