School District 57 students in the District Student Advisory Council (DSAC) are leading the charge against racism.
The students have been working all year in on an anti-racism campaign that culminated in last night’s anti-racism webinar.
Students talked to other students about cultural biases, systemic obstacles, overt bullying, and many other aspects of racism.
Around 4,000 people tuned into the one-hour event.
“Why did we decided to take on a project about anti-racism?,” said Harsh Dhaliwal, chair of DSAC.
She remembered an incident of blackface took place just when the DSAC group was forming for the new school year.
At the same time, Dhaliwal said, one of SD57’s schools was in the process of public consultation on changing its name. The proposed new name was in the local Dakelh language and that incited ethnically motivated backlash.
These two incidents greatly influenced their decision.
“We realized a lot of people in our community were tone-deaf to racism. That was going on within our schools, within our community, especially within our classrooms,” Dhaliwal said.
“We were seeing micro-aggressions and stereotypes, not just overt acts of racism, and it was the little things that really created barriers. And so we as DSAC decided we wanted to tackle racism for a school year.”
This was in 2020, and the initiative grew.
The webinar is still available for viewing here.
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