Judge Kristine Eidsvik told her class at the University of Calgary that she was uncomfortable walking into a room "full of big dark people." If you haven’t read the brief article in the Toronto Star, you can read it here. Sigh. Welcome to 2018. This type of comment isn’t surprising or …
[Continue reading] Judge Eidsvik’s comments about “dark people”
Last week I visited a Health Care Practitioner. As I sat in the in the waiting room I watched the TV screen display with a slide rotation of all of the practitioners who work in the office and offer complimentary care. While there is a range of offerings and small bios underneath so one can …
[Continue reading] What Images Tell us About Bias and Inclusion
Welcome to week 5 of "How to be an Ally." We’re on the last letter of the ROAR acronym this week: the R. If you missed the others, they are R – Recognize Privilege O – Openness to Learning A - Action The last R is for Recognize Difference. This is possibly the most important of …
[Continue reading] Recognize Difference – week 5 of ‘How to be an Ally’
A few weeks ago I got into a taxi in Toronto. The driver was South Asian (no surprise.) He asked me where I was from and a lively conversation ensued in which he told me about Tamil Nadu, the part of India he is from, and some of its fascinating history and present. I learned that Tamil Nadu …
[Continue reading] Expand Your Mind – What School Doesn’t Teach Us
A Story: Picture this (a true story): A Person of Colour and a White person are texting (you pick who you want to be in this scenario). They are discussing plans, and at the end of the exchange the Person of Colour sends their White friend a brown “thumbs up” to indicate that they agree. The White …
Lack of Diversity One of the things that irks me is the lack of diverse representation in images. If you take a look at the images that are used on websites, in ads, on posters, on billboards, the majority of the people used are white, thin, depicting heterosexual relationships, able bodied, and …
It’s fitting, on the heels of last week’s blog, that I have been introduced to The Maplelea Girls – a group of Canadian dolls. Conversations about race can be difficult. Yes, we are making progress, but there are still issues to raise and improvements to make – and unless we talk about these, …
Last week I arrived back in Toronto from a trip to the US. As I made my way through the terminal at Pearson International Airport, I was greeted by this image. As you can see, it’s a large series of photographs that hangs high above the escalators as you go down to customs. It’s meant, I suppose, …
It’s 2016 and we finally have a more realistic? representative? diverse? Barbie. I don’t know if I should applaud or cry…. After 58 years (37 if you count the African American and Hispanic Barbie that appeared in 1980), Barbie is finally being released in a few body type options: …
I recently attended the Regional Diversity Roundtable’s event “It’s 2015: Which Women have Arrived?” It was an interesting and thought-provoking evening. One of the speakers was Sandeep Tatla – Chief Diversity Officer from the Ontario College of Trades. Here were a few statistics Sandeep …