Summer 2020 NEWSLETTER
Shedding light on Systemic Racism - Jenny Shantz, ED
"As a youth worker, teacher, non-profit director and caregiver for a few dozen teens (not all at once); here are my top 10 experiences that have taught me that racism is systemic in Canada and why it’s important for me to work towards change – myself included. These stories aren't easy to absorb.
10. One day not so long ago, I drove to Alberta with a couple of young people. One of the teens refused to go into any store or restaurant during the entire trip. The teen told me afterwards that due to their experiences with racism, they don’t like going into places where they don’t know how they’ll be treated. They even peed at the side of the road to avoid using a bathroom.
9. One day I lent my car out to one of my boys’ mid-day. Half an hour later I received a phone call from a Vancouver police officer asking me if I knew where my car was. It was apparent that they thought it had been stolen. They had removed the young man from the vehicle before calling me. I reassured them that I knew exactly where my car was and that I had full trust in that young person. On another occasion, that same young man was also jumped from behind by police and taken into custody overnight. What made it worse was that he had broken his collarbone about a week earlier. Even though he was wearing a sling and obviously injured, they were rough and twisted his arm behind his back. He kept asking them why they were arresting him. They finally told him that he fit the description of a car thief in the area and they had to check him out. His collarbone didn’t heal correctly afterwards.
8. One day I accompanied one of the girls and her mom up to a local high-school to meet the Vice Principal and register her for grade 12. After seeing the girl and looking at her school records (overall decent marks with six months in an alternative program) the VP told us that she didn’t think the girl would succeed in her school. She then proceeded to list numerous alternative programs that she thought were better suited for her. When the girl insisted that she wanted a good education and wanted to go to college, the VP told her that she was going to start her on probation and watch her closely for the first three months of school. If there were any issues, she would have her moved to an alternative program. *I returned the next day and reminded the VP that her job was to believe in her students and that the newsletter on the office coffee table had an article about the Aboriginal enhancement agreement for the school district - which committed to increasing the grad rates and academic success of Aboriginal students. **That girl went on to university
7. One day one of my boys asked me if I could go to Children’s Hospital with him. His kid had dislocated their arm for the second time and he was thought the hospital staff would be less likely to assume that he had abused his child if I was with him. No staff engaged in that line of questioning while I was there, unlike the hospital visit when the child’s arm was dislocated the first time. Growing up my parents never worried that a doctor or nurse would assume they had abused their child: not even when my 1-year-old sister fractured her skull in a fall – Mom can correct me on this if I’m mistaken.
6. One day while teaching a class of Native students on a reserve, we went into town on a fieldtrip. I noticed that the demeanor of my students changed as they got off the bus and most of them hung their heads and appeared to be scared and ashamed of who they were. I remember giving them a pep talk about how they were just as important as anyone else that we might meet out on the street. I hoped that my opinion mattered more than those whose racist comments had already cut to the core of these kids’ identity.
5. One day while talking with a parent (a number of years ago) they told me that they had taught their 4 and 5-year-old kids that if they ever get lost and see a police officer to go the other way. This stemmed from their experiences with police as well as that of their friends and family. This conversation was a real wake-up call to me about how deep the distrust is for many people.
4. One day a church hosted a Native American guest speaker who was going to share his life story. A father I knew came to hear the speaker, but was pacing back in forth in the entrance of the church when I arrived. I invited him to go inside with me, but he said that he was waiting for someone he knew. A few minutes later, he came over to me and said that it was the first time he had been in a church since residential school and he wondered if there was anything he needed to do when he went in. He said that they had to cross themselves when they went into the chapel at the residential school. I told him that he didn’t need to do anything, he could just go in and sit down. He then said that he wanted to wait for the person who invited him. A few minutes later he came back over and said he was sorry to be disturbing me, but he wondered what the two men were doing who were standing in the doorway. I realized that the church had ushers at the door who were there to welcome people. I realized that he had been so traumatized by his experience with church at the residential school where he was abused; that even at 40 years old, he was still immobilized by fear and unable to walk into the sanctuary.
3. One day I picked up a mom to drive her to an appointment. She was extremely upset and cried as she told me about watching her son being tasered by police a few days earlier. She along with her adult sons, were at a bus stop waiting to go home when they saw someone they knew being arrested by police on the other side of the street. They crossed the street to ensure the officers were treating the man decently. As the crowd watching grew, the officers demanded they back up. When one of the guys said they have every right to be there, he was grabbed by his ponytail and thrown to the ground. The officer then grabbed her son’s shoulder and his first instinct was to bolt. An officer up the block chased him down, tasered him four times and smashed his head into the cement. The mom (in her 50’s and in fragile health) was knocked down as well and showed me a huge bruise the shape of a police baton across her stomach. She said that she had to watch her son being tasered and then taken into custody not knowing if she would see him again. They didn’t give him medical attention and he had to take himself to hospital after spending a night in jail. His concussion was so bad that he couldn't work or play sports for six months. The police charged her son with assaulting a police officer (likely to provide a reason for deploying his weapon). I brought five witnesses down to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner to file reports and listened to each testimony. The young man’s charge was lowered to resisting arrest, but he was still charged with a crime and the officer got no disciplinary action to my knowledge.
2. Last night a mom sent me a link to a recent article about some ER staff at a local hospital who created a game to guess the alcohol level of Indigenous patients. She also shared one of her own negative experiences last year at a local hospital with her child. She shared that she believes there needs to be more teaching in the community to help Native adults learn their rights and build the strength to advocate for themselves better. She’s hoping that Inner Hope can help with this. The reality that there is a need for workshops to help Indigenous adults learn how to advocate for themselves in our social systems so that they can receive quality health care, access to education and appropriate services from police is absolutely heart wrenching.
1. Growing up I was taught that Jesus was an advocate for the oppressed and the outcast – the Samaritan women at the well, men with leprosy, widows and children. In Luke 4:18 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” The Bible also teaches that Jesus was most critical of those who had wealth and power. As a child I felt safe – at church, at school, in the presence of police, at the hospital. I believed that justice prevails and that truth wins. Over the years I’ve learned that some people’s experience is vastly different. Often that difference is because of the skin colour they were born with. Nobody should have to go through trauma or work twice as hard or have their self-worth destroyed or have to justify their access to basic services because of the colour of their skin.
Each story above represents dozens of others – it really is the tip of the ice burg. After 26 years in youth work, it’s the first time I remember people engaging on a big scale with the problem of racial injustice in Canada. I’m not always good at knowing how to be the best advocate, but I know that we have the opportunity to make change both personally and within the social structures in our country. I have a long way to go yet myself, but I’d love to walk that journey with you beside me."
-Jenny Shantz, Executive Director
10. One day not so long ago, I drove to Alberta with a couple of young people. One of the teens refused to go into any store or restaurant during the entire trip. The teen told me afterwards that due to their experiences with racism, they don’t like going into places where they don’t know how they’ll be treated. They even peed at the side of the road to avoid using a bathroom.
9. One day I lent my car out to one of my boys’ mid-day. Half an hour later I received a phone call from a Vancouver police officer asking me if I knew where my car was. It was apparent that they thought it had been stolen. They had removed the young man from the vehicle before calling me. I reassured them that I knew exactly where my car was and that I had full trust in that young person. On another occasion, that same young man was also jumped from behind by police and taken into custody overnight. What made it worse was that he had broken his collarbone about a week earlier. Even though he was wearing a sling and obviously injured, they were rough and twisted his arm behind his back. He kept asking them why they were arresting him. They finally told him that he fit the description of a car thief in the area and they had to check him out. His collarbone didn’t heal correctly afterwards.
8. One day I accompanied one of the girls and her mom up to a local high-school to meet the Vice Principal and register her for grade 12. After seeing the girl and looking at her school records (overall decent marks with six months in an alternative program) the VP told us that she didn’t think the girl would succeed in her school. She then proceeded to list numerous alternative programs that she thought were better suited for her. When the girl insisted that she wanted a good education and wanted to go to college, the VP told her that she was going to start her on probation and watch her closely for the first three months of school. If there were any issues, she would have her moved to an alternative program. *I returned the next day and reminded the VP that her job was to believe in her students and that the newsletter on the office coffee table had an article about the Aboriginal enhancement agreement for the school district - which committed to increasing the grad rates and academic success of Aboriginal students. **That girl went on to university
7. One day one of my boys asked me if I could go to Children’s Hospital with him. His kid had dislocated their arm for the second time and he was thought the hospital staff would be less likely to assume that he had abused his child if I was with him. No staff engaged in that line of questioning while I was there, unlike the hospital visit when the child’s arm was dislocated the first time. Growing up my parents never worried that a doctor or nurse would assume they had abused their child: not even when my 1-year-old sister fractured her skull in a fall – Mom can correct me on this if I’m mistaken.
6. One day while teaching a class of Native students on a reserve, we went into town on a fieldtrip. I noticed that the demeanor of my students changed as they got off the bus and most of them hung their heads and appeared to be scared and ashamed of who they were. I remember giving them a pep talk about how they were just as important as anyone else that we might meet out on the street. I hoped that my opinion mattered more than those whose racist comments had already cut to the core of these kids’ identity.
5. One day while talking with a parent (a number of years ago) they told me that they had taught their 4 and 5-year-old kids that if they ever get lost and see a police officer to go the other way. This stemmed from their experiences with police as well as that of their friends and family. This conversation was a real wake-up call to me about how deep the distrust is for many people.
4. One day a church hosted a Native American guest speaker who was going to share his life story. A father I knew came to hear the speaker, but was pacing back in forth in the entrance of the church when I arrived. I invited him to go inside with me, but he said that he was waiting for someone he knew. A few minutes later, he came over to me and said that it was the first time he had been in a church since residential school and he wondered if there was anything he needed to do when he went in. He said that they had to cross themselves when they went into the chapel at the residential school. I told him that he didn’t need to do anything, he could just go in and sit down. He then said that he wanted to wait for the person who invited him. A few minutes later he came back over and said he was sorry to be disturbing me, but he wondered what the two men were doing who were standing in the doorway. I realized that the church had ushers at the door who were there to welcome people. I realized that he had been so traumatized by his experience with church at the residential school where he was abused; that even at 40 years old, he was still immobilized by fear and unable to walk into the sanctuary.
3. One day I picked up a mom to drive her to an appointment. She was extremely upset and cried as she told me about watching her son being tasered by police a few days earlier. She along with her adult sons, were at a bus stop waiting to go home when they saw someone they knew being arrested by police on the other side of the street. They crossed the street to ensure the officers were treating the man decently. As the crowd watching grew, the officers demanded they back up. When one of the guys said they have every right to be there, he was grabbed by his ponytail and thrown to the ground. The officer then grabbed her son’s shoulder and his first instinct was to bolt. An officer up the block chased him down, tasered him four times and smashed his head into the cement. The mom (in her 50’s and in fragile health) was knocked down as well and showed me a huge bruise the shape of a police baton across her stomach. She said that she had to watch her son being tasered and then taken into custody not knowing if she would see him again. They didn’t give him medical attention and he had to take himself to hospital after spending a night in jail. His concussion was so bad that he couldn't work or play sports for six months. The police charged her son with assaulting a police officer (likely to provide a reason for deploying his weapon). I brought five witnesses down to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner to file reports and listened to each testimony. The young man’s charge was lowered to resisting arrest, but he was still charged with a crime and the officer got no disciplinary action to my knowledge.
2. Last night a mom sent me a link to a recent article about some ER staff at a local hospital who created a game to guess the alcohol level of Indigenous patients. She also shared one of her own negative experiences last year at a local hospital with her child. She shared that she believes there needs to be more teaching in the community to help Native adults learn their rights and build the strength to advocate for themselves better. She’s hoping that Inner Hope can help with this. The reality that there is a need for workshops to help Indigenous adults learn how to advocate for themselves in our social systems so that they can receive quality health care, access to education and appropriate services from police is absolutely heart wrenching.
1. Growing up I was taught that Jesus was an advocate for the oppressed and the outcast – the Samaritan women at the well, men with leprosy, widows and children. In Luke 4:18 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” The Bible also teaches that Jesus was most critical of those who had wealth and power. As a child I felt safe – at church, at school, in the presence of police, at the hospital. I believed that justice prevails and that truth wins. Over the years I’ve learned that some people’s experience is vastly different. Often that difference is because of the skin colour they were born with. Nobody should have to go through trauma or work twice as hard or have their self-worth destroyed or have to justify their access to basic services because of the colour of their skin.
Each story above represents dozens of others – it really is the tip of the ice burg. After 26 years in youth work, it’s the first time I remember people engaging on a big scale with the problem of racial injustice in Canada. I’m not always good at knowing how to be the best advocate, but I know that we have the opportunity to make change both personally and within the social structures in our country. I have a long way to go yet myself, but I’d love to walk that journey with you beside me."
-Jenny Shantz, Executive Director
