“Lean in”: USask staff share learnings from anti-racism education

White supremacy. Liberal racism. Meritocracy. Allyship. Intersectionality. These are some of the terms and concepts that USask staff dove into during anti-racism education and skill sessions this year. 

Anti-racism and anti-oppression education on campus began with USask senior leadership in 2022, in a training cohort that included the president, vice-presidents, deans, executive directors, and other senior leaders. As demand for this learning has grown, additional USask faculty and staff have been given the opportunity to embark on developing an anti-racist lens for their work. 

More than 45 USask communications and marketing staff participated in anti-racism education and skill development training delivered through eight modules between fall 2023 and spring 2024.  

Elizabeth (Liz) Duret, a senior diversity and inclusion consultant for USask, has been involved with the development and evolution of anti-racism education at the university since the first sessions with USask’s Senior Leadership Forum and President’s Executive Council, and is happy to see the work expanding beyond senior leadership and into staff and work teams. 

“For the communications and marketing staff, I was really interested in working with them as they are the storytellers for the university, and we know that the colonial history was not written by Indigenous people, Black people, or people of colour,” Duret said. “I see the communications team as a vehicle to changing and shifting the narrative, but with an anti-racist lens.” 

Communications and marketing staff at USask are working within colleges, schools, units and departments, and are responsible for producing materials that share stories and information with the USask community and the world using multiple vehicles – from news articles to advertisements to social media and beyond. 

USask staff who completed the training took some time to reflect on their biggest takeaways and how they plan to carry their learnings forward in their professional work. 

For communications specialist Kassidy Guy, a staff member in the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (CGPS) and a recent Edwards School of Business alum, anti-racism education has been an exercise in “leaning in and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.”  

“With all the discussion around anti-racism, I think that many people can start to tune things out because they think, ‘That’s not for me. I’m a good person, I would never be racist,’” said Guy. “This program was eye-opening and helped me understand that things we might consider status quo are a result of a long history of institutional colonialism and building institutions around racism. As someone who has always aspired to be an ally, the program helped me realize that the only way for things to change is to challenge things, even if that’s the way they’ve always been done.”  

Guy said she has begun intertwining some of the learning she has done in training sessions into her work at USask. She has been working on projects that elevate and centre the work that Indigenous graduate students are doing on campus by collaborating with the CGPS Indigenous Initiatives portfolio on a spotlight series profiling the research of Indigenous scholars. 

“I think that this anti-racism education has taught me how to respond [to situations] with curiosity,” said Guy. “If I hear something that feels wrong or hurtful or just plain uninformed, responding with curiosity and saying, ‘What do you mean by that?’ can help challenge ideas and help other people understand how they might be causing harm.” 

One of the focuses in the education program was learning to recognize the many ways that racism appears in society. 

Racism comes in many forms, and some are more obvious than others. Duret said it is important to recognize covert forms of racism that are frequently systemic and are built into the fabric of colonial institutions through policy, practice, curriculum, and media. Overt acts of racism such as microaggressions are also present in institutions and society, and the anti-racist education program supported the development of the critical skills needed to recognize and respond to these in everyday interactions.  

Cultivating practices, skills, and collegial accountability around self-reflection were major focuses throughout the training. Participants learned about the many different forms of racism, how they are embedded in society, and how individual personal biases and actions maintain the inequities and harms caused by structural and systemic racism.  

“As employees who represent an institution that works to address racism, it’s important to uphold these ideals in a professional setting, but to embrace them fully can admittedly be a challenging undertaking, even for those of us who are keen to do the work,” said Chris Morin, a communications specialist who oversees the university’s news website and social media platforms. “As we began the training, I started to realize how little I knew about the many myriad forms that racism can even take, and how obscure it could appear even when I was looking directly at it.” 

Once participants learned to recognize multiple forms of systemic racism in the world – and the ways in which they also might inadvertently participate in and benefit from them – learning tools and skills to create personal and institutional change became a focus. Practicing dialogue skills and working through sample workplace scenarios to navigate complex situations involving racism were key parts of the program. 

“There’s no magic answer that addresses every situation. No formula, template or cut and paste statement that we have in our toolbox,” said Morin. “As communications staff, we are on the front lines in terms of addressing important and emerging issues in a very public way. Given the training experiences we’ve had, the honesty and time taken to be reflective and genuine really resonated with me.” 

Larry Kwok is a graphic designer whose artistic eye spans between the College of Arts and Science and the Advancement Communications team, sharing his work with students and alumni from across campus. The use of colour is integral to his work, and the importance of ‘colour’ as a concept relevant to anti-racism, hit home for Kwok.  

Many people – especially those who are white and privileged – refer to themselves as “colourblind” in an attempt to convey the meaning that they don’t recognize differences between themselves and a person of colour. This phrase often has a negative effect on those whom it refers to but also acts to take the topic of race off the table. 

“I had always thought that it promotes unity, saying we are all the same and that we don’t see colour, and is something that is quite forward-thinking and progressive,” said Kwok. “But after this training, I understand that this statement is making a sweeping generalization that we have all been given the same privilege and endured the same struggles and hardships in life. I am now aware that in saying we are all the same, we are denying people of colour of their own individual experiences.” 

Kwok was part of the planning committee which worked on the design concepts that represent USask’s inaugural Asian Heritage Month celebration, taking place during the month of May. The project presented an opportunity to use some of the new skills learned in anti-racism training to help pilot the visual identity of this new initiative on campus and helps to champion equity, diversity and inclusion. Kwok’s work involved creating a design to represent Asian Heritage Month without being exclusionary to any of the many groups, regions, and cultures present in Asia. 

“For Asian Heritage Month [at USask], we are approaching the imagery and branding with extensive research for all the visual media,” he said. “Rather than just interpreting similar imagery of what others are doing and not understanding the reasons behind them, we will take the time to research the specific meaning and purpose for the imagery and colours that we will use next year and in the future.” 

About his experience participating in anti-racism education, Kwok said, “For anyone who is interested in pursuing [it], it’s not easy. It is taxing both intellectually and emotionally, but it’s worth it. It’s like any kind of education: the more difficult and uncomfortable it is, the more you will learn.” 

Anyone can begin their journey to undertake anti-racism and anti-oppression education, regardless of their occupation or background. The USask Office of the Vice-Provost Indigenous Engagement website offers a list of resources and training materials to support anyone in their learning journey. Many more reputable resources and information can be found online. 

Anti-racism is essential to the work required of all units on campus framed in the ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan “let’s fly up together” Indigenous Strategy, gifted to the university in August 2022. ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan was created by Indigenous people and presented as a gift to all, with the seven commitments of ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan guiding and informing how anti-racist and anti-oppression work is woven into and across USask. The development of ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan is rooted in the Indigenous principles of nīkānītān manācihitowinihk (Cree) and ni manachīhitoonaan (Michif), which translates to “Let us lead with respect.” You can learn more about the USask Indigenous Strategy and how it is being implemented here. 

The key to beginning this learning journey? “Be curious, find your ‘why’ and lean in,” Duret said. “It takes a heart set, mindset and skill set to do this work.”