This is the Step Forward. A digital communication and podcast series that challenges anti-Black racism within Ontario’s community-based HIV response. Each month, we’re sharing tools, conversations, and resources that will spark dialogue and help Ontario AIDS Network members to strengthen the HIV response by embedding Black liberation work in their agencies.
The Step Forward series is delivered in service to our 40+ member organizations and to Ontario’s African, Caribbean, Black Latinx, and Black people living with and affected by HIV. This series is created by the Ontario AIDS Network in collaboration with Breakfast Culture, 54Lights podcast and our featured guest speakers.
The Ontario AIDS Network (OAN) formally declares anti-Black racism a public health crisis within the HIV sector.
This crisis continues to impede equitable delivery of the community-based HIV response across the province and obstructs the health and wellbeing of African, Caribbean, Black Latinx, and Black (ACB) people living in Ontario.
Further, the OAN declares its commitment to compel health systems officials, local and provincial government, and leaders within the province’s health units, boards and systems to take this step forward and join the OAN in formally declaring anti-Black racism a public health crisis.
Read moreabout this declaration and look for our full statement including strategies and calls for future action available on our website in the coming week.
INTRODUCING THE STEP FORWARD PODCAST
The Step Forward podcast is a limited series dedicated to providing space for deep conversations about anti-Black Racism in Ontario and beyond. This series, hosted by Kondwani Mwase is a collaboration spearheaded by the Ontario AIDS Network, produced by 54Lights podcast.
Throughout the series, we'll be speaking with Black leaders from diverse professional and personal backgrounds. While each conversation will be unique, these discussions will explore and reflect on a single question: To what extend does white dominant culture and white supremacy impede the HIV public health response?
EPISODE ONE: Ruth Cameron In our first-ever Step Forward podcast episode, Kondwani speaks with Executive Director of ACCKWA, Ruth Cameron, about embedding Black liberation work into HIV work.
Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias.
In this powerful TED talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.
ARTICLES AND ACTION
Black Canadians and HIV: How will it end? "Racism is not a mere inconvenience, so we must insist that the plans and strategies to end HIV transmission address (rather than reproduce) the systemic conditions that fundamentally disadvantage us as Black Canadians. Otherwise, the “end” of HIV transmission may be a disaster for Black people – resources that are currently available to address HIV will have been shifted elsewhere while Black people continue to shoulder the epidemic."
What is Racism? "Racism is different from racial prejudice, hatred, or discrimination. Racism involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society and by shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practices."
Tools for Addressing White Dominant Culture The Partners for Collaborative Change's document lines up the main characteristics of white supremacy culture, imagines antidotes, and reviews some of the ways to think about transformation in your organization.
ACCHO Capacity Assessment Tool Questions This is an assessment tool provided by the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario to have a deeper understanding of capacity within organizations.
RECOMMENDED READING
The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole
"Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more."
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
"This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too."
The OAN's Step Forward newsletter is released on the first monday of each month. It is intended for Members, Affiliates and friends of the Ontario AIDS Network who are interested in learning about and addressing anti-Black racism in the HIV sector.
