NBWA looks at systemic discrimination in funding for non-profit organizations

On a new episode of NBWA: New Brunswickers Want Action, hosts Neil Clements, Matthew Martin and Dr. Timothy Christie once again discuss systemic discrimination in New Brunswick.

"We've been very consistent on this show is about the outcomes that we've been looking for: We want a public inquiry into systemic discrimination across all levels of government," said Clements at the start of the show. "Another very important outcome that we discuss every single show is the criminalization of racial discrimination. An issue that we discuss less frequently but that is equally important is adding Black history to the curriculum of schools in our province, and we believe this is important across Canada as well. Today we'd like to switch it up by looking at systemic discrimination in the funding of non-profit organizations that deal with culture."

Matthew Martin opened the discussion on systemic racism when it comes to non-profit cultural organizations focused on promoting equality. "I've sat in lots of meetings with all sort of organizations, and I've noticed a trend of stoking egos about how great an organization is doing [at addressing inequality]," said Martin. "There's not a lot getting done, but there's a lot of back-patting instead of addressing real issues facing the Black and Indigenous communities. That's led me to do a lot of research about why organizations are afraid to say that what's happening just isn't working. A lot of them provide anti-racism training or bias awareness training to other organizations and companies. My theory is that they must be doing these training sessions for a fee; otherwise, why are they afraid to address real problems? It great to see these things happening on paper, but the reality is that not a lot of things are getting done. You can provide all this training but if you still have all-white governments, police forces and councils, you haven't addressed systemic racism. They are not producing real results."

Dr. Christie said properly addressing systemic racism needs to include making racial discrimination a crime; education isn't enough on its own. "We've argued consistently that racial discrimination needs to be a crime and punished accordingly. People should not be able to keep a position of power when they are racist. Agreeing to be educated isn't enough. And the government giving money to organizations to teach people how not to be racist isn't enough."

"There are no outcomes when we are still just talking about it," agreed Clements.

"We want the system to change. We want to see Black people in positions of power and in making decisions that guide our province," said Dr. Christie.