THUNDER BAY – What exactly is white supremacy and how can we fight it?
That is one of the central questions to an upcoming and sold out series of workshops Diversity Thunder Bay is hosting called “The White Problem.”
“I think Thunder Bay needs this,” said Diversity Thunder Bay’s Secretary Breanda Reimer. “People know we’ve got problems here and want ways to respond.”
The three workshops on disrupting settler colonialism, led by Dave Cryderman, begin Tuesday May 3.
The workshops aim at taking a more aggressive approach to issues that organizers believe may have been handled too subtly up until now.
“We’ve been trying the ‘be nice’ approaches for many years now without enough success,” said Diversity Thunder Bay co-chair Walid Chahal.
“These workshops follow different strategies than the ones we normally adopt, but they are not about producing simplistic analyses and generalization of white privilege – nor are they about assuming that Whiteness is the experience of all whites.
“They are about problematizing Whiteness and its link to power. The workshops will enable participants to have deep understanding of the way White privilege works and how and why it persists and gets reproduced.”
Cryderman is said to have many years of experience working with conflict and will share his stories of success in helping people change their behaviour through engaging them in discussion.
Workshop organizers also say he will help participants explore the ways institutions can be pushed to acknowledge and address white supremacy.
