Race to Equity Race to Equity is a wonderful and moving addition to the literature on anti- oppression education. McCaskell's account of the work of activist educators, trustees, parents, communities and students is inspirational; his analysis of the events, activities, and movements that make a difference is insightful; and his belief that school change involves both internal and external forces points the way towards a more equitable future for all students. , - Ta-r a T aGroa lGdsotledisrt,e Dir,e Dpeaprtamrtemnetn ot fo fC Cuurrrircicuulluumm,, Teaching and Learning, OISE/UT This is "history of the everyday" at its best, with a rich cast of characters. Tim McCaskell writes from the double perspective of an insider-outsider; someone who was in the system, but not of it, and who was always alert to the need for community leadership and activism as a precondition for change. Sober, lucid and yet passionate, this book is a must read for people working for institutional change in Canada and beyond. — Alok Mukherjee, Vice Chair, Toronto Police Services Board McCaskell's telling of this story, in which he was a central actor, does it jus- tice. It is resolutely personal and political, without a shred of jargon or rhetoric, and is always aware of the larger economic and social forces shap- ing action on the ground. It is a history progressive educators everywhere can be grateful for. — George Martell, School of Social Sciences, Atkinson College, York University Race to Equity provides a valuable institutional ethnography of major educa- tional bodies. In the process it depicts successes and frustrations of the many actors in projects of social transformation. It is a tribute to those who struggle to change our everyday life but are often forgotten in the passing of time. — Himani Bannerji, Sociology, York University McCaskell's careful and succinct capturing of key developments and mo- ments from the vantage point of someone "positioned to know" brilliantly il- luminates the complex nature of school board politics and community ac- tivism. A must read text for every anti-oppression worker. — George J. Sefa Dei, Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, OISE/UT Race to Equity Disrupting Educational Inequality Tim McCaskell Between the Lines Toronto, Canada Race to Equity © 2005 by Tim McCaskell First published in Canada in 2005 by Between the Lines 720 Bathurst Street, Suite #404 Toronto, Ontario M5S 2R4 1-800-718-7201 www.btlbooks.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Between the Lines, or (for photocopying in Canada only) Access Copyright, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5. Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. Between the Lines would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication McCaskell, Tim, 1951- Race to equity : disrupting educational inequality / Tim McCaskell. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-896357-96-2 1. Educational equalization - Ontario - Toronto. 2. Educational change - Ontario - Toronto. 3. Toronto Board of Education. 4. McCaskell, Tim, 1951- 5. Schools - Ontario - Toronto. I. Title. LA419.T6M32 2005 379.2'6'09713541 C2005-900626-9 Cover design by David Vereschagin, Quadrat Communications Interior design and page preparation by Steve Izma Printed in Canada Between the Lines gratefully acknowledges assistance for its publishing activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and through the Ontario Book Initiative, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Canada Tree caraox courage for the afix back 1997 de catrix autix of canada 1457 Fowr itchke 1 a99fix7 owf iccka r1a4g5h7 CONSOENIL TDAESR IDOE ASR ATRST SC DOEU LN'OCNILTARIO Contents Preface i 1 Back Story 1 A Political Context 2 Beginnings 6 The Riverdale Intercultural Council • Allies • Understanding Racism in Riverdale • If You're Brown, Turn Around • A Report on Race Relations • The Final Report on Race Relations • Women Hold up Half the Sky • A Crisis at Eastdale • An Equal Opportunity Office 3 Utopia 28 Sticks and Stones: Name-Calling and Power • Stereotypes and Discrimination • Systems and Simulations • School Groups and Action Plans • Personal Impact 4 Beachhead 47 Against the Current • Case and Endicott: Board Politics • A Splash in the Baths • Parent Organizing and Institutional Change • Equal Opportunity Work • New Strategies for the SCR Department • A Student Program Worker • A Facilitators' Handbook • Following Up • A Strange Country • Gail Posen • Gaining Momentum • Tony Bows Out • A Plan for the Future • The SCR Department and Institutional Change 5 Taking on the System 70 Hari Lalla • Myra Novogrodsky • Anti-Racist Education • Making Connections • Affirmative Action Policy Review • Hitner Starr • Race Relations Committee • Organizing for Change • Strategies and Conflicts • Community Work 6 Backlash and Response 88 Biting Back • Homophobia • Identifying Bias • Committee on the Education of Black Students • Taking Stock: Anti-Racism in One School • Affirmative Action: The Review Continues • A New Student Program Worker • Susan McGrath • The Proof of the Pudding: Race vs. Gender 7 Power, Pedagogy, Curriculum 112 Race, History, and Experience • Simulating History • Peer Power and New Programs • Entering the Mainstream • Younger Students? vi • RACE TO EQUITY 8 Great Leaps Forward 127 Fallout • Destreaming • Ruby Lam • The Controversies Continue • Young Women's Retreat • Pay Equity • The Minors Report • Social Democracy in One Province • New Structure 9 Equity and Identity 146 The Lost Book • Equity Studies • Homophobia • Working Together • Vern Douglas • Identity Politics • Sexual Harassment Policy • Parallel Retreats • Non-Traditional Employment • Racist Jokes 10 A Single Spark 164 The Lewis Report • Black Heritage • A Homophobia Blow-up • Marsha Melnik • Learning Curve • Losses • Hate Rears Its Head • From Hate Groups to White Supremacy 11 Re-Evaluations 179 Back to Freire • Resistance • Natural Selection • Identity Crisis • Where to Start? 12 War of Attrition 190 Culture Wars • PPM 119 • Class Bias • Pepsi and Other Wars • A New Policy on Racial and Ethnocultural Mistreatment 13 The Good Fight 205 Targeting Curriculum • Hate Again • Freedom of Information • Cutbacks in the Equal Opportunity Office • Disabilities • Body Image • New Schools: Triangle and Nighana • The Onslaught • New Blood, and Triage • A Report Card 14 Under Siege 225 Corporate Partnerships and Class Bias • Fighting Back, Going Down • As Night Falls • Attempts to Hold On • Homophobia Redux • Towards the Final Curtain • The Accomplishments 15 Blueprints for an Invisible Future 242 Inclusive Curriculum • Triangles and Icebergs • Similarities, Differences, and Identity Politics • Deeper into Structures • Two Approaches: Idealism and Materialism 16 Thermopylae 255 Harmonizing Policies: Basic Principles • Setbacks and Mobilization • Policy Showdown • Controversy in AHEC • The Consultations Heat Up • Victory • Denouement • The Equity Department 17 Aboard the Titanic 273 Looking Back: Pondering the Nature of Change Notes 286 Index 292 Preface T HIS BOOK IS A SERIES OF REFLECTIONS on my involvement with the experiments, successes, and mistakes of twenty years of equity initia- tives at the Toronto Board of Education. For almost three decades the Toronto Board's efforts to reshape an education system to provide truly equitable education for a hugely diverse student body garnered national and international attention. My motivation for writing this book was to try to preserve the memory of what I believe was a period of significant social struggle, cultural transformation, and deep learning. I have used the trajectory of my personal involvement with anti-racism and anti-homophobia education and the evolving links to issues of gender, class, and disability to trace some narrative threads in this "booming buzzing confusion" of institutional and social transformation. In order to round out my admittedly biased and faulty memories, I have also integrated interviews with key participants and consulted twenty-five years of Board minutes, as well as several academic theses on different aspects of the work, and a number of the important documents produced along the way. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in the book are from the interviews. I hope that my still admittedly partial account can at least dimly reflect the enormous work of the activist educators, trustees, parents, communi- ties, and students who propelled this process in the belief that education should play a key role in creating a more equitable world. Thanks I need to thank a number of people for inspiring and helping with this book. The first is my partner, Richard Fung, who shared many of these experi- ences with me and whose own activism and artistic practice have been so fundamental to my own understanding of questions of race. The advice, medicines, and humility of my doctor, Philip Berger, helped me survive through the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic, which spanned much of the period covered by this book. Between the Lines and especially Robert Clarke provided invaluable editorial advice in turning my often rambling memories into a much more readable story. Those who consented to be interviewed - Nora Allingham, Domenic Bellissimo, Keren Brathwaite, John Campey, Pat Case, Olivia Chow, Vern vii viii • RACE TO EQUITY Douglas, Marg Evans, Carolyn Goossen, Tam Goossen, Marlene Green, Hari Lalla, Ruby Lam, Geoff MacDonald, Susan McGrath, Marsha Melnik, Alok Mukherjee, Fatema Mullen, Charles Novogrodsky, Myra Novogrodsky, Gail Posen, Vanessa Russell, Tony Souza, Kristen Swartz, Alice Te, Barb Thomas, Margaret Wells, Sandy Wong, Ya Ya Yao, Terezia Zoric - all pro- vided invaluable insights without which this book could not have been written. The many others whom I could not interview and whose stories I could not tell but who played a role in fighting for change at the Board must also be credited. Thanks too to those who persevered in reading my much-too- long first draft and offered their comments and suggestions. They include Glen Brown, Kari Dehli, Bob Gardner, Tara Goldstein, and Lisa McCaskell. Finally there are the thousands of young people I worked with over the years. Their enthusiasm, honesty, experiences, ideas, and courage made this whole experience immensely rewarding and exciting. I may have been their facilitator, but they were truly my best teachers. Back Story Chapter 1 I N BEAVERTON, THE LITTLE SOUTHERN ONTARIO TOWN where I grew up in the 1950s, the range of social and cultural difference stretched from Protestant to Catholic. The only Indians I ever saw were on television, al- though some apparently lived on a reservation not far away, near Orillia. For a while a Jewish family, the Roses, owned a clothing store on Main Street, but they moved away. The only Chinese family in town, the Chus, ran Dan's Cafe. My family's church, like many others across the country, raised money to support missions in the less fortunate, heathen areas of the world. Those were the days of "Eat up your vegetables. Children in China are starving." When I was eleven, and my family drove down to Florida for a holiday, I learned that Black people didn't really look like the ones portrayed in the Beaverton Lions' Club Minstrel Show. The Southern U.S. service-station washrooms were designated "Men," "Women," and "Colored." My mother explained that in America, Black people were often not treated very well. This, I was told, was not properly Christian. When the civil rights move- ment began, I learned in Sunday School that it was just like Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. By the time I was in high school, "Black Power" was in the news. My friends and I sympathized, and re- marked that we were lucky there was no racism here. Of course, apart from the presence of Lilly Chu, Brock District High was an all-white school. I left Beaverton for university in Ottawa in 1969 but quickly became im- mersed in left-wing anti-Vietnam War politics and soon dropped out, opting instead for a mixture of travel to India, unskilled labour, and communal living in Toronto. Then I spent two years living in South America, learning Spanish in the process. By 1974 I was working at Toronto's Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples, an advocacy centre for Latin American immigrants. Stu- dent power, the anti-Vietnam War movement, national liberation struggles around the globe, and two years of living in the social upheaval of South America had turned me into a young Marxist. Still, when my new comrades in Toronto's Marxist Institute proposed a lecture series on racism in Canada, I was puzzled. Racism wasn't really a problem here in Canada, was it? John Saul, a professor of political science at York University, led off the series with an analysis of racism as an ideology spawned by Western imperi- alism to justify slavery, genocide, and colonialism. Other speakers gave first- 1