‘We need to move past questioning the presence of systemic racism’

For Annick Maugile Flavien, BSc 13, GrDip 15, MA 18, a co-chair on the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, terms like systemic racism lend the impression that institutions have self-perpetuating structures and mechanisms. 

In fact, notes the founding coordinator of Concordia’s Black Perspectives Office, those structures and mechanisms are actively maintained and sustained by people who may claim that we live in a post-racial society. 

Whether their actions in upholding systemic racism are conscious or unconscious, the outcome is the same for racialized people. 

“We all need to remember that systemic racism is reinforced and sustained by people, principles and procedures. This is not a machine that functions on its own.

“As the people who make up institutions and organizations, we have a right and responsibility to acknowledge, assess, address, adapt, replace and improve our systems according to our collective goals and values. 

“It is important not to get stuck in the false polarization between a machine that enacts systemic racism and the communities that endure it, in order for us to remember that systemic racism is largely sustained by collective complacency and complicity whether it be conscious or unconscious. 

“With this reframing, I am able to imagine endless openings and opportunities to address systemic racism across the scale and range of our work in institutions. In order for this work to begin, we need to move past questioning the presence of systemic racism so we can tackle the collective task of understanding the deeply rooted and intricate ways in which systemic discrimination shows up in all areas of our work.”