When it comes to tracking sytemic racism in Canada, there is a lack of resources that people can access to learn more about it and see if it does happen in their community. In order to change this, Black Lives Matter – London has started a survey for the community to fill out tracking their own experiences or witnessing systemic racism in London.
Gal Harper is a lead activist with BLM – London and he noticed that there were not a lot of resources for Canadians to educate themselves on systemic racism in Canada, leaving them to have to use American data.
“When people ask for proof, evidence or stats of you can only really find that from America. So a lot of people are in denial that those same problems exist here because they’re not publicised as much and we don’t track these things.”
The survey asks people what field they work in and different groups they are a part of, so BLM – London can take a deeper dive into the specifics of the different scenarios where systemic racism may be happening.
“Whether it’s the police or healthcare, wherever it is, we’ve got racism that’s running rampid throughout our community and all over. In Canada, there’s not enough statistics to show people that it is a problem.”
In addition to trying to prove that it is an issue, BLM – London wants to be able to identify where racism is happening so that they can raise awareness and try to make changes.
“We really just got to find out where the gaps are whether it’s healthcare, policing or education, whever the problems are that’s where we need to focus. At the moment, it’s more about “let’s find out” where we can make these changes and then once we know where they are, then we can figure out how and when.”
You can fill out the survey with this link: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdmYiW3GtixEz0YBN…/viewform
