Description
Edited by Amanda Gebhard, Sheelah McLean, and Cree and Métis member of the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation Verna St. Denis. Contributors include: Willow Samara Allen, Métis educator and scholar Heather Carter, Lemlem Haile, Jeff Halvorsen, Sharissa Hantke, Dr. Laurie Harding, S.J. Adrienna Joyce, Dr. Régine King, Dr. Barry Lavallee, Liza Lorenzetti, Cree-Métis-Saulteaux scholar Jas M. Morgan, Nisha Natha, Shaista Abdul Aziz Patel, Ininiw iskwew Norway House Cree Nation scholar Megan Scribe, Timothy J. Stanley, Nancy Van Styvendale, Two-Spirit Saulteaux First Nation and Ukrainian scholar from Yellow quill First Nation Dr. Jaris Swidrovich, Two-Spirit scholar from Opaskwayak Cree Nation Dr. Alex Wilson, and Sisika Nation Elder Adrian Wolfleg.
When working with Indigenous people, the helping professions —education, social work, health care and justice — reinforce the colonial lie that Indigenous people need saving. In White Benevolence, leading anti-racism scholars reveal the ways in which white settlers working in these institutions shape, defend and uphold institutional racism, even while professing to support Indigenous people. White supremacy shows up in the everyday behaviours, language and assumptions of white professionals who reproduce myths of Indigenous inferiority and deficit, making it clear that institutional racism encompasses not only high-level policies and laws but also the collective enactment by people within these institutions. In this uncompromising and essential collection, the authors argue that white settler social workers, educators, health-care practitioners and criminal justice workers have a responsibility to understand the colonial history of their professions and their complicity in ongoing violence, be it over-policing, school push-out, child apprehension or denial of health care. The answer isn’t cultural awareness training. What’s needed is radical anti-racism, solidarity and a relinquishing of the power of white supremacy.
Raven Sinclair, professor, writer, filmmaker and editor of Wicihitowin: Aboriginal Social Work in Canada
“White Benevolence is a powerful collection scrutinizing the myriad ways racism in Canada manifests, is sustained, and is perpetuated in our systems of power and in social, political and economic relations. This panoptic collection is a clarion call for Canadians to wake up and dispense, once and for all, with the delusion that Canada is racism free. This is a must-read for students, educators and the general public.”