U of T to host conference on International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

In 1960, South African police wielding submachine guns opened fire on protesters demonstrating against apartheid laws. 

The massacre of 69 people led the United Nations to declare March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 

At the University of Toronto, the day is an occasion to reflect on how the university is tackling racial discrimination while preparing the leaders of tomorrow to do the same after graduation. On March 19 and 20, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office is organizing the second annual conference focusing on how anti-racism efforts have changed in post-secondary institutions. 

The keynote speaker is Natasha Kumar Warikoo, an associate professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and author of The Diversity Bargain, which explores how students at elite universities think about merit and race.

The event at Hart House brings together students, staff and faculty from across the university's three campuses, as well as other post-secondary institutions, to talk about how they are addressing racial discrimination.

See here for full schedule

One roundtable with staff and faculty from U of T, Ryerson and York looks at how these universities are working on the collection of race-based data from their communities to ensure that they reflect the diversity of the GTA.

Other topics include how to pave the way for Black women in academia and building a community that rejects anti-Semitism. 

U of T and other universities' role in creating a more inclusive society can’t be overstated, says Ike Okafor, senior officer of service learning and diversity outreach in the Faculty of Medicine. 

“If you look at who runs industry, politics and health care, everyone's university-educated,” he says. “You want people to come out of that experience more knowledgeable and better able to serve the population they're in.”

Okafor is part of a workshop at the conference about what it takes to build an anti-racism community at U of T. 

His faculty launched a program in the spring of 2017 to help correct the chronic under-representation of Black students in medicine. Black applicants remain subject to the same rigorous standards as all aspiring med students, but they have the option to submit a personal essay and be interviewed by a panel including Black doctors, faculty or students.

In his 14 years working at U of T, Okafor says the university has made some progress on helping racialized students feel welcome, but that there is still much more to do. “We can't have pockets of students who are feeling marginalized in an institution like ours, because then they won't fully contribute or won't want to come here,” he says. 

“If we value diversity, we need to draw upon everyone's strengths.”