To date, I have the honour of talking with psychologists, social workers, former MLA, lawyers, youth, Minister of cabinet, Vice Provost at a University, documentary film maker, former media broadcaster, and policy makers. Each episode ends with some calls to action so the listener can walk away with ideas they can think about, do, and do more of on their anti-racism journey.
Shawn shares how his parents are from Hong Kong, and he grew up in Toronto. He graduated from film school and went to Taiwan and Hong Kong to teach. He noted there is a need to support Asian artists and disrupt the question of what it means to be an artist in a colonial and capitalistic society. He voices there is a need for a critical mass so more underrepresented folks can ground themselves toward how systems work; there needs to be more space for the representation of diverse voices.
Shawn Tse 謝兆龍 (he/him) is a father, artist, filmmaker, and community organizer. He is a consultant for the CanAsian Arts Network, a national digital platform supporting Asian Canadian artists, an actor and coordinator for Third Space Playback Theatre, committed to creating spaces of dialogue to promote community change and social justice, a member of aiya哎呀, a collective creating spaces to remember the emotional and geographic loss of ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ | amiskwacîwâskahikan | Edmonton’s Chinatown, and co-organizer of Chinatown Greetings, an arts-based fundraising platform exploring ways to build relationships between the artist and Chinatown community.
Photo, please credit Jordon Hon: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SSgt8-fFadC03zt0czn6XJANn2p5R6Xg/view
Dunia shares her journey of coming to Canada from Mexico in 2007 with her husband and four sons. She notes the challenges of learning English, getting her education, and becoming a registered social worker. She voices that her children also had to make adjustments, and they lived through tough moments of pushing themselves to integrate. She conveys the importance of realizing we are all human and that differences need to be honoured and celebrated.
Lily shares that she is Vietnamese Canadian and her parents came to Canada as refugees; she was born in Edmonton. She spoke mostly Vietnamese until Grade 3, when she moved to a predominantly white neighbourhood. She notes that she experienced racism and microaggressions like “death by a thousand cuts.” She voices for BIPOC folks the importance of connecting with others to create positive change; for individuals from the dominant group to be allies. She shares how “you are not alone and to join the movement!”
Charles shares how he was born in Canada and lived in Botswana, Ghana, and Tanzania. He felt like an outsider in that he spoke English and learned the different languages such as Swahili. He moved back to Canada in his 20s and the racist experiences are ones where he would be asked, “where are you really from?” He had to assert himself to join groups in school (he was rarely invited). As a director, mentor, supervisor, and instructor, he conveys the importance of being curious and spending time with people from different backgrounds.
Helen shares how she was born in Toronto, while her mom was born in Jamaica and dad in Ghana. She notes growing up she experienced being “the only” in a predominantly white community. She shares she could not find makeup for her skin tone and there was a lack of Black men to date. She conveys that she landed in the field of psychology accidentally and is now one of the founding officers of the Black Psychology section of the CPA. Her new book How to be Resilient in Your Career: Facing Up to Barriers at Work will be published in February 2023; she states that being different should be seen as a strength as racialized people offer a unique perspective.
She’s thrilled to have a new book “How to be Resilient in Your Career: Facing Up to Barriers at Work” that will be published by Routledge in February 2023.
