A wonderful term coined by two scholars identifies one way the privileged among us resist taking action on social oppression. It’s called “settler moves to innocence.”

In their essay “Decolonization is Not a Metaphor,” Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang critique ostensibly well-meaning acts of decolonization that don’t involve people actually giving up anything. They point out how “the pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence — diversions, distractions, which relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility, and conceal the need to give up land or power or privilege.”

I find “settler moves to innocence” a versatile concept that can be applied across oppressions. The activist-journalist Desmond Cole referenced it last week at a Toronto reading of his new book, The Skin We’re In.

“Canadian media is always painting Black lives as a surprise, which is disingenuous,” he said. “It always keeps us at Step 1, at ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know’.”

“I didn’t know.” That’s a move to innocence.

I heard it a couple of years ago when two white teachers grumbled about their anti-racism workshops saying “Why are the leaders so rude? We’re doing our best to learn, aren’t we?” (One of them recently said that, upon reflection, the leaders were not rude, it was her shock at confronting race that made her perceive them that way.)

I heard it again on Tuesday at a public meeting of the Peel District School Board.

It’s important to know the context in which it is enacted because without it, a move to innocence can come across as reasonableness, open-mindedness, civility or even helplessness.

Peel community members have been fighting the board over the racism Black children face in its schools for a long time and it has spilled over into the bi-weekly public meetings since the fall of 2019. Community members have been showing up, sharing stories, seeking action, challenging trustees and demanding accountability.

Tope Adefarakan is a Peel parent. She is also a formidable anti-racism leader, a sociologist and an organizer, notably of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in 2014 after more than 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped by the Boko Haram.

So when Adefarakan shows up, it is with more than the usual analysis and framework of understanding racism. On Tuesday, she came to the podium flanked by other Peel residents dressed in grey T-shirts that read “Police District School Board” to protest the practice of schools calling police to deal with students.

She made an impassioned plea for justice for students and set out a few demands. One of them included setting up Africentric schools in the Peel board.

“We would like to see a dedicated school for Black students, an Africentric school in the Peel board, where there are Black teachers, where there are Black staff, where there are Black admin,” she said. “And where there is, most importantly, a decolonized curriculum where Black children can see themselves in a positive light, where their identities are affirmed, where their self-esteem is protected and it’s nourished as opposed to being torn apart by what’s happening in the system right now.”

During questioning after her presentation, trustee John Marchant said: “I know there’s several of these schools in the U.S. and Canada. Do you have any specific examples of those that have positive effects and positive impacts and if you do, could you share that in the notes?”

Then he said: “If we could have some idea of numbers, the magnitude of the kind of demand there is ... if you have that information, if you can add that to your notes.”

His comments elicited a pat response from the audience: “Don’t act fresh.”

Acting fresh is an accurate colloquial equivalent to moves to innocence. It was, “we’re doing our best to learn, aren’t we” all over again, and it was not going to wash with this crowd. And why should it?

Africentric schools have long been the mainstay of demands by Black parents. Toronto had seen years of resistance and efforts by Black community members that finally led to the creation of one such school that succeeds despite inadequate resources.

University of Toronto scholars George Dei and Arlo Kempf even wrote a book, the first on the study of African-centred schools in the Canadian context. “Few among us want to admit that our progressive society fails its students of colour,” they wrote in “New Perspectives on African-Centred Education in Canada,” first published in 2013. “Even fewer want to admit that the system was never designed to help them succeed.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

As Adefarakan said, “This is not new. We as a community have been fighting and speaking and shouting and praying for decades for our children.”

It’s time the Peel school board stopped “acting fresh” and got serious about resolving its issues on anti-Black racism.

Correction March 14, 2020: This article was updated from an earlier version that misidentified the trustee who said, “If we could have some idea of numbers, the magnitude of the kind of demand there is… if you have that information, if you can add that to your notes.”