Critical race theory (CRT) has a lot of people whipped into a frenzy. In the U.S. some parents say it invokes shame for white students and 17 states have banned it. Recently, there are signs that this political battle has arrived in Canada. This is not a new debate but it is one that has recently received a lot of attention.

In today’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, education scholars Teresa Anne Fowler from Concordia University of Edmonton and Dwayne Brown from York University explain how CRT is simply a reflection of us: of our unequal laws and systems already in place. How it points out the history of our society and its ongoing inequalities and asks us to look at issues as systemic instead of as individual problems.

We explore how applying critical race theory in classrooms across Canada helps both students and teachers. Fowler says parents are afraid because CRT reveals our own bias: “[it] is a mirror and we’re all afraid to look into it.” Brown who teaches within Canada’s largest school board, where anti-racism curriculum is already embedded into the classroom says CRT is an effective tool. He said it interrogates “the insecurity and the fragility we have in our society… the social conditioning we have all endured has to be exposed for what it is and held complicit in the fragility that it’s developed inside of each and every one of us.”

Please listen in and follow along in this fascinating conversation

Also today:

• Canada shouldn’t be smug about gun violence — it’s a growing problem here, too
• ‘Moms in Protoemics’ aims to bring together a community for supporting mothers in STEM
• Building bridges between scientific and Indigenous knowledge
• Privacy violations undermine the trustworthiness of the Tim Hortons brand
• Why the St. Lawrence estuary is running out of breath
• How mindfulness and dance can stimulate a part of the brain that can improve mental health

All the best.