Offsetting Racial Bias

This intermediate-level program introduces learners to race-based discrimination and to nuanced concepts like “the model minority myth,” intersecting and invisible identities, and code-switching. Through scenarios featuring a wide range of racialized characters, learners practice disrupting racism at the interpersonal and workplace policy levels. This program was co-created with Colleen James, the Principal Consultant of Divonify, a leading consultancy on racial equity and inclusion.

This program contains 1 hour of EDI Professionalism Content.

TOPIC: BELONGING

LEVEL: Intermediate

Core skills & behaviours

Recognize and respond to racial bias: Identify and challenge unconscious biases. Intervene constructively when observing stereotyping, microaggressions, or “casual racism.”
Foster inclusive environments and practices: Implement non-discriminatory hiring processes, create policies that support cultural and religious expression, and respect diverse food cultures in shared spaces.
Reduce expectations of conformity: Understand the hidden impacts of code-switching and support authentic expression. Notice and challenge expectations that are built on “positive” stereotypes.
Advocate for systemic change: Identify racial discrimination in organizational policies or practices and actively push for structural equity and inclusion.
Centre and support racialized colleagues: Relate empathetically to team members, listen actively to their experiences, and prioritize their needs in equity initiatives.

	Snippet title	Topic covered
1	The Smart Asian	Introduces the concept of “the model minority” as experienced by the Asian community and shows that discrimination can lurk behind positive stereotyping.
2	The Daastar and the Dress Code	Shows how discriminatory dress codes can impede legally-protected religious expression in the workplace. Demonstrates why and how to advocate for workplace policy reform.
3	Room for Prayer	Shows how work spaces can be set aside, designed, and shared to support prayer and other contemplative practices to support the inclusion of Muslim colleagues.
4	Newcomer Candidates	Explores the issue of “local experience” as a marker of merit in the hiring process. Shows how skills-based hiring processes can help mitigate bias against newcomers.
5	Kitchen Politics	Highlights the disproportionate consequences of workplace kitchen rules on racialized employees and their food cultures. Discusses how shared food culture can decrease tension and increase belonging.
6	Smoke in the Office	Introduces the Indigenous practice of smudging and how it can be appropriately incorporated into the workplace.
7	Cheap Stuff	Highlights historical and current anti-Chinese racism in North America, and demonstrates how to effectively respond to racist comments in the workplace.
8	Stuck at Home	Explores invisible identities as experienced by a bi-racial person. Suggests strategies for responding to racist comments by using questions that invite nuance.
9	Professional Hair	Through the lens of Black hair culture, discusses how casual racism in the form of comments (or even compliments) can have a large cumulative effect on Black colleagues.
10	Suddenly Latina	Introduces the concept of “code-switching” and shows how to respond when colleagues express their cultures at work.

What learners are saying

“Conversations surrounding the snippets as we did them as a team created real dialogue about how myself and others have experienced bias or discrimination, which was helpful practice.”

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