Interview with Angela Ma Brown
Photo by Carlos Magno on Unsplash
Angela Ma Brown has been facilitating Anti-racism Awareness sessions for our PHAC programs. Angela holds an B.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology from UBC and a M. Education degree in Diversity in Curriculum and Instruction from SFU.
Angela has worked within the Vancouver School District for 24 years. She held the district position of Anti-racism and Diversity Consultant from 2007-2014, implementing anti-racism and anti-oppression education in K-12 classrooms. From 2014-2017, she was seconded as a Faculty Associate in the Professional Development Program at SFU, mentoring student teachers in the Indigenous Perspectives, Vancouver Community, and Professional Linking Program modules. She is currently a District Mentor supporting K-12 early-career teachers in the Vancouver School District.
In her private work, Angela acts as an Anti-racist Educator and Education Consultant for Metro Vancouver school communities, post-secondary institutions and community-based organizations throughout B.C.
Angela has been delivering the 6-part Break the Silence Series, workshops designed “to engage participants in courageous conversations, experiential learning and empathy-building activities to unpack and respond to the harmful impacts of prejudice, discrimination, racism and oppression”, in which she provides historical background, introduces and explains a variety of concepts, and provides training both on introducing key concepts in work with children and also on moving from passive to active in one’s own responses as a witness to prejudice and inequity.
Session 1: Anti-racism education
Introducing the four agreements of courageous conversations
Exploring terms, vocabulary and theory, such as the “Staircase of Oppression”
Outlining forms of racism
Reviewing the history of systemic racism in Canada
Session 2: “Whiteness” and “white supremacy culture”
Exploring the concepts of “white privilege”, “white guilt” and “white body supremacy”
Exploring the cultural characteristics of “white supremacy” culture
Session 3: Identity and developing a “liberatory consciousness”
Exploring the characteristics of identity and positionality
Identifying the four elements of developing a “liberatory consciousness”: awareness, analysis, accountability and meaningful action
Exploring the concepts of “detour spotting”, “staircase of justice”, and “settler responsibility”
Session 4: Talking to children about race and racism
Exploring “race” as a social construct and how children learn the concepts of race and racism
Identifying the four goals of anti-bias education for children
Session 5: “Active Witnessing”
Exploring the impact of microaggressions
Identifying “witnessing blocks” and “bystander effect”
Exploring the “witnessing triangle” and four levels of witnessing
Introduction of the concept of “active witnessing” and how to shift from passive to active
Session 6: Check-in
Review of core JEDDI concepts (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Decolonization and Inclusion)
First Peoples Principles of Learning
Reflection on sessions 1-5
Follow-up on the practice of ‘active witnessing’
The awareness sessions have been provided via Zoom to enable simultaneous work with groups around the province and to provide continuity amongst groups.
We spoke with Angela about the sessions. The multi-session approach enables experiential learning and empathy-building to respond to the harmful impacts of racism and discrimination. In the process of identifying, understanding and eliminating racism by changing systems and organizational policies, procedures, practices and attitudes, to move towards equitable leadership and power, Angela notes, “Each person has a role to play, whatever position they are in. Even if they don’t set policy, they may engage in interactions with those in their circles to challenge discriminatory thinking and behaviour patterns.”
Angela has witnessed organizations using a “check-box” approach to dealing with organizational inequities and assumptions, which is likely to prove ineffective, and notes that viewing this awareness work as continuous and life-long, rather than ‘training’, is how we will shift along our learning continuums and work towards meaningful change. The key is to offer invitation as a “springboard for participants to engage in ongoing conversations with those in their circles of interaction/influence”.
Angela references the work of Dr. Glenn Singleton & Curtis Linton on the “Four Agreements”: stay engaged; speak your truth and hear other’s truth; experience discomfort; expect and accept non-closure, noting, “Experiencing discomfort may be challenging. When emotions such as guilt, shame, fear, anger, sadness, confusion, self-doubt etc. are elicited, we are on our ‘learning edges’, where the optimal place of learning occurs. It is important to name the feelings and work through them, rather than denying.” She claims that we tend to learn about racism and discrimination intellectually and that’s it’s essential to approach this work in an embodied way, to be aware of one’s bodily responses as discrimination is a ‘felt experience’. She uses mindful breathing as one strategy in her workshops to enable attendees to embrace their learning edges. This practice helps to reduce the emotional responses in our amygdala, the ‘smoke alarm’ in our limbic system which helps us manage fear, danger and threat.
She discussed how strenuous it can be to work through these processes with attendees and how facilitation is also growth work. When a safe, inclusive and compassionate space is created, attendees will share selective parts of one’s own story with groups, quoting Thomas King, that “the truth about stories is that that’s all we are”. In her work with groups, Angela positions a shift away from the “good/bad” binary, commenting, “When there’s a constant desire to be seen as good, it may prevent us from doing good.”
In the sessions, Angela explores “whiteness” as an institution, and introduces Dr. Barbara Love’s work on “liberatory consciousness”:
Development of the awareness that we live in oppressive systems, living in an “awake” position, noticing our language, behaviours and thoughts, and observing what is happening in the world around us.
Analysis of why something is happening, not just noticing, but thinking and theorizing about the problems we observe, and developing our own explanations about what is happening, why it is happening, and what needs to be done better.
Beyond simply identification of a problem, decision-making is required to see what needs to be done to ensure action is taken, e.g. by taking initiative as an individual, encouraging others, organizing and supporting others who feel empowered to take action, or seeking out resources to encourage others to act.
Establishment of accountability and “ally-ship” that enables communal progress, recognizing that the development of “liberatory consciousness” is not a linear process; the goal is intentional engagement rather than a finite end point.
Angela noted that how we develop skills of awareness, analysis, accountability/“ally-ship” and action is a product of what we do each and every day, and this applies in a very particular way in the way we speak with children. She referenced the work of Julie Olsen Edwards and Louise Derman-Sparks, whose theoretical foundation of child development provides guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers of prejudice, misinformation and bias. The “4 Goals of Anti-Bias Education (ABE)” are:
(Identity): Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social/group identities.
(Diversity): Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity, accurate language for human difference, and deep, caring human connections.
(Justice): Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
(Activism): Each child will demonstrate a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010)
In a 2016 follow-up to their work, Derman-Sparks and Edwards emphasize that the goals are designed to be worked on simultaneously, rather than independently.
The article “Building Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: The Role of the Leader” (Teachers College Press/NAEYC), by Louise Derman-Sparks, Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, notes that “An anti-bias early childhood care and education (ECCE) program puts diversity and equity goals at the center of all aspects of its organization and daily life. It involves much more than adding new materials and activities into the already existing learning environment. Rather, broad systemic changes are necessary. The learning environment and curriculum, as well as program policies, structures, procedures, and processes, all come into play. Change also includes the attitudes of the individuals who serve the children and families. In sum, it is ‘a process, not an event’ (Kugelmass 2004, 6).”
Many people who witness a racist incident report that they didn’t know what to say or do, and felt afraid, conflicted and regretful about not responding. The workshop on “active witnessing” is something Angela feels she can offer that is unusual, working with participants to develop their ‘response-ability”, their readiness to respond when witnessing such an incident. Without the skills of who to approach, appropriate language to use, or a knowledge base of how to manage our own responses, witnesses are impacted negatively by these experiences and often retain the memory for decades, and in instances of childhood experiences, for a lifetime. Our instinctive responses are based on our perceived need to keep ourselves safe, but our silence sends a message of compliance and may lead to more violence.
The skills Angela teaches are based on the work of UBC Professor Emeritus F. Ishu Ishiyama, Ph.D, who developed the Anti-discrimination Response Training (A.R.T.) Program with a witness-centred training approach called “active witnessing method”. In an article she wrote for Foundry (the mental health support program for young people at BC Children’s Hospital), that gives a clear and detailed outline of active witnessing, Angela explains:
It is common to feel afraid, unsure or upset when we witness a discriminatory incident. We may remember times we were silent to stay out of trouble or mind our own business. Many of us have been told not to “tattle” or “be a snitch”.
Speaking up for someone facing discrimination is not the same as tattling. If we are silent during a discriminatory incident, it sends the message that the behaviour is okay and the silence may also cause harm for those on the receiving end of discrimination. We can learn ways to respond that are appropriate and effective by learning to be an Active Witness.
What is Active Witnessing?
It is important to understand the differences between Bystanding and Witnessing. Bystanding is the act of ‘standing by’ during a hurtful or harmful incident; being there but not participating in the discriminatory act. Witnessing is a way of getting involved in a situation against discrimination. Active Witnessing empowers the witness to take action rather than just watching.
Angela notes that, if there is a chance that the witnesses own personal safety is at risk, it can be appropriate to approach the receiver or a co-witness, or seek support from elsewhere, rather than directly confront the offender, and that action doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the moment. It can be appropriate to take time and seek support before responding to the event one has witnessed.
The ART Program, designed by Dr. Ishiyama to develop participants’ confidence towards active witnessing and ultimately, ethical witnessing with social action, incorporates the following learning qualities:
Action-focused and skills-based
Practical and specific
Skills easily and quickly learnable
Experiential and fun
Group-based
Transferable to other situations
Promotes empathy for victims
Heightens awareness of racism
Self-empowering
Stimulates critical thinking
Mobilizes towards societal change
In his outline of the ART program, Dr. Ishiyama concludes:
Active witnessing is everyone’s choice and responsibility. It can help build a better community of the human race, based on mutual respect and commitment to humanity. If one active witness can encourage and empower ten other individuals to also become active witnesses in one year, it is the power of ten each year…. We can start a chain reaction leading to positive social change from right where we are, with a small action and a big heart in our daily life.