Community members in Kingston launched an awareness campaign for the Anti-Racism Working Group on Friday.
The task force has been meeting every couple of months since April 2023, and on Friday began an awareness campaign aimed to show people that racism is prevalent everywhere including Kingston, and trying to inspire action when it’s witnessed.
Bhavana Varma, former United Way KFLA CEO and one of the task force’s co-chairs alongside Aba Mortley and Mayor Bryan Paterson, said in meeting with local leaders and partners over the last few years the task force has determined one of the biggest reasons racism is prevalent in our society is that many people simply don’t know it’s happening.
“They also came to the same realization that a lot of people in Kingston were not aware that racism exists, it’s alive and well unfortunately and a lot of people are experiencing racism,” Varma said.
“It could be unconscious, it could be conscious. There are some instances that it’s pretty clear that they wanted to hurt someone.”
The anti-racism awareness campaign will look to present that ugly reality to people in Kingston, but also try to promote action and show people how they may be able to confront racism when they do witness it.
The campaign was designed by BmDodo Strategic Design, and uses stickers to highlight some of the challenges racialized people face.
Different elements of the anti-racist campaign will be featured on on posters throughout the city, shared on social media by partners of the Anti-Racism Task Force and even be posted on some Kingston Transit Buses – one of which was unveiled on Friday morning.
The anti-racist Kingston website acts as a hub providing tips for people to speak up safely against racism, supports and reporting channels for those who experience it, and learning resources.
While the task force is made up of representatives of a number of different organizations like KFLA Public Health, Kingston Police, Queen’s University and the City of Kingston, the focus of the awareness campaign is on encountering and dealing with incidents of racism out in the community – as generally that’s where they will take place.
Varma says the organizations will be useful to help get the information out there, even though it’s less focused on racism in the workplace.
She says the task force believes if people are more aware of racism happening in the community, they’ll want to stand against it.
“Kingston’s a really great place and so we believe that if people in Kingston and area knew that this was happening that they would stand up,” Varma said.
“We’re hoping that the collective good of the many will outnumber the racism of a few.”
