The Equity Waltz and shifting baseline syndrome

The "Equity Waltz" includes recycling steps of equity, diversity, anti-racism, and so on. Each generation of administrators sees the current reality as a 'baseline'- the norm.

The "Equity Waltz" was coined by Paul Carr, a Canadian scholar and UNESCO Chair, Democracy, Global Citizenship & Transformative Education.

In 2008, Carr wrote, the waltz is the "back-and-forth, almost hypnotic, seemingly effortless motion, floating on the dance-floor, which could be applied to the way racism is approached within the Canadian context."

Over the past decade-plus, I was immersed in public sector admin. In that time, discussions and initiatives were a-flurry, touting anti-racism, diversity, and 'social justice'.

Since 2015, this includes "reconciliation" with Indigenous peoples (but only snippets of hard 'truths').

These are all important, but, destined to become part of the ongoing waltz, without specific accountabilities, processes, and resources - not just aspirational statements.

It appears lost, or forgotten, esp. in the face of recent best selling books, that Anti-Racism has been active in Canada (& U.S.), especially in education- for a long time.

Many initiatives (& research) go back to the 80s. For example, in the early 90s, the Province of Ontario government (New Democrat Party (NDP) at the time) released: "A Resource Guide for Antiracist and Ethnocultural-Equity Education".

It stated:
“Antiracist education calls for educators to recognize how discrimination, distortions, and omissions occur; to correct distortions and remedy omission and discriminatory conditions; and to establish practices and procedures consistent with the goals of equity education.”

The distortions and omissions refer to privilege and critiquing 'the norm'- generally, white, able-bodied, heterosexual men.

In the mid 90s, the Ont. gov changed. Anti-racism initiatives melted and evaporated. Then rose again, then melted... hear the waltz?
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Each new set of public sector administrators sees a 'baseline'. The problem is that it's not actually the "baseline". It only appears to be, for them. It's their 'baseline'.

This is because there is little (if not zero) documentation & feedback of what anti-racism initiatives and education that began in the 1980s, achieved, shifted, changed. The ‘norm’ is a powerful force.

Where are the feedback mechanisms? Learning from the past?

No matter how many ‘policy statements’ or mentions in ‘Strategic Plans’- there will be little actual change achieved thru these variously named initiatives without specific accountabilities and a mesh of institutional supports including:

• ongoing budget and leadership backing,

• HR dept's & complaints processes,

• data collection & analysis

• always training,

• clear decision-making,

• clear communication pathways, plus

• evaluation and feedback

There must also be flip-side analysis. Not just who's marginalized and how many; but also who's privileged and why still.

Difficult, but necessary. Otherwise little more than a continued waltz, with little for results.