The relationship between structural white supremacy and white fragility in Canada stems from several generations of people raised to not talk about race. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research is informed by ongoing sessions I co-facilitate with Dr. Alex Khasnabish called “Safe Space For White Questions,” as well as ongoing “White Fragility Clinics” in the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, which I developed and facilitated until 2022 with Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed. This work fills a gap in directly responding to racial fragility among well-intentioned white settlers in a way that builds racial resilience. Here are a couple of my favourite episodes of SSFWQ so far.
Read about Safe Space for White Questions here
Safe Space For White Questions Season 3 Launch
Today we launched the third season of SSFWQ – the first episode since Frequently Asked White Questions was published last fall. Lots of great questions – the recording is available on the Fernwood Publishing YouTube channel here.
Keep readingWhat If?
I sat down with Lori and Stephenie, hosts of the awesome Community Radio program “What If” in Nelson BC to talk about race, racism, white supremacy, and having difficult and important conversations about race. It was centred around Frequently Asked…
Keep readingWhy Islamophobia is Normalized
I was asked by the Sinai Health Authority to answer this question as part of their “Systemic Bias and Racism” Speaker Series. This is a recording of my answer, with sincere thanks and to Tina Changoor, for the initiative and…
Keep readingLSE Review of Books
Subversive Pedagogies was reviewed by Judith Leijdekkers and Sander Hölsgens in the LSE Review of Books Blog. I feel happy that they found value in my broadcasting of personal insecurities in my chapter, “Solidarity is a Verb: Teaching Development Activism…
Keep readingImperial Afterlives: Citizenship and Racial/Caste Fragility in Canada and India
Ajay Parasram and Nissim Mannathukkaren, 2021. “Imperial Afterlives: Citizenship and Racial/Caste Fragility in Canada and India” Citizenship Studies online in advance, Oct. 8. This paper looks to the historical imbrication of racial and caste supremacy with citizenship, drawing attention to the inherent…
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Safe Space for White Questions
Hosted by Fernwood Publishing, this is a series of free, public, monthly drop-in sessions that are open to all but aimed at people who identify as white and are interested in working toward collective liberation. Come ask the questions about…
Keep readingOn the Jan. 6 2021 Insurrection
Interview on the significance of this the MAGA riot in the US capital and the politics of race within the policing response.
Keep readingStrategies for Dismantling Racial Fragility In Public Institutions
I organized and moderated this public panel following a public policy roundtable session as part of my work with the MacEachen Institute. The insights from Professor Cristina Rojas, Professor Alex Khasnabish, Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, and Dr. Rachel Zellers helped to…
Keep readingPathological White Fragility and the Canadian Nation
Ajay Parasram, 2019. “Pathological White Fragility and the Canadian Nation” Studies in Political Economy 100/2: 194 – 207. We are at a critical moment when we must confront the relationship between racial stress and white supremacy in order to provide tools and…
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Ajay Parasram 