Nearly three quarters of non-white residents say they have experienced racism in the Sea to Sky

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Results of Whistler Multicultural Society’s Anti-Racism Survey Will Inform New Protocols for Reporting Racism at the Local Level

Newly released results from a 2022 corridor-wide anti-racism survey by the Whistler Multicultural Society (WMS) shed light on just how pervasive racism and discrimination are in even the most idealistic resort communities.

Statistics show that 11.3% of all respondents said they did not feel safe in the community they live in because of their race, while 39% of respondents said they had experienced racism while living in the Sea to Sky.

The survey defined racism as “unfair or harmful assumptions, beliefs, actions, behaviors, policies and/or practices that target[ed] and/or disadvantage[d]respondents based on their race, ethnicity, or person of color status.

The vast majority of racialized survey participants said they had experienced racism

Seventy-two percent of non-white respondents said they experienced racism, prejudice and discrimination in the Sea to Sky, while all respondents who identified as black and 94 percent of Indigenous participants said “yes. when asked if they had experienced racism.

Although 78% of respondents who said they had not personally experienced racism would be willing to report an incident, only 43% of those who said they would be willing to do so.

More than 61% of survey respondents said their racial identity was white, with 10.6% identifying as Indigenous; 9.4% as a person of color; 8.9% as “other”, 7.8% as mixed race and 1.7% as Black or of African descent.

Most survey respondents (43.5%) lived in Whistler, with Squamish residents accounting for 37%. The rest of the respondents said they lived in Pemberton, Mount Currie or D’Arcy.

Of those who said they had experienced racism in the hallway, more than half said they had encountered “multiple forms” in most social and civic environments, including verbal racism, such as comments or microaggressions ; institutional racism that manifests itself in discrimination at school or in the workplace; non-verbal racism such as racist gestures or avoidance; virtual racism, such as social media posts or online bullying based on race; and physical racism, such as mugging or spitting.

From a societal perspective, these results are consistent with what stakeholders expected to see, said WMS community outreach coordinator Kira Grachev.

“I think some segments of Whistler may be surprised by these results, but I think for the people who work at WMS, that’s normal,” she said. “Just because it’s a small town doesn’t mean there’s no racism, and just because it’s less overt doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It’s also happening. very insidiously.

The anonymous racism, bias and discrimination survey was funded by WMS’s partnership with the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network and conducted in the first months of 2022. The 10-question online survey was released through social media, emails to businesses and community members, and through QR codes that appeared on printed posters. The survey collected 180 responses. The results were made public on Monday, January 23.

“We all interpret the data through our own experiences,” Grachev said. “That’s sort of the middle ground of dissemination: we want the community to interpret the data, not just someone like me.”

“I’m sick of the lack of diversity in Whistler”

The final question in the poll offered participants the opportunity to share their thoughts outside of the multiple-choice format. A handful of those responses read as follows:

“The police are better called upon for anti-hate crimes, but it is all citizens who need to be educated/responded to acts of racism, which can occur on a very subtle level. So I kind of assume you’re referring to overt and hateful acts of racism for this investigation, but it’s more complex than that. “Whistler High School is in crisis. Reported incidents of student-to-student racism are not reported to teachers…if reported to the administrator, that’s where it ends. There are fears that pervasive racism and racially related violent incidents are making headlines so every effort is made to protect the identities of all young people involved and in doing so staff are left uninformed, the issues are not addressed and the staff ends up looking complicit. “Being Indigenous, trying to live a good life, there are so many barriers of underlying and overt racism. If this is a problem I have to deal with on an ongoing basis, so is it for those who sow racism — not to be racist, but to learn how to change their behavior. Society too must change. “I’m tired of the lack of diversity in Whistler. There are no black or brown teachers or [principals]. We just need to start hiring and centering more people of color. I hope this poll wasn’t just a group of white people with good intentions who created it, for example. It’s what science says is what works, not diversity training and anti-racism training, although I think those are a good start. “As an educated Indigenous woman, I found myself in a position where I always had to teach, share my trauma and the pain of my people to educate and support white people in their learning. It’s time they took more and better steps to do this learning themselves. The answer is not to encourage more Indigenous people to train themselves as experts (on diversity, equity and inclusion); the answer is to get white institutions and businesses to make meaningful change to break down systems of oppression. “I believe there is a lot of performative action going on and not as much actual systemic reform. Many white people in this town don’t believe racism exists and there needs to be a lot more talk about it and ACT on the path to systemic reform. “Crimes should be reported to the police and then they should be implicated, but a lot of that involves changing the culture. In some cases, involving the police can be counterproductive or overkill. For example, something happens in an elementary school during recess…[that] can be better managed by discussing why it was not going well at school. “Systemic racism must be addressed as soon as possible. It teaches us every day that different people have different rights. And Whistler isn’t immune to systemic racism, in fact, I think it’s prevalent and widely accepted. WMS seeks feedback as it seeks to create a referral protocol for those who have experienced racism

The ultimate goal of the study, Grachev explained, was to identify and address racism within the community, with the related goal of informing a new set of guidelines that could support both individuals and service providers following racist incidents.

“Another thing we noticed in the survey results is that a lot of people said they didn’t really know what to make of their experiences – like if they had them, they lived [racism], then they didn’t know if they should tell the police. There is no formal protocol,” she said.

“Again, this is preliminary because we’re going to go where the community decides – and it’s not a homogenous group either – but one of the ideas right now is to kind of develop a protocol… to support people when they experience racism in Whistler.”

A protocol “would be a good starting point” to address racism at the local level, Grachev continued, so that “people feel they have a safe space where they are supported to go, and that there will be a kind of a result – that it’s not like their experiences or their traumas are just being held in abeyance, that they’re actually able to see some kind of change and have that kind of agency when they’re going through something something that is obviously degrading.

In the coming weeks, WMS plans to host a series of small, informal focus group discussions with respondents and community stakeholders about the survey results and what this protocol might look like. Those interested in participating can email [email protected] for more information.

“Because we’re such a small group, we’re trying to focus right now just on Whistler, with the intention of eventually [expanding] in different areas,” Grachev added. “Also, because the demographics of Whistler and Pemberton and Squamish are so different…and we want to do that in a very delicate and respectful way, I think we try not to bite off more than we can chew, and just see where the community takes us with this.

“Whether [the focus groups are] successful…and people feel supported, so we’ll probably go to Squamish and Pemberton as well.

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