On November 25th 2016 The McMaster Womanists collaborated with community groups to initiate conversations in order to provide a more accessible venue for community members and students who wish to discuss their experiences of racism, and xenophobia. This initiative worked to eliminate the bureaucracy and positional hardships that accompanies being vocal around issues of racism in Hamilton.
The findings of this Anti Racism Action Initiative contributed to an executive summary (found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/shtdxxftgebpk0l/Anti-Racism%20Action%20Initiative.pdf?dl=0) which outlined over thirty demands around the topics of: Gentrification, housing inequality and discrimination. Anti-Indigenous Racism, Carding and Police Brutliaty, Hate crimes, Intersectionality of Disability, Community Backlash and Labour Discrimination
As a next step, The McMaster Womanists are hosting an Anti Racism Action Initiative Community Report Back on March 31st from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM at the Hamilton Public Library. This community report back will go over the full report summary from the Anti Racism Action Initiative, as well as community updates of race related happenings in the city. The second half of the event will consist of break out discussions in collaboration with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, around how to turn each of the demands from the report, into policy directives. We will then assign these directives to various community groups and activists who will be responsible for accomplishing these directives.
A light dinner and child mining will be available. For more information, please see the attached event poster, and follow this link to the official Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/995563887243130/
The McMaster Womanists are proud to be collaborating with the Canadian Collation Against Racism (CCAR), The President’s Advisory Committee for Building an Inclusive Community (PACBIC), the President’s Office at McMaster University, the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), the Office of Matthew Green Ward 3, Canadian Coalition Against Racism (CCAR), New Generation Youth Centre (NGen), as well as a number of McMaster youth led groups including but not limited to: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR),McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice (MMPJ) and McMaster Indigenous Student Community Alliance (MISCA), Nu Omega Zeta and more!